E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
TODAY SHOW
TUESDAY, 2 FEBRUARY 2020
  
SUBJECTS: NSW taking shots at WA over border; Collingwood F.C racism report; Labor leadership; Gotcha For Life Bro-quet campaign.
 
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Welcome back to the show, the louder he beats his chest, the less the WA Premier, Mark McGowan is inclined to listen. Quote, “pointless. Unrealistic. He should be embarrassed.” Just some of the vitriol spat out by the New South Wales Deputy Premier John Barilaro yesterday, when describing Perth's tough lockdown impacting two million people. Let's discuss. I'm joined by Shadow Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten and Triple M’s Gus Worland, good morning, guys. Bill, the first thing is this. All this grandstanding has absolutely no impact, does it? And it never will. Every Premier does their own thing, right?
 
BILL SHORTEN, MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG: Yeah, and I think Mark McGowan has done a great job for Western Australians and I don't know, if John Barilaro wants to run Western Australia he should run for West Australian politics. But other than that, he should stick to his day job looking after the people of New South Wales.
 
STEFANOVIC: Gus, it suits New South Wales to bag everyone. It suits everyone else to back New South Wales. We're all in this together.  
 
GUS WORLAND, TRIPLE M: Yeah, we were Team Australia weren’t we, back in March. All three of us spoke about it. Yeah, it was Team Australia. Now it's very much like, don't worry about the Victorians. They've come through it, now it's all about WA. But yeah, no, from my point of view, we've just got to still go back to that Team Australia way of looking at things because we need to open stuff up to make sure that we get the economy rolling again. 
 
STEFANOVIC: There's no way that's going to happen. The state Premiers control everything.
 
WORLAND: They do and that's in our Constitution that they do that, and they run state borders. So that's just the way it is. 
 
STEFANOVIC: You happy with that, Bill?
 
SHORTEN: Well, I think Mr Morrison had a chance to have a national approach, but he sort of did a handball and passed it to the state Premiers and they've said thank you very much. So, I do worry that we're now a nation of six different states and two territories as opposed to one country. But I think ScoMo probably needed to step up and develop a team approach. But he just seemed happy to be Hands Off Harry, 
 
STEFANOVIC: I'm not sure that it'll change either with individual states, very popular moves inside the states. Let's move on to the very uncomfortable press conference of the Collingwood president, Eddie McGuire, as he sat down to face the media yesterday, responding to an independent review which exposed systemic racism at the club spanning decades. But far from the expected apology or any contrition, Eddie declared it an historic, proud day for Collingwood and his leadership, steadfastly refusing calls to resign and denying the Pies was a racist club. Bill, Eddie is taking a leaf out of Dan Andrews’ playbook, isn't it? No matter how bad it is, you get on with it. You keep your head down and get on with it and get on with it. Is he right to do so? 
 
SHORTEN: Well I'm a Collingwood supporter, I'd only like to hear about Collingwood in the news for being a match winning football team. I think it probably was a mistake to say it was a proud day for the club. They've done a report and that's good of them, to do the report. But it has revealed, the author has said, that there’s systemic racism. I think indigenous players are fantastic for AFL, more than I think 10 per cent of the list of AFL players are indigenous. So, I think he if given the chance again, I wonder if he wouldn't use different words now.
 
STEFANOVIC: Gus, there’s talk this morning, I'm not sure how accurate it is, of sponsors walking. I guess that will be the first sign of how bad things are and how solid things are for Eddie.  
 
WORLAND: Yeah, no, absolutely. And we know that Eddie gets stuff done, doesn’t he? The thing about this, when I read about it, they actually decided to put the report together. So, they said they want an independent report. I can understand why he wants to be on the front foot, because Eddie’s always been on the front foot, with everything in his life. And at the end of the day, he now has one year to go, and he wants to start that clean up, I suppose. But, yeah, the words were difficult to hear. And I imagine the players that have had this racism would sort of be sitting back rolling their eyes.
 
STEFANOVIC: Bill, do you think that given some of this stuff happened while Eddie was President, that he is therefore the best person to take it on? Or should it be fresh legs? 
 
SHORTEN: Well, Eddie’s said that he's finishing up after 20 years at the end of this year, that's going to be a matter for him and Collingwood. I'm not going to stick my oar in there. I want to see racism relegated to the pages of history. They've released the report. I think it was uncomfortable to hear it. But we've just got to make clear to Australians in any sport, in any club, that indigenous athletes, I think, enhance the sport, not detract. And they shouldn't be made to feel second class or unwelcome. 
 
