Doug PollardTranscript - Editor of the Sydney Star Observer, Scott Abrahams
DOUG: We’re about to hear from the editor of the Sydney Star Observer, Scott Abrahams. Good morning, Scott.
SCOTT: Good morning, Doug. How are you?
DOUG: I’m very well, thank you. Just having a chuckle over Fred Niles.
SCOTT: Poor Fred, he’s in a bit of trouble today - - -
SCOTT: Of course, his staff did it. He wouldn’t access porn himself - - -
DOUG: Well - - -
SCOTT: - - - at least that’s what he’s saying.
DOUG: Well, isn’t that bizarre. I was looking at the story on the Daily Telegraph website and it said his login – not his computer, his login had been used 200,000 times.
SCOTT: That’s right, 200,000 suspect hits recorded on his login now - - -
DOUG: He must have a very big staff?
SCOTT: - - - sorry?
DOUG: He must have a very big staff [laughs] - - -
SCOTT: Yes. He must have a very big staff. [laughs]
SCOTT: I mean, 200,000 seems like an awful lot of hits so you’d think that perhaps, there’d be multiple staff in his office looking at pornography.
DOUG: Yes. They might have their own logins?
SCOTT: Well, you would have thought that that would have made more sense. But who knows how the New South Wales government operates these days, seriously. I thought what was interesting though, was that they talk about – m’mm, that he was accessing information on the Australian Sex Party - - -
DOUG: Yeah.
SCOTT: So, maybe, he’s feeling a little threatened?
DOUG: Yes. Accessing - - -
SCOTT: They did have a good showing.
DOUG: They did. “Accessing information on the ASP and researching the Internet filter - - -”
SCOTT: Of course. They’re both state issues at the moment aren’t they?
DOUG: [laughs] The other bit that I thought was quite amusing when I was reading through the story is that the New South Wales parliament has installed a firewall so that members of the lower house cannot access such material but they haven’t installed that firewall for the senators.
SCOTT: No, that’s right – m’mm, Amanda , who’s the legislative council president doesn’t believe in Internet censoring, it’s a bit strange isn’t it the two houses of the New South Wales parliament actually have completely different standards from each other - oh, hang on. That’s probably not so surprising, is it at all?
DOUG: No, not at all – well, let’s leave that one - - -
SCOTT: We have a love affair with Fred up here, you know. We did have his head on a platter at Mardis Gras, up the street one year so - - -
DOUG: Indeed, in fact I’ve been told he’d be more than happy to come on my show one day. Up to now I’ve declined - - -
SCOTT: Is he flying in?
DOUG: Apparently he comes down here fairly frequently.
SCOTT: Let me know. I’d be happy to pop in as well.
DOUG: He said according to a little feeler I had from his staff at one stage, he’d be happy to come in and talk to me. Next time he’s in Melbourne. So far I’ve resisted the temptation [laughs] - - -
SCOTT: Go on, you know you want to.
DOUG: Perhaps I could bring him together with Steve Fielding, it could be the start of a beautiful relationship?
SCOTT: I was going to say, he’s your type though, isn’t he? Fred looks a bit like your type.
DOUG: Oh. Please. Now, let’s get on to something a bit more serious - - -
SCOTT: Yes.
DOUG: - - - how’s the same-sex adoption Bill doing? How did that go yesterday - - -
SCOTT: Well, after five hours of debate yesterday – five very long hours of debate yesterday, it was adjourned and we still don’t have a date or time for that debate to continue. But twenty-six MPs spoke yesterday – m’mm – and seventeen in favour of the Bill including, surprising, Premier Kristina Keneally who as we know is a very devout Catholic - - we were pleased to see that the support is quite diverse.
DOUG: How was it going as far as the anti’s(sic)?
SCOTT: Well [laughs] you can almost write the script for them I mean, it’s the usual kind of thing. There are – you know, children need a mother and father around – how single parents get along has always been a bit of a concern for me though Andrew Stoner who’s the National Party leader – m’mm, unfortunately for him, cited some research by G.A. Rekers the American psychologist - -, m’mm? Who was claiming to be authoritative on same-sex parenting – he’s the Baptist minister who was disgraced I think it was late last year because he’d hired a 20-year old rent boy to accompany him on a European vacation.
DOUG: Just to carry his bags, Scott. Just to carry his bags.
SCOTT: Well, yes. Of course. That’s what we all hire rent boys for, isn’t it?
DOUG: [laughs]
SCOTT: I have one every time I come to Melbourne to carry mine - - -
DOUG: I’d wondered who that was.
