Coalition working group into online safety; Craig Thomson; Canberra protest; car industry: Tony Abbott Doorstop

27/01/12

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR

JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH THE HON. CHRISTOPHER PYNE MHR,

SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, APPRENTICESHIPS AND TRAINING AND

MR PAUL FLETCHER MHR AND CLR FELICITY FREDERICO

BRIGHTON LIBRARY, MELBOURNE

Subjects: Coalition working group into online safety; Craig Thomson; Canberra protest; car industry

E&OE……………………….……………………………………………………………

TONY ABBOTT:

I’d like to thank Brighton Library for opening their doors a little early this morning, so that my colleagues and Councillor Felicity Frederico could be here, just to talk about the issue of online safety. I’m really pleased as a parent to be here today to talk about online safety, because as parents, we all want the best for our kids, as parents we all want our kids to be as safe as they humanly can be. All of us grow up and we have to deal with various threats, various difficulties but one difficulty that wasn’t with many parents, at least to the same extent that it is today is this whole question of online bullying.

So today I announce the establishment of a Coalition working group into online safety, which my friend and colleague Paul Fletcher will chair. There will be members of this working group from every state and territory and this will be going out to examine, first of all, what are the online behaviours of young people today, what potential dangers are there online for them and what steps might government sensibly take to mitigate the risk. What we’ll be doing is going to parents and teachers and principals, in particular, to say what additional tools would you like to deal with the problem of online bullying?

I’m pleased that Christopher Pyne is with us today, because Christopher is the Shadow Minister for Education, has taken a very close interest in this whole question of bullying. But today, so much of it does take place online, rather than simply in the playground. You go home from the playground, but in a sense, online bullying when it happens, can follow you anywhere and that’s why it is so insidious. Studies show that 10 percent of year nine school children say they have been bullied online. There have been some tragic cases of young people being driven to suicide by online bullying. It is an important issue. We can’t pretend it’s not happening. I don’t say it’s going to be easy to deal with but I think it’s very important that responsible political movements take these seriously and see if we can come up with constructive improvements to the situation that we’re in now. One of the real problems, one of the very hard problems to deal with, is what can we do with overseas based sites, which contain offensive and defamatory material?

Now, I don’t say this is an easy situation, but we can’t just ignore it and that’s why I’ve commissioned this working group to look at it. The final point I want to make before throwing to Christopher, to Paul and to Felicity, is just to say that this is not about censorship of the internet. I don’t believe in internet censorship, never have and never will. This is about online protections, not about online censorship. So Christopher, over to you, then Paul, then Felicity.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Thanks Tony. Well I’m very please to be here with Tony and Paul Fletcher and Felicity to be part of this announcement today. As the father of four children who are all very young children, 11 to four, I can tell you that the two great fears of parents are drugs and youth suicide. Today, we’re here to talk really about bullying, more so than drugs and one of the really unfortunate features of bullying is that it is like a thief in the night. Parents don’t know usually until it’s far too late that their children are being bullied to the point of such drastic action as we saw here in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago, when people take their own lives, because they simply feel that they can’t cope anymore.

At the last Federal Election, the Coalition had a policy on cyber bullying which had a number of important features, the most important of which really was to give principals the same power off campus as they had on campus. That’s largely been achieved now and the Coalition wants to move to the next level of how to protect children from unfortunate behaviour online and cyber bullying in particular. It’s funny because as a 44 year old, I grew up with the campaign about not talking to strangers and before that, there was the campaign about crossing the road as each new thing has developed in our society, and right now, the same issue is the issue of online bullying, online controls and parents need to be just as educated about how to deal with it as children need to self-protect, because we all learnt not to talk to strangers in the 60s and the 70s and now we’re having to learn as things have changed, what we need to teach our children about the modern era. So, I’m very pleased that Paul Fletcher will be chairing this group. I have no doubt it will add to what the Coalition has already done and I hope that it will be successful in coming up with ideas that will help protect children from the shocking scourge of online bullying.

TONY ABBOTT:

Paul.

