Transcript - Television Interview - Sky News with Tom Connell - Thursday, 25 November

TOM CONNELL, HOST: Let's get more on this from Labor MP Patrick Gorman. You don't have your sparring partner, Jason Falinski, I know you'll be greatly upset about that, but looks like he's going to struggle, he's stuck in the chamber, Patrick, so the floor is yours, as they say. Talk us through these voter ID laws, I know you're opposed to them. But the issue here is if we do have a big voter ID issue at the next election, we won't be able to do anything about it, will we? You say it's not a big issue now, but if it does pop up, we might have an election that's essentially got some doubt over the result.

PATRICK GORMAN, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Well, we haven't had this problem in the past, Tom. There are not elections in Australia at the federal level where you can point to the lack of a voter identification process changing the outcome. What we do know is that these laws will cost more to implement, will result in fewer eligible voters being able to have their say, and will result in huge lines on election day. Now, when it comes to the question of where we'll be at the next election, if the government really wanted to do something about ensuring that all Australians had a fair, democratic say, one thing they could do is look at electronic rolls. Now that's something that's been used here in Western Australia, and it's been quite successful. Another thing the government could look at doing is actually doing something about getting more Australians on the roll. I saw the good comments from Luke Gosling, who is someone who always stands up for the Northern Territory, that you just played a moment ago. Now, if I look at the north of Western Australia, only 69.7% of eligible indigenous voters are even enrolled to vote. In 2021. I mean, no one can tell me that that's acceptable. 20,000 Indigenous voters not even enrolled. So, in terms of where I would start, I would start by getting more Australians on the roll to vote, rather than where the government has started, which is trying to knock people out from voting.

CONNELL: OK, I find that electronic roll one a valid, perhaps alternative. So let me just clarify that, you would be supportive of a system in which you turn up to vote and you say who you are, your address, you don't, presumably, have to show ID under this system, but you say who you are and people can find your name, and instead of just crossing it out with a pen, which happens at the moment, you would be ticked off electronically. There's no way that person or someone saying they are that person could vote again at that election. Is that how this would work?

GORMAN: That's how it works in Western Australia. The Western Australian Electoral Commission rolled that out at the last election. When I went to vote in March of this year, I was marked off electronically. It's a system that obviously does have a paper backup, it's not the only system that is used, but it's one of the many tools that is used to allow people to ensure that they have their democratic right to vote. So, it's something that I understand the Australian Electoral Commission and the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters has investigated in the past, and I raised it just to make the point that this legislation isn't about expanding access to democracy. It's about taking this idea that basically has been pushed by Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and a whole bunch of right wingers, particularly out of the United States, to say they stole the election from us. This is what Donald Trump said. He said, they stole an election from us, at the start of the year and then he started pushing voter ID laws for the United States. And I think it's really interesting and I don't want this to be missed Tom, that in terms of the one place we've done it here in Australia, it was under Campbell Newman's leadership in Queensland. And look at who Campbell Newman is now starting up with in Queensland. It's Clive Palmer. So I don't like the sort of people who this agenda.

CONNELL: I think that electronic roll, on the face of it, would seem to better tackle the potential for multiple voting, it's a shame we don't have Jason on the program. I'm sure his office is watching and he might have some rebuttal for us via Twitter or something. So Jason, if you see this, we'll be ready for your response. I want to ask you about vaccine mandates though Patrick. Here's the specific question for you, because there's been so much said about this, once we have 90% double dose vaccination in any given jurisdiction, is that the point at which we should try to stop dividing Australians? Because at that point, the health benefits are pretty low and we don't want to have division, right? Not allowing people to go into a cafe or an event, whatever it might be. Is that a good point at which we should say right, let's not divide by vaccination status?

GORMAN: Well, every person who is vaccinated is one person who has stronger protection of their health from a deadly virus. So every person who is vaccinated is a good thing, and I don't believe we should stop encouraging people or helping people to get vaccinated when we hit 90%.

CONNELL: Encouraging and helping is fine, this is the stick part I'm talking about.

GORMAN: Well, if health orders have recommended that specific industries or specific venues require vaccine proof in order to either work or enter those venues, we should continue with that. I don't believe that we should sort of rush to change from one thing to another simply because of a loud, but very small, minority who've been out protesting and in some cases, behaving incredibly inappropriately. I'm not in the business of giving those people a win.

CONNELL: But it's up to politicians to make a call. Health orders, health advice is one thing, you don't just blindly follow health advice. We weigh up health advice as the cost to the community. That's the question. Are you just saying you should keep people out of, you know, you can have separate people unvaccinated, can't go into a cafe for another year? forever? I mean, how long do you keep it up for?

GORMAN: Well, as we've seen across all of the states and territories, these matters are reviewed on a rolling basis based on what is in the public health interest of those communities.

CONNELL: All right.

GORMAN: I'm very comfortable, though, where we've said that people who work in a specific industry have to get vaccinated, I don't want to give a free pass to people who've just kind of waited until the final deadline. And I note that here in Western Australia, some of those deadlines for mandatory vaccination for particular industries don't come into effect until January 31. And I encourage go to every Australian to get vaccinated. Simple as that.

CONNELL: I'm happy to back that message. The more vaccines, the better. It's a question of who you lock out. But anyway, might pick it up another day. Patrick Gorman, thank you.

GORMAN: Thank you, Tom.