SCOTT: Perhaps his staff may want to have a better look at his information before he stands up and starts talking about - - -
DOUG: Perhaps Fred Niles can put him right?
SCOTT: [laughs] I think Fred’s got other things on his plate at the moment – like, learning how to clear a cache after looking at porn - - -
DOUG: Yeah. Now, I got an email coming ‘round, yesterday, in the midst of all this debate that there was a lot of pressure being put on one MP in particular. By the fundamentalist Muslim community up there?
SCOTT: Yeah I had heard that – m’mm, we’re yet to confirm that. But obviously, we find it more difficult to get members of the Muslim community to have a conversation with us because of the nature of what we do. But I do have a reporter on that at the moment trying to figure out exactly what the detail of that is.
DOUG: Yeah, because it’s the middle of Ramadan anyway. So – m’mm, they’re going to be somewhat busy I’d imagine?
SCOTT: I think so. But – I mean, obviously, there’s a lot of people with a lot of opinion on same-sex adoption and what is interesting though is that both the major parties are allowing their MPs to have conscience votes on this which I haven’t seen for quite some time – so, as soon as they decide to finish the debate and get on with it we do expect to see that legislation pass, though. It’s been fairly clear that there’s a majority in favour.
DOUG: Okay – and when do you think the vote is likely to come-on, now?
SCOTT: Well, we’re hoping they’ll tidy it up today but who knows, you know – with Fred with his porn scandal and the other Labor MP with his porn scandal and on-line gaming scandal yesterday perhaps there might be a few other things they have to take care of - - -
DOUG: [laughs] Now, for those of us who live down in Victoria is this a single-chamber parliament or a two-chamber parliament?
SCOTT: No, no. There’s two chambers but – m’mm, the ALP has a clear majority in the upper house - - -
DOUG: Okay, so - - -
SCOTT: - - - it’s not going to be an issue.
DOUG: Okay. So, that should not be an issue there. Scott I’m going to be talking to Adam Bandt on the show a little later on and one of the things I’m going to be asking him about is how come he didn’t get an agreement with Labor to have a conscience vote on same-sex marriage - - -
SCOTT: Yep.
DOUG: - - - as part of the Agreement between the Greens. A lot of people have said that that might come about, anyway. Because there’s going to be pressure from within the Labor Party itself for a conscience vote and I reckon Grayndler might be one of the places it’s coming from?
SCOTT: That’s possible although Anthony Albanese, the Labor member who managed to hold onto the seat by the skin of his teeth I might add - - -
.
SCOTT: - - - has refuted to us this week that same-sex marriage played a significant role in the Greens massive swing in the seat and for those who don’t know the seat of Grayndler takes in the very, very gay inner-west areas of Glebe and Erskineville and Newtown and Chippendale so just off to the city-side. We – m’mm, also understand that the Tasmanian independent, Senator Wilke, will be pushing for a conscience vote on same-sex marriage.
DOUG: Yes, I’ve been hearing that one.
SCOTT: Yeah. Well, we actually led the paper with it yesterday - - -
SCOTT: - - - that is sitting very high on his wish list of demands. It seems Tony and Julia are quite happy to talk to anybody who will push them over the line at the moment so we’re hopeful that perhaps we might see something there.
DOUG: Well, you never know ‘cause Wilke has said that he’s had Labor’s response and “it is not satisfactory” and he’s waiting for Tony Abbott’s response which is something – like, you know – ‘give us $11m’ or something or $11b - - -
SCOTT: Perhaps Tony’s getting the same-sex marriage conscience vote costed by Treasury as well?
DOUG: [laughs] Yeah – now we know why he didn’t want these costed by Treasury, it’d be nice to watch him wriggle out of this one.
SCOTT: Yeah it will be – but I mean, look Grayndler is going to be interesting when we next go to the polls and depending on what happens with Tony, Julia and the regional independents we don’t know really when that’s going to be. Because essentially, the position Melbourne was in going into this election, now and that is that it’s very marginal and the Greens are breathing down their necks. So, we could end up with another Green lower house next time ‘round. Yeah.
DOUG: I would have thought that would be concentrating Anthony Albanese’s mind on pushing for same-sex marriage and – or – a conscience vote on said issue within the Labor Party?
SCOTT: Well, privately he supports same-sex marriage and he has made a point of pointing that out to us every time we speak to him but of course, we know what the Labor Party’s like with the party line and so obviously, he must tow that. But – m’mm, to say that he’s not a GLBT-friendly politician is probably not correct. But obviously party comes first.
