Tony Abbott’s Still Pretty Terrible At Talking To Leigh Sales, But He’s Great At Talking About Boats
[Complex economic statistics that prove damning truths for federal government] "The boats have stopped."
After a huge day which included the announcements that Australia would be taking in 12,000 Syrian refugees, donating $44 million to humanitarian aid, and beginning airstrikes on a Middle Eastern nation, Tony Abbott’s scheduled interview with Leigh Sales on the 7.30 Report was always going to be interesting. Earlier this year, he seemed completely incoherent when asked to speak about the aftermath of a Liberal party spill; now he’s faced with an all-out international crisis.
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With a number of glaring questions about the day’s news left unanswered, Sales jumped right on to the topic of the incoming refugees. Asking where the lucky 12,000 would be coming from, she quizzed the PM on his reluctance to help those in our own detention centres.
“We have Syrian refugees in our own centre on Manus Island,” she said. “Why do those people not deserve a chance at refuge in Australia?”
Stating he his intention to work with the UN High Commissioner of Refugees and send a team of officials to the Middle East, the PM said most of our intake would be coming from the borders of Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. He then outlined his reasoning for this with four mentions of the phrase “people smuggling” in one short response.
“We don’t want to reward people smugglers and we don’t want to reward people smuggling,” he said. “We’re not particularly going to look for people who have used the services of people smugglers [and] the last thing we want is to add to the problem of people smuggling.”
From there, Sales went on to the topic of Syrian airstrikes and it went roughly as you may imagine. When solicited for his overall strategy and desired outcome for the plan, the PM spoke about toppling Middle East governments who commit genocide before clarifying he wouldn’t be targeting the government at all. With a couple of mentions of the term “death cult” and colourful descriptions of the violence they commit, he stated the mission would be over “when the DAESH death cult has been destroyed”.
But, surprisingly, the real highlight of the 13-minute showdown came about from a discussion of the economy.
“When Labor left office, unemployment was down to 5.8 percent, it’s now up to 6.3 percent,” Sales said, gearing up into a rapid-fire assault. “Growth was 2.5 percent, it’s now 2 percent. The Australian dollar was around 90 cents, it’s now 70 cents. The budget deficit was $30 million when you took office, now it’s $48 million. How do you explain to the Australian people that you were elected — in you words — to fix the budget emergency, yet in fact Australia’s economic position has worsened under your leadership?”
It’s too good not to give you a full transcript.
PM: Well I don’t accept that. The boats have stopped, the carbon tax…
Sales: We’re talking about the economy.
PM: The boats have stopped, the carbon tax has gone, the mining tax has gone, we are now on a path to sustainable surplus and we’ve got three free-trade agreements finalised. If only the Labor party and the CFMEU weren’t trying to sabotage the free-trade agreement with China…
Sales: Prime Minister, I just ran you through…
PM: AND we’ve got 5,000 more jobs, now that is…
Sales: I just ran you through a series…
PM: That is the achievement that I am most proud, if I may, the 330,000 extra jobs that are there…
Sales: Yet unemployment is still going up.
PM: We have 335,000 more jobs. Jobs growth now is at four times the rate as in Labor’s final year and all of the recent indicators of economic activity say that business conditions are stronger now than at any time in 2008.
Sales: But Prime Minister, I just ran you through numerous independent statistics showing that the economy is in a weak position. I’m just wondering, why has the language changed so much that it was such an emergency when the numbers were better than that, but now it’s not an emergency?
PM: And let me give you some statistics: bankruptcy’s at record lows, company registrations at record highs, car sales and housing approvals at near record highs. So, a lot of very good things are happening in our economy, and Leigh, I refuse to talk our country down. I refuse to talk our country down and I hope the national broadcaster might join me in looking for the good, and boosting our country which has so much potential.
Sales: I wonder what you would have done if I’d helped Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard look for the good.
In case you missed it, that was our elected leader refuting damning facts about the economy with an argument about boats, and then accusing a respected journalist of being unpatriotic for doing her job. Also, he made this face while doing it:
Watch the full thing here: