Transcript - Television Transcript - Sky News with Tom Connell - Monday, 21 February 2022

TOM CONNELL, HOST: To look at this, and a few other things as well, let's bring in our political panel, from the Labor Party, Patrick Gorman from the Liberal Party, Jason Falinski. Jason, this is your area. This is shaping as a disaster for the Liberal Party, who's to blame for this happening?

JASON FALINSKI, MEMBER FOR MACKELLAR: God, Tom, let's turn it up, it's not.

CONNELL: Do you disagree?

FALINSKI: You know, the fact is, we found candidates, they're very good candidates, they need to be endorsed and we need to get on with the job. So, you know, it's not a disaster. There are about three or four seats that need to be endorsed and we need to get on with it. And I couldn't agree with you more. We've got Zali Steggall taking coal donations, trying to hide the fact that she took coal donations. And you know, the people of Warringah deserve the choice, they deserve the opportunity to send her a message that it's not good enough to say one thing on the climate, while taking coal donations in the other hand. Now do you want to ask me about real-time disclosures at this point?

CONNELL: So why doesn't she have a candidate to run against? Who's to blame for this?

FALINSKI: Well, I'm sure there are lots of people to blame. You know, there's an old Chinese saying, which is 'success has a thousand forebears, but failure is an orphan', when we, in fact, know it's the other way around. I don't care who is to blame. What I want is a candidate in Warringah so the people of Warringah actually have a choice. Same in Bennelong, same in Hughes, same in Dobell. The Australian people rely on us to provide good and sensible government, and we need to give them that choice.

CONNELL: Alex Hawke, has he been dragging this out on behalf of the Prime Minister?

FALINSKI: I don't know Tom, has he? I don't know. I'm not involved in those discussions.

CONNELL: You in the New South Wales Liberal Party have no idea of any role he's played?

FALINSKI: No, I am not the New South Wales Liberal Party. I am but a mere, I am one member of the New South Wales Liberal Party. My message to my party...

CONNELL: Okay, so that's the question. To your knowledge has Alex Hawke been a key factor in dragging this ...

FALINSKI: I'm sorry, I can't provide that. I don't have any knowledge. That's not what I've read in newspapers.

CONNELL: Okay, look, let's go to some bright news in your neck of the woods Pat, the borders are opening. Good news.

PATRICK GORMAN, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Yes, they are. It is great news.

CONNELL: Would you like this to be the last time we have to say this? In other words, don't get another variant and think that shutting the borders is the best way to keep COVID out.

GORMAN: Well, I do hope that's the case. I hope that once again, Australia is whole. That people can come to Western Australia, go down to Margaret River, see the great wineries, come to my electorate of Perth, go to great bakeries like Miller and Baker in my electorate, go to the Perth Stadium and have a great time in Western Australia. And more importantly, the families and businesses can reconnect with their colleagues and loved ones. So it is very exciting and people have been very patient. I think we should also acknowledge, though, that this has been a very successful measure and I thank the Premier and all of those health officials in Western Australia for that. Hopefully, we don't need a measure like this again.

CONNELL: Okay, successful, has it been proportionate throughout?

GORMAN: Well, it has opened and closed depending on what's been needed. I think, you know, we can look in the rear vision mirror, what I'm thinking about is what's the next challenge? The challenge here in Western Australia is we are starting to say the spread of the Omicron. For me, I'm worried about what that means in aged care.

CONNELL: But the rear-view matters here because it informs what we do next, that's all I'm asking. So has it always been proportionate, the use of the border?

GORMAN: Oh, look, I was particularly happy when I saw that there was an expansion of compassionate travel exemptions. That had been something that had weighed on my mind quite heavily over the course of the last two years, I've been pretty honest about that.

CONNELL: Okay, so there were some elements that should have been a bit more compassionate, is that what you're saying?

GORMAN: We've always said that these are decisions for the state governments to make. For me, I always found that where people were trying to travel for compassionate reasons and they couldn't, that was a really tough thing that I found quite difficult and something I hope we don't have to return to again. But having said that, it is also compassionate to try and save the lives of people. And that's what this measure has been about, particularly when we didn't have, at one point, a vaccination program at all, at another point, the vaccination program was too slow, at a third point, we didn't have the plan for boosters, and another point, we didn't have a plan for vaccinating children.

CONNELL: I think that's as close as we'll get to Pat Gorman today in his red tie, not totally comfortable the entire time with everything to do with the borders, but they can be my words, you don't have to repeat them Pat. Jason was shaking his head. So this must mean Jason, as a member of the federal government, has said that WA's overall handling of the border has not been proportionate. Jason?

FALINSKI: Tom, I don't think it has been. I agree with Pat, that people have families that have been rent asunder, that Australians have been kept apart. And our nation was built to be whole, it hasn't been for the last couple of years. So no, I don't. I think that there have been times over and over again where the Western Australian government has overreacted and this has been used as a political tool. So even now...

GORMAN: No, Jason! That is incorrect.

FALINSKI: Okay. Even now...

GORMAN: You can criticise the border measures, but don't say they were used as a political tool.

FALINSKI: Pat! Pat, I'm often wrong, people tell me that all the time. Okay, well, in my view, it is being used as a political tool.

GORMAN: Well if you make that argument, you can also make the argument that the federal government has used international borders as a political tool. Is that the argument you're making?

FALINSKI: No, I'm not making that argument at all.

GORMAN: Of course you're not.

FALINSKI: In fact, when we closed the borders in February 2020, the Labor Party criticised us for doing that, and I think it is now well-established that that single measure saved tens of thousands of lives of Australians.

