Transcript: ABC 7:30, August 14 2015

TRACY BOWDEN, PRESENTER: It's been another chaotic week in Canberra as Parliament returned after the long winter break. 

There were major distractions with Cabinet split over same-sex marriage and Labor questioning the integrity of the trade union royal commissioner. 

In a moment I will speak to both sides of politics, but first here is a brief look back at the unfolding drama.

TONY ABBOTT, PRIME MINISTER: It should be said that the Member for McKellar, she has been a warrior for the causes that she believed in.

BILL SHORTEN, OPPOSITION LEADER: For all our clashes with the former Speaker, we wish her well.

TONY SMITH, SPEAKER: And I thank the Parliament and I will do my very best.

POLITICIAN: Today is the day where the party room, as I understand, gets to consider carbon reduction targets to take to Paris.

TONY ABBOTT: Our 2030 remissions reduction target will be in the range of 26 to 28 per cent.

ADAM BANDT, GREENS MP: Haven't you just chosen to appease the deniers instead of satisfying the science?

TONY ABBOTT: The last thing we want to do is strengthen the environment and at the same time damage our economy. That's the Labor way.

There was strong support that marriage is between a man and a woman.

SCOTT MORRISON, SOCIAL SERVICES MINISTER: I'm going to say everyone's view should be considered equally in this debate and that's why we need a referendum.

MALCOLM TURNBULL, COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER: The reason I haven't advocated a plebiscite after the next election is that it would mean - it will mean that this issue is a live issue all the way up to the next election.

TONY BURKE, MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS: Dyson Heydon has disqualified himself from conducting the Prime Minister's royal commission into trade unions. He is conflicted, he is biased, the royal commission is a farce!

TONY ABBOTT: This Government will certainly defend the integrity of the royal commissioner, and we will certainly defend the necessity of the royal commission, and if members opposite want to debate the royal commission, we will happily accommodate them.

TRACY BOWDEN, PRESENTER: And to discuss the week in politics I was joined a little earlier by Labor's Jenny McAllister and Liberal MP Paul Fletcher. 

Thanks for joining us. 

I'll start with you Paul Fletcher. This week was supposed to be about the Government getting back on track, focused on important issues, like climate change, what went wrong?

PAUL FLETCHER, LIBERAL: Well, I don't agree that anything went wrong. We had a constructive debate in the party room about our position on gay marriage and established a way forward on that. And very importantly, we announced a commitment in relation to emissions reduction, 26 to 28 per cent on our 2005 levels by 2030. And so that puts us ahead of countries like Korea, Japan, well ahead of China, where emissions are actually going up. And it aligned with comparable countries like Canada, like the US, like New Zealand, slightly behind some of those countries but broadly aligned. So we've established a very clear direction on our emissions reduction target that we will be taking to the Paris conference late they are year, so it's been a productive week.

TRACY BOWDEN: But the fact is that that climate change policy was overshadowed by one of the issues was same-sex marriage, the other one was a royal commissioner facing perceptions of bias. Should Dyson Heydon go?

PAUL FLETCHER: Well, let's just be clear here, why is Labor trying so hard to frankly blacken the reputation of a distinguished jurist. Why did Tony Burke yesterday in the Parliament call Dyson Heydon former high court judge conflicted, biased and incompetent? Why did he say that the Government wanted somebody who was partisan and incompetent, why did Jason Clare refer to this distinguished jurist as a bag man - because Labor is desperate to distract attention from the royal commission.

TRACY BOWDEN: Jenny McAllister?

SEN. JENNY MCALLISTER, LABOR: Look, the Labor Party is very clear about our position on corruption, wherever it is found, in any environment. And we don't tolerate it, and we don't tolerate it in our organisation, we don't think it ought to be tolerated in any organisation. 

However, the way to deal with that is through the police, through the court processes. And unhappily what has become very clear is that the royal commission itself has been established simply to smear political opponents, and that's been the real concern all along, that this wasn't a process designed to produce good policy, but simply to drag Labor people through the mud and... I mean, what we've seen this week is that that process couldn't even be established competently. We didn't really think the Libs would be....

PAUL FLETCHER: The problem with that theory is we've had witness after witness, both union officials and company employees talking about the nature of payments that have been going from, for example, companies to union officials. 

We've had hundreds of pages of evidence. We've had many, many witnesses. That is why Labor is determined to try and distract attention and why Tony Burke and Jason Clare and others were saying frankly such terrible things about a very distinguished jurist.

TRACY BOWDEN: Hang on, can we just get back to the point here. I mean the unions are now, apparently, trying to seek legal advice about whether they can actually force the end of this royal commission. With all that that means, what is your view of that?

