James McGrath goes on the attack against leftists on Q&A

Senator James McGrath said he doesn’t care whether he is liked before going on the attack against a left-leaning conglomerate.

Senator James McGrath says the LNP are battling too many forces in Queensland. Picture: Supplied

Liberal MP James McGrath has commended his National party colleagues for embracing a banking inquiry, downplaying reports the issue threatens to split the Coalition.

The Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister told the ABC’s Q&A colleagues such as Barry O’Sullivan, Llew O’Brien and George Christensen should be congratulated for supporting a commission of inquiry into the banks, but stopped short of stating how he would vote on the issue.

Why shouldn't the banks be held accountable with a Royal Commission? @lenoretaylor & @JamesMcGrathLNP & @MurrayWatt respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/o8z6D2eQkS

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) November 27, 2017

“If the National Party, my good friends from Queensland, Barry and Llew and George and Wacca from New South Wales want to do this, good on them,” he said.

“I think they’ve indicated to Australia in terms of what they’re going to do, in terms of a commission of inquiry through parliament. If they do that next week, well, good on them. I’m saying good on them for exercising their decision-making in that regard.”

When pressed by host Tony Jones on whether he himself supports the bill, Mr McGrath reiterated the government’s policy on the issue.

“The Government’s position is to oppose a royal commission and a commission of inquiry into the banks. If the numbers are in the parliament, my view is that’s what parliament’s there for,” he said.

Labor senator Murray Watt said the push by National MPs to support the bill this week was directly related to the LNP’s loss in the Queensland election.

“There are a number of National Party MPs and senators from Queensland over the last couple of days who have all of a sudden found their courage and voice and want to move motions in the Senate,” he said.

“I think it’s disappointing it took a pretty bad result for the LNP in Queensland before they found their courage. If they were genuine about this and really did want to fix up the banking system, they would have joined with Labor well over 12 months ago in supporting a royal commission rather than having to take a hiding in Queensland.”

Indigenous leader Warren Mundine said he was opposed to a royal commission into the banks, saying the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory was an expensive exercise that returned findings that he had already been campaigning for. But he said he backed the idea of an inquiry.

“I don’t think the Government’s going to be able to avoid actually do a commission of inquiry. Quite frankly, I think that may be a good idea in regard to every so often we should have these inquiries anyway, just to see how the whole system is working and making sure things are on track,” he said.

Editor of Guardian Australia Lenore Taylor said after a string of scandals the banks won’t be able to avoid scrutiny.

“Even though the Government has put in a whole lot more regulation and accountability requirements on the banks, they’re really trying to avoid this inquiry. I think we deserve to know what went on and why?” she said.

QUEENSLAND ELECTION

In the wake of the Queensland state election, Mr Watt declared that Labor’s win at the weekend was a reflection that Malcolm Turnbull’s “leadership is dead”, predicting internal party ruptures will eventually see him replaced.

“There’s no doubt Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership is dead… you’ve only got to look at the rumblings within the National Party that are growing each and every day... They will not stop,” he said.

“I’ve been around politics a long time and seen people on Labor and the Conservative side. When they get into trouble they say we have to communicate better. It’s not about that… The fundamental problem, that conservative parties have in this country is what they are offering people is not what people want.”

Amid speculation LNP leader Tim Nicholls will be replaced, Ms Taylor said changing leaders at any level will not solve the party’s problems.

“I think the problems are much bigger and much more systemic than that and reaching for the change of leader and every time things get dicey hasn’t worked in the past and I don’t think it would work in the future,” she said.

Mr McGrath agreed there was no appetite for a leadership change.

“It’s an appetite for us to explain what we’re doing and explaining it better. What I think is from my side of politics we have to focus on meat and potatoes. The meat is anything to do with the economy. People in the audience might not particularly like me, I don’t particularly care, but my side of politics are good at running the economy and good at making sure we can build things and lower the taxes. We have to focus on the meat side and what I call the potatoes.”

LNP SPLIT

Mr McGrath urged Queensland’s Liberal and National parties to remain one party, amid rising discontent from National elders who say the merger of the two a decade ago has robbed the party of its rural identity in the wake of the election result.

Is the LNP experiment in Queensland a failure? @JamesMcGrathLNP & @MurrayWatt respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/Vs23G4MpTk

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) November 27, 2017

The Liberal MP said the party needed to to remain intact if it is to win elections against an “armageddon of leftists” – Labor, the union movement, GetUp and the Greens.

“We can win elections against just Labor. But when we’re up against essentially four other parties who are very well resourced, more money than my party in Queensland, it makes it very hard to win elections. I’m always surprised as a conservative in Queensland not that we lose elections, I’m surprised that we occasionally win an election considering this Armageddon of leftists that come towards us,” he said.

“I’m a strong supporter of the Liberal Party and National Party staying a merged party.”

NORTHERN TERRITORY YOUTH DETENTION & DON DALE

Successive governments are “guilty as sin” for failing to take any substantial action to address youth issues in indigenous communities, said Mr Mundine, describing the recent royal commission into youth protection and detention as a waste of money.

“To me it’s all very simple. I know people say it’s hard and everything like that. The first thing is action,” he said.

“I’m talking about Labor, Liberal, National Party, all of them are guilty as sin. They have 42 reports sitting on their desk since 2004. And done nothing, quite frankly. You look at the statistics, they’re getting worse. For us, from my side, for me and sitting at the coalface of this whole thing, we have to have economic development happening in remote and regional Australia, getting people into jobs.”

He said he supported the creation of the Adani mine in Queensland because it promises to create jobs, slamming “white activists” in Sydney and Melbourne for protesting the project.

Should we revoke approval for the Carmichael mine? @nyunggai & @lenoretaylor respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/01NOdOsIwc

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) November 27, 2017

“Every few weeks I go out into regional or remote Australia and talk to people. Talk to white people, farmers, townspeople, talk to Aboriginal people, all people. And the morale and the economic future for those communities are in trouble. And in massive trouble. All the people in Sydney, every time the project comes up, no matter what it is, they say no to it and run massive campaigns and they’re funded by billionaires who go out there to stop people who have got no jobs”

Last week the Royal Commission into the Protection and ­Detention of Children in the Northern Territory released its long-awaited final report, recommending more therapeutic services, raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12, and shutting youth detention centres.

Mr Mundine said these were all things global research had already highlighted.

“I’ve always made a statement in the last 15 years after sitting down and looking at the research, locking up kids actually doesn’t work. That’s what the global statistics tell us. And also Australian jurisdictions tell us. So for us it’s about, and I also was very critical of the royal commission into Don Dale, I thought it was a waste of money and still stand by that comment. We spent $50 million on that and $50 million, that’s the budget for the Aboriginal Economic Development Program annually. And we’ve come up with recommendations which we knew already, recommendations I knew back in 2004.”