TRANSCRIPT: TV INTERVIEW - SKY NEWS WITH KIERAN GILBERT - THURSDAY, 6 FEBRUARY 2020
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS WITH KIERAN GILBERT
THURSDAY, 6 FEBRUARY 2020
SUBJECT: Scott Morrison’s character; Angus Taylor.
KIERAN GILBERT: Scott Morrison has accused you of low-rent behaviour during Question Time. What do you say in response?
TONY BURKE: He’s got a glass jaw. All we did today was put back to him the elements of his character that the Australian public worked out over summer. And for the Prime Minister to get so brittle and say ‘oh you're playing politics’. He's the person who on a catastrophic fire day put out a Liberal Party ad, authorised for the Liberal Party, linked to a donate button to raise money not for the bushfires but to raise money for the Liberal Party. Today effectively - you know what happened over summer in terms of the public's view of Scott Morrison's character was people started to work out he's not the person he pretended to be during the election. And we put that back to him today because there was an opportunity for him, I'll tell you, there was a different way he could've handled today. There was an opportunity for him to simply say, ‘yes I regret those mistakes’. There was an opportunity for him to say ‘yes I wish I hadn't turned my back on that woman who had lost everything. I wish I hadn't forced her to shake my hand. I wish I hadn't done those things’. He could have shown a bit of contrition, he could have shown a bit of character and just acknowledged when he gets things wrong.
GILBERT: The PM did say though, and there was humility in the answer where he said that he'd recognised outside of Parliament where he would have done things differently. In that context, do you accept that now that you've had your shot that it's time to move on, given he did say that he’s made recognitions outside of the parliament?
BURKE: Well why wouldn’t he acknowledge it today? Like, if it's genuinely who he is, how he is. Why wouldn't he acknowledge it? I mean, the examples we gave are examples where everyone in Australia says well the prime minister really should regret that. They're not difficult questions and there is something about his character that he will refuse to admit mistakes. And if you don't admit to your mistakes you cannot learn from them. And then he was straight into the riff of “I don't regret this, I don't regret that.” Today was about Scott Morrison's character and the public view over summer has been that we're at the beginning of this bloke being found out.
GILBERT: Last year you spent a lot of time and again this morning targeting Angus Taylor. Do you recognise now he's been cleared, he's been vindicated and it's time for Labor and the critics to move on from the Taylor matter given the Federal Police have said they're not going to pursue him or his office over that?
BURKE: Well let's not forget the reason it was with the Federal Police. And the reason it was with the Federal Police is the New South Wales Police had acknowledged a fraudulent document had been created and it had been created in the ACT. That's why it was with the Federal Police, because our referral had been to the New South Wales Police. Now the Federal Police, and I don't know the ins and outs of how they've reached the decision that they're not going to be able to in fact prosecute or determine who created the fraudulent document, but a fraudulent document was created. It was then attached to a letter from Angus Taylor and used for the specific purpose of undermining Clover Moore. Now that's what happened. And so for us to raise where a fraud has been committed, to raise that with the police, was completely the right thing to do. Whether they feel that they've got enough evidence to be able to target an individual or to pin evidence on them is not something that I can offer further on. But yeah, when someone somewhere had created a fraudulent document, of course we did the right thing referring it.
GILBERT: Mr Burke we are out of time. Appreciate your time, thanks very much.
BURKE: Great to be back.
ENDS