Speaker 1: On Sydney Now you can't handle the truth.
Speaker 2: The straight shint, our straight shootor on a Thursday afternoon
Speaker 2: is the former Minister in New South Wales and the
Speaker 2: coalition government, David Elliott, longtime Liberal Party members, so he
Speaker 2: can give us an insight and exactly what's going on.
Speaker 3: In the Liberal Party at the moment. Hello David, Hello Clinton.
Speaker 3: Alan Stockdale.
Speaker 4: Well, if I had to write an episode of Yes
Speaker 4: Minister dedicated to how you'd send the political party into
Speaker 4: implosion mode, I'd probably include two entitled geriatrics from another state,
Speaker 4: and that's exactly what we've got at the moment. And
Speaker 4: Allan has actually done something that many in the Liberal
Speaker 4: Party have been trying to do for decades, and he's
Speaker 4: united everybody, but they've all been united to oppose his
Speaker 4: role in the restructure of the party.
Speaker 1: So it's been very well reported now in the past
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. We brought your news yesterday about the
Speaker 1: comments that he made a tele conferences to a women's
Speaker 1: council meeting. Completely can't read the room clearly onl On Stockdale,
Speaker 1: but just for a bit of background because some people
Speaker 1: aren't quite aware of what's going on here, Alan Stockdale
Speaker 1: and Richard Austen former how a government minister had along
Speaker 1: with Peter Seaton, had been appointed to try and sort
Speaker 1: out the Liberal Party rewrite the constitution Eastern Victoria. He's
Speaker 1: not from New South Wales.
Speaker 4: That's right. There was and there was probably a good
Speaker 4: reason for Peter Dutton the stepien, particularly after the devaka
Speaker 4: with the local government campaign, and there was a you know,
Speaker 4: and it was the party does have some issues when
Speaker 4: it comes to fashionalism. But I must say, when we're
Speaker 4: looking at the demographic that we have to now appeal to,
Speaker 4: and looking at the demographic that is represented in that
Speaker 4: three person committee, you have to ask yourself if we're
Speaker 4: singing from the right song sheet.
Speaker 3: And I think.
Speaker 4: If I was, if I was Alan Stockdale, i'd resigned today.
Speaker 4: And I think that there should be people in the
Speaker 4: Liberal Party calling for him to resign because he's put us,
Speaker 4: he's put the party reputation in disrepute.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was a jake.
Speaker 4: We've all made stupid Jack's goodness, I'm king of Stupid Jackson.
Speaker 4: But you know, when you've got this issue with being
Speaker 4: so sensitive and you've got that's the issue of demographics
Speaker 4: and of representation, and you've got a person that doesn't
Speaker 4: really understand politics in this city, let alone this state.
Speaker 4: I think it's proof positive that that that the reform
Speaker 4: that he's going to be trying to bring in will
Speaker 4: be probably just knocked on the head out of spite.
Speaker 1: So his term was to end, I think at the
Speaker 1: end of this month June, and they're seeking extension because
Speaker 1: they actually haven't finished rewriting the constitution.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean nobody has seen a draft version of that.
Speaker 4: I hoping that Mark Spietman and Susan Lee have seen
Speaker 4: a draft. But nobody's saying that we didn't need to
Speaker 4: have federal intervention. We certainly did need to have federal intervention.
Speaker 4: But I think we got it wrong when we when
Speaker 4: we picked, when we picked a couple of old blokes
Speaker 4: from Victoria, I mean, I can't imagine going down to
Speaker 4: Victoria or South Australia and giving them instruction about how
Speaker 4: to do politics.
Speaker 3: Just couldn't imagine it.
Speaker 1: And this is all the same day it was revealed
Speaker 1: in the weapon, it was revealed yesterday, and the same
Speaker 1: day that the AEC declares that the Liberals have lost
Speaker 1: another Blue Ribbon Sea.
Speaker 3: That's exactly right.
Speaker 4: I mean, and this is an issue while we're talking
Speaker 4: about quotas, which I don't agree with, but we're talking
Speaker 4: about diversity in while we're talking about who is our
Speaker 4: new constituency. Well, yesterday was proof positive. Our new constituency
Speaker 4: are working people from the outer suburbs.
