SUBJECTS: Glasgow; Nationals and Net Zero; Victorian ALP

EMERSON:  Milton Dick joins us every week, he is not just the Member for Oxley - Labor member for Oxley, but also he is a former Labor State Secretary here in Queensland, how are you?

DICK:  Hi, Scott, really good this afternoon.

EMERSON:  Now tell me, do you have a favourite Beatles song?

DICK:  Probably Yesterday, I'm a bit of a traditionalist. Such a beautiful song but I always thought it was Yoko Ono who broke them up.

EMERSON:  John Lennon and [inaudible], yes I thought it was always the case. Now, you mentioned Yesterday. Do you remember what the, the original wording for that song was?

DICK:  I do not know that, I'm not good at trivia Scott.

EMERSON:  [inaudible] I get very trivial as you know. When they first wrote Yesterday, Yesterday wasn't the word because they used to- they said when Lennon, McCartney used to write these, they'd substitute words as they were, they couldn't work out the lyrics, and I think I'm getting this right. Originally it wasn’t Yesterday, it was scrambled eggs. I know it's not like scrambled eggs, was what it was - and I agree I think - Yesterday is probably my favourite Beatles song that's why I know that I, if someone thinks it's wrong they can give me a ring. [inaudible], but scrambled eggs.

DICK:  I'd love to see what 4BC listeners have to say on that one, I'll be tuning in and listening in.

EMERSON:  Right, now. All right, there are a few issues out there running about at the moment, in terms of federal politics, let's just talk about Glasgow. I see that the Prime Minister might now be going to Glasgow. I just reckon he has to go it just would look such a bad look if you didn't go there but isn't his problem at the moment is trying to get a deal with the Nats?

DICK:  Look, I think he probably does want to go Scott, in all honesty, and I think the intervention by Prince Charles doesn't help the Prime Minister's cause as well, you know, which is very unusual for the Royals to break protocol and talk about, you know, have an intervention about Australia not attending.

EMERSON:  It wasn't really an intervention, Milton Dick, come on, he was asked by the BBC.

DICK:  Giving some giving some context here, I think, the Royals talking about internal matters is a very unusual thing, so I'll give you that. But I think Scott Morrison has a lot of problems inside his own tent with the Nationals going to war around this I think we're seeing a little bit of a softening now with Barnaby Joyce being read the riot act, in saying that he's going to bring the Nationals over the line, but it's pretty embarrassing, Scott, for our country when just about every other nation on the planet, all the major business groups, the NFS, every State Government in Australia. The only people dragging the chain here are really the Queensland LNP, they seem to be fighting on this. I think they're fighting a losing battle.

EMERSON:  I think, well, I think Barnaby Joyce, the fact that he's floated the idea clearly this is about what the trade-off will be. Barnaby Joyce, I think, and the National party room will agree to a zero net emissions when they meet. But the question is what will the, you know, for want of a the better word, the bribe will be to the Nationals to get them across the line?

DICK:  Well what costs will this mean to the taxpayers, all of those things, which I think the Nationals are being pretty petulant here, there are some sensible people inside the National party that are willing to play ball. But you know we've wasted eight years of opportunities here and you know signing up to net zero by 2050 is really about the jobs of the future, making sure that we get our piece of the pie, when it comes to those new technological jobs, making sure that our economy is strong. This makes good economic sense. But it also, coming from a sunshine state, coming from a powerhouse of renewable energy, we saw that great announcement by the Palaszczuk Government and Twiggy Forest on the weekend, making us the hydrogen superpower and making sure that we're lining up all our ducks. We really need a Federal Government to step in now. To step up and show some leadership, and Scott Morrison should stop worrying about the National Party carrying on, start showing some leadership, front up to Glasgow and start representing Australia's interests.

EMERSON:  Now, I did get one of our callers came through a bit earlier and said look, it doesn't really matter what any of the leaders say at Glasgow, we're talking about 2050 particularly, in terms of some of these commitments, zero net emissions, none of those leaders are going to be around in, in all that time. So, can you have any confidence in - not talking about here, about Australia - but some of the other countries out there, despite them, you know, saluting the flag and saying 'yeah we're going to do this, we're going to do that'. There's no guarantee they're going to do any of that, there can just be rhetoric at a Glasgow meeting.

DICK:  Yeh but you need to look at what's happening with conservative governments, like Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom is streets ahead of where Australia is at the moment, we need to take action on climate change and I think it's safe to say that the community- you know I get stopped about this all the time. Once upon a time it was just kids but I'm getting people from across the political spectrum now saying, we want to take action to protect the planet, we want to take action on climate change, the world is taking action. It is Australia that is lagging behind. We've wasted eight long years of inaction, we've had all these climate policies that have just ended up in our energy prices going through the roof, some of the most expensive in the world. And now it's enough, and I really hope this got Morrison's hearing the message out in the community. I think he has when you listen to Josh Frydenberg, you know, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, softening his stance. You're seeing, all of those Liberal MPs now finally having the courage of standing up on their own two feet, and trying to stand up for action on climate change. The best approach will be a bipartisan approach, that's what Labor's offering, that's certainly what Anthony Albanese has been trying to prosecute for the last couple of years, so that we can actually tackle this issue as one country, and more importantly get on with making the jobs of the future,

EMERSON:  Alright let's talk about an issue that probably hasn't been discussed much here in Queensland at the moment, but it's a big story in Victoria, apart from COVID down there. This is the accusation of Branch Stacking in the Victorian Labor Party down there, and we've already seen a Victorian State Minister stand down as a Minister, go back to the backbench because of this, how do we know that branch stacking is not happening here in the ALP in Queensland?

DICK:  Well, 20 years ago, Scott, there was a major inquiry, something called the Shepardson inquiry where the Labor Party was involved with similar types of activities and to Peter Beattie’s great credit and Terry Mackenroth's credit. We had a separate commission of inquiry into the ALP, and people did go to jail and there were people resigning from Parliament and I was really pleased when I became State Secretary of the Labor Party, to introduce some of the toughest anti-stacking laws of any political party in Australia. We've got some of the, I guess, stand out procedures to ensure that that has never taken place, and from time to time you'll see political parties skate around the edges, and you know all political parties are trying to, you know, make influence with their members or policy decisions. Normally it's around pre-selections, but the Queensland ALP, I think, which I'm very proud of to be a member of and very proud to say, has led the nation in terms of making sure when you join the Labor Party, you join on your own two feet, you know what you're getting yourself into. Now, political parties get a bad rap, but we need to make sure that there is integrity, and that there is open and transparent practices, and that's what the ALP did, we learned the hard way Scott, The [unintelligible].

EMERSON:  All right, Milton Dick, catch you again next week.

DICK:  See you then.

ENDS