Interview with Ray Hadley, Radio 2GB-4BC

RAY HADLEY:
Every Thursday we speak to the Minister for Defence and Member for Dickson Peter Dutton. And the Minister is online right now in Queensland. Minister, good morning.

PETER DUTTON:
Good morning Ray.

RAY HADLEY:
How many days to go of isolation for you?

PETER DUTTON:
Day 13 of quarantine today, so finish at midnight tomorrow night and be back out Saturday
morning.

RAY HADLEY:
You’ve had a few stints of quarantine, haven’t you, really?

PETER DUTTON:
Yeah, I think this is my fourth, but I was talking to a mate during the week who’s up to day 189 in Melbourne, so I really feel for the people in New South Wales and Victoria at the moment. It’s been tough in Queensland, but very, very tough for those business owners and people that are doing it very hard in the southern states at the moment.

RAY HADLEY:
Well, you heard my comments about the game changer as far as I’m concerned – and as a former copper I’m sure you’d agree and now Defence Force Minister – we’ve finally seen the light and Health are no longer in charge of these orders; they’re the domain of the New South Wales Police and Minister David Elliott. Also there’s a request already from Elliott and Fuller for 500 more members of the Australian Defence Force. I’ve seen vision of it this morning. There’s a bloke in Sydney, a Mayor at Cumberland, who says it’s intimidatory that we should have these Defence Force personnel going to areas where there’s refugees and they’re scared of the Army. These are people conducting themselves with absolute clarity and dignity and making inquiries into people’s health and the rest of it, accompanied by a police officer, and they’re unarmed. I mean I don’t know why there’s any pushback on this happening and will we get the extra 500?

PETER DUTTON:
We certainly will Ray; there’s no question about that. If there’s a request made, then we’ll fulfil a request. Already we’ve got about 580 Australian Defence Force personnel in New South Wales and they’re doing an array of jobs – and if you were going to trust anyone, it would be Mick Fuller and David Elliott, they’re both great men – so we will work very closely with them. As for the nobody mayor; I mean nobody firstly knows who he is and people who seek and crave political opportunity or advantage out of COVID and other people’s misery at the moment are the lowest form, to be frank. The final point I would make in relation to this Ray, is that if there are Australian Defence Force personnel out on the streets, I think it’s the perfect display of the decency of the men and women of the ADF for all to see, including people who have recently arrived to our country who might come from a part of the world where they don’t trust the military. They see the smiling face of the soldier, or the RAAF member or the Navy member and they understand that in our country, our greatest asset is the men and women of our Australian Defence Force. They’re on display at the moment with the men and women of the police forces around the country and we’re made safer because of their presence.

RAY HADLEY:
I’ll just go back to Christou, this non-descript Mayor of Cumberland in Sydney — “To come out and say you’re going to put the Army out on the streets of Cumberland City … is very insensitive and shows how out-of-touch our state representatives are. “Often I shake my head and honestly I tell you, what kind of moronic imbeciles are governing this state … Well, I’d ask the question: what sort of moronic imbeciles are governing the Cumberland City Council? But I’ll share with this with you Peter Dutton, unsolicited while we’re talking, and I won’t identify the gentleman but all his details are here — I’m a household COVID close contact living in Western Sydney. Just about every day we’re visited by police and a member of the armed services. On each occasion, we’re treated with dignity and respect. They’ve offered to provide us with groceries if we need urgent supplies. They’ve done their best to ensure we’re sticking to the rules, but at the same time providing support in these rather troubled times. These people are doing a really important job. Please feel free to share the information with the audience. That comes from a householder in one of those areas that are locked down, so that’s what’s happening. They’re out there offering support and talking to people, and good on this listener for telling us about it.

PETER DUTTON:
I agree with that. That’s the common story and I do think we are dealing with this in a different way than most other countries are around the world. You look at the deaths and what has happened over the course of the last 18 months and what Delta is now doing to many of those cities and countries, Ray. We’re in a fortunate position and we are in a fortunate position because we do have professional men and women of the New South Wales Police or Victoria Police or the Australian Defence Force and there are a lot of good people otherwise working in vaccination centres. Everybody is pulling in the same direction to make sure that our community and our country gets out of this as quickly as possible and that’s what everybody wants. As I say, people who seek to take political advantage and try and point score for their own notoriety or profile, frankly, I think it says more about them than it does about anybody else.

RAY HADLEY:
Were you surprised to read that your Premier in Queensland Annastacia Palaszczuk had relied upon secretive monthly polling of Queenslanders to help her decide what restrictions should be put in place as opposed to what the mantra was, “I take my advice from Jeanette Young”?

PETER DUTTON:
No, I wasn’t. Look, I think a lot of people underestimate Annastacia Palaszczuk. I think she’s one of the shrewdest people in the business and she has the ability to draw on a huge machine – I mean the Labor Party and the union movement fund a big campaigning machine in the background. They’re able to nuance their messages. They tell people what they want to hear and it’s obviously been successful for them. I think there’s no news in political parties commissioning polling and listening to hesitations that people might have about 4 vaccinations or their hesitation about getting tested or being in lockdown, and then you can try and work out ways of how you can convince them that people should abide by the law or they should adhere to this direction. But it does become troublesome if that polling is used to change a position or to enforce a lockdown because, you know, people are scared and that’s what the polling is showing and you are acting against the health advice. One of the things that I think that we’ve done successfully at federal level, and I’ve been around the National Security Committee table from day 1 on this issue, we have looked at the advice and adhered to the advice of Brendan Murphy, and now the new Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly. If you do that, then I think you’re heading in the right direction, but if you’re making decision that are based on polling telling you that if you did this, you would be popular or if you did that, you wouldn’t be popular, then I just think that’s an absurdity and I hope that’s not what the Premier has done.

RAY HADLEY:
Okay, well, the other point that was made today in The Courier Mail, somewhere between 18 and 30 media monitors – one eight and 30 media minders. I don’t think the Prime Minister has got that many media minders, has he?

PETER DUTTON:
No. No, definitely not. I mean in my office, I have a pretty big portfolio in Defence and we’ve got three people and they field inquiries all day from all sorts of different publications and have a lot of work to do, but 30 is an unbelievable number. So, they’re obviously doing something, but as I say, it is a pretty slick machine. They do a lot of work on social media that the Premier bounces off. So that’s the way they operate in Queensland.

RAY HADLEY:
Okay. Appreciate your time. We’ll talk next Thursday. All the best.

PETER DUTTON:
Thanks Ray, see you mate.