realjohnboy wrote:Good evening. I'm pleased to see a few new additions to the list of Australian posters. I reckon I could do some kind of google search, but it is easier and, frankly more fun to just ask yall:
Who are "The Trish's, Worth and Draper ... and Gallus" that gozmo mentioned? And three liberal marginals?
So far, little coverage of this election in the US.
BTW is it okay to call yall Aussies or Ozies? I don't want to offend anyone. We're used to being called names (Yanks or Imperialist Pigs, for example). Thanks. -rjb-
Trish Worth is the very successful Liberal (ie conservative) Federal member for the marginal seat of Adelaide. She is currently the centre of controversy because, at a heated meeting about the government's treatment of illegal immigrants/asylum seekers, she made a very untoward comment about the need to regulate immigrants - likening it to animal quarantine:
http://news.google.com.au/news?q=Trish+Worth&hl=en&lr=&cr=countryAU&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=nn
Here is the transcript of a radio interview with her - not the one I heard:
Trish Worth's comments on asylum seekers spark anger
AM - Tuesday, 31 August , 2004 08:12:00
Reporter: Hayden Cooper
TONY EASTLEY: While the Prime Minister is keen to put the children overboard affair behind him, one of his parliamentary secretaries has guaranteed that asylum seekers remains a talking point, at least in her electorate.
Trish Worth, who holds Adelaide, the fourth most marginal seat in the country, has at a public forum likened asylum seekers to animals. Her opponents and refugee supporters have been quick to seize on the comments, claiming it points to an uncaring government.
Hayden Cooper reports from Adelaide.
HAYDEN COOPER: It started out tamely enough ? a Wednesday night forum organised by the group 'Justice for Refugees' in the nation's fourth most marginal seat.
The candidates were keen to impress the 200-strong crowd.
TRISH WORTH: Australia does, despite what some of you think, have a proud record, but we can do things very much better.
HAYDEN COOPER: But, as asylum seeker policies were discussed and views exchanged, the atmosphere began heating up, until Trish Worth was called on to justify the Howard Government's stance.
With the crowd waiting with baited breath, the Parliamentary Secretary for Health responded ? her comments recorded by local community station Radio Adelaide.
TRISH WORTH: I hate the thought of anybody being in detention. And I don't think any of my colleagues like the thought of anyone being in detention.
(Disagreement from the audience)
FORUM MEMBER: ? You can stop it like that.
TRISH WORTH: Well, there are some very practical reasons. I mean, if you bring a dog into this country, or a cat from some countries, they?
(Disagreement from the audience)
Look, can you just hear me out please, can you just hear me out? There are certain tests to be carried out. There are health checks.
HAYDEN COOPER: With the crowd heckling, the convenor of the event, Don McMaster, called for calm.
Dr McMaster is an author, academic and the Chairman of Justice for Refugees, and he says the comments are shocking and disappointing.
DON MCMASTER: That relationship between animals going to quarantine and asylum seekers coming into Australia and going into detention was most probably one of the worst analogies that she could make for the Coalition Party. Immediately, the audience thought, well you know, she's equating asylum seekers to animals.
HAYDEN COOPER: Trish Worth holds the seat of Adelaide by just 0.6 of 1 per cent, and holding onto it is seen as crucial to the Howard Government's chances of re-election.
Dr McMaster says the comments will damage Ms Worth's campaign, in a city just a few hours from the Baxter Detention Centre, with voters who are not strangers to the contentious asylum seeker debate.
Sitting alongside the Member for Adelaide at the forum was the Labor candidate, Kate Ellis.
KATE ELLIS: I think it strikes at the heart of the Liberal policy on this matter, and also a whole range of issues where this Government has repeatedly shown us how uncaring they are.
HAYDEN COOPER: But Trish Worth says she meant no harm by the comment.
TRISH WORTH: Perhaps it would've been better if I hadn't said that at all, but I was being given a fairly rough time by just a few people there, and it was my job to present the Government's case.
I was making the point that if you bring anything live into the country there are quarantine and border protection issues, as far as imports are concerned. I was certainly? it would not enter my head to be referring to refugees or asylum seekers in that way.
HAYDEN COOPER: And, says Ms Worth, with the election campaign barely two days old, this is all about politics.
TRISH WORTH: It's about lousy, nasty, dirty campaigning.
TONY EASTLEY: Trish Worth ending Hayden Cooper's report. And last night the Senate agreed to set up a new inquiry into the children overboard affair.
Trish Draper:
She is another MP for a marginal South Australian Federal seat. (A friend of mine is the one hoping to wrest it from her).