PAUL FLETCHER: And if I were the CFMEU, I would be trying to do exactly the same thing, because when there's evidence about union officials having taken money from companies, when there's evidence about CFMEU officials getting involved in price-fixing attempts that the ACCC has now said they're going to investigate. Let's be clear, this royal commission led by Dyson Heydon, with Counsel Assisting Jeremy Stoljar is bringing out very serious, very troubling evidence and what we need to do is protect the interests of ordinary union workers.

SEN. JENNY MCALLISTER: But, Paul, you must be concerned about the fact that you have a royal commission, a process which is supposed to be impartial and you have a commissioner who has agreed to participate in a Liberal Party fundraiser, to attend an event where the invitation states very clearly that all proceeds will be donated, applied to state election campaign.

PAUL FLETCHER: What I welcome is the fact that the royal commissioner himself withdrew when he became aware of the nature of the function, he has acted appropriately. What I'm very concerned about is the extensive evidence from many many witnesses, hundreds of pages of transcript that raise very serious concerns about the nature of payments being made. So this royal commission is very important because we need to get to the bottom of the allegations in relation to unions and we need to protect the interests of ordinary decent union members. There's an important place for unions in our society, but unions need to conform to the same standards of governance as companies. And we've got a bill in the Parliament to do just that. Sadly Labor has not been prepared to support that bill, and that raises some very serious questions.

TRACY BOWDEN: Can we move on? Same-sex marriage, there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding about that. The public are even wondering if the Government is serious about this issue?

PAUL FLETCHER: Well, we had a six-hour party room meeting, a very respectful discussion. I was very proud of my colleagues, a very large number in the party room spoke, reasoned, respectful contributions. We've established a way forward on this issue, and so I think it's been a, that's been an important outcome.

SEN. JENNY MCALLISTER: With respect, it's not really clear at all that you have established a way forward. We have the - the issue just held over until the next Parliament, where upon it seems we might have a referendum, we might have a plebiscite, it is uncertain about the nature of that, you've got your Cabinet ministers out in front disagreeing with one another about this, it strikes me...

PAUL FLETCHER: Well, we've established...

SEN. JENNY MCALLISTER: Could I finish my point?

TRACY BOWDEN: Go on.

SEN. JENNY MCALLISTER: It does strike me that this really is just a delaying tactic. We have a Crosby Textor poll, one of your favourite pollsters on your side of politics saying that 72 per cent of Australians would like to see this go ahead...

PAUL FLETCHER: And so we've got a way forward.

SEN. JENNY MCALLISTER: And I wonder why the Parliament cannot deal with this matter and why it is that the Prime Minister seems determined to obstruct it. You know, there are people on your team who want to vote for this, they want to go into the Parliament and put their hand up and they've been stopped.

PAUL FLETCHER: What we've done is established a way forward and we've said that this is a matter for the Australian people to decide on in the next term of Parliament, obviously there is some details about the mechanics of that, but we've established a way forward, it will be a matter for the Australian people to decide in the next term of Parliament. I'm very proud of my colleagues in the Liberal and National Party room for the extensive, courteous, respectful discussion we've had this week.

TRACY BOWDEN: Let's look back at the disruptions of the past week, in fact, the disruptions of a number of weeks. Australia was promised good government. Is that possible still and is it possible under this Prime Minister?

PAUL FLETCHER: Well, you are seeing the Abbott Government deliver good government.

TRACY BOWDEN: Do you think the last week has been good government?

PAUL FLETCHER: We are focused on outcomes such as free trade agreement secured with China, Korea, with Japan, three countries which make up over 60 per cent of our exports. By 2019 we'll have the deficit down to about $7 billion, we aim to have it in balance by around 2020. So we have a clear plan that we are executing on to deliver economic security and also Australia's national 
security.

TRACY BOWDEN: Jenny McAllister, good government?

SEN. JENNY MCALLISTER: Look, what we're actually seeing is... I agree that we've got the highest rate of unemployment for 20 years, and that ought to be the focus of Government this week. But instead, because the Prime Minister and some of the people around him are intent on pursuing a very extreme agenda that is not supported by the majority of Australians - attacks on unions and workers' rights, a failure to engage with the community's call for changes to marriage, to allow marriage equality - the Government is distracted and is unable to deal with these quite serious problems that are facing us, including economic challenges.

TRACY BOWDEN: We will have to leave it there. Jenny McAllister, Paul Fletcher, thanks for speaking to us.

PAUL FLETCHER: Thanks very much.

SEN. JENNY MCALLISTER: Thank you so much.