DOUG: [laughs] It will be interesting to see how it works out – look into your crystal balls - and – what’s – how do you read it because to me it seems like the longer this goes on the more likely it is that Julia Gillard is going to get across the line.
SCOTT: Yeah – look, to be quite frank with you I think it’s really still too difficult to call. But certainly, the Treasury figures in the press this morning would – if I was an independent MP I would certainly question why I would be giving my support to the Coalition based on – I mean, its $11b. A lot of money - - you could buy a couple of houses in Sydney for that.
DOUG: [laughs] Maybe one on Point Piper - - -
SCOTT: [laughs] (and)I think that that could quite possibly sway the way that they were(sic) thinking – I mean, Bob Katter’s going to support the Coalition regardless. I think that’s fairly clear.
DOUG: Oh, yes.
SCOTT: M’mm, it’s where everybody else [indistinct] that we’re interested in, obviously.
DOUG: Yeah. It’s a really strange situation. I’m finding it quite fascinating and the funny thing is I think, though, that if we do get over the line and we do get a minority government whoever it is all this horse trading is not going to stop - - -
SCOTT: No, of course it’s not. It’s not over by a long shot. I’m in the fortunate position my partner’s from Tamworth and his family knows Tony Windsor -
and a very pleasant man by all (and)Not one to make decisions lightly so there’s reasonable chances that we could see some significant changes if not to the Marriage Act then certainly to the way that parliament operates in this country and that can’t be a bad thing. It’s been running for a hundred years this way – sorry, 110 years - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
SCOTT: - - - this way. It’s probably time that we freshened it up and made it a little more current.
DOUG: Well, it’s definitely a shift in power from the Executive towards the House which I personally don’t think can be a bad thing - - -
SCOTT: M’mm. M’mm.
DOUG: - - - too much executive override has been happening. Too much bulldozing things through on the basis everybody voting the party line. it’s got to be a lot better if issues are vented more thoroughly on the house floor even though it does look a bit more chaotic and doesn’t please Rupert Murdoch.
SCOTT: [laughs] Well, you never know. If he’s getting a decent headline out of it? But I’m sure he’ll be fine.
DOUG: He’ll come ‘round. He’ll come ‘round as soon as he figures how to make money from it he’ll come around - - -
SCOTT: [laughs]
DOUG: - - - all right, thanks for that Scott.
SCOTT: Cheers, Doug and I hope your new balcony settles-in well.
DOUG: It’s looking beautiful. Thank you very much.
SCOTT: Good morning, Doug. How are you?
DOUG: I’m very well, thank you. Just having a chuckle over Fred Niles.
SCOTT: Poor Fred, he’s in a bit of trouble today - - -
SCOTT: Of course, his staff did it. He wouldn’t access porn himself - - -
DOUG: Well - - -
SCOTT: - - - at least that’s what he’s saying.
DOUG: Well, isn’t that bizarre. I was looking at the story on the Daily Telegraph website and it said his login – not his computer, his login had been used 200,000 times.
SCOTT: That’s right, 200,000 suspect hits recorded on his login now - - -
DOUG: He must have a very big staff?
SCOTT: - - - sorry?
DOUG: He must have a very big staff [laughs] - - -
SCOTT: Yes. He must have a very big staff. [laughs]
SCOTT: I mean, 200,000 seems like an awful lot of hits so you’d think that perhaps, there’d be multiple staff in his office looking at pornography.
DOUG: Yes. They might have their own logins?
SCOTT: Well, you would have thought that that would have made more sense. But who knows how the New South Wales government operates these days, seriously. I thought what was interesting though, was that they talk about – m’mm, that he was accessing information on the Australian Sex Party - - -
DOUG: Yeah.
SCOTT: So, maybe, he’s feeling a little threatened?
DOUG: Yes. Accessing - - -
SCOTT: They did have a good showing.
DOUG: They did. “Accessing information on the ASP and researching the Internet filter - - -”
SCOTT: Of course. They’re both state issues at the moment aren’t they?
DOUG: [laughs] The other bit that I thought was quite amusing when I was reading through the story is that the New South Wales parliament has installed a firewall so that members of the lower house cannot access such material but they haven’t installed that firewall for the senators.
SCOTT: No, that’s right – m’mm, Amanda , who’s the legislative council president doesn’t believe in Internet censoring, it’s a bit strange isn’t it the two houses of the New South Wales parliament actually have completely different standards from each other - oh, hang on. That’s probably not so surprising, is it at all?
DOUG: No, not at all – well, let’s leave that one - - -
SCOTT: We have a love affair with Fred up here, you know. We did have his head on a platter at Mardis Gras, up the street one year so - - -
DOUG: Indeed, in fact I’ve been told he’d be more than happy to come on my show one day. Up to now I’ve declined - - -
SCOTT: Is he flying in?
