TRANSCRIPT: DOORSTOP INTERVIEW - CANBERRA - TUESDAY 3 MARCH 2020

DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
CANBERRA
TUESDAY, 3 MARCH 2020

SUBJECT: Sports rorts, Scott Morrison misleads Parliament.

TONY BURKE: It’s emerged in Senate Estimates overnight, without doubt, that the Prime Minister has misled the Australian Parliament, he's misled the media, he's misled the Australian people. The gravity of the mislead is extraordinary and it goes directly to sports rorts. Time and again, we've heard the Prime Minister of Australia claim that his office had nothing to do with the decision-making in sports rorts, that it was entirely Bridget McKenzie's fault, and that all they did was pass on letters and representations that had come to them from their own backbench. What emerged last night is that that is not true. And the audit office have caught the Prime Minister out red handed on this.

At the time that Scott Morrison claims his office had nothing to do with the issue, e-mails were going back and forth, on the 10th and 11th of April. After Bridget McKenzie had sent in her first set of proposals saying ‘this is what I'm intending to do’ the Prime Minister's Office sent back ‘These are the changes we want you to make’. Changes were then made. One project that was going to make the cut was cut. One project that was going to miss out suddenly finds its way in. And then, at 12.46, hours after we had entered caretaker, another nine projects get added and another project misses out. All the time, while Scott Morrison is claiming that he had nothing to do with it, his office is directing Senator McKenzie to make changes and those changes were made.

So you've got the mislead. You've also got the breach of caretaker and let's not forget why caretaker exists. The caretaker provisions are there to stop governments from using taxpayers money as though it belongs to their political party during a campaign. Those rules were broken. Those rules were broken in a sports rorts scandal that has shown a corrupt process going all the way through, office after office, right through to the office of the Prime Minister of Australia. People have wondered up till now will there be a smoking gun? Will there be proof of the involvement of the Prime Minister of Australia? Last night we got there. Last night it was made clear that for all those people who thought in getting funding for their local sporting organisation they are a part of a genuine contest, last night they found out it was all about match fixing and the tampering was being done by Scott Morrison.

REPORTER: What next for Mr Morrison then?

BURKE: Well Mr Morrison's been caught red handed now. He's been caught red handed claiming he and his office had nothing to do with it and we know that is not true. Claiming that all he was doing was making information available from representations, when in fact we know now they were interfering and wanting changes to the process that were then made. His obligation as a Member of Parliament is to stand up in the Parliament today and correct the record. It is an absolute obligation of Members of Parliament that if you had misled at the first opportunity you have to stand up and correct the mislead of Parliament. Now this is not what the Prime Minister might want to say is all some Canberra bubble issue. This is a cornerstone of how a democracy is meant to work. That you have to tell the truth inside the Parliament. You cannot mislead the Parliament. The obligation is now on him. When those bells ring today to stand up and correct the record. What he has been telling people is demonstrably wrong and everybody now knows that.

REPORTER: But what do you want to happen to him if he does stand up and he does admit to
this. What next for him?

BURKE: The obligation right now is for him to do that. So the ball's in his court right now. It's his obligation when the bells ring to acknowledge that he has been misleading the Parliament and misleading the Australian people. The obligation is now on him to come clean and admit to what the audit office revealed last night. Misleading the Parliament is the most serious thing that a Member of Parliament can do and the first obligation is the moment you realise it to stand up and explain what has happened. That obligation is on the Prime Minister of Australia right now. Every other Member of Parliament has to do it. Scott Morrison is not above the law. And just as he had no right to treat taxpayers’ money as though it was his own, he has no right to believe that he's the one member of all the members of Parliament in this place who has some permission to mislead. He does not, and the obligation is on him today when those bells ring to be in the chamber and correct the record.

REPORTER: Hypothetically if he does do that, if he admits it, what’s your next step?  

BURKE: We'll deal with that when and if the Prime Minister for the first time in his life shows a bit of humility and comes clean. Let's just not get ahead of ourselves. What has emerged overnight is extraordinary. What's emerged overnight is the audit office of Australia saying that emails that the Prime Minister had claimed did not exist do in fact exist, claiming that advice that the Prime Minister said his office never gave was in fact given. Changes were made in breach of the conventions and are meant to protect our democracy during election time. The gravity of what has happened is huge. The obligation is on him when the bells ring to correct the record. We'll see whether he does that. And we'll take that, we'll take the next step accordingly.

REPORTER: But you just said that was the most serious thing a parliamentarian can do is mislead the Parliament, are you calling on him to stand down?

BURKE: We're calling on the Prime Minister, the moment those bells ring, to be in the chamber and correct the record. That's the obligation, you read through House of Representatives practice and all of that, the obligation is at the first available opportunity. If he wants to claim that he didn't know about all of this. You know he claims that most major events in his life that he didn't realise what was happening. He claims that's how he became Prime Minister, that it wasn't a plot it just sort of accidentally fell into it. If he wants to come out with that sort of hapless line then maybe that's what'll happen when the bells will ring. But the obligation is on him to stand up and correct the record and come clean. Thank you.

ENDS



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