‘Proud to serve with him’: Bridget McKenzie criticises Turnbull’s dig on Dutton

Bridget McKenzie on Peter Dutton hi there Bridget so um let's talk about these comments first by turnball calling dton a thug and of course now because uh the comments were were low um you know Dutton has has been has acted High saying that he has nothing but respect for turnball what do you think well I've worked with both of these men as leaders of the liberal party in our leadership team and I can tell you that Peter Dutton uh has a long history and track record way before he got into parliament of locking up thugs not actually being one uh I'm very proud to serve with him uh going into the next election I think it's really important uh that former Prime Ministers stay high uh we've seen Julia Gillard and the way she's conducted herself post leaving the Prime Minister ship as a real Exemplar uh carrying that Authority if you like with her post that appointment and um into some great work work overseas and here at home uh serving the community so I think former Prime Ministers uh should take their own advice when they are prime ministers they hate it when other people tell them what they should be doing and I think it's best for all that um Malcolm and Kevin at times uh take a leaf out of Julia gillard's book well said uh let's talk about the Energy debate energy debate because uh in today's the Australian paper there's uh a report about how gas you know the use of gas might be out according to our Labor's green rating system yeah like it's just a classic case of the labor party double speak gas good gas bad um gas is good if you're reading Minister King's gas strategy uh which wants to see gas remain affordable for Australians wants us to continue to be a reliable trading partner uh when it comes about providing gas and the important role gas will play um you know uh keeping jobs here at home and and making energy affordable over time and then you've got the treasurer's um fi sustainable financing report that's come out that's basically saying gas needs to be phased down don't invest in gas um it has no future here so I think once again labor is sending very very conflicting messages um they've got a gas strategy that's out been released um I think for a couple of months now but this policy by Jim Charmers if adopted will completely undermine their own gas strategy so again they're trying to have two different conversations with the Australian public on a very important and serious issue which is our energy security and sovereignty as we head towards Net Zero by 2050 they're pretty clear about being uh Nuclear there being no nuclear though they are they're real outliers aren't they in the G20 on that one um every other major trading partner that we have every you know developed economy similar to ours uh has cheap and affordable and reliable energy as a result of Net Zero nuclear being part of their energy system uh we've been able to Avail ourselves over many many decades on cheap coal that isn't part of our future and so in order to replace that uh we need to be adopting uh Net Zero nuclear power Generations we've got a backyard full of uranium instead of exporting it to the world for them to meet their Net Zero targets we should be using it here at home and and you know I think it's really shown how labors approach this debate over time their immaturity uh they're not actually thinking about this rationally uh if the greens for instance the farle in Europe uh Finland and Beyond can can see the sense in nuclear net zero power generation being part of the mix uh globally then we should absolutely be examining this as an option uh which is what we're committed to doing and and it's not all of Labor like uh you know some of the unions are way behind uh nuclear power generation particularly those unions that represent the manufacturing sector and um our heavy Industrial sector and indeed a lot of um you know there have been state and federal labor MPS in the past who' backed it as wellity will ask for your NATO views I want to ask for your views about the news flow coming out of NATO especially that communicate pretty much calling China out for enabling the Russia war on Ukraine what might happen next yeah I think it's uh important that we've got the Deputy Prime Minister there I would have liked to have seen the PM there I mean if New Zealand and South Korea and Japan a very important alliance with us in our region can all be there um we should have had our prime minister there but having said that there is um a danger globally for Liberal democracy such as ours uh with the partnership shall we say between China and Russia um that is evidenced in who's backing who uh for supplies into Ukraine and I think that is something that we need to join with the world World and Other like-minded democracies in calling out and we need to be very forward leaning on this and not be found to be asleep at the wheel um and not be afraid to have the tough conversations it's one thing to be clapping and saying great we've got our beef back we've got our barley back into we've got our wine back but it can't come at the cost of our sovereignty going forward for sure thank you so much for your time today and that was a national Senate leader Bridget McKenzie