E&OE TRANSCRIPT
SUBJECTS: Kathleen Folbigg receives pardon; Reserve Bank; inflation; cost of living savings measures; Victorian Governor
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Welcome back to the show. After decades behind bars, Kathleen Folbigg is this morning waking up a free woman after being pardoned by the New South Wales Governor over the deaths of her four children. Joining us to discuss today's headlines is Minister for Government Services and the NDIS, Bill Shorten and 3AW’s Neil Mitchell. Morning, guys. Nice to see you this morning. Please play nice this morning you two. I mean, it's got legendary status in Australian media. Let's go. Bill, it was a monumental decision yesterday, wasn't it? How do you see it?
BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FOR THE NDIS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: Yeah well, massive. I can't imagine what it's like to be in her shoes, but it's a massive relief for her and her supporters. 20 years and then given a pardon. And the role of science and trying to work it all out and what really happened. It's an amazing story.
STEFANOVIC: Neil, your reaction?
NEIL MITCHELL, 3AW: Bigger than Lindy Chamberlain. Lindy Chamberlain did three years, Folbigg’s done 20. And I think it's going to change the legal system. We only have to establish a way whereby law catches up with the science because the science surges ahead and says, hang on, that's not right. But the law takes a long time to catch up with it. We might need scientific review panels that have a look at stuff and say, okay, send it back to the Appeals Court. You know, five years down the track, the law will have to catch up with science.
STEFANOVIC: Compensation, you reckon?
SHORTEN: A long way to go yet.
MITCHELL: She's still guilty, the charges still, the convictions still stand. She's been pardoned. The convictions still stand.
STEFANOVIC: She'll have to wait for that. Ok moving on. It's D-Day for the Reserve Bank with experts warning of another rate rise when the board meets today, Bill, homeowners, they're on edge. You're not doing enough, are you, to peg back inflation?
SHORTEN: Well, first of all, for homeowners, they've had 11 rises. Gee, it's a hard time if you've got a mortgage in terms of what the Labor government's doing, you know, we are doing what absolutely we can do from cheaper medicine to cheaper childcare to energy relief. But it's a very tough set of circumstances. And through the problems with the global supply chain to the ongoing illegal Russian war, it's having an impact all around the world.
STEFANOVIC: I can hear I can hear Neil deep breathing and it's not in a good way. This would mark the 12th rate rise Neil, since May last year. It's a lot and inflation isn't under control.
MITCHELL: Oh, do I still have to be nice to him? Just trotting out these talking points day after day after day, we are heading we are into a wages prices spiral. Bill, your hero, you told me once in the super box, was Bob Hawke. Bob Hawke managed to negotiate a wages prices accord. What about the same? What about having a look at that?
SHORTEN: Well, I don't accept what you're saying on the wages spiral, Neil. I don't know what happened to the more middle of the road Neil Mitchell when he used to cover industrial relations writing the minimum wage is going up to $23.25 an hour. And by the way, that hasn't come in. So how you can blame a wages rise to the minimum wage, which hasn't yet come in for the inflation we've already experienced. It's magic thinking, mate.
STEFANOVIC: The other area of concern, Bill, is going to be the news -
MITCHELL: You're really telling me the Reserve Bank – sorry…
STEFANOVIC: - that power bills will balloon a few years more to come. Renewables just aren't ready. Newsflash the bills are going to continue to go up for at least another couple of years, Bill.
SHORTEN: You know, I really wish that we'd been doing a lot more on energy, my predecessors for the last ten years. We all know energy policy has been an absolute train wreck for a long time. It's estimated that changes -
MITCHELL: Everybody else's fault. Everybody else’s fault.
SHORTEN: Oh, no, Neil.
STEFANOVIC: But, you know, we’re sliding out, we’re sliding out of coal.
MITCHELL: How long can you blame Scomo?
STEFANOVIC: Are we sliding out of coal and gas too early?
SHORTEN: Am I just making it up, Neil? Was it the great era of electricity policy in the last ten years, mate? I love your memory. It's just not always right.
