Michael Sukkar MP

Interview with Sharri Markson – Sky News

THE HON MICHAEL SUKKAR MP – SHADOW MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES, NDIS, HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH SHARRI MARKSON – SKY NEWS

Wednesday 14 February, 2024

TOPICS: Immigration Detention, Dunkley Byelection, Brain Cancer and the NDIS

E&OE

Sharri Markson: Alright, let’s return to those quite controversial comments by the Immigration Minister, Andrew Giles, to discuss them. Senior Coalition Shadow Minister Michael Sukkar joins me now. Thanks so much for your time tonight, Michael, in Canberra. Look, we’ve just played these comments of Andrew Giles saying that immigration detention should be a last resort. He made these comments just 18 months ago. We’ve played them tonight. What’s your reaction?

Michael Sukkar: Well, it just shows how weak this government is on keeping Australians safe. The truth is that these individuals are not Australian citizens. They have criminal records and they should be in immigration detention. I think it’s very clear now. Bit by bit, we’re seeing no intention, no effort by this Minister or Anthony Albanese to keep these very dangerous individuals in detention and that’s why they’re now on the street and that’s why we’ve got Australians who are victims of crimes being perpetrated by these individuals. And I mean remarkably, Sharri, in our Parliament today it becomes very clear that the Government doesn’t know where these people are. They’re offending even further, we’ve got seven murderers, we’ve got over 30 sexual offenders and there’s a material risk to Australian citizens and this Minister and this government seems to be very happy to have them out on the street.

Sharri Markson: And we just learned at Senate estimates last night that since the release there have been 27 re-offenses. So they are, you know, these people approving to be a danger on our streets.

Michael Sukkar: And that’s why this government and Anthony Albanese should come into the Parliament and apologise to every single victim of one of these individuals who he has failed to keep in detention.

Sharri Markson: Yeah. Dunkley By election, of course, coming up early next month, both internal party polls, I understand, and both sides of politics also public polling still have Labor ahead around the 52 to 48 2PP mark. Do you think that the stage three tax cuts, even though it was a broken promise that many Australians disagree with in this electorate where there’s such a high proportion, I think it’s 87% of the electorate would be better off as a result of Labor’s tax cut changes. Do you think this will have saved Labor in this byelection?

Michael Sukkar: Well, I think it’s too early to say that, Sharri. The truth is that for virtually every single resident in Dunkley, they are worse off after 20 months of Labor. It’s undisputed that nearly every single resident of Dunkley, after 20 months of Labor on average, is $8,000 a year worse off if you’ve got a mortgage in Dunkley. And we know it’s an area with a lot of families with mortgages here, on average $24,000 a year worse off. So I think there’s a lot of people in Dunkley feeling the strain under this government. And just to show the priorities of this government, Sharri, and how disconnected they are from the people of Dunkley. Today we see an announcement from the government, an additional $14 million for food banks around the country because we know they’re busting at the seams and we know that people are struggling under Labor’s cost of living crisis. But on the day they announced $14 million for food banks, we find out they’re spending $40 million on a political advertising campaign for their tax changes. That shows the priorities. It shows how out of touch Anthony Albanese is. And I think the people in Dunkley have an opportunity to send him a very strong message.

Sharri Markson: And we’re going to come back to that story a bit later about the $40 million spend to advertise the tax cut changes. Michael, last night on this program we had a young man, his name is Asher Dinnen. He’s a terminal cancer patient, and he was forced to spend some six months of the precious short time that he has left in life, fighting the government to get access to the NDIS scheme because he now has serious disabilities. Have a look at what he had to say.

GRAB: 

Asher Dinnen – Cancer patient: When I spoke to people in the system doctors, nurses, health care workers, they told me the NDIA was the place to go. And when you have a terminal illness like my own, every moment is precious and all you want to do is spend your time living your life as you wish. The last thing I wanted to spend the majority of the last year doing is fighting a broken system.

Sharri Markson: Now, Michael, before I asked you about this, what’s quite amazing, we showed this here on the show last night. Now Asher’s plight where terminal patients can’t get access to NDIA funding was actually raised in Senate estimates this afternoon.

GRAB:

Senator Kovacic – Why are some Australians who are left with a profound disability following a treatment for a brain tumor being denied access to the NDIS?

Rebecca Faulkingham – I think that, as I’ve said, we don’t want anyone bouncing across the two systems, but we will absolutely pay for any disability related supports that people access for within the scheme. But it’s also really important that I don’t have the staff or the clinical governance to deliver palliative services, and I think we would all want people who are really well trained and equipped in those circumstances to be delivering those services.

Sharri Markson: Now, Michael, do you think that terminal cancer patients should be denied NDIA funding like they are at the moment?

Michael Sukkar: Well, Sharri, credit to you for telling that story. I did watch it last night and it was very moving for me. And I think anybody that watched, it’s such a precious time in his life. The truth is Sharri, and we’ve determined this through a senate estimates and through other channels that it seems as though we’ve seen a very big shift from NDIA in the way that these sorts of applications have been treated. We’ve seen largely these being approved under the NDA in the past, and it’s seemingly some sort of policy change which now sees the vast majority of these types of cases being denied. What I think people like Asher are owed is consistency. There needs to be a consistent application. If there’s been a change in the administrative treatment of these sorts of applications by the NDIA, Bill Shorten, the Minister should come out and admit that – we need transparency. People need to know what the playing field is. And quite frankly, Sharri, since the government was elected, we’ve seen the scheme just buckling under more and more issues and Bill Shorten is good at describing problems, but as minister is not good at fixing any of them and sadly people and families like Ashes are suffering under a really mismanaged process at the moment. So we would be calling for consistent application of the rules, transparency on those and people will understand and know what the playing field is when they seek to apply to the agency.

Sharri Markson: And he did end up winning access to the scheme, but it took him about six months he had to take them to court. It’s the last you want to do when when you’re literally dying and the stress levels and the cost of $25,000. Look, there’s a lot of other people in his situation who just wouldn’t have the ability or the energy to take it to court. Michael Sukkar, thank you so much for joining us.

Ends