Senator Eric Abetz

Senator Abetz: The Qantas strike today is a matter of concern. It will disrupt a lot of people's holiday activities. It will also be another blow to the Australian tourism industry that's doing it tough.

So, I call on those involved in the strike to consider the travelling public, consider the tourism industry as well. And also I would invite people considering their wage claims to ensure they are in tune with community expectations and assist each other in ensuring that we do have a viable carrier in Qantas, and also that they can compete equitably with Virgin and other carriers in Australia.

Journalist: Given Qantas's profits, aren't they performing viably?

Senator Abetz: Qantas is performing viably, but there is always a competition threat from other carriers and whilst you can see the bottom line of the Qantas profit, it is a question of return on the capital invested and also a return to the shareholders. And if there isn't the adequate return for shareholders, then of course there will be a loss of confidence in whatever the company is. And let's not forget who the shareholders are. A lot of them are the superannuants of the country who rely on that dividend stream to fund their retirement incomes.

Journalist: inaudible.

Senator Abetz: I prefer to look at the figures which indicate that the Government has got its policies wrong. And these popularity contests between individuals, I would invite Australians to set that aside. The clear fact is Labor is now on a 26% primary vote because its got its policy settings all wrong.   

Why do they have their policy settings all wrong? Because they are dancing to the tune of the Australian Greens and the longer they continue this, the further down in the polls they will go.

Journalist: Can you see an explanation for the drop in numbers for Tony Abbott?

Senator Abetz:  Look opinion poll numbers will bounce around, go up and down and as I understand it Tony Abbott is doing well in comparison to Julia Gillard. But whether somebody is popular or not, or as popular as somebody else, that's all interesting, but at the end of the day what the Australian people want are good sound policies and it's quite clear, on the current polling, the Australian people don't have confidence in the current Government. And the reason they don't is that they were lied to in relation to the Carbon tax, they can't deal with issue of border protection and the reason they've got all these difficulties is because they are dancing to the tune of the Australian Greens.

Journalist: Given the deadlock now between the Government and the Opposition, do you find it ironic that onshore processing has potentially become a reality by default?

Senator Abetz: Oh well onshore processing is the reality today. That is what's happening at Christmas Island on a regular basis. What Labor wanted to do was reinstitute offshore processing. The Coalition Government had offshore processing. It worked exceptionally well. It stopped the boats, along with might I add, the temporary protection visas.

Labor trying to show that they were more compassionate and humane than the Coalition stopped that. They then had an influx of boats, exactly what we predicted. Now Labor is telling us that they are tougher than us on border protection by wanting to send people to Malaysia where those that would be sent there would be liable to be being caned and subjected to treatment that I think most Australians would say is unacceptable.   

Journalist: given the failure of offshore processing and now the potential influx of asylum seeker boats are you expecting Labor to blame the Opposition?

Senator Abetz: Labor always blames everybody else but themselves for their policy failures. We would invite them to have a look again at the Nauru solution and the temporary protection visa solution. It clearly worked, it was effective. It ensured that the boats stopped.

Labor deliberately dismantled that policy. They had the influx of boats, exactly as we predicted. Now they are scrambling together a policy that has even less protections in it than the Howard Government policies which of course they criticised as being inhumane and unacceptable.

Indeed Ms Gillard said that the bottom line for her was that any country to which people were sent had to be signatories to the Convention on Refugees.

Here we have a proposal, putting her words, her policy, into legislative action and she is rejecting it and saying that we as a Coalition are playing the spoiling game. I wonder who's playing the spoiling game. She made a rock solid promise as to what she thought was vital, but of course that's exactly the same as her rock solid promise on no Carbon Tax and that is why she's lingering in the polls.

Journalist:  inaudible.

Senator Abetz: We say these are illegal entrants and Kevin Rudd himself had policy which Labor tries to air brush out now. Labor has had as its policy as well where it is possible to send the boats back from whence they came. That is not putting them into a camp or detention. As I understand it they were people in Indonesia, from whence they sailed freely and they can freely sail back there and do what ever they want. They were not in detention in Indonesia and that is the significant difference.

Journalist: inaudible.

Senator Abetz: But they will be under a detention system. They will be tracked by the Government there unlike the circumstances that they were in Indonesia.

Journalist: Labor has got a little bump in the polls, a week after it's been seen to reach out to the Coalition. Are you worried that you are going to continue to look as if you are standing in the way of resolving this issue.

Senator Abetz: Well if Labor got a bump in the polls, I think it's more a pothole. They are now down to 26% primary vote. That is as low, as I understand it, that they have ever been. So if they think that is a lift for them, that they've only fallen by 1% in the primary vote, so be it. I believe that the Australian people do want to see a resolution, that they do want to see a fair, reasonable and rational resolution and we have said all along that the Malaysian deal of one for five was a bad deal, not only for the one for five , but also from a human rights point of view.

We have been consistent in our position all along and we would invite Government to have a look at our legislation. They have not given us any reason why our proposal, which is more human and proven to work, is not acceptable to them.