Transcript of Interview with David Lipson
SKY – Lunchtime Agenda
Monday, 18 March 2013
1.50 pm
SUBJECTS: Media Reforms and Polling
David Lipson: Joining me to discuss the media reforms and the other issues of the day are Labor MP, Stephen Jones, and Liberal MP, Tony Smith. Thanks so much for your time gentlemen.
First, to you Stephen Jones, The Prime Minister today said that she that she wasn’t prepared to engage in horse trading but she’s open to sensible suggestions, so what possible amendments would the Government consider to these media reforms?
Stephen Jones: Well … the inquiry just half way through at the moment so we we’ll have to see what the recommendations are going to be put.
I would like to say a couple of things just at the front. There are two issues that we are attempting to deal with here. In a country with a most concentrated media ownership in the world, we are saying there should be a public interest test if that media ownership seeks to concentrate even more. That is if there are more takeovers of existing proprietors of other media outlets. Not an unreasonable thing, we have the same sort of tests in a whole heap of other areas.
Secondly, if a citizen is aggrieved about something that is written about them in a newspaper, they shouldn’t have to put $10,000 on the table and hire a QC to take defamation action. They should have some right to say ‘I have been wronged here and I want the press council to do something about it. I want the press council to issue a retraction’. I don’t’ think it is too unreasonable if we are going to have a press council that actually listens to complaints and responds to them. That’s what we’re proposing to do here.
David Lipson:
Kerry Stokes, as you have just heard there, said he’s never seen anything so intrusive on the media’s freedoms.
Stephen Jones: We have seen some of these bosses, media bosses, come out and bash some of the stuff that’s in this reforms, I’ve never seen such invective. When you have a look at it, it’s pretty vanilla stuff that’s being proposed here. That we have an independent press council that does what it says it’s going to do. We have a public interest test that says if there is further concentration of media in this country that be in the public interest and we don’t see a further loss of diverse voices in our media.
David Lipson: Tony Smith?
Tony Smith: Stephen, I mean that was a good try. But we have never before seen a Minister like Senator Conroy try and ram through changes, not just through Parliament, through the Cabinet, in through your party room, without your Cabinet being properly briefed, with a take it or leave it approach. He is very clear about it.
He said here is the package. It’s going through. He mentioned the Senate enquiry, he didn’t even want the Senate inquiry. This is just window dressing. And to say to every media outlet in the country ‘that’s just the way it’s going to be, it’s my way or the highway’.
Now we have seen today your Prime Minister start saying “’oh well there might be a possibility for change’. Now this just highlights the Prime Minister’s complete lack of judgement. The Prime Minister was quite happy to endorse, lock stock and barrel, everything Stephen Conroy said, and his strategy. To ram this through the Cabinet, your party room and the Parliament all by the end of this week.
Now, I suspect that today this is just about a bit of positioning, I don’t think it will amount to much, there might be a bit of embroidering and I suspect that the Independents will do what they always have done. Make a lot of noise, there’ll be hand wringing, they will look concerned, they will be anxious and they will do what they always do. Which is to side with the Government.
Transcript of Interview with David Lipson
SKY – Lunchtime Agenda
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
1.45 pm
SUBJECTS: 2013 Election
David Lipson: After the break, Tony Smith and Stephen Jones and what Tony Abbott told his party room a short time ago. Stay with us.
David Lipson: Well the opposition joint party room meeting has wrapped up not too long ago and Tony Abbott told his party room that, well, they have reason to be optimistic and confident but they should never be arrogant, he warned against hubris. So we will wait and see how that plays out.
Of course the first Question Time is just about 10 min away and joining me here in the studio are Stephen Jones and Tony Smith to take a look at well the start of the parliamentary year. It has been a pretty tumultuous start and starting with you Stephen Jones, the Prime Minister’s first caucus meeting yesterday, what did you make of her warning to MP’s and Senators to stop leaking, essentially?
Stephen Jones: I haven’t been around that long but I understand that’s the standard leaders’ lecture to the Caucus. Something pretty similar was said by Tony Abbott to his caucus. Unity is what we need. Focus on the key issues for us this year which are talking about our key reforms, the NDIS rolling out the NBN, the Gonski Education Reforms and keeping people in jobs.
