TRANSCRIPT: TV INTERVIEW - SKY NEWS - TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS WITH ANDREW CLENNELL
TUESDAY, 22 FEBRUARY 2022

SUBJECTS: Russia and Ukraine; Antarctica; China; Sydney train shutdown.

ANDREW CLENNELL, HOST: Mr Burke, thanks for joining us. And I'll ask you about the train strike which I bet you can't wait to comment on.

TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: The picture behind me, Andrew, is not what it looks like in Sydney at the moment.

CLENNELL: All right. But first, obviously, on more serious matters, look, the opposition's response to developments in the Ukraine. It's looking like very bad news there, isn't it?

BURKE: Yeah, we condemn what Russia has done today in the recognition that they've given to those territories. Labor stands with Ukraine, Australia stands with Ukraine, we stand with our allies. There's a series of steps that Australia and our allies will now be considering. But people should be in absolutely no doubt that what Russia has done today is not consistent with principles of international order. It's to be condemned, and we stand with Ukraine.

CLENNELL: What sort of sanctions do you think the government and other Western governments should consider?

BURKE: I think what will matter will be that it's done in a coordinated way. So that's a conversation for Australia to have with our allies. There are a series of different ways that that response could happen. But there will be a response and there needs to be one.

CLENNELL: Obviously, often when there's a war, it can change an election campaign. You're well in front at the moment. Do you see this as potentially to the government's advantage? Could this change the political settings in Australia?

BURKE: I don't see this in partisan political terms at all, Andrew, not for a minute. I see this entirely as an issue where Australia is united, where there is appalling behaviour going on from Russia. And nobody should think that there is any division here in Australia at all. That would not be in the national interest, it would not be the right thing. And it would simply be untrue. There's real unity here in opposition to what's happening.

CLENNELL: Well the government obviously sees and talks about a difference on national security. What did you think of the Antarctica announcement today, and the fact that even that was tied to China and Russia by Scott Morrison?

BURKE: Can I say, as Environment Minister previously I've had responsibility for Antarctica. And Antarctica does - it's the biggest conservation decision ever made in the history of the planet. But it also, because there's overlapping territorial claims, there has always been a security interest in Antarctica as well. The way that you assert your claims in Antarctica is through scientific engagement and through activity. And so we'll look through what the government's announced today. It looks on the face of it like a lot of it from what we've been told so far over the next few years is just assigning money that was already there. It looks like in about six years’ time or thereabouts there may be some additional money - at the election after the next election. But we'll work through the detail there. But when Australia has a territorial claim, the way you assert this claim is different to any other part of the planet. And it needs to be dealt with responsibly.

CLENNELL: All right. Well, this trip, just moving on national security matters. This trip by Chris Minns and your frontbench colleague, Chris Bowen, to China in 2015, subject of The Daily Telegraph front page today, paid for they say by Huang Xiangmo, certainly by an organisation he chaired. This is pretty embarrassing, isn't it?

BURKE: Let's not forget the timing of when you're talking about. This would have been back when Tony Abbott was saying that China was on the road to democracy. This would have been along the timing of shortly after the free trade agreement, or around the time of the free trade agreement being settled and going through the Parliament. So I don't think we can look back at the year you've referred to through the lens of 2022. The issues were declared. It's public knowledge. And, I heard the clip you played before of Chris Bowen, which I think was spot on. Would you find Members of Parliament taking a visit like that now? And these trips are work trips, when you're there you're in constant meetings wherever in the world you are. But would people take a sponsored trip of that nature from that sponsor like that these days? Absolutely not?

CLENNELL: Don't you think a lot of Australians would be bemused to see two elected representatives take a trip sponsored by any foreign government, let alone China?

BURKE: Well, I think the way you described it, it wasn't from a government, it was from a businessperson, I think is the way you just described that. But there are trips, for example, a number of countries, the United States for example used to sponsor trips across. I didn't do one, but people who did them would get a series of high level meetings. New Zealand did the same. I was sponsored by the New Zealand government. I'm not surprised that different points, particularly when you had the Abbott government putting a lot of eggs in the basket of China in terms of where Australia's economy might be headed, that people were wanting to have meetings. The lens that makes it not acceptable is what we know in 2022. From a security perspective. And that's why I'm not having a hit of Peter Dutton in the same way.

CLENNELL: Are you expecting to cop these sort of stories all the way through to the election day?

BURKE: Well the Prime Minister's desperate, he's absolutely desperate. And so stories like this will keep coming. We've had now five political wedges in two and a half weeks that Mr Morrison's thrown at us. He'll keep with this. He's flapping his arms around, trying to throw any piece of mud that he can. He'll do more of this. I just wish he'd do his job.

CLENNELL: Just wanted to ask finally about the rail strike and what's occurred here. This is a very difficult union to deal with, I have to say from my knowledge of New South Wales politics. Have they played the New South Wales government off a break, do they deserve more than two and a half percent? What's your view of everything that's occurred here?

BURKE: Well the first thing that we've seen over the last two days is the Liberals have just lied the whole way through this, from Scott Morrison down. They lied about whether it was a strike, it wasn't. They lied when they claimed this was similar to terrorist activity. That was bizarre. They lied when they were claiming that it was the unions that were shutting down the train system. It wasn't, it was the Liberals that made a decision to shut down the train system in Sydney. The chaos that this has caused. Kids not being able to get to school; parents not being able to get to work; other workers being at work, working shift work overnight, and not being able to get home. Now, I don't blame the media for the way this was reported yesterday. If you get both a state and a federal government telling you that this is all being caused by a strike from a union, I accept the media will take that at face value. But it was a lie. This entire action was taken by the state government. And I think it says everything about where Mr Morrison will go in the campaign. He won't care whether it's true. All he'll care about is whether or not he's picking a fight. It's long time since we've had a Prime Minister who actually saw his or her job as being to solve problems for the nation. We’re not going to get any of that as we head towards the election. It's going to be a pretty ugly, pretty dirty, pretty dishonest campaign. And I think Scott Morrison's made that completely clear in the ways he and his lieutenants have behaved over the last couple of days.

CLENNELL: Tony Burke, thanks for your time.