E&OE TRANSCRIPT
SUBJECTS: Detainee escape; High Court decision; Neil Mitchell retirement
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Welcome back to the show. Some distressing news this morning as a released immigration detainee who refused to wear a mandatory electronic tracker is now at large in the community. Worse, the federal government admits it's lost track of the offender. Joining us for more Bill shorten and 3AW’S Neil Mitchell. Morning, guys. Nice to see you. Billy,
BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FO RTHE NDIS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: Morning.
STEFANOVIC Do you guys want to lose the next election?
SHORTEN: No, of course not.
STEFANOVIC Well, you’re doing everything you can right now.
SHORTEN: Oh well thanks for the free advice. We're getting a bit of it at the moment, Karl.
STEFANOVIC Look, the Home Affairs Minister was resolute about this on our show last week. We know where they are, and now you don't.
SHORTEN: Listen, I've got no doubt that the Federal Police will find this fellow. There's not much more I can add to what's been in the story this morning. We don't comment on individual matters. As I understand, 132 detainees agreed to wear bracelets, five didn't. They were referred to the AFP.
STEFANOVIC Some guys have just got to wake up and have lemons. Neil, the government says they want to keep Australians safe. Not quite working out.
NEIL MITCHELL, 3AW: Bill sounds really convinced there, doesn't he? Really does. This person has given Australia the finger.
STEFANOVIC Yeah.
MITCHELL: What's more important than anything else is that the public know who they are and why they're dangerous, if dangerous. The federal police say it's a low risk. What's a low risk? You can get in the parliament building, you've got the protection of privilege. Release this person's photograph. Give us full details of them, so out here, out here in the real world, we know what the risk is, who they are and keep an eye out for them to maintain the secrecy here is obscene.
STEFANOVIC Bill, there is a fair point there.
SHORTEN: Oh, Neil, I'll pass on your advice to the AFP. I'm going to leave it to them to run the police force.
MITCHELL: Oh, come on. No, no, no, you can do it, Bill. You can get into the Parliament and do it yourself. Why not?
SHORTEN: Because I'm not the federal commissioner. I'm not the commissioner of federal police. I actually think politicians shouldn't try and be police people. I've got confidence in their ability.
MITCHELL: What about protecting us? What about protecting the community? What about telling us who this person is, why they are at risk of any type, and dealing with it so we can help find them? Normal police procedure, release the details of the photograph, and the public gets involved in protecting itself. I don't get it. Seriously. I just don't get it.
SHORTEN: Neil, I actually seriously said I would pass on your suggestion to the Federal Police.
MITCHELL: Bill. Bill, you must admit, you must admit this has a terrible flow on effect in terms of confidence in the community. At least you could talk about that.
SHORTEN: Well, I think that the High Court decision did actually come out of the blue. We've had one set of laws for 20 years, and the High Court said, no, you can't have them. So, what we're doing is everything we can to put new laws into place to deal with this High Court decision, which happened only a matter of a couple of weeks ago.
STEFANOVIC All right, Neil, before you go this week, I don't want to get emotional about what's transpiring with your last broadcast on Friday, but you made some pretty bold predictions just in the last year alone. Dan Andrews going, what about the federal election? The next one? Can you predict who's going to win that?
MITCHELL: Well, yeah. Well, no, not yet. It's too early, but Albo’s in trouble. What about answering it by a question? Bill, can you give us an unequivocal hand on heart promise you will never run for the leadership again.
STEFANOVIC Oh, whoa. Everyone knows the answer to that.
SHORTEN: Neil. I'm not going to run. But thank you for your ongoing support for me. It's just I'm going to miss you, Neil. I mean that I mean that genuinely. But you know what? I really miss Neil.
MITCHELL: They need you, Bill. They need you.
SHORTEN: When I was the leader, I don't remember you encouraging me to be the leader so much, but now I'm not the leader, you can't seem not to encourage me.
STEFANOVIC He's on side with you now, Bill.
SHORTEN: You're a very hard man to please.
MITCHELL: That’s because you banned me. You banned me for three years.
SHORTEN: But now you're leaving me.
MITCHELL: You wouldn’t talk to me when you were leader.
SHORTEN: It's not me leaving you. It's you leaving, Neil. It's not me leaving you, it's you leaving me now.
STEFANOVIC All right, I think we need - we're getting, everyone's getting very emotional this morning. Before Neil does leave, Billy, before Neil leaves, can you give him some of some final farewell words from the future Prime Minister?
MITCHELL: Oh.
SHORTEN: Well, Neil, I can give you my final farewell words, but I'm going to miss you. There you go. I didn't think I'd say that. I actually think you're going to leave a gap in the -
MITCHELL: No, you're not.
SHORTEN: That's true too, but you're going to leave a gap in the market. I think you've been around long enough that even though -
STEFANOVIC [laughs] That's very emotional. Hey, Neil, you've been one of the great broadcasters this country has ever seen - You're going to leave a gap in the market.
SHORTEN: Okay, you got me there. My wife says I'm not very emotional either, but there you go.
STEFANOVIC Neil, some final words.
MITCHELL: Some final what?
STEFANOVIC Yeah. just give us some final words. I'm going to be talking to you later in the day, later in the week. But I just thought we'd go there, start to connect with the emotions of you leaving. Bill's obviously a little bit over it.
SHORTEN: We've got to practice it.
MITCHELL: He’s overcome. It's been great fun. It's been a great privilege. It really has been fun. It's been a great privilege. And you and I both know Karl, perhaps Bill forgets at times, we actually work for the people, we work for our audience. And that's what the privilege is.
STEFANOVIC All right. A little sting on the tail end.
SHORTEN: You never forget the sledge, though, Neil.
STEFANOVIC Thank you guys. Appreciate it. See you soon.
SARAH ABO, HOST: I'm sorry. I'm just trying to compose myself from all that emotion. I mean, it really brings a tear to the eye.
STEFANOVIC [laughs]: There's a gap in the market.
ABO: These Australian men and their emotions.