Transcript - Sky News with Tom Connell - Thursday, 18 February 2021
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS WITH TOM CONNELL
THURSDAY, 18 FEBRUARY 2021
SUBJECTS: Borders; baby and middle names; Facebook; nuclear power; Bill Gates; Craig Kelly.
TOM CONNELL, HOST: Well, joining me live now, my panel, Liberal MP Jason Falinski, from the Labor Party, Patrick Gorman. Not united, not just yet, Pat we've still got you in Brisbane. This is, I understand, because of border issues, you're not actually blocked at the moment from going between WA and Queensland. But you had no faith that the Labor governments of McGowan and Palaszczuk would give you proper egress, is that right?
PATRICK GORMAN, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Not quite. Tom. My wife's from Brisbane and we are finally here to introduce our new baby, Ruby, who is now 11 weeks old, to the family. We had hoped to do it in January, but unfortunately, the unpredictable coronavirus had other plans and the need to keep people safe, both in Queensland and Western Australia and across Australia. So, we are now here visiting family, which is delightful. But I also had to see my other family, and that is yourself, Tom and Jason. So, it's great to be with you.
JASON FALINSKI, LIBERAL MP: Happy to be included. In fact, when do we get to meet - is it Ruby?
GORMAN: Yeah. You're very high on the list, Jason. And hopefully the whole show will be there in March.
FALINSKI: Mate, I've got a gift. It's going stale. So, get down here quickly.
CONNELL: It's obviously not for the baby, I don't think they get food at that stage. Is the possum name actually living on amongst your children, Patrick?
GORMAN: She is very lucky that she has not got my middle name, but she has got my wife's middle name. So it's Ruby Elizabeth. Which is good for her and probably limits the number of jokes you can make about family names.
CONNELL: Alright.
FALINSKI: Bad for us then, Patrick, is that your point?
GORMAN: Well, you can fire all your jokes at me, Jason. Just one target. The kids are lucky enough to have more common middle names.
CONNELL: I think we've used a quarter of the panel to do this so far, so you can judge whether or not it's well moderated. Probably easy to judge. Let's talk about Facebook, though Jason Falinski. I went on today, it's a bit of a wasteland. I've got to admit, there are a couple of people I went to primary school who love a conspiracy theory, and I'm seeing even more of their posts now.
FALINSKI: Oh well, are you? Well, look, Tom, I encourage everyone who's looking for good news today to not type in Facebook dot com, but to type in Sky News dot com dot au. That's what they should do.
CONNELL: Hard to argue. Patrick, any issue here for Labor? Some people are criticising the Government's handling of this. Is this all on Facebook, considering Google managed to, you know, find a couple of spare dollars amongst a few trillion of company worth?
GORMAN: Well, I'm not privileged to all of the negotiations the Government have had with the various online platforms, but I am disappointed in Facebook. This is incredibly childish. It is hard to believe that they have actively silenced political leaders and indeed in Western Australia, I'm not his number one fan, but Zak Kirkup, the State Opposition Leader, has had his Facebook page shut in the middle of an election. Now, this is not an open, free, democratic action by Facebook. They've silenced one of my state Labor members, Amber-Jade Sanderson, a rising star of the Labor Party in Western Australia. And they've silenced people like the Telethon Kids Institute. I mean, whatever Facebook were trying to do, they've done it in the most stupid and silly way. They need to undo this as soon as possible. And they also need to apologise. I mean, they are playing with people's ability to communicate. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services in Western Australia has been silenced by Facebook. I mean, it is just beyond the pale what they have done. And like I say, I don't know how the Government has got to this point in their behind the scenes negotiations but maybe whoever has been leading the negotiations with Facebook, they need to shake things up a bit and just sort it out.
CONNELL: Yes, well Josh Frydenberg. So JF texting MZ. But Jason Falinski, do you have a message for Mark Zuckerberg?
FALINSKI: Well, I might regret this, but: Mark, this is where you can put your like today [gives thumbs up].