STEFANOVIC: 100 per cent. Well said. OK, let's move on. And it's a big, bold target from Scott Morrison as parliament resumes today, Australia achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. While the PM has got plenty on his plate, the man who wants his job is facing his own very big challenges. The Australian today describing the sharks circling for Anthony Albanese, describing his Labor leadership as, quote, “dead in the water.” Bill, that article also suggests some MPs are urging you to rethink your position and consider a return to the top job. Are you reconsidering?
 
SHORTEN: No, I answered that question last week. Nothing's changed. Anthony is our leader. Labor can win the election. Quite frankly. I was watching the Prime Minister's speech yesterday at the National Press Club. I think he might have been drinking his own Kool-Aid a bit much, The Prime Minister. I mean, it's workers and working people and small businesses who got us through COVID-19. Yet, I don't think there's enough being done to help sectors like the travel agents or the live events. And now he's proposing pretty draconian and dramatic cuts to the safety net for Australian workers and their pay packet. So, I think, Mr Morrison, you know, things can change on a dime here, and I think Mr Morrison is perhaps feeling a bit pleased with himself. And that's a perilous sign, isn't it?  
 
STEFANOVIC: Bill, you know - you know, that sharks are circling Anthony Albanese. I mean, you've felt it over the years yourself. But, you know there's talk, you know there’s scuttlebutt. You know it's growing and growing and growing. And eventually it'll grow into a point where something needs to be done. Has Labor made it too difficult to change leaders? 
 
SHORTEN: Well, first of all, I think that Labor can win the next election. Secondly, I think that Australians want to see us providing a strong alternative, and Parliament starts today. But for a lot of Australians getting up, you know, getting their kids ready for school, some of them might be at work and just having a cup of coffee before they go out and do their shift on the factory floor or on the construction site, Mr Morrison's proposing some new laws, which frankly surprise me. It does mean it's a move away from the centre of Australian politics to the right. They're coming after people's conditions and after the year that we've had, I think this is exactly the wrong time for a government to start arrogantly assuming they can cut people's conditions at work.
 
STEFANOVIC: Gus? 
 
WORLAND: I think I think Bill just said it - 
 
STEFANOVIC: Sounding more and more like a leader. 
 
WORLAND: Exactly. He can just move on a dime, you can move on a dime, things can move really quickly. Come on, Bill. We've been talking for a year now on this show. We know you're going to be the new leader of the Labor Party and good on them if they make that choice, mate, because you are the man to lead the Labor Party, I reckon. 
 
STEFANOVIC: Now, let's cut to Bill. [long pause] Tough one!
 
WORLAND: Love ya, Bill. Love ya, brother.
 
SHORTEN: No one likes dead air guys. [all laugh] Gus, you’ve been hanging out with me for a year and now Gus, you want to come up and replace the political commentators in the gallery, who knows?
 
STEFANOVIC: He’s very good at it.
 
WORLAND: I'll give you a big Gotcha For Life hug. 
 
STEFANOVIC: Gus, real quick, you've got something really important. 
 
WORLAND: Yes, exactly. Starting today, we've got the “Bro-quet’. And I want to give one to you and one to Alex, and one's on the way down, that's why I asked for your address during the week. 
 
SHORTEN: Oh, nice.
 
WORLAND: It's basically Fig and Bloom, which is a great florist who decided to put a Bro-quet together, which is a chance for men to give other men flowers, which will then be awkward. And then you go, why did you send me flowers? And you go, well, that's the start of the conversation of, I love you, brother. And that's that ‘got you for life’ start. Because most of us want to have a deeper relationship with our mates, but we can't because we never quite get to that conversation starter - so this, boys, is a little Bro-quet. Karl, that’s for you, big fella.
 
STEFANOVIC: Thank you. 
 
WORLAND: Aussie dry flowers, so they won’t go dead on you. 
 
SHORTEN: Hug it out, boys. 
 
WORLAND: Can we hug?
 
STEFANOVIC: Can we hug?!
 
SHORTEN: Yeah, give him a hug. That's what we like to see.
 
STEFANOVIC: Bill, you’re going to have to hug yourself
 
WORLAND: I love you, Bill. 
 
SHORTEN: Oh, well, that's what you might do in Canberra. 
 
WORLAND: So, they're all available at Fig and Bloom, and Valentine's Day coming up. 
 
STEFANOVIC: Lovely idea, mate. Beautiful idea.
 
SHORTEN: You’ve got a good heart Gus. 
 
STEFANOVIC: You're doing great work in this area. 
 
WORLAND: Thank you, guys. Cheers.
 
STEFANOVIC: Appreciate your time today.