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E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC CANBERRA BREAKFAST
TUESDAY, 23 MARCH 2021

SUBJECT: NSW floods and water management; Working conditions at Parliament House; Royal commission into veteran suicide and Snowy 2.0.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, HOST: And as always, my timing is brilliant, it's time to talk to two of our federal politicians now. David Smith, the Labor member for Bean, joins us. David, good morning.

DAVID SMITH, MEMBER FOR BEAN: Morning, Stephen.

CENATIEMPO: And representing the government is Angus Taylor, the member for Hume and Minister for Energy Emissions and Reduction, Angus, Good morning.

ANGUS TAYLOR, LIBERAL MEMBERS FOR HUME: G'day, Stephen.

CENATIEMPO: Before I start, David, if I could just pass on our sincerest condolences to you on behalf of the team here at 2CC on the passing of your dad and our thoughts and prayers are with you, so I hope you're coping at this time. Terrible time for any family, but our thoughts are with you, mate.

SMITH: Thanks, Stephen, that's really appreciated.

CENATIEMPO: Angus, floods are devastating large parts of New South Wales at the moment. Look, ultimately, there's nothing ... this is not the government's fault, but response is always going to be levelled at state and federal governments. Are we sure that the prime minister is not going to say something silly, like I don't hold the hose again?

TAYLOR: Well, obviously, my thoughts go to those people who are suffering from the floods, and I'm seeing it in my own electorate, Warragamba Dam in the north, obviously flooding and I had to come through floodwaters to get to parliament yesterday, Stephen. So it's a tough time for a lot of people and I know they're really feeling it. Look, we've had many local government areas declared disaster areas. The funding is already in place and flowing. That support will be there as required. The ADF are ready to go. So all of these things are in place. They need to be. You know, look, it's the best way to deal with these issues as I saw through the bushfires, which ravaged my electorate, was for the federal government and state government to work together. That's exactly what we saw there and it's what we'll see here as well.

CENATIEMPO: Do we need to take a more federal approach to water management, giving some of the issues that we're seeing in the moment? I mean, the fact that Warragamba Dam is clearly ... its capacity is not what it should be any more, particularly from a flood mitigation perspective. But also with all this water around, we still haven't got around to building any of these dams yet.

TAYLOR: Well, we are actually.  Wyangala dam, for instance, at the other end of my electorate, we're raising the wall. It'll carry significantly more water than it has in the past. Wyangala Dam---the state government has a proposal to expand it. I think the debate around that will change now with what we're seeing over the last few days. And we do need to we do need to make sure we have appropriate water management, we'll work with state governments as we can. Ultimately, it is work that has to be across the federation and we live in a federation. That's the reality, Stephen, and there's no way round that. But it is important these projects happen and we're determined to make them happen.

CENATIEMPO: Dave, you've called for better engagement on how to improve working conditions for staff at Parliament House. Some of these allegations that have come out recently---and I'm not talking about the serious criminal stuff which should be dealt with by the police---but the culture at Parliament House is not a new phenomenon. I mean, this latest story that we saw pop up on the reality TV channel, this is stuff that people have known about for decades. Isn't it a bit opportunistic now to be jumping up and down about it when people have remained silent for so many years?

SMITH: Stephen, I think the staff have actually been raising some of these issues, at least for the last couple of years, and there's some pretty, simple practical changes that we could make, which might start to make a bit of a cultural difference. We know that there are problems with collective bargaining right across the country and some of those problems are here in this workplace, Stephen. The staff voted down the collective agreement just late last year and one of the reasons why they did that is that there were particular changes that they wanted to see, which were actually aimed at addressing some of these issues around the challenges we have with workplace culture at Parliament House.

CENATIEMPO: So what do we actually do about it? Because as I discussed with Janet Albrechtsen, who came up with some very, very common sense suggestions---that were suggestions and will all be ignored, of course---but one of the things she pointed out is we're effectively talking about 217 small businesses, plus obviously the Commonwealth employees that are operating in Parliament House. And ultimately, it has to be that to a certain extent. How do we address that?

