The Bolt Report, with Andrew Bolt

E&OE

ANDREW BOLT:

Scott Morrison is now the Social Services Minister and joins me. Thanks for your time. Can Europe stop the boats like we’ve done here?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well, I think the situations are quite different, but there are similar themes that you try to follow in those circumstances. We had the advantage of geography with what we were doing and we obviously leveraged that to our maximum advantage. The first thing you have to acknowledge in dealing with any of these issues is that at the end of the day you have got people smugglers running trades and have to try and smash up their business model. We did that to circumstances in our part of the world and it really is a big challenge for those on the other part of the world where this really has escalated to a level where it would be very hard to get it under control now, I think.

BOLT:

And is there a security concern there? I saw one of the Spanish Ministers say the Islamic State could be infiltrating some of these columns of refugees. Do you see that as a real threat?

MINISTER MORRISON:

You just have to work the percentages. Even if it is a small percentage, it’s a threat. That’s always the risk. There’s never any suggestion that 30%-40% of people who are moving around are going to be at risk of that type of behaviour. It doesn’t take that. It only takes a very small percentage, and as a result, that risk always presents when you have mass movements.

BOLT:

Assimilation.

The Government says it will take in 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq. We took in people from the Lebanese civil war and 11 people of Lebanese families have been jailed for terrorism offences. How can you be sure that you’re not repeating that terrible mistake?

MINISTER MORRISON:

You have to get the selection process right and the 12,000 that we intend to take, that is certainly what we intend to do. To give you an example, over the last two years, yes, we stopped the boats. But we also started the process of reforming our refugee and humanitarian intake. And over the last two years, we took around 8,000 humanitarian entrants and refugees from Syria and Iraq. We waited that intake substantively, overwhelming to the persecuted minorities.

BOLT:

As in Christians?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Largely Christian — overwhelmingly Christian minorities. That was over 70%. We were obviously still taking groups from other faiths and other persecuted groups, and it is not about what they believe or not believe that’s not the point. The point is, we’re going to be resettling 12,000 people who not only won’t be able to go back in their lifetime, but future generations won’t ever be able to go back from those persecuted Christian minorities and as a result, we’re in a place to offer permanent visas and permanent resettlement which offers a whole new life, not just for them, but for the generations who follow.

BOLT:

But I’m talking about the difficulties of assimilating people from very different faiths and whether you’ve learnt from the mistakes of the Fraser years. For example, I don’t know if we’ve got much better than that. We have had Afghan refugees now joining Islamic State, Mohammed Baryalei and Numan Haider for instance.

MINISTER MORRISON:

When people are coming in an illegal way, then you are going to have those problems and that’s what the previous government faced with the onset of those who came by boat and you’re not making any selections there. We’ve just completed a study of around 2,300 people who have come through the program since 2013. They’ve now been given permanent visas and it is a mixture of the people who have come through the proper processes but some who were given permanent visas by the previous government. What we see there is almost 90% of them, their primary source of income is government payments and that’s Newstart or youth allowance, it is not the pension or the DSP. Only a third of them have been able to complete high school or have a trade or university qualification and a staggering 15% have never been to school at all. We’ve got issues in terms of having employment. That’s only down at around 6% and we’ve also got language challenges, just under half do have serious language challenges and they have to be addressed. Now, the good news is that when we work the program and work the process, people feel very welcome and very supported, but it’s not an easy thing to resettle people from these places.

BOLT:

But it sounds likely — it is a danger then that you’re in fact importing an underclass, and that leads to its own problems. Have you in this research checked out whether people of Christian backgrounds do better here than people from non-Christian backgrounds?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well, there has been some earlier research which has gone across a range of different groups and that’s looked at by geography and things like that. And all I can say to that, Andrew, is that the experience is pretty mixed and that’s why the settlement services program is supported. I think there is great confusion out there that people think settlement, taking refugees and letting them come and pitch a tent somewhere and that’s all you have to do. That’s what is happening in many parts of Europe with people pouring across border and people are comparing those numbers with what we do in Australia. We resettle people here, we get them it in to school, we try and get them into jobs, and we teach them English. We help them to integrate and assimilate in to the Australian community. We’ve been successful relative to the rest of the world on this. We’re heralded as the best resettlement service provider in the world…

BOLT:

And yet we still have these problems. There’s a great concern about Christians versus non-Christians and the various success rates. Can I just divert to more newspaper reports today quoting unnamed critics of the Prime Minister, even a Minister saying a change to Malcolm Turnbull is inevitable and a challenge could happen even this week. What’s going on here?