Speaker 3: That's all we got.
Speaker 4: We've got Lindsay, We've got Barrera, We've got Mitchell, and
Speaker 4: we've got Cook.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 4: So if you're wanting to find out in this town,
Speaker 4: particularly who our demographic is, it is Lowell, middle class
Speaker 4: tradees and and families that live in those out of
Speaker 4: perimeter areas. And now we've got to build on that.
Speaker 4: We can't lose them. And that's exactly what we're doing.
Speaker 1: A lot of people because they tell me in that
Speaker 1: demographic bi legal cigarettes.
Speaker 3: And they've been telling me now for the last year.
Speaker 1: The Reeks, I've been banging on about this for a
Speaker 1: long time now, but they've been telling me about this
Speaker 1: for the last year.
Speaker 3: There's a simple reason they do.
Speaker 1: They're law abiding citizens usually, but the reason they're doing
Speaker 1: is because the price differential.
Speaker 3: Is so bad.
Speaker 1: I took my hat off to Chris Mins this week
Speaker 1: for becoming really the first politician to actually argue against
Speaker 1: the excise or that the level of it.
Speaker 4: Well, and all power to Chris and I think I'm
Speaker 4: seeing him next week and I'm going to give him
Speaker 4: a wrap for this because ten years ago, when I
Speaker 4: was first made minister and the Justice portfolio, as the
Speaker 4: tobacco industry came and spoke to me and they said, listen,
Speaker 4: this chop chop is bad news. It is going to
Speaker 4: forfeit the taxpayer. It's rightful excise, Okay, that's a good consideration,
Speaker 4: but it's going to be used to do everything from
Speaker 4: funding counter terrorism organizations to money laundering everything that the
Speaker 4: tobacco industry and you can say what you like about them,
Speaker 4: but they did their work on this particular brief. Everything
Speaker 4: that they told me was going to occur has now
Speaker 4: occurred in the last couple of years, and I think
Speaker 4: that mean this is in the right space to push
Speaker 4: the envelope on this.
Speaker 3: He is dead right.
Speaker 4: This is this is prohibition all over again. And the criminals,
Speaker 4: like they did in the nineteen thirties in the United
Speaker 4: States and now using tobacco, particularly the cost and the
Speaker 4: illability for people to afford tobacco. They're using that as
Speaker 4: low hanging fruit when it comes to funding their operations,
Speaker 4: and I think it just goes to show how disengaged
Speaker 4: Canberra is for their just immediately dismissing Chris on this.
Speaker 4: And I also think that it should be bipartisan. I'd
Speaker 4: like to see the opposition jumping up and down about
Speaker 4: this as well the new stuff I was opposition. I
Speaker 4: think I think Mark Speakman should be getting on this
Speaker 4: issue and making sure that the Premier has as the
Speaker 4: maximum amount of politically a cover that it can get.
Speaker 1: Jim Chalmers shot it down pretty quickly though. Does it
Speaker 1: help in practice because you're in power when there was
Speaker 1: a liberal government, a coalition government power in Canberra? Does
Speaker 1: it help when there's a labor government? Canbra a labor
Speaker 1: government in New South Wales to negotia on these sort
Speaker 1: of things.
Speaker 4: You know what, I never really found it. I had
Speaker 4: just as good a relationship with Catherine King when I
Speaker 4: was Transport Minister as I did with the federal Liberal
Speaker 4: Transport Minsisi is that's the beauty about Australian politics. We
Speaker 4: actually have personal relationships on both sides and it's important
Speaker 4: that there's a bit of a level of trust there.
Speaker 4: Charts I thought it was quite bizarre him just basically
Speaker 4: immediately dismissing it, because clearly when the Treasurer is dismissing something,
Speaker 4: it means that he's worried about the bottom line.
Speaker 3: Well, I was coming down though.
Speaker 4: That's exactly right, and this is this is what I could.
Speaker 4: I don't think he understood exactly what the Premier was
Speaker 4: trying to highlight the fact that there we are forfeiting
Speaker 4: exercise by the illegal tobacco.
Speaker 3: You're also, by.
Speaker 4: The way treasurer are potentially aiding money laundering and criminal activity.
Speaker 4: So if your argument is, oh, well I can't afford it,
Speaker 4: well you can't afford not to.
