THE HON ED HUSIC MPSHADOW MINISTER FORHUMAN SERVICESSHADOW MINISTER FOR THE DIGITAL ECONOMYMEMBER FOR CHIFLEYE&OE TRANSCRIPT
AM AGENDA
SKY NEWS,
WEDNESDAY, 22 August 2018SUBJECTS:Liberal Party LeadershipKIERAN GILBERT, PRESENTER: Welcome back to the program. With me now is the new Shadow Human Services Minister, Ed Husic. Thanks very much for your time. On the dramas of the last 24 hours, obviously we went through a period, you were here during the Rudd-Gillard years of Labor having this instability. What are your reflections on what you have seen in the last few days from what I guess from a Labor perspective? It boosts your political stocks doesnt it?
HUSIC: We learnt deeply from the events of 2010 to 13. You saw us make those changes to our rules and it has contributed to a very long period of stability and unity thats then given us the ability to basically develop a range of policies that we think in some parts, are for some people, difficult to accept but we can work together as a team to explain and bring people on board with what we are doing. What were seeing at the moment is just a great disservice to the country. I mean the type of division that we are seeing out of the other side of politics reinforces all the negatives of politics and it doesnt do anything that helps the nation actually get on with the issues that are required.
GILBERT: This morning Mr Dutton though is talking about some of those issues in terms of power bills. He was on Triple M and articulating a bit more of his ideas on this stuff. And he says one of things would be to remove the GST from power bills for some consumers, pensioners and others. Its interesting because I think the last person, the leader of a party to propose that was Simon Crean with his GST rollback proposal. Now Mr Dutton is suggesting something similar.
HUSIC: I guess at this point in time what we want to see is the Coalition sort itself out. Weve had so many versions of energy policy in this country over the course of the Coalitions time in office, just in this term, its ridiculous. Just get on with it. The Coalition promised us an end to the soap opera and what we are seeing now is weve gone through season three of a miniseries. Just get on with it. People just want these guys to sort themselves out and if theyre not ready to basically run government and do what is required then go to an election and lets sort this out properly.
GILBERT: One of the other things touched on yesterday when he spoke to Laura Jayes was Immigration. Something that he is going to look at more closely as a possible leader. Obviously its not over yet, but is that something you think would resonate in Western Sydney which has had a lot of pressure on it in terms of infrastructure.
HUSIC: Again, we are getting ideas just being floated in this way. They werent floated when people had the ability to make the decisions that were required or they didnt have the ability to get people on board to support their ideas within a cabinet and now we are getting them floated this way. I just think its farcical.
GILBERT: He is trying to soften his image. He was even asked about his favourite AC/DC song and had a bit of a hitch this morning. Didnt have one ready to go.
HUSIC: Well I can give him one. I think the anthem right now for the moment is Highway to Hell.
GILBERT: Do you want to give us a few bars of that?
HUSIC: The public have been through enough and I dont think that they need to hear me singing on top of that.
GILBERT: Ed Husic thanks. Talk to you soon.
ENDS
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