CONNELL: All right, crass as ever. Let's talk about a push within the Coalition. I found this quite interesting. On a couple of things, and the Nats pushing this mainly, but it's on nuclear power, Jason, so according to The Australian, they asked I think about 80 or so Coalition MPs: one said they'd be against at least having the option of nuclear power in Australia, everyone else was either for it or undecided. Where do you sit?
FALINSKI: Look, Tom, I think that it's quite clear that when you look at the scientific research, that people who look at these numbers quite seriously, including Bill Gates, make the point that if you want to shift the dial on global emissions, then nuclear power has to be part of the mix and it has to be under consideration. And I don't think that there's anyone or there would be very few people in this Parliament who really care about climate change who wouldn't say that you need to have all options on the table. The other thing that you would need to make the point about is that there are a whole bunch of new technologies coming down the line with nuclear energy, including the one that I'm fascinated by, which is by TerraPower, which is a wave reactor, which effectively at end of life has no waste and has no emissions. And the worst thing that can happen is that it just shuts down. They're obviously modular reactors and other things of that nature.
CONNELL: So, this is the interesting part of that conversation, Patrick. Australians previously seemed to decide their views on nuclear. Nuclear energy has changed. What's wrong with a conversation about this?
GORMAN: Well, it's got to be a fact-based conversation, and I think the technology that Jason just mentioned is in the development stage. It is not something that can be rolled out in Australia in the next few years. In terms of what we say about the global solution to climate change. I mean, let's be honest, Australia is a uranium exporting nation. We do our bit for those nations that do need this sort of power or indeed have nuclear reactors that already rely on this fuel to power communities, power nations. But is it the right thing for Australia? Is it what we should start building in 2021? I don't think so. And if the Coalition want to go to the next election promising 25 nuclear power stations across Australia, as Mr Howard did in 2007, well good luck to them.
CONNELL: Do you think this is going to be a concerted push, the Prime Minister will take up, Jason?
FALINSKI: I don't know, Tom, but I think that if you care about the outcome of our environment, if you care about slowing global warming, then you have to have every option on the table. And what we just heard from Patrick then is that the Labor Party will refuse to look at every option. Now, people who are not me, people who have looked at the facts, who have looked at the figures, who have done deep dives on these issues, such as Bill Gates, for example, say that this is the only way for us to proceed and has to be part of the mix. Why, if this is the once in a lifetime challenge that it is, which Bill Gates said, which Kevin Rudd once described it, that why wouldn't you have every option on the table? This can only be ideological opposition. It's not based on facts. It's not based on science. It's just based on ideology.
GORMAN: Jason, when the Liberal Party …
CONNELL: Thirty seconds, Patrick Gorman.
GORMAN: Jason, when the Liberal Party starts listening to Bill Gates on climate change, when you listen to him on net zero emissions, when you listen to him on investing and increasing your commitment to the aid budget, then maybe we can have a serious discussion about nuclear power. But don't use Bill Gates, who has been a great advocate for so many things. When you've still got, you know, Bill Gates is an advocate for vaccinating the world, you guys have still got to put Craig Kelly out there saying all sorts of interesting things about vaccinations. Don't pick and choose which bits of Mr Gates' recommendation to your Government …
FALINSKI: We're talking about global warming, which, you know, Kevin Rudd used to describe as the most important moral issue of our times. So why don't we stick to one challenge at a time when we're talking to Tom, and this is on global warming and Bill Gates says that nuclear power has to be part of the mix and part of the discussion. Why won't Labor come to the table?
CONNELL: We'll have to leave it there. I'm sure there'll be more discussions about vaccines down the track when Jason can give his full and frank views on the Member for Hughes. Patrick Possum and Jason Falinski, I don't know your middle name, so you get your second name …
FALINSKI: George.
CONNELL: There you go, Jason George. Talk to you again soon, gentlemen and hope to see you in the flesh. And enjoy that time with your family as well, Patrick. Thank you.
FALINSKI: See you, Patrick.
GORMAN: Thank you, Tom. See you, Jason.
FALINSKI: See you, mate.
ENDS