She is currently in the pooh for taking a boyfriend along on a foreign trip - paid for by taxpayers - as a spouse. (DE factos are also allowed - but she wasn't living with this fella - and they ar eno longer together)
Radio transcript:
Govt stands by Trish Draper
PM - Monday, 24 May , 2004 18:18:00
Reporter: Catherine McGrath
MARK COLVIN: The Government is still standing by the embattled Liberal backbencher Trish Draper, with the Prime Minister telling Parliament today that he hasn't met anybody who's worked harder for their electorate than the Member for Makin.
That's Mrs Draper, who says she'll now repay the cost of the trip, and she broke her silence today. She said she'd done nothing wrong in taking her then boyfriend on an international study trip, because she got permission and he was her 'partner' at the time.
But no one in Canberra is expecting much fervour on this topic from the major parties, as Chief Political Correspondent Catherine McGrath reports.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: She'd been silent since the story broke and today Trish Draper began her public defence.
First on radio.
TRISH DRAPER: Well, what I will be doing is offering to pay that back because what I don't want my constituents to think is that I've done something peculiar or something wrong or untoward.
RADIO HOST: So you don't accept you've done anything wrong?
TRISH DRAPER: I actually took the trip under the entitlements.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: Trish Draper speaking to Matt Abraham and David Bevin on ABC radio in Adelaide.
And she tried to explain the rules to John Laws.
TRISH DRAPER: They have to be reasonably known as your partner. You just can't sort of take anybody you'd like.
JOHN LAWS: Well, you did.
TRISH DRAPER: Well, John, I guess you can say that from your point of view, but that wasn't my point of view at the time.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: And in Parliament, she again said she'd done nothing wrong.
TRISH DRAPER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I refer to newspaper reports and television promotions regarding my overseas study travel that I undertook in the year 2000. It has been claimed that it did not fall within the rules pertaining to MPs' travel entitlements. Such claims are false and defamatory.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: The Government backs her stance. This is what the Prime Minister had to say in Question Time.
JOHN HOWARD: I haven't met anybody who's worked harder for her electorate than does the current member for Makin, Mr Speaker.
("here here" from the House)
Can I just say this to the leader of the Opposition. Perhaps he might encourage any members of his party whose circumstances were analogous to those of the member for Makin to do what she's done and offer to repay the money.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: And this is the exact point that puts Labor in a difficult position. In fact, neither of the major parties really wants to touch this issue.
The Government is doing it reluctantly, and Labor is reacting reluctantly because they all know that when ever stories about politician' perks and alleged rorting take hold, the image of all politicians is affected.
It's not that Labor is being silent about this; they're not. But the subject has come up from the media and the public reaction to it, and not through Labor Party pressure. Labor wants an independent auditor to examine political perks.
Shadow Frontbencher Wayne Swan.
WAYNE SWAN: We have always said that we should not have politicians policing the rules. It should be an independent auditor. That's been Labor's position for some time, and we hope that the Prime Minister takes on board Labor's policy as it has done in the past.
REPORTER: Are you worried that there could be a few stories on your side that might emerge?
WAYNE SWAN: Look, let the cards fall where they may. But Labor firmly believes that we need an independent auditor.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: But the ones who are really pushing this with gusto are the Greens, the Democrats, and Independent Peter Andren.
PETER ANDREN: Well, I think it's gone on for so long and the entitlements have grown like topsy that both the major parties are heavily compromised by this system and there's no political mileage in it for either of them.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: Do you support the Government's decision, though, to tighten up the regulations?
PETER ANDEN: Look, what does tighten up mean? I think the only thing that would satisfy most people I talk with in the electorate is to wind up any access to taxpayer funded trips by anyone bar perhaps the Prime Minister's wife and on important visits and perhaps under certain circumstances some other ministers or the Opposition leader.
CATHERINE MCGRATH: The review is underway, and the Government says it will release the results when its completed, and it's sure to be the subject of discussions in tomorrow's joint party room meeting.
Peter Andren says that taxpayers need better value for money.
PETER ANDEN: Well, let's publish the reasons for the trips before they occur on the net and indeed in the public notices of major national newspapers so the constituents can ask some questions, indeed they may have some input if it's a study into some factor that's vital to that electorate.
But why should it be then, unlike anyone else in the business world who needs to make a business trip and leave the family behind on most occasions, or pays for the partner if they take them, why should the taxpayer pick up the tab for? the contribution, really is nothing more than a publicly paid nanny, by a partner.
MARK COLVIN: Independent MP Peter Andren ending Catherine McGrath's report.
Chris Gallus is the very successful, and very well liked and respected, member for the, also marginal, Federal seat of Hindmarsh.
She is retiring from politics at this election - very much against the wishes of the Prime Minister, who sees her resignation as giving Labor a good chance of winning this seat. Her personal standing in the electorate is very high - and her going makes it a real wild card.
Which two, Deb?
Good luck. I hope you survive this!
