Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Senator for the Northern Territory Sam McMahon about her support for Pauline Hanson's mandate bill

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Katie spoke with Senator for the Northern Territory Sam McMahon about her support for Pauline Hanson's mandate bill · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Well, we are being inundated with messages following that discussion
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: with the CPSU just a few moments ago. There's one
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: here that says, don't forget they also get an increase
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: in annual leave to go with this proposed pay rise.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: That's another cost for US taxpayers. One here from an
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  Speaker 1: anonymous Texter and it says, Hi, Katie, I'm one of
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  Speaker 1: those public servants supposedly dismissed. Yet I and others have
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  Speaker 1: not been informed of this. Is it still in the
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  Speaker 1: consultation phase with the employer. Therefore, Gunner announcing I'm dismissed
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  Speaker 1: before going through this is good grounds for unfeared dismissal,
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  Speaker 1: says that message. A lot of you pretty fired up
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  Speaker 1: for various reasons. But we are going to move along
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  Speaker 1: because we know that it was reported yesterday that the
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  Speaker 1: coalition is split over One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson's new
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  Speaker 1: legislation vowing to make it illegal to discriminate against the unvaccinated,
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  Speaker 1: with five Senators crossing the floor over the bill, Senators
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  Speaker 1: Jared Rennick, Alex Antik, Matt Canavan, can Chetta Fairreventis and
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Senator Sam McMahon were the Coalition members
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  Speaker 1: to cross the floor despite the five senator's decision to
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  Speaker 1: vote against the government. The bill was defeated five votes
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  Speaker 1: to forty four in the Upper House. Now joining me
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  Speaker 1: on the line is the Senator for the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 1: Sam McMahon.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Yeah, good morning, Katie, Good morning to you listens.
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  Speaker 3: Senator. Why did you cross the floor on this.
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  Speaker 4: Cdy?
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  Speaker 2: I did because I've basically been inundated with messages from
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  Speaker 2: Territorians phone calls, emails, messages that are very unhappy about
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  Speaker 2: the vaccine mandate and have been peppering me with messages
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  Speaker 2: to essentially do something. You know, that's the thing I
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  Speaker 2: get asked is do something? Can you please do something?
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  Speaker 2: So this was an opportunity to stand up for those
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  Speaker 2: Territorians who who want something done about done on his
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  Speaker 2: vaccine mandate.
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  Speaker 1: So, Senator, are you opposed to the vaccine mandate?
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  Speaker 2: I am opposed to the vaccine mandate, Katie. Look, Federally,
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  Speaker 2: we've always said right from the start that we don't
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  Speaker 2: support vaccine mandates. We strongly support vaccination and we encourage
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  Speaker 2: everyone to be vaccinated, but it shouldn't be mandated and
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  Speaker 2: that's a federal government's stance, and.
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  Speaker 3: That is also my man, are you vaccinated?
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  Speaker 2: I am totally fully vaccinated. Couldn't line up quick enough.
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  Speaker 2: I fully support vaccination, and as I said, I encourage
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  Speaker 2: everyone to do so, but I respect individual people's rights
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  Speaker 2: not to do so for various different reasons.
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  Speaker 1: Now, we caught up with the federal Health Minister Greg
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  Speaker 1: Hunt yesterday and certainly asked him whether he would be
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  Speaker 1: supporting this bell take a listen to what he'd told us.
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  Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson is claiming that she's going to cause havoc
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  Speaker 1: unless Scott Morrison backs her legislation making it unlawful to
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  Speaker 1: discriminate against unvaccinated orsi's. It could affect the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: more than anywhere else, as we are one of the
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  Speaker 1: only places where the federal government could obviously overrule our government.
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  Speaker 1: Will the government be supporting that legislation.
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  Speaker 4: No. Our approach is to be announced to encourage Australians
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  Speaker 4: to take up the vaccine. We may not agree with
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  Speaker 4: some of the things some of the states and territories
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  Speaker 4: are doing. We may not agree with some of the
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  Speaker 4: things that Senator Hanson is proposing. Our job is to
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  Speaker 4: chart that middle course of lives and livelihoods.
