6PR – Drive

E&OE

OLIVER PETERSON:

But as you have heard today, the Federal Government, the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced a major Cabinet reshuffle. One of the biggest winners of the reshuffle is Christian Porter. Christian Porter will move from being the Social Services Minister and he’ll become the new Attorney-General. George Brandis to leave politics will become the next High Commissioner to the UK. Plum job for George Brandis.

But the man tasked with being Australia’s next Attorney-General joins me on Perth Live this afternoon. Christian Porter, welcome to the program.

MINISTER:

Ollie, pleasure.

OLIVER PETERSON:

Congratulations. Are you happy to be the incoming Attorney-General?

MINISTER:

Well look, it’s a great privilege and it’s a very important part of the national security system and part of the Government’s approach to keeping Australians safe. Of course, I leave a portfolio in Social Services, which has been very enjoyable and very challenging and part of our economic agenda to try and move as many people from welfare to work as possible. So, quite different portfolios but both of them very challenging and very rewarding.

OLIVER PETERSON:

Okay. Is that what you’ll be making your priority as Attorney-General? You mentioned there the economic future of the nation. Obviously jobs and growth has been a mantra of the Liberal National Government. How can you achieve that being Attorney-General?

MINISTER:

Well, I mean, Malcolm Turnbull’s very clear-eyed view on what is best for Australia and what Australians want out of their government, is economic security. I mean, we’re producing a thousand jobs a day as a government. We’ve got the lowest proportion of people dependent on welfare in at least 25 years. So, we’re doing very well on providing economic security. There’s always more work to do to ensure business growth and particularly in a state like WA, as we come out of the mining boom’s end. But things are getting better and we’re part of the solution contributing to that with jobs growth.

On the other side of the coin, the other part of our Government’s agenda is keeping Australians safe, which unfortunately in the age we live in is very much about national security and domestic criminal laws. And the Attorney-General’s portfolio is dead set in the middle of that space. So, my focus will change from that economic security to national security.

OLIVER PETERSON:

And you’ll be working closely with the new Home Affairs Minister, obviously, Peter Dutton and his team. And I would understand that you’ll be overseeing this new banking royal commission.

MINISTER:

Yeah in effect the banking royal commission falls to me. And as you’ve noted Peter Dutton becomes the Minister for Home Affairs, and we’ll have now a very important portfolio that brings together all of our security agencies – so, Australian Border Force and ASIO, the AFP and AUSTRAC, and others – under the authority of a single minister. And then the Attorney-General’s role also gains a range of organisations like the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, which have oversight over those agencies that go across to Peter Dutton.

So, we’re engaging in a range of changes to have a system that looks more like the British system, where you’ve got a one minister responsible for the domestic security agencies and another minister who is responsible for oversighting and maintaining the integrity of those agencies. And I think that is a very positive development for Australia and shows, I think, that we’ve got a government that is not sitting back and letting events happen to it in this very difficult national security space. We’re adapting and evolving all the time.

OLIVER PETERSON:

Are you happy to be leaving Social Services behind?

MINISTER:

It’s been two of the most challenging years of my life. But look, I think Dan Tehan will do a wonderful job. We’ve moved, in the last two years, the National Disability Insurance Scheme from 20,000 participants to 120,000. Of course, recently we’ve brought Western Australia into the national scheme. Over the time that I’ve been minister we have dramatically reduced the number of Australians dependent on welfare, we’ve engaged in welfare reforms, we’ve rolled out the cashless welfare card. So, I’m pretty satisfied that I’m leaving the portfolio in good shape and that as a government we’re doing exactly the right things in the welfare space.

But, mate, there are always new challenges and the national security area and ensuring that the Home Affairs portfolio is transitioned to as smoothly and as well as possible is going to be a big challenge.

OLIVER PETERSON:

Now, talking of welfare, obviously the announcement made yesterday by your government that you’ll find a billion dollars worth of savings by migrants now being unable to access welfare payments for instead of two years, going out to three years. Probably no surprise today that the Migration Council of Australia is not happy with this. No surprise there that they’re not happy with the changes that have been made, but why have those changes been made, Christian Porter?