DOUG: Apparently he comes down here fairly frequently.
SCOTT: Let me know. I’d be happy to pop in as well.
DOUG: He said according to a little feeler I had from his staff at one stage, he’d be happy to come in and talk to me. Next time he’s in Melbourne. So far I’ve resisted the temptation [laughs] - - -
SCOTT: Go on, you know you want to.
DOUG: Perhaps I could bring him together with Steve Fielding, it could be the start of a beautiful relationship?
SCOTT: I was going to say, he’s your type though, isn’t he? Fred looks a bit like your type.
DOUG: Oh. Please. Now, let’s get on to something a bit more serious - - -
SCOTT: Yes.
DOUG: - - - how’s the same-sex adoption Bill doing? How did that go yesterday - - -
SCOTT: Well, after five hours of debate yesterday – five very long hours of debate yesterday, it was adjourned and we still don’t have a date or time for that debate to continue. But twenty-six MPs spoke yesterday – m’mm – and seventeen in favour of the Bill including, surprising, Premier Kristina Keneally who as we know is a very devout Catholic - - we were pleased to see that the support is quite diverse.
DOUG: How was it going as far as the anti’s(sic)?
SCOTT: Well [laughs] you can almost write the script for them I mean, it’s the usual kind of thing. There are – you know, children need a mother and father around – how single parents get along has always been a bit of a concern for me though Andrew Stoner who’s the National Party leader – m’mm, unfortunately for him, cited some research by G.A. Rekers the American psychologist - -, m’mm? Who was claiming to be authoritative on same-sex parenting – he’s the Baptist minister who was disgraced I think it was late last year because he’d hired a 20-year old rent boy to accompany him on a European vacation.
DOUG: Just to carry his bags, Scott. Just to carry his bags.
SCOTT: Well, yes. Of course. That’s what we all hire rent boys for, isn’t it?
DOUG: [laughs]
SCOTT: I have one every time I come to Melbourne to carry mine - - -
DOUG: I’d wondered who that was.
SCOTT: Perhaps his staff may want to have a better look at his information before he stands up and starts talking about - - -
DOUG: Perhaps Fred Niles can put him right?
SCOTT: [laughs] I think Fred’s got other things on his plate at the moment – like, learning how to clear a cache after looking at porn - - -
DOUG: Yeah. Now, I got an email coming ‘round, yesterday, in the midst of all this debate that there was a lot of pressure being put on one MP in particular. By the fundamentalist Muslim community up there?
SCOTT: Yeah I had heard that – m’mm, we’re yet to confirm that. But obviously, we find it more difficult to get members of the Muslim community to have a conversation with us because of the nature of what we do. But I do have a reporter on that at the moment trying to figure out exactly what the detail of that is.
DOUG: Yeah, because it’s the middle of Ramadan anyway. So – m’mm, they’re going to be somewhat busy I’d imagine?
SCOTT: I think so. But – I mean, obviously, there’s a lot of people with a lot of opinion on same-sex adoption and what is interesting though is that both the major parties are allowing their MPs to have conscience votes on this which I haven’t seen for quite some time – so, as soon as they decide to finish the debate and get on with it we do expect to see that legislation pass, though. It’s been fairly clear that there’s a majority in favour.
DOUG: Okay – and when do you think the vote is likely to come-on, now?
SCOTT: Well, we’re hoping they’ll tidy it up today but who knows, you know – with Fred with his porn scandal and the other Labor MP with his porn scandal and on-line gaming scandal yesterday perhaps there might be a few other things they have to take care of - - -
DOUG: [laughs] Now, for those of us who live down in Victoria is this a single-chamber parliament or a two-chamber parliament?
SCOTT: No, no. There’s two chambers but – m’mm, the ALP has a clear majority in the upper house - - -
DOUG: Okay, so - - -
SCOTT: - - - it’s not going to be an issue.
DOUG: Okay. So, that should not be an issue there. Scott I’m going to be talking to Adam Bandt on the show a little later on and one of the things I’m going to be asking him about is how come he didn’t get an agreement with Labor to have a conscience vote on same-sex marriage - - -
SCOTT: Yep.
DOUG: - - - as part of the Agreement between the Greens. A lot of people have said that that might come about, anyway. Because there’s going to be pressure from within the Labor Party itself for a conscience vote and I reckon Grayndler might be one of the places it’s coming from?