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  Speaker 1: So it doesn't sound as though the government would overturn
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory's vaccine mandate.
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  Speaker 4: No, there are no plans to do that.
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  Speaker 1: So, Senator, are you out of line with the you know,
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  Speaker 1: the parties that you're part of.
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  Speaker 2: No, No, not at all. Look, it was made very
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  Speaker 2: clear yesterday morning that, you know, one of the things
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  Speaker 2: about our side of politics is that we do allow
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  Speaker 2: individuals to have their say, and we do allow individuals
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  Speaker 2: to vote differently to the government. So that was made
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  Speaker 2: very clear yesterday morning, both of us that decided to
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  Speaker 2: vote with it. We're not out of line, not out
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  Speaker 2: of step, but we did exercise our right to do that.
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  Speaker 2: And look, I understand why most of my colleagues voted
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  Speaker 2: against it, because there certainly were quite a few things
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  Speaker 2: in Pauline's bill that would have been unworkable, very difficult
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  Speaker 2: to work or implement with. I have stated publicly that
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  Speaker 2: if the opportunity had been there, I would have proposed
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  Speaker 2: to move quite significant amendments to the bill. And the
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  Speaker 2: opinion of many of my colleagues was they supported the
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  Speaker 2: sentiment of it, but they couldn't vote for the detail.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, when it came down to it, though,
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  Speaker 1: there was only five of you, and I know that
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  Speaker 1: you know that. Obviously, Senator Rennick and also Senator Antik
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  Speaker 1: have warned that they would not vote in favor of
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  Speaker 1: Coalition legislation unless the Prime Minister does take some action
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  Speaker 1: against mandatory vaccine policies imposed by states. Are you going
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  Speaker 1: to be withholding your vote now on other legislation.
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  Speaker 2: No, No, not at all, Katie. Look, I understand that
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  Speaker 2: they have been reported as saying that is their position.
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  Speaker 2: I haven't actually spoken them to them directly on it,
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  Speaker 2: but that's reported as their position. But no, I'm not
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  Speaker 2: going to do that. And the reason that I'm not
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  Speaker 2: going to do that is because I don't believe in
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  Speaker 2: holding the government and the people of Australia effectively to
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  Speaker 2: ransom to get what I want, and that's what I'd
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  Speaker 2: be doing. You know that this will put the whole
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  Speaker 2: two weeks of Parliament wouldn't be able to pass vital
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  Speaker 2: legislation that improves the lives of ordinary Australia and I'm
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  Speaker 2: certainly I wasn't put in this place to do that,
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  Speaker 2: so I'm certainly not going to take that course of action.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we know yesterday morning, obviously you'd issued a statement
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  Speaker 1: saying that you're a private senator's bill had been pushed
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  Speaker 1: off the not after one Nation Senator Pauline Hanson hijacked
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  Speaker 1: legislation priorities. You'd said, I'm extremely disappointed this has occurred
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  Speaker 1: to all Territorians, and I am. I was pushing, along
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  Speaker 1: with other senior government leaders for this to occur. However,
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  Speaker 1: Senator Hanson made it quite clear where her priorities were,
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  Speaker 1: and they aren't Territorians. How can you send that pressure
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  Speaker 1: release out in the morning Having a crack at Pauline
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  Speaker 1: Hanson then crossed the floor to support her hours later.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it sounds a bit funny, doesn't it. I'm
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  Speaker 2: cranky at Pauline for blackmailing the government and taking priority
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  Speaker 2: over my legislation. Yes, I support the sentiment of her bill.
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  Speaker 2: So yes, it does sound a little bit confused.
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  Speaker 3: It sort of sounds like hedging your bets both ways.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: No, I'm still cranky that she did it, and I
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  Speaker 2: think she could have still put her bill up without
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  Speaker 2: making all these demands. So I'm still cranky that she
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  Speaker 2: did it, but I do support the sentiment of her bill,
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  Speaker 2: So a little bit confusing.