PAUL FLETCHER:

Thank you very much. Well, I’m very pleased to have been asked by Tony Abbott to lead this review into online safety for children and young people. This review will take a fresh look at the tools that are available to parents and to carers and to teachers to see if we can find better tools to help them protect the children and young people in their care when they go online. The internet has evolved enormously in the last 15 years. Children use the internet very extensively. Recent statistics say as at 2009, 79 percent of children use the internet regularly, so it’s a very pervasive part of childhood today and parents, teachers, educators, carers need to be empowered with the tools to help them protect children within their care against the risks they may face going online. The internet environment and the widespread availability of the internet through many different devices, many different technologies, offers enormous benefits to children, but there are also dangers and just as we find ways to protect our children against risks in areas like water safety or stranger danger, we need to have a look at the tools that are available to parents, carers and educators in supporting children to ensure that they are properly protected online.

TONY ABBOTT:

Thanks Paul. Felicity.

FELICITY FREDERICO:

Thank you. Firstly, I’d like to thank Tony, Paul and Christopher for coming to the city of Bayside to announce this important initiative. As a parent of young children, I think it’s important that we empower our children to give them the confidence to be able to go online and I don’t think that the confidence is there at the moment, so I welcome this initiative. I’d like our children to grow up in a safe environment, like we did as children and I believe that we do need to take these measures – as I said to empower our children to feel confident, when they do venture to the online environment, thank you.

TONY ABBOTT:

Thank you Felicity. Now, look just before I take questions, there is one other issue I’d like to deal with today. It is reported that Fair Work Australia has finally after three whole years concluded its investigation into the Member for Dobell, Craig Thomson. Now, it really is scandalous that this investigation has taken so long. The Wood Royal Commission into the NSW Police Force took two and a half years. The Cole Royal Commission into the building industry took well under two years and yet this investigation into one individual, primarily, and the misuse of his credit card has taken three whole years. Now, it is outrageous because the poorly paid workers in the Health Services Union deserve to know a long time ago exactly what had happened to their money and exactly how their faith, their trust had been betrayed by the senior officers of this union. But this is not just an issue for Fair Work Australia, it is an issue for the Prime Minister. In the light of today’s reports, I call on the Prime Minister to stand up before the cameras and declare whether or not she still has full confidence in Craig Thomson and I make the point that the Prime Minister’s parliamentary position now entirely depends upon the vote of Craig Thomson and a government that depends upon the vote of a tainted member is a tainted government.

Are there any questions?

QUESTION:

[inaudible]

TONY ABBOTT:

I’m sorry?

QUESTION:

You didn’t mention internet service providers as being part of... Probably a reasonably important stakeholder, won’t they [inaudible]?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, certainly we welcome the input from the sector and yes, internet service providers are a very important part of the sector. We welcome their input. As I said though, our focus is going to be on hearing from parents, teachers and other carers, what tools do they need, do they think they need to keep our kids safe. Now, I know you can’t wrap kids up in cotton wool. I know you can’t protect kids against every peril but I am sure we can do a better job than we currently are and this is about trying to find out what constructive additional steps we can take.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, do you think security and police got out of hand yesterday at the protest?

TONY ABBOTT:

I want to say that I’m very grateful to the Prime Minister and her protection detail for looking after us both so well yesterday. There was a potentially ugly situation developing very quickly and I think by getting us both out of there as quickly as they did, the police and the protective services did a very good job.

QUESTION:

Do you stand by your comments that it was a bipartisan anger which the two of you faced yesterday?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well look, I heard the cat calls from outside the building and yes, it was directed at least, on what I could hear, against government generally, against authority generally and I think it was very appropriate for the police to take the action they did to get us both out of there as quickly as they did.

QUESTION:

…Your remarks that set it off?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I think, I would invite people to go back and consider my remarks. I was asked a question at a doorstop yesterday morning and I made the point that a lot’s happened in 40 years and I think we have moved on from the issues of 40 years ago which caused the aboriginal Tent Embassy to be set up. Now, I am proud of the steps towards reconciliation that have been achieved. I believe that the national apology which Kevin Rudd initiated was the great achievement of his prime ministership. I think it’s very appropriate that we are now, as a nation, considering the constitutional recognition of indigenous people and I think any suggestion that Australia is fixated in the same place that we were in 40 years ago on this issue is just dead wrong.

QUESTION:

Sorry, the suggestion though is about whether your remarks are what caused it [inaudible].

TONY ABBOTT:

My understanding is that at least some of the protest leaders now accept that they had grievously misinterpreted what I said and I invite people to go back and listen to what I said. That is the sensible thing to do. Listen to what I said and make whatever judgement you want to.

