GILBERT: Minister, thanks for your time.
WONG: Good to be with you.
GILBERT: A group of asylum seekers were evicted from derelict houses in Parramatta yesterday in Sydney. Is the Governments policy of bridging visas creating an underclass here?
WONG: Lets remember we do provide more support in the initial period, particularly for bridging visa holders, than the Howard Government did on Temporary Protection Visas. But I would make a comment about the debate thats occurred recently in relation to asylum seekers: Ive always thought there are two very distinct issues when it comes to border protection and asylum seeker policy. What is the very difficult public policy issues and weve been grappling with those, and they are been difficult but the second is whether or not politicians choose to demonise a particular group, and I think its been regrettable that yet again we see members of the Coalition doing that over these last few days.
GILBERT: But you say that theres more support initially compared to the Howard Governments TPVs Temporary Protection Visas but the problem with the bridging visa, is it not, is that they cant work? These people will be essentially an underclass. We saw these derelict houses in Sydney ... theyre living in squalor.
WONG: I again make the point that there are some very difficult public policy issues and the previous Minister has spoken about the importance of not providing an advantage to people who do come to Australia by means other than the legitimate processes and that creates some challenges. But I do make the point that we do provide more support and initial accommodation for bridging visa holders than was ever provided by the Howard Government.
GILBERT: The Government accused the Coalition of dog whistle politics yesterday of sending coded political messages on this issue. Its hard for the Government to take the moral high ground though, isnt it
WONG: I dont agree ...
GILBERT: when these social cohesion issues come up?
WONG: I dont agree and Id refer back to my first answer. I remember I came into Parliament during what was known as the Tampa Election and I always thought that the problem with the debate and the way the Coalition Government at that point handled the debate is that they did seek to just demonise asylum seekers, and we all remember children overboard. We all remember the suggestion that there would be terrorists coming into our country. Now, I think it is incumbent upon leaders to not fuse two very different issues one is, as I say, very complex public policy issues to which there is no easy answer and anyone who pretends there is is wrong, and the issue of how you deal with a particular group of people who are seeking asylum. I dont think we should be demonising people or vilifying them and unfortunately once you insert that into the public rhetoric it can be very difficult.
GILBERT: Just finally on this, it does create a big social cohesion problem, doesnt it, if youve got an underclass basically living in squalor with no ability to work. It seems to me that this is not sustainable.
WONG: I think the issue is we need to try and continue with policies that prevent people making the journey for a whole range of reasons, not least of which is the risk to life that we have seen. No one can forget the tragedies weve seen in this area in past years.
GILBERT: That is true. Lets move on to some other issues. Senator Sinodinos Arthur Sinodinos former John Howard Chief of Staff and senior figure in the Liberal Party. Last night he declared six previously undeclared directorships to the Senate. Its not the first time an MP hasnt kept their Parliamentary Register up to date ...
WONG: It doesnt really sort of pass the person on the street test though, to say I forgot I was a director of six organisations. I can understand that there are occasions people might make an error, forget something, but thats a fairly large error, to forget that youre a director of six organisations. And Senator Sinodinos is not a newbie, in the sense that hes been around the traps a fair while he was a staffer to Prime Minister Howard and in fact you might recall that Senator Santoro was a Senator who had to resign because he failed to keep his Register up to date and Senator Sinodinos was certainly around when that occurred. In fact, Senator Santoro as I understand it was a director of one of those companies.
GILBERT: But hes not the first one to not keep the Register up to date. These oversights can be innocent and this is what Senator Sinodinos says this is an innocent oversight.
WONG: And what Id say to you is I heard what Senator Sinodinos said. But if youve got six organisations that you forget to declare a relationship with, that does seem a little odd. As I said, lets remember Arthurs not somebodys whos new to the traps.
GILBERT: A few other issues: the Coalitions IR plan. According to The Australian, well see them put this to the Productivity Commission in the next term if they win and take any changes that they might have to the next election. Its hard to complain about that its giving the people a chance to decide.
WONG: I dont think anybody who listens to Eric Abetz or other members of the Coalition would believe anything other than that they are desperately keen to return to WorkChoices. I mean, this is
GILBERT: But it wouldnt be until the after next election
WONG: My view and I think most people looking at and listening to Coalition members and what members of their party room say when they are perhaps being a little more open and honest perhaps about what they believe, there is a deep ideological commitment to labour market changes which are all about reducing wages and conditions. Its a deep ideological commitment inside the Liberal Party. Tony Abbott likes to talk a lot about DNA and whats in their DNA and whats in the marrow of their bones and all sorts of things, well, let me tell you WorkChoices is absolutely in the Liberal DNA.
GILBERT: I want to ask you one last question on the debt issue in the United States this debt sequester as its called. The potential for $85 billion in automatic budget cuts to kick into effect over the next couple of days. How worried are you about that?
WONG: Obviously, the whole world does watch when the US Congress debates these issues and I certainly woke up to a lot of activity on Twitter where its clear that this is a pretty controversial issue still in the United States. Obviously, what we hope is that the United States finds a way through it that isnt going to be damaging to their economy, thats going to ensure that the US economy continues its recovery. Theyre in a much more challenging position than Australia. Obviously what happens in the US affects the whole world.
GILBERT: Minister, thanks for your time.
WONG: Good to be with you.
ENDS