David Lipson: It mentions unity but it doesn’t a message like that just draw attention to instability?
Stephen Jones: well look as I said it’s a pretty standard leader’s message to the Caucus: let’s stick together, we’ve got to play this as a team and focus on our key messages and our key policy objectives, education reform, the NDIS, the NBN and keeping people in jobs.
David Lipson: Tony Smith, the warning about huberous is that going to be Tony Abbott’s biggest enemy this year?
Tony Smith: Tony was making the obvious point that the Australian people want to have a good look at the Opposition’s policies through the course of the year. We’ve been a very effective opposition over the course of the last year but he is making the very obvious point it’s an election year and an election campaign has begun and through the course of the year the public will be focussing more on the Opposition because they are crying out for an alternative, crying out for a government that is not dysfunctional and divided. That was a good effort by Jonesy, but nothing has been standard from this Prime Minister.
Transcript of Interview with David Lipson
SKY – Lunchtime Agenda
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
1.50 pm
SUBJECTS: Ralph Blewitt & Palestine
David Lipson:Ok, well joining me now in the studio here in Canberra is the Labor MP, Stephen Jones, thanks for your time and Liberal MP, Tony Smith, thanks for your time as well.
First to the AWU issue. Tony Smith, did Julia Gillard break the law?
Tony Smith: Well I’m not a lawyer, and Julie Bishop’s been obviously taking the running on this from our perspective, but as Julie said, at the very least the Prime Minister has shown a severe lack of judgement and competence.
David Lipson: But yesterday she said that she broke the law.
Tony Smith: Well, Julie as I said, has been running this on our behalf and doing so very effectively. Julie is a lawyer of some standing, I’m not. And I’m not going to pretend to be a lawyer, or be across every legal intricacy but there’s been serious questions raised it is legitimate for the Coalition to raise these questions in the Parliament, issues that have arisen from within the Labor movement, lets not forget that.
We have had Labor figures thrashing about today trying to blame everything on Tony Abbott. This issue has arisen because there was concern in the Labor movement at the time and in more recent times.
Transcript
Canberra Doorstop - Wednesday 31 October 2012
SUBJECTS: MYEFO, Surplus
SMITH:
Today we’re seeing Labor slowly walk away from their solemn surplus commitment. We’ve seen through the course of this week Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard refuse to guarantee what they have previously guaranteed. They are slowly crab-walking away from their surplus which once again demonstrates to the Australian people that Labor can’t be trusted on anything they say. This is a fiscal farce and the MYEFO is not even ten days old and already Labor is slowly but surely steering away from their solemn commitment.
QUESTION:
But on this issue they’re also suggesting … they are trying … you say they’re trying to crab walking away, but as international conditions deteriorate that impacts the chance that they can achieve this surplus. Is that fair enough?
Transcript of Interview
ABC 24 – News Breakfast
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
8.15 am
SUBJECTS: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)
Michael Rowland: A Parliamentary Committee wants to question the Reserve Bank Governor about corruption at two of subsidiaries of the Bank.
Karina Carralho: Tony Smith sits on the economics committee which has oversight over the Reserve Bank. He believes that the Reserve Bank has questions to answer and he joins us now from Parliament House. Thank you very much for your time this morning. This is a long-running saga. You must be pleased that the major players, the Reserve Bank governor, his former deputy Ric Battellino and the whistleblower involved Bryan Hood will now appear before a joint parliamentary committee next month
Tony Smith: Yeah, I've been calling for some more parliamentary oversight, some serious parliamentary oversight. The economics committee, as you pointed out in your introduction is the parliamentary committee responsible for oversight of the Reserve Bank. The Reserve Bank appears before it twice a year and in the wake of the last hearing I've called for a special dedicated hearing of at least a couple of days to examine all the issues. Another parliamentary committee, a joint committee, is going to have some hearings and I welcome that oversight but the point I make is the House Economics Committee which is the oversight committee, should be having a special dedicated hearing in the very near future. It's the oversight committee, not the Reserve Bank observation committee and I think it needs to do its job