QUESTION:

Should the Tent Embassy continue to exist in your opinion?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I just want to remind people of what I said yesterday which is my position. It was my position yesterday, it’s my position today. I think our country has come a long way over the last 40 years when it comes to indigenous policy, when it comes to indigenous people. Australians today, overwhelmingly, are proud of the place of aboriginal people in our society. Yes, there’s a lot more to be done in terms of closing the gap with health, employment, education, housing outcomes and all the rest of it, there is a lot of work to be done, but nevertheless, when it comes to our attitude towards aboriginal people we live in a different world today to the world of 40 years ago.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, do you think the embassy should be torn down?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well I never said that and I don’t think that.

QUESTION:

Is part of your moving on, is moving the embassy physically, would that be part of it?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well again, I never said that and I never, never said what was attributed to me by some of the people at that protest yesterday and I just ask you, please, I ask you very respectfully, judge me by what I said. Go back, look at what I said, it’s on the public record, it was being broadcast by Sky News for much of the day. I think what I said was a perfectly appropriate, respectful, sensitive comment about where we are today compared to where we were 40 years ago on this issue.

Now, I think we’ve fully dealt with this. Are there other issues that people would like to ask questions on?

QUESTION:

Yeah I’ve got a question on something else. Wayne Swan says that the negativity and the commentary around the economy could become self-fulfilling. Did you see the comments today and what’s your response?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I haven’t seen the Treasurer’s latest comments but I do think it’s very important that we face up to the fact that the international financial situation is fragile and arguably becoming more fragile. Now, yes, it’s true to say that compared to so many other countries Australia’s position is comparatively strong, but the point I’ve been making all along is that it is no thanks to the present Government. Our relatively strong position today owes everything to the reforms of previous governments, Labor governments and Coalition governments and nothing to the spending spree of the current Government and if the current Government were serious about protecting us against any further international economic turmoil, they would start to get government spending down. They would learn the fundamental lesson that you’ve got to live within your means. Unfortunately this is a Government which can’t see a problem without throwing money at it and the lesson of the Eurozone crisis is governments which spend too much, borrow too much and tax too much eventually cause enormous problems for their people.

QUESTION:

Dave Oliver from the AMWU has come out today saying he wants to speak to you about your stance on the car industry and manufacturing workers. Do you have any plans to.…?

TONY ABBOTT:

….Well, I’ll do a deal with Dave Oliver. I’ll happily meet him to talk about that issue if he’ll do the right thing by the car industry and come out against the carbon tax. The greatest threat to the car industry is the carbon tax. The carbon tax will add more than $400 to the price of every car produced in Australia. If we are serious about giving the car industry a viable long-term future in this country, yes, there has got to be assistance, assistance designed to boost volumes and that means boosting exports – that’s incredibly important for our domestic car industry that it be an export industry, not just a locally producing industry – but we’ve got to get rid of the carbon tax and I say to the union movement, the best thing you can do to protect manufacturing jobs in this country is stop the carbon tax.

QUESTION:

The Victorian Premier on radio the other day said that he believed there was a long way to go, to use his phrase, on your $500 million cut. Is he somehow mistaken to think you’re going to change your mind on that?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I just want to make the point that we support strong and effective assistance for the car industry. Our position is that the automotive transformation scheme should have $1 billion in it, $1 billion in it. Now, that is a lot of money to help the industry to become more viable in the future. Yes, it’s not as much as the Labor Party is proposing. The Labor Party proposed an extra $500 million at the height of the global financial crisis. It was a panicky overreaction to the global financial crisis and since then they have cut $1.4 billion out of announced assistance to the car industry. So, I just make the point: we want $1 billion in one fund alone and no carbon tax. That is a very good deal for the car industry.

QUESTION:

Mr Baillieu seems to think you might reverse your position. Is he mistaken?

TONY ABBOTT:

We’re not into flip-flopping. The great strength of the Coalition I lead is that when we adopt a position we do it for good reasons and we stick to it. It’s for others to change their mind from day-to-day. It’s for others to be in favour of one thing one day, a different thing the other day. This Coalition says what it means and it means what it says.

QUESTION:

So does that mean that you think that changing your mind is a weakness?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think that the great strength of this Coalition is that we do not say one thing to the public when that suits our political convenience and a different thing to the public when that suits our political convenience. We are consistent through thick and thin, through good times and not so good times.

Thanks so much.