MINISTER:

Well, I mean, the mainstream immigration system – so, these are not changes that apply to humanitarian or refugee entrants – but the skilled information, which is about close to 70 per cent of all the immigration, has always been designed to bring people to Australia who seek to contribute to the community through work, and is not designed to bring people to Australia who seek dependence on the community through welfare. And that is the simple premise of our immigration system and has been for a very long time. And understanding that focus of our immigration system – and it might surprise many of your listeners to know that a whole range of payments, you only needed to wait 24 months for. And there were also some payments like Family Tax Benefit, Carers Allowance, Parental Leave Pay, that people could get immediately upon becoming a permanent resident to Australia. Now, we think that you strengthen that essential focus of the migration system to bring people to contribute as their reason for coming to Australia, if you have reasonable periods before which you are able to enter the welfare system.

I think that’s particularly reasonable given that many of these payments go on for very long periods of time. Depending on how many kids you have you might be receiving Family Tax Benefit for 10, 15, 20 years. Unemployment benefits aren’t time limited. And obviously once you have reached pension age the pension exists until the day that you die …

OLIVER PETERSON:

[Interrupts] And I think that’s a very salient point you make, Minister, because ultimately you want every migrant or every Australian who is wanting to contribute to our society to get a job, to work hard. You don’t want people coming to our country who are just trying to suck some of the welfare payments and sit on the dole and what-not for the rest of their life.

MINISTER:

Well, I mean, we’ve always wanted an assurance inside the migration system that people come to Australia to work and contribute and not to become dependent on our community through immediate access to welfare. This aligns the welfare system with that focus of the immigration system. And 70 per cent of our mainstream immigration is skilled immigration. This is people who come to Australia, not merely for employment but very often for a specific job that is known in advance. Now, we think that having reasonable waiting periods – and consistent waiting periods – for welfare encourages the best possible people coming to Australia, being those who are going to make the greatest possible contribution to our community and to our economy. And we see this as a very reasonable thing that Australians will support.

OLIVER PETERSON:

Talking to me this afternoon, Christian Porter. If we rewind back to 2012 when you made the decision to quit the state parliament here, obviously you had two great jobs in being Attorney-General and Treasurer, and we all said he’s a future Premier, Christian Porter. Can you believe talking to me this afternoon on 19 December 2017 that you’re about to be promoted to become Australia’s Attorney-General?

MINISTER:

Well, I mean, look, when you say: can you believe it, I don’t sort of look too much ahead of myself, mate. The best advice that Yoda ever gave Luke Skywalker, was to keep his mind on the here and now and what he was doing. And I think he repeats that advice in the new film actually. So, it’s a …

OLIVER PETERSON:

[Interrupts] Little spoiler alert there [laughs].

MINISTER:

Yeah. It’s a very bad idea to get too far ahead of yourself and think too far down the track. And big busy portfolios at a state or a Commonwealth level, it’s a privilege to be in them, you’re serving the public, you get in, work as hard as you can, make as good a fist of them as possible and try and produce improved results. And you just do that in every portfolio and see what happens next.

OLIVER PETERSON:

Do you think being Attorney-General improves your chances of being re-elected in Pearce? Because it’s going to be a difficult battle for you to even retain your seat.

CHRISTIAN PORTER:

Well, it’s always going to be challenging in a seat like Pearce, and particularly as demographics change as they have in Pearce. I don’t see one portfolio as being particularly better or worse in terms of it’s suitability to help you at a local electoral issue. Like, with Social Services, when I’m part of a government that’s producing a thousand jobs a day, when we’ve gotten welfare dependence down to the lowest rate since the 1980s, I see those as very positive messages in my local community and I’m a part of the team and in a portfolio that’s helped make that happen. I’m part of a team and inside a portfolio that’s helping us get back to surplus and helping us reduce our debt burden at a federal level. So, I see those as positives. And I think there are great positives for any local electorate to have their local member as a Commonwealth Attorney-General. But ultimately, you win if you’re government’s doing well, if it’s producing jobs and economic security for all Australians and making those Australians safer. And that is what I’m trying to do.

OLIVER PETERSON:

Christian Porter, we wish you well and we wish you a merry Christmas and we thank you for joining Perth Live this afternoon.

MINISTER:

You too, mate. Sorry for the Star Wars spoiler.

OLIVER PETERSON:

[Laughs] There you go, Christian Porter joining us on Perth Live this afternoon. The incoming Attorney-General, he’ll replace George Brandis.

Will it improve his chances in Pearce? Is he on a knife’s edge as the polls would have us believe? He’s going to find it difficult to even hold on to his seat in the Federal Parliament. Gave up a promising state parliamentary career in the Liberal Party, he may have even replaced Colin Barnett who may have not run his full term. But now Christian Porter has been promoted to the Attorney-General in Malcolm Turnbull’s Cabinet. Will this improve his chances of re-election?