Speaker 1: This new south Well's health that has the job of
Speaker 1: And I spoke to an inspector at length off air
Speaker 1: this week and he went to chapter in verse how
Speaker 1: it all works, and he does his best, but he
Speaker 1: concedes it's just simply not enough of them. Chris Mins
Speaker 1: is indicated that might need to move responsibility to the police.
Speaker 1: When you were a police minister, had police express concerns
Speaker 1: about the growing market?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: Not. The irony is that I had my eye on
Speaker 4: this issue as the counter terrorism Minister, not necessarily as
Speaker 4: the Police Minister, and for those reasons because it was
Speaker 4: very much a health in the health jurisdiction. But I
Speaker 4: think when you're looking at the element the type of
Speaker 4: people that are benefiting and profiting from a legal tobacco,
Speaker 4: then it does become a police matter because not only
Speaker 4: is it important for the police, who there's fourteen fifteen
Speaker 4: thousand of them out there, so they certainly have the
Speaker 4: ability to run an operation, an ongoing operation, or to
Speaker 4: maintain compliance, but also they know what to look out
Speaker 4: for when it comes to a legal activity and people
Speaker 4: that have got unexplained wealth, they know what to look
Speaker 4: out for. A Department of Health inspector is not going
Speaker 4: to then have suspicion that the bloke that's selling illegal
Speaker 4: cigarettes also has a maserati and his wife's full of
Speaker 4: plastic because she's had public she's had plastic surgery, you know,
Speaker 4: three times last week, and the kids are all driving
Speaker 4: sports cars. That's that's not something that a health inspector
Speaker 4: would be trying to look out.
Speaker 3: Police can police can do that. King's birthday, not the
Speaker 3: Queen's birthday, The King's birthday long weekend this weekend. Have
Speaker 3: you met the King?
Speaker 4: I have, I have and in fact it's also my birthday.
Speaker 4: Thanks for thanks for mentioning that you can get the
Speaker 4: point always probably the reason why from a very young
Speaker 4: age I was a staunch monarchist because I was scared
Speaker 4: they were going to take away my birthday holiday. Yeah,
Speaker 4: tomorrow's column, I'm dedicating to the Royal family, nine of
Speaker 4: them who I've met, and I'm talking about my personal experiences.
Speaker 4: Which one do you think i'd want next to me
Speaker 4: in a pub brawl, in a brawl, in a pub brawl,
Speaker 4: not just not a rugby pub brawl.
Speaker 3: How does Prince Andrew go?
Speaker 4: He doesn't get him. I've never met him, and I'm glad.
Speaker 4: You know, I got enough schemeal in my life to
Speaker 4: worry about somebody.
Speaker 3: Case. Well, look he's he's married into the royal family.
Speaker 3: I'll go. Mike Tindall, the former rugby player.
Speaker 4: The only one that's married in uh that's mentioned that
Speaker 4: I've met, and I'm I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 4: I'm going to be brutal with her.
Speaker 3: Is Megan Markle?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, Well I hosted the Invictors Games, of course,
Speaker 4: and so I had a febit to do with it.
Speaker 3: Harry's baby yeah.
Speaker 4: Yes, So in the three different jobs I've had as
Speaker 4: a member of Palmer's, an army officer and with my
Speaker 4: involvement with Sint John Ambulance, I've met nine of them
Speaker 4: in that capacity. One of them gets two mentions because
Speaker 4: this person I think changed after a certain event happened
Speaker 4: in their life.
Speaker 3: Who's that? So? Who would you want next to in
Speaker 3: a pub? Braugh? So, okay, it's not Andrew.
Speaker 1: Although I did see some vision of Megan Markle dancing
Speaker 1: around while she was pregnant today that that's been released
Speaker 1: as Harry Fort.
Speaker 4: No, Harry, I think really can because he was he
Speaker 4: was a I told you, But no, he's not the
Speaker 4: one that i'd want.
Speaker 3: Next to me in a pub. We'll have to read tomorrow.
Speaker 4: I have to read tomorrow, and I'd be very keen
Speaker 4: to get your feedback.
Speaker 3: David Elliott in the Telegraph. Thank you mate, Thank you
Speaker 3: David Elliott