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  Speaker 1: Where are we at now then with you know, with
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  Speaker 1: the bills that you had pushed forward, that that you
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  Speaker 1: know you had been very passionate about.
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  Speaker 3: Where are we at now with that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, And Katie that the point is that, no matter,
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  Speaker 2: no matter what I had done, my bill wasn't going
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  Speaker 2: to get on the notice paper yesterday because the government
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  Speaker 2: was forced into caving into Pauline. So nothing I could
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  Speaker 2: have done would have changed that. But my bills?
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  Speaker 3: Have you supported her? You then supported it?
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  Speaker 2: No, I supported the sentiment of her bill, not what
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  Speaker 2: she did.
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  Speaker 3: You cross the floor, but you crossed the floor to
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  Speaker 3: support her.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. As I said, I support the intent and the
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  Speaker 2: sentiment of her bill. I don't support the way she
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  Speaker 2: got it on there. So I know it might sound confusing,
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  Speaker 2: but they're two very very different, two very different positions.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't actually sound confusing. It doesn't sound confusing. It
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  Speaker 1: sounds like you're hedging your bets either way. If I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to be bluntly honest about it.
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  Speaker 2: No, not at all. I couldn't stop her bill coming on.
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  Speaker 2: I couldn't stop that she forced the government into letting
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  Speaker 2: her have her way and pushing her bill through ahead
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  Speaker 2: of other legislation like mine. That happened. There's nothing I
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  Speaker 2: could do to stop that. Now my bill is still
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  Speaker 2: sitting there. I am still hopeful that it could come
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  Speaker 2: up as early as this fortnight, or if not, in
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  Speaker 2: the next sitting session. So it's still sitting there. It
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  Speaker 2: hasn't disappeared now, it's just been put back a priority
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  Speaker 2: from Pauline's as I said, because she blackmailed the government.
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  Speaker 2: I could have done the same thing. I could have
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  Speaker 2: thrown my toys out of the cot and stamped my
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  Speaker 2: feet and said I'm not voting for anything. I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to hold the Australian public to ransom. But I chose
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  Speaker 2: not to do that, which you know, I believe is
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  Speaker 2: the right thing to do. I don't think your public
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  Speaker 2: put me there to be obstructive to the government.
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  Speaker 3: Sizen. We are going to have to move along.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to have to move along because we are
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  Speaker 1: just running out of time. I do want to ask you,
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  Speaker 1: and this is a really important question from one of
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  Speaker 1: our listeners, Benny.
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  Speaker 3: He says, Hi, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: The announcement from Scott Morrison yesterday about opening the international
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  Speaker 1: borders to visa holders and students. Does this include the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory and if so, how's quarantine going to work? Senator,
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  Speaker 1: do you have any update for us on that situation
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  Speaker 1: for territori ents?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I do, look at is going to include the
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory absolutely, But unfortunately we fall back on this
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  Speaker 2: problem that quarantine arrangements are a function of the states
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  Speaker 2: and territories, So it will actually be up to the
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  Speaker 2: Gunner government as to how they implement quarantine and what
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  Speaker 2: spaces they make available for these visa holders and students.
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  Speaker 1: What would you like to see happen with that with
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  Speaker 1: those quarantine arrangements? Do you reckon they need to make
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  Speaker 1: some space within Howard Springs for this?
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  Speaker 2: Well, there's Howard Springs, which I understand they're nervous about
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  Speaker 2: at the moment with the current COVID outbreak in the NT,
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  Speaker 2: but there's also Bladon Village sitting there. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: I've said all along I'd like to see Bladon Village
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  Speaker 2: used to bring in international students, to bring in workers,
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  Speaker 2: so you know that facility is there, and I hope
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  Speaker 2: if they need Howard Springs for territorians that they would
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  Speaker 2: look at using Bladon Village for bringing in some of
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  Speaker 2: these people.
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  Speaker 4: Well.
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  Speaker 1: Senator for the Northern Territory Sam McMahon, always appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you very much for speaking with me this morning.
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  Speaker 3: No thanks, thank you,