Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister
TOM CONNELL, HOST: Well, you’ve seen all the various year in reviews. You’ve wondered how Australian politics is in 2022. There’s only one take you need, though, and that’s from Patrick Gorman and Jason Falinski. They join me, my panel, for the final time in 2022. Gentlemen, thank you both for your time. But we’ll get a little bit I’m not quite sentimental, I suppose, but retrospective in a moment. But we’ve got big news that I said first of all, Patrick Gorman, Kevin Rudd, your former boss, US ambassador to Washington. It’s an interesting appointment, isn’t it?
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Look, I think Kevin Rudd has honoured Australia by accepting this appointment. This will be good for our trade relationship, for our deep diplomatic relationship with the United States, our defence relationship and all of our people to people links. He brings unprecedented experience to this role, both as a former Prime Minister, as a former Foreign Minister, his work with the Asia Society, he’s got a doctorate in the politics of the current Chinese leadership. This is an appointment that I think is good news for Australia, will be welcomed widely both here in Australia and in the United States. And it was a welcome announcement by the Prime Minister this morning.
CONNELL: Clearly he’s got credentials, but we’ve heard before the character assessments from his own colleagues. It’s a high risk, high reward appointment, isn’t it?
GORMAN: This is an incredibly strong appointment. No one will bring more experience as Ambassador to the United States than Kevin Rudd brings when he takes up that post early next year. He has, as I outlined before, all of that experience in foreign policy. He is well respected across the aisle in the United States, democrats, republicans, foreign policy think tanks. And at a time where we do face both great opportunity in our relationship with the United States, with things such as AUKUS, it’s really good to see we’re putting a former Foreign Minister in, Stephen Smith, a former member for Perth and someone who contributed widely in the United Kingdom, Kevin Rudd, into the United States. These are strong appointments and I think they’ll be widely welcomed across Australia.
CONNELL: Jason, what’s your reaction to this appointment?
JASON FALINSKI, FORMER LIBERAL MP: Well, I’ve got to say, Tom, I concur with everything Patrick said. I’m just worried for Albo, what’s he going to do without having Kevin there to advise him on a regular basis. I suppose he’ll just have to learn to take phone calls at 2.00 or 3.00 am in the morning. That’s what we’re going to have to do. And Patrick, how do you think your old boss will cope with the Trump presidency in 2024?
GORMAN: Well, firstly, I think any Australian Prime Minister is well and truly used to getting phone calls at two or three in the morning. That I don’t think will faze Prime Minister Albanese, nor do I think it will be a new occurrence. But I’m pretty sure that the people at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are pretty good at lining up appropriate times for Prime Ministers to speak with diplomats around the world. They’re pretty experienced in those things. They tend to know the time zones. So I don’t think you need to worry there, Jason. I don’t speculate on the outcomes of future domestic political outcomes in other countries and we know that these are decisions for democratic decisions for other countries to make. But as I said, former Prime Minister Rudd has very deep relationships with both Republicans and Democrats and think tanks and business leaders across the United States. He will hit the ground, he will and truly hit the ground running when he takes on that role.
CONNELL: It’s almost like Patrick was ready for this appointment and had some lines prepared. He’s not going to be veering off script today, so look, we’ll get you to veer off, Jason. This is why he’s rising through the ranks and we’ll be talking about him being appointed to the US one day as a former PM. Jason, what about you and the Liberal Party review? I don’t mean to trigger any PTSD for you, but I’m sure you’ve been reading the reports of what’s in this review. What have you made of it?
FALINSKI: Well, mate, I’ve been speaking directly with Jane Hume. The review isn’t written. So many of the reports that have been published this week are not correct. So I don’t know where Simon is getting his information from. Simon Benson, that is. Well, it’s not my role to reveal what’s in the report, but I can tell you that the article in yesterday’s Australian is not right. I’ve spoken to one of the authors of the report and they tell me that that’s not what the report says. So I don’t know who Simon’s source is and I wouldn’t ask him naturally, but it’s apparently not the recommendations that will be going to the party.
CONNELL: Talking about it though. I mean, one of the threads through this seemed to be that the Liberal Party struggled to represent modern Australia. Do you think that’s accurate? And if so, is Peter Dutton the sort of leader that can be embraced by modern Australia?
FALINSKI: Well, answering your second question first, emphatically yes, he is someone who can represent modern Australia and will appeal to modern Australia. I don’t like that terminology. I think that the Liberal Party has always represented people of aspiration and the hopes and values of aspiration in Australia. We certainly in the last three years, due to COVID and lockdowns and mandates, et cetera, got knocked off course and were painted to be something that we’re not. I think if the report reflects that, that’s fairly accurate. And I think that we need to stop the naval gazing and get back to the work of being a political party that represents the values of aspiration and people who aspire to a better future.
