Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Andrea Crowthers, the journalist who broke the story of Sam McMahon allegedly involved in a scuffle with a Nationals colleague

Transcript

Katie spoke with Andrea Crowthers, the journalist who broke the story of Sam McMahon allegedly involved in a scuffle with a Nationals colleague · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, as you have heard this morning, we know that
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: reports emerged over the weekend of an incident which allegedly
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: saw Senator Sam McMahon throw several punches towards National's Federal
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Director Jonathan Hawks. Now joining me on the line is
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  Speaker 1: the journalist who broke this story over the weekend, Andrea
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  Speaker 1: Cruthers from Sky News. Good morning to you. Andrea.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Andrea, tell us what you know and exactly what was
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: reported on the weekend.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Well, Katie, didn't Parliament just go out with a bit
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  Speaker 2: of a bang after a wild couple of weeks. So
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  Speaker 2: effectively Parliament it wrapped up for the year on Thursday,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: all the sitting days, and then the Nationals Party had
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  Speaker 2: their big Christmas function that night. So just a few
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  Speaker 2: hours after Parliament wrapped, you've got senators there, MP's staffers,
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  Speaker 2: everyone there having a bit of a drink together when suddenly,
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  Speaker 2: I'm told that Sena McMahon was being ejected from the event,
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  Speaker 2: walked out to a taxi and suddenly she just allegedly
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: throwing a few punches in the direction of Jonathan Hall. So,
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  Speaker 2: as you said, is the National's Federal director. Now I'm
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: told none of those actually made contact, so Nolan was
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  Speaker 2: actually hurt that he's not picking up the phone. She
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  Speaker 2: also isn't responding to any inquiries that the Deputy Prime
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Minister of Varnami Joyce, he has had a little bit
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  Speaker 2: to say on this. He's overseas at the moment, but
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  Speaker 2: his office they's since responded saying that look, he was
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  Speaker 2: advised at this incident. A contrite apology has been given
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  Speaker 2: and accepted apparently, and then both parties are so that
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  Speaker 2: they bought this to be the end of the issue,
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  Speaker 2: so they're saying it out of respect from them, they'll
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  Speaker 2: be adhered to the office. So they're clearly quite keen
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  Speaker 2: to sort of move on from this.
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  Speaker 1: I guess, oh, no doubt they are. But Andrew, it
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  Speaker 1: just makes you sort of ask the question, should our
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  Speaker 1: politicians behaving be behaving in this way? You know what
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  Speaker 1: there are at their Christmas do.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I think everyone doesn't like it when I guess
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  Speaker 2: people do perhaps some bad behavior out of Christmas function,
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  Speaker 2: but I think it does certainly put a bit more
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  Speaker 2: of the spotlight again on the sort of behavior that
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  Speaker 2: is occurring in camera, in the in and around Parliament House.
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  Speaker 2: Because bear in mind this came just two days after
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  Speaker 2: Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins released his bombshell reports that
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  Speaker 2: looked at the sort of behavior and the culture that
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  Speaker 2: was occurring around Canberra, also particularly around the use of
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  Speaker 2: alcohol and what role that may has played in that.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, one of the recommendations out of that with
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  Speaker 2: particularly asking that alcohol being restricted in and around camera
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to these sorts of things. So it
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  Speaker 2: wasn't a really good look for them, something which I
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  Speaker 2: guess they're going to want to move on from. But
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  Speaker 2: interestingly we did also see when Barnaby Joyce put out
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  Speaker 2: this statement, yeah, a spokesperson from his office, he didn't
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: actually condemn the actions of it, and we know that
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  Speaker 2: he and Sam mcmahona allies. She helped topple Michael McCormack
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: to get him back in, but he didn't actually condemn that.