SCOTT: That’s possible although Anthony Albanese, the Labor member who managed to hold onto the seat by the skin of his teeth I might add - - -
.
SCOTT: - - - has refuted to us this week that same-sex marriage played a significant role in the Greens massive swing in the seat and for those who don’t know the seat of Grayndler takes in the very, very gay inner-west areas of Glebe and Erskineville and Newtown and Chippendale so just off to the city-side. We – m’mm, also understand that the Tasmanian independent, Senator Wilke, will be pushing for a conscience vote on same-sex marriage.
DOUG: Yes, I’ve been hearing that one.
SCOTT: Yeah. Well, we actually led the paper with it yesterday - - -
SCOTT: - - - that is sitting very high on his wish list of demands. It seems Tony and Julia are quite happy to talk to anybody who will push them over the line at the moment so we’re hopeful that perhaps we might see something there.
DOUG: Well, you never know ‘cause Wilke has said that he’s had Labor’s response and “it is not satisfactory” and he’s waiting for Tony Abbott’s response which is something – like, you know – ‘give us $11m’ or something or $11b - - -
SCOTT: Perhaps Tony’s getting the same-sex marriage conscience vote costed by Treasury as well?
DOUG: [laughs] Yeah – now we know why he didn’t want these costed by Treasury, it’d be nice to watch him wriggle out of this one.
SCOTT: Yeah it will be – but I mean, look Grayndler is going to be interesting when we next go to the polls and depending on what happens with Tony, Julia and the regional independents we don’t know really when that’s going to be. Because essentially, the position Melbourne was in going into this election, now and that is that it’s very marginal and the Greens are breathing down their necks. So, we could end up with another Green lower house next time ‘round. Yeah.
DOUG: I would have thought that would be concentrating Anthony Albanese’s mind on pushing for same-sex marriage and – or – a conscience vote on said issue within the Labor Party?
SCOTT: Well, privately he supports same-sex marriage and he has made a point of pointing that out to us every time we speak to him but of course, we know what the Labor Party’s like with the party line and so obviously, he must tow that. But – m’mm, to say that he’s not a GLBT-friendly politician is probably not correct. But obviously party comes first.
DOUG: [laughs] It will be interesting to see how it works out – look into your crystal balls - and – what’s – how do you read it because to me it seems like the longer this goes on the more likely it is that Julia Gillard is going to get across the line.
SCOTT: Yeah – look, to be quite frank with you I think it’s really still too difficult to call. But certainly, the Treasury figures in the press this morning would – if I was an independent MP I would certainly question why I would be giving my support to the Coalition based on – I mean, its $11b. A lot of money - - you could buy a couple of houses in Sydney for that.
DOUG: [laughs] Maybe one on Point Piper - - -
SCOTT: [laughs] (and)I think that that could quite possibly sway the way that they were(sic) thinking – I mean, Bob Katter’s going to support the Coalition regardless. I think that’s fairly clear.
DOUG: Oh, yes.
SCOTT: M’mm, it’s where everybody else [indistinct] that we’re interested in, obviously.
DOUG: Yeah. It’s a really strange situation. I’m finding it quite fascinating and the funny thing is I think, though, that if we do get over the line and we do get a minority government whoever it is all this horse trading is not going to stop - - -
SCOTT: No, of course it’s not. It’s not over by a long shot. I’m in the fortunate position my partner’s from Tamworth and his family knows Tony Windsor -
and a very pleasant man by all (and)Not one to make decisions lightly so there’s reasonable chances that we could see some significant changes if not to the Marriage Act then certainly to the way that parliament operates in this country and that can’t be a bad thing. It’s been running for a hundred years this way – sorry, 110 years - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
SCOTT: - - - this way. It’s probably time that we freshened it up and made it a little more current.
DOUG: Well, it’s definitely a shift in power from the Executive towards the House which I personally don’t think can be a bad thing - - -
SCOTT: M’mm. M’mm.
DOUG: - - - too much executive override has been happening. Too much bulldozing things through on the basis everybody voting the party line. it’s got to be a lot better if issues are vented more thoroughly on the house floor even though it does look a bit more chaotic and doesn’t please Rupert Murdoch.
SCOTT: [laughs] Well, you never know. If he’s getting a decent headline out of it? But I’m sure he’ll be fine.
DOUG: He’ll come ‘round. He’ll come ‘round as soon as he figures how to make money from it he’ll come around - - -
SCOTT: [laughs]
DOUG: - - - all right, thanks for that Scott.
SCOTT: Cheers, Doug and I hope your new balcony settles-in well.
DOUG: It’s looking beautiful. Thank you very much.