MITCHELL: You're blaming everybody else, Bill.
STEFANOVIC: Neil, Neil...
MITCHELL: Still, haven’t – you’ve dodged the question of the accord. Why not the accord?
SHORTEN: You just blamed a wage rise that hasn't come in for causing the inflation that we're already experiencing.
STEFANOVIC: Neil I just want to do -
SHORTEN: Have you got one of those stickers on the back pf your car, which says “Magic Happens”?
MITCHELL: Ooh he’s fired up, Karl
STEFANOVIC: Neil, are we sliding out - we've got one of those…. [all laugh]
MITCHELL: It took a while.
SHORTEN: You're my favourite grumpy unicorn
STEFANOVIC: I know I'm not the only one who's got one of those, the “Magic happens”. Sometimes. Neil, are we sliding out of coal? And we are sliding out of gas way too early?
MITCHELL: Look, we had to do it. And it's right to be doing it. And Bill's right that the previous government didn't do enough. But, you know, this is the government that was going to bring down energy prices and they haven't done it. Yes, if you read the stuff today from Alinta in particular, there's a lot of pain ahead for a long time because the move to renewables has never been that magic step that's on the sticker on the back of your car.
STEFANOVIC: I read that this morning. I was concerned about it, Bill?
SHORTEN: Well, again, if a private energy company chooses to shut a coal fired power station, that's the market. The fact of the matter is that we've been falling behind the rest of the world in our transition to renewable energy. It doesn't change that things are tough. Absolutely doesn't change that things are tough. But one thing which this government has done is that by the measures we put in terms of capping prices, the experts say that it's had the effect of making sure that inflation didn't go up by an additional three quarters of a percent.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Neil, Victoria has welcomed a new Governor, Margaret Gardner. What do we know about her?
MITCHELL: Well, two things, a very capable person. She's from Monash University. Two things about her. She's a Republican. Fine. I've got no problem with that. Bill Hayden was a Republican. Kim Beazley's a Republican. But the Premier was sort of very sneakily saying, I didn't tell the King that, and I think he should have told King Charles she's a Republican, but she's going to serve the constitutional monarchy. The other thing is her husband is Albo’s right-hand man, and that's fine. But does anybody really think if he was Peter Dutton's chief of staff, she'd be governor of Victoria?
STEFANOVIC: Ooooh, Bill?
SHORTEN: Well, first of all, I mean, I agree Margaret Garner is a fantastic person and I've met her on any number of occasions. She's done a great job at Melbourne’s Uni and then RMIT before that. So, I think a great appointment. In terms of her husband. Hello Neil, we're the 21st century. And Glenn Davies is not, he's not Albo’s chief of staff, he's a senior public servant.
MITCHELL: I agree, I agree.
SHORTEN: Okay. Thank you.
MITCHELL: I agree. So, if - would Dutton's right-hand man get the job?
SHORTEN: Are you trying to charm me, Neil? [laughter]
MITCHELL: If - would his wife get the job? No, I'm trying to get an answer. What happens?
SHORTEN: It depends what Mrs. Gaetjens does. I mean, again, we're eagerly awaiting the second quarter of the 21st century, not the second quarter of the 20th century.
STEFANOVIC: All right. Neil, you got one response left.
MITCHELL: And what about the republic? What about hiding it from the king? Why are you hiding it from the King?
STEFANOVIC: The little tricks, that Dan Andrews.
MITCHELL: Hiding it from the King. Oh, sneaky.
SHORTEN: It wouldn't be a day, it wouldn't be a morning, it wouldn't be a day ending in Y if you couldn't bag Dan Andrews, Neil.
STEFANOVIC: I love it, you guys are on fire.
SHORTEN: It's like a proof of life.
STEFANOVIC: You've got another couple of hours. We got to move on. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
MITCHELL: Go, Demons.
SHORTEN: Love you, fellas.
STEFANOVIC: You too.
SARAH ABO, HOST: Do we have to stop, Karl? That was a lot of fun.