Television interview – Sunrise | Prime Minister of Australia
DAVID KOCH, HOST: The PM joins us now. Anthony Albanese, good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G’day Kochie, this is like a eulogy for you but you’re still here, mate. Like what’s going on?
KOCH: We’ve got to cover the news of the day.
PRIME MINISTER: Indeed.
KOCH: Did your colleague mislead Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
KOCH: From that vision it shows that she clearly did.
PRIME MINISTER: It did not. Take a step back here, Kochie. What is being suggested here by Peter Dutton, you had allegations by a Liberal staffer that another Liberal staffer had a sexual assault in a Liberal minister’s office and somehow Katy Gallagher has some responsibility for what was going on here? This is bizarre. You had a circumstance also where Scott Morrison had an enquiry by Phil Gaetjens, his former chief of staff who was then the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet into who knew what in his own office. We still have never, ever seen that report. I mean, for Peter Dutton to talk about transparency frankly is quite farcical here.
NATALIE BARR, HOST: But there are questions to be answered, aren’t there? We have possibly a multimillion-dollar payout for a woman who, you know, the charges against the person against her is non-existent at the moment. That was taxpayers’ money.
PRIME MINISTER: Be clear, Natalie. Two payouts have been made to women in the normal way, both of whom were former Liberal staffers, done in the normal way, with normal nondisclosure agreements in the usual way at arm’s length. Katy Gallagher had no involvement in that whatsoever.
KOCH: But the optics for the Australian public is that it is a serious charge, it’s a serious allegation and it’s horrendous –
PRIME MINISTER: It certainly was, Kochie –
KOCH: Horrendous-
PRIME MINISTER: And the idea that there’s this conspiracy somehow that somehow Labor –
KOCH: That it was carefully orchestrated behind the scenes.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s nonsense. That’s nonsense. What you have is a story that was broken by news.com.au, by News Corp, who now you have these frontpage sort of stories because of text messages between two partners, between two partners. Let’s be very clear here, this was one Liberal staffer and I mean, I’ve been questioned over it for example. I met with Brittany Higgins on the same day that she met with Scott Morrison, before then I had never met her and that is the only conversation I’ve ever had with her.
BARR: But when there are allegations like this and recordings, which we’ve all heard in the last week, where there are, the allegations basically are that there were that you guys were plotting to weaponise a rape allegation and they were saying: ‘let’s get Albo, let’s get Tanya, Katy is maybe in on it’. Those allegations, those rumours are spilled out over the newspapers of the country. Don’t you want to clear that up?
PRIME MINISTER: Take a step – well, we have cleared it up.
BARR: But do you think it’s cleared up when the headline today is ‘text, lies and videotape’. That’s spread across the headlines.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you know, we’re not responsible for News Corp’s reporting today, like we weren’t responsible when news.com.au broke the story. But take a step back, at that time, the counterfactual, if there was a story about allegations of a sexual assault by one Liberal staff member against another Liberal staff member in a Liberal minister’s office, metres from the Prime Minister’s office, the Prime Minister made comments on it the next day, you might recall the following day speaking about a discussion that he had with Jenny and about how he felt directly about it. You then had the Prime Minister establish himself an enquiry into what his office knew and when, a report that we have never seen, and the idea that questions wouldn’t be asked. This was the lead story on this show, on every show, on every newspaper and, of course, we asked questions. There was a demonstration outside Parliament House that was addressed by Ms Higgins. At that time it was Scott Morrison who stood up and made a statement to Parliament. The only time in all the time I’ve been in Parliament I can recall a Prime Minister without notice making a statement at the beginning of Question Time, and I responded to it. They were the circumstances – of course we were asking questions.
KOCH: So you’re confident that Katy Gallagher has not misled Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. And she is a great Minister, she is a great Finance at Minister, and she is a great Minister for the Status of Women. And Peter Dutton needs to, if you want to be transparent, he needs to release or someone needs to release the Gaetjens report that we still have never seen.
KOCH: I’m sure you will follow that up –
BARR: Ok, well we will –
KOCH: Next week. That’s on your agenda. Do it.
BARR: Because he’s out the door now.
PRIME MINISTER: He’s gone.
KOCH: I’m gone.
PRIME MINISTER: All care, no responsibility today.
KOCH: It’s your job now.
PRIME MINISTER: And Shirvo.
KOCH: Yes exactly, he will take it up as well.
BARR: Exactly.
KOCH: Mate, thank you for coming on today.
PRIME MINISTER: Congratulations on an amazing career on this show. And you can see outside here there are a lot of people who want to wish you well and I certainly personally wish you well, mate.
KOCH: Thank you, really appreciate it.
BARR: Prime Minister, thank you for coming in today.