SMITH: It's a good point and we don't all come with the same experience. So whilst many of us have managed staff and run businesses before, there are quite a few who haven't. But one of the simple ways, Stephen, would be to ensure that there's a reasonable exit path for staff, because at the moment you don't return to the public service or something like that if you lose your job here at Parliament House. The power's all pretty much one way and so we need to at least provide some sort of career security to staff who actually make pretty big sacrifices to join us in our offices---but also understand that the environment is not the same as a regular workplace, that the work is going to be intense for periods of time. But that's not an excuse for a lot of the behaviour that we've been seeing.

CENATIEMPO: No, and that's certainly right. But when you talk about job security, I mean, the same could be said for MPs. I mean, anybody that gets a job there or goes through the process generally has political aspirations. Isn't it just the nature of the beast that you're at the mercy of the Australian people effectively?

SMITH: It's certainly part of the contract, but we actually get remunerated significantly better than our staff do.  In fact, Stephen, one of my bugbears is that the electorate staff here for the work they do, in my view, is that they actually get paid less than what their equivalents would in the broader public service.

CENATIEMPO: And I think that's a fair call. Parliament has almost unilaterally backed a royal commission into veteran suicide. Angus, why is the prime minister dragging his feet on this?

TAYLOR: Well, we haven't been dragging our feet. But, look, it's an enormously important issue, there's no doubt about that. We heard a very passionate speech from a number of people, including Phil Thompson, a brilliant speech yesterday about this issue. It's one I care about personally, a great deal for the last three years I've led Pollie Pedal and we've supported Soldier On, of course, which focuses on exactly this issue. And our solution has been to put a permanent statutory commissioner in place to deal with the issue. Now, we're hearing strong pleas that alongside that, there should be a royal commission. We're listening to those points of view and we're working our way through it. But there's no question the issue needs to be dealt with. And about that, I feel very passionately and I know many of my parliamentary colleagues across the aisle feel the same way. And whether it's through statutory commissioner and royal commission, as I say, this is something we're considering now.

CENATIEMPO: When are we likely to see terms of reference?

TAYLOR: Well, as I say, we're considering this now, so I'm not going to jump the gun on this one. But what I would say is there's legislation in the parliament establishing a permanent statutory commission with the power of a royal commission and that, to me, seems like a pretty good step forward. Let's get that done as well. I mean, we can't wait around on this. One of the great challenges of royal commissions is they take a long time and, you know, there's been many complaints about the banking royal commission that it took a long time and in the end, it was it was hard to get the reform that was required and that's always the challenge with these things. We've got to get on with it regardless. No matter what the ultimate outcome of this particular issue, we do need to get on with dealing with the issue and I'm determined to work to make sure that happens.

CENATIEMPO: One last thing before you go, Angus, you've visited the Snowy Mountains to commission the first tunnel boring machine for Snowy 2.0 and a bit of a personal connection for you.

TAYLOR: Yeah, it is. Look, this is on Friday. The tunnel boring machine is 125 metres long. It's a huge drill, 2300 tonnes. I've never seen anything like it, which will bore through the mountain and build this massive battery and storage of energy for us, for our system. For me personally, there was there was a big connection here, which is that my grandfather [Sir William Hudson] led the scheme through the construction period right until the early 70s. And my grandmother [Lady Eileen Hudson], who was a very, very strong woman working with him through that, the drill--- the tunnel boring machine---was named after her, which is a great honour to my family and we feel very privileged to have that. She opened the first of the big tunnels at Guthega, back many, many, many years ago. She was a very strong woman, a force to be reckoned with and I can tell you this tunnel boring machine is a force to be reckoned with, too.

CENATIEMPO: Nice bit of history there. Angus, good to talk to you this morning, we'll catch up again next time.

TAYLOR: Thanks.

CENATIEMPO: And Dave Smith, thank you for your time as well.

SMITH: Thanks, Stephen, and thanks for the condolences again.

CENATIEMPO: All the best. David Smith, Labor member for Bean and Angus Taylor, the member for Hume representing the Liberal Party.

ENDS