CONNELL: But what about going a bit earlier, Jason? Could the international border have been opened early, with all the COVID we had?

FALINSKI: Well, look, you know, the fact of the matter is that I've always been more pro open the borders, than keep them closed. But you know, the government has taken the decision that it has taken. Could we have gone sooner? Should we have gone later? These are decisions that get made at higher levels than people on this panel, but from the evidence I saw, I thought we could have opened them earlier, but we didn't. I understand that. I think we're talking about, we're quibbling over weeks rather than months.

CONNELL: Only weeks, okay. Might be downplaying the panel's power, if we talk ourselves down, Jason, as a segment, we're not going to get the things we want done with Australia. So you know let's just think about that one. Let me give you this one, Patrick. Put on your promoters hat. You've been demonising us in the east for so long. What's your slogan to get people from the east traveling over to WA again?

GORMAN: Western Australia, well, I always say Perth is the best of Earth. We've got the best food, the best people, the most beautiful rivers, beaches, everything you could want is right here. And I know there have been many commentators across the country bemoaning the fact they haven't been able to visit. Any media outlet, any journalist that comes here with that excitement, I'm happy to take them around and show them the best of Earth, right here in Perth. And I'm also excited, I think we are one country, I'm excited that West Australians will be able to get out and see some of the other fabulous parts of this country, be it visiting Cairns, visiting the good people of Canberra and the amazing national monuments and national exhibitions that we have there, or indeed the Northern Beaches in Sydney, a beautiful part of Australia.

FALINSKI: That's very true. Very true.

GORMAN: Maybe they've got a slightly nervous Liberal candidate there at the moment, but everything else on the Northern Beaches is absolutely fabulous.

CONNELL: Well, I'll tell you, Perth the best of Earth, it's okay, but you acting as the personal guide is quite the offer.

FALINSKI: I know, I know. Will you pick me up from the airport too Patrick?

GORMAN: Jason, I'll pick you up at the airport, I'll book dinner,

FALINSKI: Oh, you'll book dinner! Candlelit, I hope?

GORMAN: and I'll make sure you see some of the best of Western Australia.

FALINSKI: I hope candlelit!

CONNELL: Alright, I can sense some Carpool Karaoke coming on, so make sure you film it, and do it horizontally so we can use it on the program as well. I'm going to let the viewers know how the sausage is made here, because sometimes against my sort of better inclinations, I ask you two any topics you want to talk about today. I always reserve the right to refuse them. You wrote today, Jason Falinski, Holmes à Court, dark money fund, and you never responded to me when I asked what that was. What's his dark money fund?

FALINSKI: It's called Climate 200, Tom. What we have is, you know, and it's called the Climate Outcomes Foundation, where we don't know where the money is being raised, how it's being raised, where he tells us where it's going, but we don't exactly know. And I think the common parlance for this at the moment is dark money in politics, and that's what we have. I mean, I listen to your friend...

CONNELL: But is it any different, is it anything different to what the major parties do?

FALINSKI: Yeah, it's absolutely different to what the major parties do. It's just insulting to say otherwise. The major parties declare all their donations. So, you know, to say that, are you all the same is just so offensive it's not funny. No, this is dark money. Sorry, Tom.

CONNELL: But you have to declare the amount, but not how it comes to, if it's under a certain amount.

FALINSKI: That's right, Tom. That's absolutely right. But you know what else? We actually combined the Labor Party and Liberal Party, the National Party, for that matter, they aggregate everyone who gives them money. So at the end of the day, if you give $1000 to 15 different candidates, that gets aggregated and reported. When you do that for these fake Independents, these Climate 200 candidates. Somehow they've all got the same slogans, they all use the same website, they've all got the same CRM, they're all saying the same things. But if you donate to 15 of them, they don't get aggregated. Now they are using this election as some sort of corporate takeover of the Australian Parliament, using every loophole that they can find, to hide who is donating to them, and that is the definition of dark money.

CONNELL: Just about out of time.

FALINSKI: Oh, isn't it funny? We've run out of time now. Okay, fair enough.

CONNELL: I said, just about, well, nearly. Pat Gorman, in 30 seconds, you're concerned about the Clive Palmer money. Let me just ask this simply to you, he's tipping in a lot of money, should we look at a cap at how much one person can contribute?

FALINSKI: Ah yes, let's deny freedom of political speech, we wouldn't want that. At least we know who's donating the money.

GORMAN: I find it very funny that those who criticise the Coalition for their lack of action on climate change are attacked by people like Jason, but Clive Palmer...

FALINSKI: Oh, you mean before after they told money from coal miners? Before they took money from coal miners?

GORMAN: There is zero criticism from the Liberal Party. Zero criticism about Clive Palmer, because he's helping their (unintelligible).

FALINSKI: No, no, no. I was just asking for consistent standards.

CONNELL: 20 seconds.

FALINSKI: I'm just asking for consistent standards. So it's okay for Climate 200 candidates to try and hide money from coal miners but it's not okay for me to criticise that?

GORMAN: Mate, you've been in government for nine years, you write the laws. These are your laws they're complying with.

FALINSKI: And haven't we tried to change it! You've blocked us every single time. The Labor Party.

CONNELL: Alright, we've got to get to an ad break. Jason, Patrick, I'm getting a hint as to the increased passion.

FALINSKI: Do we think candlelit dinner in Perth is off? I'm just wondering?

CONNELL: What did you say, sorry?

FALINSKI: I'm getting a sense that Pat won't be picking me up from the airport.

CONNELL: I think your lift is in jeopardy, I do think that, but I don't know. Look, if it's reciprocal, maybe let him go to the Northern Beaches first. We'll talk next week. Thank you as ever.

ENDS