SUBJECTS: Campbell Newman’s Senate Run; Labor’s Taxation Policy; Anthony Albanese; The Government’s Failed Vaccination Rollout.

SCOTT EMERSON, HOST: Where are you now Milton Dick?

MILTON DICK, MEMBER FOR OXLEY: Just in sunny Forest Lake at the electorate office-

EMERSON: I did see some very, very impressive photos of you in the fatigues, when you were doing Talisman Sabre.

DICK: I think as a soldier, I'll make a great politician.

EMERSON: Well, looked impressive when I saw the photos.

DICK: It was a great, great honour to be there and to catch up with so many people doing a great job on that big operation.

EMERSON: And let's talk about Campbell Newman because you, you when you were in council when he was Lord Mayor. Were you Opposition Leader at the time?

DICK: No, I was Deputy Opposition Leader for the first four years when I was elected from 2008 to 2012. So I did have the Campbell experience so to speak. And I guess his announcement on the weekend, didn't really surprise me in some respects I think if you look at some of the commentary that he's been making for a while, and where he's been heading with his views, I mean he's entitled to do what he wants Scott, but I guess I don't really have all the time for people who rat. And you know he's had a lot of loyalty from thousands and thousands of people inside the LNP and I thought it was a bit- it just left a bad taste in my mouth and I can only imagine after poor old David Crisafulli said that he wanted the water and he sort of began a nuclear war on Sunday, and you know Campbell Newman, if he runs for parliament, I don't think will be successful but-

EMERSON: We'll go through this, Milton Dick, now you're an ALP strategist from way back, now you understand how the Senate works, particularly. In terms of him running for the Senate, now he says he might run as an independent he might run for a minor party like Liberal Democrats, but you'd assume that probably the LNP is guaranteed to get two spots, Labor only got one spot last time, but you think at a normal election you get two spots. The Greens likely to get another spot, that only leaves one left for him running against the LNP's Amanda Stoker or One Nation's Pauline Hanson. Putting aside your Labor hat, putting on your strategist hat in your understanding of the Senate. What does he have to do what kind of vote? Do you think he has to get to actually get a chance of winning the Senate spot?

DICK: Look, I think he needs to probably run with the Liberal Democrats, I think, as a brand I think that confusing title of you know liberal versus LNP there'll be- we've seen that before you know, over the years with sometimes people make the mistakes, you know, the big ballot paper, you know, you just see the word liberal and he probably will get a chunk of it there. They also have a following. And I think he will bring some of those diehard supporters of his across the line. You'll need to run, probably, candidates in lower house seats to feed into the base. Now, that's a bit of a danger zone, probably a good move that will help the Labor Party in some seats, but that's a danger move for the LNP. Not only does he put the Senate, that last Senate spot off Amanda Stoker. He also then starts to play around in lower house. Then looking at his comments over the last day or two I think he's aiming fairly and squarely, squarely at Scott Morrison, and the leadership at a state level. He seems really unhappy, you know, claiming they don't stand for anything or whatever it was, but I think if he goes ahead with it, and I don't know what's in his mind, I gave up trying to work out that years ago, I think it could be a potentially dangerous force for the LNP in Queensland.

EMERSON: You mentioned Amanda Stoker the sitting LNP Senator, is it more likely he could take her seat, then, pull in Hanson's seat from One Nation?

DICK: I look, I think that would be more likely than not. And then, Pauline Hanson does have a big following and then you got to remember she's up for election now, Malcolm Roberts got elected last one. I think she will have probably get close to a quota, I think, you know, in the regional Queensland market where she's been traveling and working hard. She's spending quite a lot of time in Central Queensland in that Rockhampton area, you know I'm hearing that, you know her old follower are firing up ready for the election and you know she does put on a good performance during the election campaign, so I think she'll be home. I think this greatly helps the Labor Party and I think Campbell Newman is, some might say, the gift that keeps giving to the Labor Party. Just when you think it's safe to get back into the water. Campbell Newman raises his ugly head I thought we probably had enough elections of Campbell being on the billboards, but I think definitely another one coming around the corner.

EMERSON: I want to talk about Labor now then, because we did see in the midst of Olympic celebration, Ariarne Titmus, and a lot of focus on that, of course, and obviously battling over COVID as well, that the, the Labor Party and Anthony Albanese, they just dropped a couple of those policies they took to the last federal election, that negative gearing and also opposing the next round of tax cuts.