CONNELL: Sounds like the stump speech for the person who might try to be the future member for Mackellar.
FALINSKI: Would you stop that. It’s not true.
CONNELL: Look, I say that in jest. I don’t have any inside mail. I’m sure when Jason announces, it’ll be right here on the NewsDay programme. Patrick just to sort of square things off, though, on reviews, I mean, Labor had its own review. Do you think it’s fair to say both major parties do face a real challenge on winning majorities full stop? I mean, Labor had an incredibly unpopular Scott Morrison and squeaked over the line. Is that a worry that any majority could be really hard to get in the future?
GORMAN: Well, I don’t think you can ever take any electoral outcome for granted. And I think our review says very clearly that every election is hard to win and it tends to be that the next election is always harder than one you’ve just fought. Our review, led by Greg Combet and Lenda Oshalem, was a very useful piece of work and I again congratulate them. Lenda as a West Australian. So I’ll give a particular shout out to her as someone who really saw what we did do here in the west, which was transform the politics of WA, where I remember not that long ago, there weren’t that many seats for Federal Labor here in WA, and now we hold nine of them. And I’ll be going to see, after we chat, Tracy Roberts, the new member for Pearce, who’s someone who really brought a lot of experience to the Parliament. But if I just talk on the Liberal Party review, I really worry now you’re going to get industry. I really worry that they’re going to try and blame everything on Scott Morrison and pretend that everyone else there was perfect. All Scott Morrison’s fault. But they’re not all of the enablers of Scott Morrison. Michaelia Cash, Simon Birmingham, Angus Taylor, Peter Dutton himself, all enabled that terrible policy making process, the breakdown of cabinet government and absolute destruction of trust from the Australian people in the way that government operates under Scott Morrison and then try and blame it all on him. And I think that’s, I think that’s both unfair on Scott Morrison, but I think it’s also gutless from someone in the Liberal Party who are trying to pretend that they had nothing to do with the method.
CONNELL: Patrick Gorman, a Scott Morrison apologist, deeply concerned and hoping the Liberal Party can bounce back. I’m sure they will be watching in interest, Patrick. Look, we do want to sort of end on a bit of a reflective mood, I suppose. Jason 2022. I’m not again trying to rub some of the wounds. I suppose it included a not so voluntary career change. But how do you look back on the year? I guess from a personal point of view, but for the country as well, it was a pretty dramatic one.
FALINSKI: Look, I think there’s one thing that all Australians can be proud of, whether you agree or disagree with Anthony Albanese, and I certainly disagree with him on virtually everything. I think that I’m incredibly proud to be a member of a country that has elected someone or has created an environment in which someone from public sector, from public housing, who grew up with a single mum, who had no advantage in life, has managed, well not managed, but has risen to the highest job in the land. And I think that says a lot more about our country at the end of 2022 than anything else that happened. So I reflect on 2022 with mixed emotions, but I think that’s a great outcome for this country.
CONNELL: And everyone goes, oh, we’ve heard that story before, but you’re right, it is still incredible. Patrick, quickly on this, because if I get time, I want one more very quick question with you, which Lou will get me in trouble for, but 30 seconds or so on 2022, I think.
GORMAN: It was a year where Australia saw a peaceful, democratic transfer of power. We can never take our democracy for granted. In general, we are well served by people who come to the business of politics, wanting to create policy that improves the lives of all Australians. And while on this occasion I’m very pleased that the Labor Party won, I think that core value of democracy is something that we must always treasure and celebrate.
CONNELL: Finally, very quickly, you have to do this in 30 seconds. I’m out of a job, I just been told. So what do you do to relax over summer? Help the viewers out here and not just something about your electorate, please. Jason, what do you got for us.
FALINSKI: Mate. I will once again try and learn how to surf and anyone who wants to laugh could come along and watch that.
CONNELL: Someone take vision. Someone take vision. Maybe Jason’s wife.
FALINSKI: No one take vision.
CONNELL: Patrick?
GORMAN: For the first time in a few years, I’ll be able to take the kids to Brisbane to see the grandparents in Queensland, which is very exciting, and I’ll be taking them to Sea World. I’m not sure if that’s more for me or for the kids. I’ll let your viewers decide.
CONNELL: All right, it’s not Wet and Wild. And then I’d get Patrick. Patrick maybe coming down the slide. Patrick, Jason, been a pleasure. We abandoned the panel. We came back anyway. We’ll be back in 2023. Enjoy your break. We’ll talk again next year. Thank you.
GORMAN: Merry Christmas, Tom. Merry Christmas, Jason.
