EO&E..............................................................................................................................................................

 

 

I’d like to thank George Tremopoulos and his team here at Frozpak for making Greg Hunt and I so welcome this morning. This is one of those businesses that works while most people sleep to keep our city going and this is typical of the hundreds of thousands of Australian businesses that are going to be badly hit by Julia Gillard’s toxic carbon tax. There’s a triple whammy on this business. The carbon tax hits their power costs, it hits their transport costs and it hits their refrigerant costs and that’s why so much of the staples of our daily life are going to be significantly more expensive under the tax that Julia Gillard said would never, ever happen.

 

This is the spectre which is confronting Australia in just a few short weeks’ time because this Prime Minister wasn’t prepared to stand up to the Greens in the negotiations after the last election. I think as every day goes by the spectacle of this government becomes more embarrassing to the Australian people. Every day, people wake up with fresh revelations of scandal, of incompetence, of broken promises, and if you want to end the sleaze, stop the boats and end the waste, you’ve got to change this government. I think that’s the message which is coming out loud and clear from the spectacle of this government in Canberra this week.

 

Greg?

George is living proof that it’s not big businesses but it is small, family businesses that are going to pay the carbon tax. The cost of their refrigerant alone is almost going to triple. It’s not a small increase: the cost of the good itself is almost going to triple under the carbon tax. The costs for Frozpak are likely to be in the vicinity of $60,000 a year extra. That’s a small family business that employs local people that’s going to be hit by the carbon tax. It’s going to hit the price of milk; it’s going to hit the price of fruit and vegetables. These are things which need to be kept cool. The reality of the carbon tax is it is small family businesses and it is goods such as milk and fruit and vegetables that are going to be hit.

 

Ok, any questions?

Mr Abbott, did you unleash a lynch mob on Craig Thomson?

Look, what I’ve done is highlight the findings – not allegations, the findings – of the Fair Work Australia report. Now, Fair Work Australia was Julia Gillard’s creation. For months and months, when we raised questions about Mr Thomson’s conduct we were told, ‘Oh, just wait for the Fair Work Australia report’. Now we’ve had the Fair Work Australia report. We have had Mr Thomson’s frankly utterly implausible statement in the Parliament yesterday and the Government won’t let us debate it. Mr Thomson had one hour in the Parliament yesterday and the Opposition wasn’t given one minute to respond. Now, this is just a sign of a government which doesn’t get it when it comes to questions of public integrity.

So, what did you make of his hour long statement?

I don’t think he has seriously addressed any of the questions that he needed to. There are very serious findings of fact which Fair Work Australia made that he misused almost a half a million dollars of low paid union members’ money. He misused that money on his own personal expenses, getting elected, prostitution services. None of those questions were seriously addressed yesterday and I think what Mr Thomson did was a travesty of due process.

 

He’s accused you of leading a lynch mob but he says that you are unfit to be Prime Minister and are unfit to be an MP.

Look, I think that those sorts of statements will be treated basically with derision by the general public because this is someone who has failed to explain his own conduct. This is someone who has been found by Fair Work Australia to have misused almost a half a million dollars worth of low paid workers’ money. This is someone who is now in protective custody from the Prime Minister and the basic problem here is that this is someone who has betrayed the workers he was supposed to represent. This is someone who is now being protected by the Prime Minister in her desperate struggle to survive. There is no standard of integrity that this Prime Minister won’t trash in her struggle to survive and to cling to power.

 

He’s also questioned the role of Michael Lawler, the Fair Work Australia vice president. That is someone who you previously appointed to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. Have you had any contact with him?

No. Look, sure, I appointed Michael Lawler to the Industrial Relations Commission a dozen years back, or whenever it was, buthe’s now a senior officer of Fair Work Australia which is Julia Gillard’s creation and it’s interesting, isn’t it? In order to protect itself, the Government is now prepared to trash even its own creation. That’s how low this government has sunk.

Have you spoken to Craig Kelly about allegations highlighted by Anthony Albanese yesterday?

Look, he completely answered the claims that were made in the Parliament yesterday.

Have you spoken to him personally, though?

He completely answered the claims that were made in the Parliament yesterday.

What about the prospect of Anthony Albanese going through other members of the Liberal and National parties?

Look, this is a desperate government that is resorting to all sorts of completely unsubstantiated smear to protect itself. I think it is an increasingly revolting spectacle of a government which frankly shouldn’t be there, clinging to power and junking every standard of integrity in the process. I think the Australian people are disgusted by this spectacle. I think the Australian people think that this government has long outlived any useful role it could perform. I think the Australian people think that it’s high time that they got a new say on who should be governing our country.

 

If Craig Thomson [inaudible] and support the Coalition in a vote in the House of Reps, would you accept his so-called tainted vote?

Well, he has indicated that he is going to vote with the Labor Party.

Will you move to have Kathy Jackson have a right of reply to Craig Thomson’s statement yesterday?

Well, what we want at the moment is a chance to make a statement. I mean, Mr Thomson had an hour to address the Parliament yesterday. I think that we ought to have time to respond. I think all members of Parliament should have the opportunity to respond to the statement that was made. It was a statement that was made to the Parliament. It’s now the property of the Parliament. The Parliament should be able to debate it and the fact that this government wants to stop debate on the statement just shows that they don’t get it when it comes to ordinary standards of integrity.

 

Would you move to have Kathy Jackson address Parliament and to address the claims that Craig Thomson made yesterday?

Well, I certainly think that Kathy Jackson has been unjustifiably attacked by Mr Thomson. Mr Thomson produced no evidence, no evidence whatsoever, for his smearing of other people in the union, whistleblowers in the union, people who have exposed what Fair Work Australia has now found to be facts about Mr Thomson’s conduct. Certainly, there are procedures to give her a way to respond and I think those procedures should certainly be allowed to take their course.

 

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