DICK: Yeah, look, we had a special caucus meeting, a virtual caucus meeting yesterday, and the shadow cabinet and Expenditure Review Committee, Shadow ERC, have been deliberating on these issues for a long time since the last couple of years, and Anthony Albanese said if we're going to make the call heading towards the election, we need to properly consult, go through our rigorous policy processes and we've heard the message loud and clear. We heard at the last election, but there has been strong feedback that those policies we took to the last election, obviously didn't resonate with the community. And to give certainty, and to make it very clear to voters exactly where Labor will stand on tax, you know if you're a $45,000 a year or more income earner, the 9 million Australians will get the tax relief, no matter who wins the next election. We put that issue to bed in terms of the third, that's the third stage of the tax cuts, but also the negative gearing issue which, you know, was creating quite a bit of concern in the community. That's now, for reasons of certainty, been put to bed, those issues now have been dealt with, and I'm really looking forward to the next election where voters will know exactly where we stand on those issues, no confusion, and that announcement happened yesterday with a unanimous vote of the caucus.

EMERSON: Very good timing, yesterday because as I said, we were all celebrating our Ariarne Titmus victory at the Olympics, so a very good timing, but isn't this all about Labor also try to make itself a small target in the lead up to the election campaign?

DICK: Well, I think we've announced some pretty big policy, whether it be in the childcare package and the reconstruction fund in the housing areas, you know, we put some pretty good meat on the bones already they'll obviously be more to come, Scott, as we head towards the election but these issues were tricky issues, the caucus meeting held yesterday was announced about a week ago so as much as we'd like to look into the crystal ball for the Olympics. I think that was-

EMERSON: I think we do. The Olympics were going to be on this week so I don't think-

DICK: I don't think we're going to win gold, we couldn't predict- As much as the Labor Party is great, we couldn't predict our gold winners just yet but, you know, we wanted to send a very clear message to the community, and I know when I've been consulting with local businesses and local families and also people from the property sector, just what those issues raised at the last election were. You know, we're six months out potentially from an election, I don't think we'll be having one this year given the government's woes and Scott Morrison has difficulties. I think announcing the policies, upfront early is the right way to go. We've still got plenty more election policies to announce, but I'm very satisfied and happy with where we're positioned at the moment in terms of what we want for aspirational voters in Australia, hearing the message from the last election, we've still got some way to go but you know, things are looking promising. And Anthony Albanese's just been another week, all over Queensland, and I can tell you he's getting some great feedback on the ground, and particularly in some of these policy areas that he's been focusing on.

EMERSON: Those policies he just dumped were under Bill Shorten when he was a leader. I did see an article in the weekend paper in the Australian, saying that it didn't quote anyone by name. It was all sources, but they were saying that Bill Shorten was saying he's only two leaders away from being back in as the leader of the Labor Party. I assume that means, Anthony Albanese and someone else and he's back as leader. Can you ever imagine a situation where Bill Shorten is a leader of Labor Party again?

DICK: So Bill's ruled that out and, you know, I noticed he gave some comments about that article, there's always going to be leadership speculation, you know there's talk of Peter Dutton, you know, talking to people now about potentially, you know, taking over from Scott Morrison down the track. You know, that's always gonna be, I guess, a feature of our politics, but you know the caucus is absolutely united behind Anthony and you can see that with the energy that he's providing and particularly here in Queensland, we've got such a big mountain to climb, you know, he's spending considerable time on the ground, it's just seems to be each week that he seems to be coming into that Mr Queensland mode and you've got to do that, to earn the trust of Queenslanders. But Bill also is doing a great job in his space, you know, holding the Government to account in terms of the NDIS, and obviously the Robo-debt disaster. So everyone is pulling their weight. I'm really happy with the team and how they're performing and holding the government to account on the two jobs that they had, which was the vaccine rollout and obviously national quarantine, which they failed. I met with a group of doctors today in Inala, and they're all saying the same thing around the table, they can do more if they get that supply right, they've got a oodles of AstraZeneca, but the vaccine hesitancy has, has caused people to delay that injection and that vaccine so we've still got a long way to go. And putting the pressure on the Government in Parliament when it goes back, I'm fairly confident next week we'll be raising these issues, to make sure that we put as much pressure on the government as possible to get the vaccine rollout, so the economy and the community can reopen and remain safe. 

EMERSON: Alright, Milton Dick we'll catch you again next week.

DICK: See you then Scott.

ENDS

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