Radio interview - FiveAA with Stacey Lee

STACEY LEE, HOST:    Joining me now is Federal Minster for Employment Amanda Rishworth and Senator Anne Ruston, Shadow Health Minister, good day to you both.

STACEY LEE:    I wanted to start the week off at the start of the week, and this shocking story to do with Bronwyn Patterson and Stephen King, her husband who died shortly after being ramped. He was in palliative care. And Bronwyn, his wife, his widow, came out just addressing the concerns that she had about the state of the health system. And then Chris Picton later came out and apologised after he released what he thought was a letter from her husband who died, Stephen King, praising the state of the healthcare system. Turns out it was from the wrong Stephen King. Then the second allegations came from the Opposition that his office had also released personal medical information about another patient within SA Health. Minister Rishworth, I might go to you on this one. We've seen politicians resign for less than this - Barry O'Farrell forgot to declare a bottle of wine and he quit. Should Chris Picton quit?

AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS:    Look, I think the answer is, no. I do think you've mentioned two distinct incidents and I think the first one regarding Stephen King, of course, Chris has absolutely come out straight away - said he made a mistake, said he's taken full responsibility. Didn't try and blame shift or do anything. The Premier has said it doesn't warrant a resignation. I think we need to reward people that say, I've done the wrong thing, and acknowledge that. And I think, you know, it doesn't happen enough in politics. I would say the second incident you identified is very different. The Liberal Party made a number of incorrect accusations about the rebooking of surgery. Journalists came to the Government and asked questions about that. I mean, if they didn't answer the questions that journalists came to them with then they would have been told that they were hiding things. So there's sort of a catch-22 there. So I think the two instances are very different. But when it came to the first one, I think the Minister has not tried to pretend it was something that was not or blame shift. He's taken full responsibility and apologised. And that's what you'd expect in the second step. 

STACEY LEE:    In regards to the second incident, you've said and as the state government has said that they were answering journalists' questions, which might be the case. But wouldn't there be a more appropriate way of answering them that wasn't giving out the personal, private medical information of a patient? 

AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Well, I think, unfortunately, the Liberal Party started by putting out personal information - went out and made accusations about specific reasons for rebooking emergency surgery, and so were asked some very direct questions. I think it is right and proper if the Liberal Party have decided to put a press release out making accusations and asking questions, the Government has a responsibility to reply. But I think it's one of those things. If they hadn't replied, they would have been accused of hiding information. So I think that circumstance is quite different. And I think there's different challenges there. But I think, you know, when the Liberal Party puts out a media release with all these questions to be answered and the Government answers those questions, I think it's very hard then for them to accuse the Government of wrongdoing. 

STACEY LEE:    Anne Ruston, I might bring you in at this point. When I spoke to Ashton Hurn, the Leader of the Opposition, about this I was very clear with my questioning of her that, if she was to be elected could she guarantee that the Liberal Party would not be releasing any of this information? And if any minister was found to be releasing it, would she sack them? She says, yes, but that's easy to say when you're in Opposition and not so easy to do when you're in Government. 

ANNE RUSTON, LIBERAL SENATOR:    Well, I mean obviously that's the issue here. I mean, yes, they are very different. But, I mean, quite frankly, I am sick to death of both the Labor, State Government and Federal Government always blaming somebody else when there's a problem. You know, the fact that Minister Picton has released this personal information, and then for Amanda to turn around and say, well, it's the Liberal Party's fault because they put out a press release, I mean, I think belies the reality of what's really gone on here. But in the case of the release of the information of the letter, the wrong letter regarding this thing, you know what this really looks like? The Government, rather than responding to a policy failure, which is the rampant ramping that we've seen in South Australia, the Labor Government's instinct was to treat this tragedy as a public relations problem. And I think that's the thing that he's probably the most furious about, is that instead of dealing with a really, really serious issue, and that is the highest amount of ramping we've ever seen in South Australia this year, their natural instinct is to just jump to we just want to deflect it to something else. So I think that is the point that we should make.

STACEY LEE:    Well, I wanted to move on to the next topic, which is the drama in the Liberal Party that we've seen this week and Carston Woodhouse, the former- now former candidate for the Seat of Wright. Some podcast episodes came to light that he had some extremely problematic views. Called feminism demonic, denied homosexuality exists. He said he'd been in church and seen witches burn. He was Islamophobic, some would argue he was anti-Semitic. It took a while for the party to get rid of him and disendorse him, and we still don't have answers as to how that all played out and who within the party made that decision, Anne Ruston. I had Ashton Hurn on the program yesterday, and she said, we won't be releasing that information. And then about three minutes after she got off air, we received a statement from the State Director doing that, releasing the information. Is the Liberal Party tearing itself apart again? Is this just the two factions fighting? Will you ever get along with each other? 

ANNE RUSTON:    Well, not at all. And can I just firstly say quite clearly, I do not support the comments that were made by Carston Woodhouse, and obviously, neither does the leader, Ashton. But the issue in relation to the candidates obviously fits within the Secretariat, but it doesn't in any way shape or form deflect from the fact that the comments made by Woodhouse do not reflect the views in any way of the Liberal Party, and I think it's appropriate that he stood down. 

STACEY LEE:    I think a lot of Liberals say that, but then some Liberals disagree. Alex Antic got up in Federal Parliament yesterday, I’m not sure if you were in the Senate Chamber when he said it, but he said, if this guy is forced to go or if he chooses to go, then we may as well call the election now and not even bother holding it because he thinks the party will lose. 

ANNE RUSTON:    Well, I mean, obviously, Senator Antic is entitled to say what he chooses, as is Mr Woodhouse. But he can say that as an individual, but as the Liberal candidate, has to reflect the views of the Liberal Party. His comments absolutely don't reflect the views of the Liberal Party, and I think Ashton's been very clear about it. And she's the person who is leading the Liberal Party in South Australia, and so, I think we should be putting all our weight on the responses we're hearing from Ashton and not from a senator who chose to take [indistinct]… a view that I don't support. 

STACEY LEE:    Minister Rishworth, if this was a Labor Party candidate, would you expect that they'd be disendorsed as well? 

AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Well, look, I think the issue here is how did we get to a circumstance where this person was pre-selected for the Liberal Party? His public comments were not secret. It got all the way up to now the ballot draw is closed. He's named as a Liberal Party person on the ballot paper. He still works for the Liberal Party. I mean, I'm not sure whether or not- or how opposed people are to his views, considering he is now still senior in the campaign, as I understand it. So, I guess it demonstrates some of the chaos. And we did have Senator Antic defending him yesterday in the Senate. So I guess there's a question of the chaos and the shambles that the Liberal Party are in, and it does seem to me like this is the re-emergence of factional fighting within the Liberal Party. And that doesn't bode well for South Australians having an opposition, let alone the Liberal Party in government. 

STACEY LEE:    Thank you both for your time. I think we will have to end it there.