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  Speaker 2: And again while one was hurt. It did just come
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  Speaker 2: this days after there was the spotlight once again put
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  Speaker 2: on the behavior occurring in around camera.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and unfortunately not the first time that Senator McMahon
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  Speaker 1: has had the spotlight on her as well with allegations
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  Speaker 1: involving alcohol.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, it was just sat in June that
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  Speaker 2: she was being accused of being drunk in the Senate
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  Speaker 2: because you can actually see the vision when they're on
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  Speaker 2: the floor. It's quite late at night, they're sitting there,
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  Speaker 2: and she was actually getting walked out by Senator Bridget McKenzie,
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  Speaker 2: one of the other National senators, and at the time
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  Speaker 2: a spokesperson for Miss mart said that she'd hadn't been drinking,
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  Speaker 2: she was simply feeling ill. They accused it of trying
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  Speaker 2: to defend it by saying it's basically someone slandering her
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  Speaker 2: ahead of that pre selection battle which was just days later,
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  Speaker 2: which she of course ended up losing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, it's certainly an interesting story and
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  Speaker 1: certainly a very interesting situation. But as you pointed out there,
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  Speaker 1: you know, alcohol and that report which was just released
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  Speaker 1: late last week, and you know, I do think that
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  Speaker 1: people expect sort of better behavior from our politicians right
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  Speaker 1: across the board when it comes to the use of
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  Speaker 1: the drinking of alcohol.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, they certainly do. There's been a lot
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  Speaker 2: of conversations about this because there's been other incidents, whether
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: it's involving Green senators, Liberal senators, which within those couple
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: of days as well in the last week, and there
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  Speaker 2: has been a lot of discussion around that. Interestingly, the
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  Speaker 2: pro Minisy yesterday he wasn't asking anything about it. Today.
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  Speaker 2: He held another press conference just a brief stare up
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  Speaker 2: a short time ago, and he hasn't really sort of
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  Speaker 2: said much of it as well. So whilst they all
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  Speaker 2: know this is going on and at times potentially part
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: of it themselves, I guess there's still that sort of
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: not to eat, you know, there's quineteen, that reluctance to
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  Speaker 2: sort of get involved in calling this sort of action out. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and like you pointed out just a couple of
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  Speaker 1: moments ago, we know that she's not been pre selected.
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  Speaker 1: Senator Sam McMahon has not been pre selected to run
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  Speaker 1: at the next selection, just Enterprice has won that pre
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  Speaker 1: selection within the COLP. So I guess they're probably all
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  Speaker 1: just hoping that if they go to ground now the
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  Speaker 1: issue will move away.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And there has been sort of lost the
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  Speaker 2: questions about exactly what caused this particular bisk on Thursday night.
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  Speaker 2: Some people have said speculated, look, it could be to
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  Speaker 2: do the pre selection is also quite so it's not
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  Speaker 2: lot of love lost between you know, miss mc mahon
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  Speaker 2: and some of her colleagues there is also concerned about
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  Speaker 2: particularly mister Hooks and a lot of them that started
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  Speaker 2: exactly happy that he doesn't necessarily have a traditional national
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  Speaker 2: background there. But all it actually really kept up a
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  Speaker 2: fairly think fortnite to Senator semcmind because she did get
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: in the headlines a few times throughout the week. The
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  Speaker 2: other things, she crossed the floor with some rebel senators
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  Speaker 2: from the Coalition backing a one nation push to try
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: and ban back seeing mandate to the States. It's actually
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: unclear if they would even have the powers to do that,
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  Speaker 2: and they certainly didn't have to support to get that
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  Speaker 2: through Parliament. But she was certainly popping a head up
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  Speaker 2: about a few things here that probably not the way
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  Speaker 2: she would have liked to potentially end her career in Parliament,
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  Speaker 2: given we could potentially have an election as early as
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  Speaker 2: much yeah, meaning that they may not even get back
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  Speaker 2: really for a sitting week.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it is always interesting, Andrea, and this one over
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  Speaker 1: the weekend was certainly a very interesting story. Great to
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  Speaker 1: speak with you this morning. I really appreciate your time.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Thank Katty, thank you