Transcript:
Interview with News Breakfast - ABC1
5 January 2012
SUBJECTS: Emergency response system; trade union movement; asylum seekers
MICHAEL ROWLAND: A new emergency response system that was trialled during the Queensland floods will be officially launched today.
KARINA CARVALHO: The technology allows the Department of Human Services to process Centrelink disaster payments on location. We're joined by the Minister for Human Services, Brendan O'Connor. He's in the studio with us. Good morning.
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: Good morning.
CARVALHO: Thanks for being here. Explain exactly how this mobile system works.
O'CONNOR: This is a very important new technology. It provides an opportunity for us to get the payments to people who've been victims of disasters as quickly as possible.
Before, people might have to write things out and have them sent back into offices located around Australia. This will allow us to transact these claims as quickly as possible which will mean immediate relief in the form of a payment to people who are victims of disaster.
ROWLAND: You gave it a bit of a test run in the Queensland floods, as we mentioned. How did that process work?
O'CONNOR: Well, look, we realised that there was a need to ensure that we got resources to people that are in need as quickly as possible. Of course that was a terrible disaster but we ensured that that was an opportunity for us to see whether this technology would operate and, indeed, this really would allow for a car with this technology to go out to a region and immediately consider people's claims, be online through either 3G technology or other technology, to ensure that we could respond to the claims that were made and it would mean that in remote areas of Australia we could provide those resources to those people as quickly as possible.
CARVALHO: So how quickly do the payments process?
O'CONNOR: Well, let's compare the situation with in terms of a paper payment. It would mean that the person would have to come back to an office, would have to put those claims in, would allow for a number of days. This can happen within 24 hours so people can be putting a claim in and it could be in their bank account within that period.
ROWLAND: Which is vital for a lot of people who are in desperate need of financial help.
O'CONNOR: Certainly. For example, there were 800,000 separate claims through all of the disasters we were dealing with. We had 14 simultaneous disasters during the floods, cyclones and bushfires of last summer. Now, you can imagine, 800,000 claims involving hundreds of thousands of Australians not able to get any resources. If we can do that in a quicker manner, of course it means that those people that are victims to these natural disasters are much better off.
CARVALHO: Is 30 mobile units enough?
O'CONNOR: Well, it's 30 more than there were before and we'll of course assess the impact that makes and see whether we need to expand on that but there's no doubt that the mobile technologies will allow us to provide resources where required in areas of remote Australia in particular.
ROWLAND: Now, we've just entered the 2012 political year, a year the Prime Minister is very optimistic about, but it started with the former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, asserting that unions are suffocating the Labor Party. As a former senior official in a prominent trade union, what do you make of such a claim?
O'CONNOR: Look, I noticed Bob Hawke's comments, of course. He's a great former Prime Minister and, indeed, a great former trade union official. I don't entirely agree with the assessment about the comments he made in terms of the impact that unions have upon the Labor Party. Indeed, the Labor Party sprung out of the union movement. The union movement's a very important institution not only for the Labor Party but for this country.
If you look at the social changes that have occurred in this country, whether it be superannuation, whether it be Medicare, whether it be other social conditions, they have quite often emanated from the trade union movement and therefore we shouldn't be quick to attack a democratic institution like unions or the union movement in the way that some parts of the media and other commentators seem to want to do, but I don't agree with that assessment at all.
CARVALHO: And as we began 2012 two more asylum-seeker boats were intercepted. You're Acting Immigration Minister at the moment. How do those talks with the Opposition stand?
O'CONNOR: Look, they're ongoing, notwithstanding some of the negative comments by the Leader of the Opposition yesterday. The Immigration Minister is engaged in discussions with the Shadow Minister for Immigration and, as I say, we want to continue those discussions. It really is now critical that the Opposition and the Government sit down and work out this issue.
I think Australians are sick to death of this matter not being resolved by their members of parliament and I think there's an opportunity here and I don't want to be distracted by Tony Abbott's negative comments. I was hoping he had a New Year's resolution coming into this year about being positive and about putting the nation's interests first. I hope that is still true because I think it's critical and I think Australians are really sick to death of this issue not being resolved by their representatives.
ROWLAND: If the agreement isn't reached and the boats keep on coming, as the Indonesian authorities are warning, where does that leave the Government? Where do you go to from here?
O'CONNOR: Look, there may be a whole range of options for us but there's no doubt, in our mind, that the Malaysian arrangement is one of the most effective ways to deter people endangering their lives getting on unseaworthy vessels, on perilous journeys. We do not want to see any more lives lost at sea.
CARVALHO: Is the Government willing to negotiate on the Malaysia solution? Is it likely to back down on that? At one stage it said it wasn't going to reintroduce Nauru as an option for processing asylum-seekers. There's been a backdown on that.
O'CONNOR: We won't negotiate the matter through the media but I'll say this, that there's no doubt we have an open mind to what we can agree upon and that's why we have discussions in place and I hope that the Shadow Minister for Immigration has a more positive mindset than the comments made by the Leader of the Opposition yesterday.
CARVALHO: Brendan O'Connor, the Human Services Minister, thanks for joining us this morning.
O'CONNOR: Thank you very much.
ENDS