MINISTER MORRISON:

I don’t know. If — I’m not part of anything that I would know about. So I support the Prime Minister and everybody knows that. So I suspect that they’re not talking to me.

BOLT:

It sounds like the Turnbull camp is trying to do its best to make sure that the Canning result is terrible for the Prime Minister and therefore feed their argument for replacing him?

MINISTER MORRISON:

That is just more speculation and this is just the incessant insider speculation and outsider speculation and gossip and I don’t propose to entertain it or give it any oxygen. The Prime Minister knows where I stand and I think so do the Australian people.

BOLT:

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton last week said, correctly, that Fairfax Newspapers and the ABC were on a jihad against the Government. Is this week proof, Scott? Peter Dutton was caught telling a private joke to you and Tony Abbott about the meeting this week of Pacific leaders on climate change running late. Have a listen.

PETER DUTTON, IMMIGRATION MINISTER:

Cape York time.

TONY ABBOTT, PRIME MINISTER:

We had a bit of that up in Port Moresby.

PETER DUTTON:

Oh, yeah.

TONY ABBOTT:

Anyway, it was a good meeting, it was a good meeting.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Was it Moresby?

TONY ABBOTT:

Yeah.

PETER DUTTON:

Time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to have water lapping at your door.

TONY ABBOTT:

(LAUGHS)

SCOTT MORRISON:

There’s a boom up there.

TONY ABBOTT:

Yeah, yeah.

Now, you were the one smart enough to see there was a boom mic there. Well, Fairfax, the ABC, Labor beat this up in to terrible insult – ‘it’s bigotry, it’s mocking global warming’. Liberal supporters are sick of you guys playing the punching bag in this instead of coming out on the front foot and saying ‘get a grip’. You are the best communicator in the Government. What would your tip to Peter Dutton be?

MINISTER MORRISON:

It is not for me to give anyone tips. My colleagues do their jobs incredibly well. What I would say is this, I was very disappointed about the media’s focus on that particular day. On that day, we brought together community leaders from right across the spectrum and we were working together on how best to humanitarily resettle 12,000 people and that should have been the focus I would have thought of their attention. There were many issues of detail I think needed some amplification and we were seeking to do that. We held a long press conference later but people seemed to be more interested in viral YouTube videos that were going off the back of a boom mic story. That said Peter obviously regrets any offence caused in the Pacific Island community. We work very closely with Papua New Guinea and Nauru in particular, but all of those Islands and if they’ve taken great offence from that, which I suspect they have, and some have articulated that. Peter has also been making comments and apologising to them. That’s between us and those individuals but you’re making a different point and that’s about the media, and I thought that Friday was a very serious day. We had a very important agenda, there was…

BOLT:

Yeah, but mate, don’t apologise. For heaven’s sake, this is exactly what gets the Liberals so — it’s all bull. What the media won’t say is that studies show that most atoll Pacific Islands are in fact stable or even growing in size and not drowning. It’s a joke.

MINISTER MORRISON:

But Andrew… Andrew, with respect, I think you’re missing the point. This was about whether we’ve caused offence to some people in our Pacific Islands who we work closely with. Whether you agree with them or don’t agree with them, whether any of us do or don’t. The issue there is there is some offence taken by some people that we work closely with, and a good minister, like Peter is doing today, will seek to repair any potential damage that might have been caused by that, because that’s what a good sensible minister does. It’s not about climate change, it’s about the relationship.

BOLT:

And so you turn a complete beat-up and professional offence-taking in to another story about how you’ve stuffed up. I just think it is wrong.

MINISTER MORRISON:

I disagree, Andrew. What we’re doing is addressing an issue that might have arisen between governments and that’s what responsible ministers do.

BOLT:

Good point.

MINISTER MORRISON:

If the media wants to carry on about all of the rest of it, I think that’s their fault, necessarily and if we could have avoided that, that’s also things that we have to consider. But at the end of the day, good Government, good ministers deal with the issues in front of them and that’s what we were doing on Friday.

BOLT:

Good on you.

MINISTER MORRISON:

And people got distracted by something else.

BOLT:

Scott Morrison thanks for your time.

MINISTER MORRISON:

Thanks a lot, Andrew.