E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Straight Shooters with Clinton Maynard, 2GB Sydney
TUESDAY, 19 MARCH 2025
SUBJECT: Referendum on Dual Citizens, Books, Federal Election
CLINTON MAYNARD, HOST: Things are heating up in the world of politics at the moment. With the election now due in May, we are joined every Tuesday afternoon by the Labor member for the seat of Macquarie, Susan Templeman. Hello, Susan.
SUSAN TEMPLEMAN, MP: Hello, Clinton.
MAYNARD: And the Liberal senator for New South Wales, Hollie Hughes Hello, Holly.
HOLLIE HUGHES, MP: Hey, Clinton. Hey, Susan.
MAYNARD: I'm going to throw this one at the both of you today. It's the big political issue of the day. And that's the prospect of a referendum on whether we could throw out dual citizens out of the country, strip them effectively of their Australian citizenship if they've committed the worst of worst crimes. The idea has been raised by Peter Dutton. He spoke on sunrise this morning.
PETER DUTTON, OPPOSITION LEADER: We can do as much as we can by legislation, but as they say, you can't out legislate the Constitution. What we're proposing here is a discussion about whether we've got adequate laws, whether the Constitution is restrictive. And ultimately, what I want to do is keep our country safe and keep communities safe.
MAYNARD: Michaelia cash released a statement today as the shadow Attorney-General, and she said this would only be used as a last resort. Anthony Albanese has replied.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is another thought bubble from Peter Dutton that hasn't made it to lunchtime. This morning you had Peter Dutton on one TV channel calling for a referendum and Michaelia Cash on another TV channel ruling it out. This has not been thought through, is not clear where this has come from.
MAYNARD: Well Michaelia Cash has now put a statement out. It's not ruled out but it's last resort. So Hollie Hughes is it a thought bubble by your boss?
HUGHES: No, Peter is very very focused on keeping Australians safe and national security. And at the end of the day, that is the fundamental responsibility of the federal government. And we know that under this Labor government that we've got dangerous criminals who are just roaming the streets recommitting offences, because this government was unable to act after a High Court ruling that saw them released from detention, even though there was desperate late night sittings to pass legislation. None of that legislation has been enacted upon. We need to make sure that the people in our country, the people that have come to our country and who are granted citizenship of our country, are here to make it a better place, not put Australians at risk.
MAYNARD: But do you want to see a referendum, Hollie? That would mean we could effectively strip them of that citizenship.
HUGHES: I think the point of what Peter was saying and what Michaelia has said, that there will be exploration of legislative fixes and we will utilise legislation to enact these sorts of outcomes on people who commit serious crimes. We won't be afraid to stand up for Australians, and we won't be afraid of upsetting a couple of voters in southwest Sydney, which as we know what this government is all about, and we will take action if a legislative fix is available.
MAYNARD: Well over to Susan. Is that why your government has been perceived to be weak on this issue? Because you're worried about seats in the southwest of Sydney?
TEMPLEMAN: Well, usually people say we're worried about seats in the inner city. So you know what's really going on here, I think Hollie is probably in the David Littleproud camp of maybe. Right now when the biggest challenge to people is the cost of living, it does seem like a very surprising time to start throwing up this idea of a referendum. You know, it's well, it's up to half $1 billion of cost to do a referendum. We know this because, you know, we did have one at a time that when we could see a parallel to it, cost of living pressures were emerging. And it was the opposition who said, why are you spending this money on it? We had previously committed to doing it. So we did what we said we'd do. But right now, why would you throw into the mix a referendum, except to distract people from the fact that you don't have any credible, coherent or costed policies to take to an election, which Clinton, as you say, is not that far away.
HUGHES: So is this just a diversionary tactic, Hollie? Oh absolutely not. And I mean, we now are seeing the AFP on a national gaslighting. The fact that Albanese Burke with the AFP last week basically claiming to the Jewish community that threats of anti-Semitism were a hoax, that it was a con job, and the deputy commissioner of the AFP was quoted seven times, referring to acts of violent anti-Semitism as fake. And they have now been exposed that this alleged criminal mastermind is an absolute, blatant anti-Semite, and that it is absolutely anti-Semitism that we're seeing in the violent acts that are being done. Yet Tony Burke had his talking points all ready to go to attack Peter Dutton because he's trying to defend his own seat, Chris Bowen's seat, Jason Clare's seat. We know southwest Sydney is why this government is not standing up for our Jewish community, is not calling out anti-Semitism and still cannot say the word anti-Semitism without saying Islamophobia.
MAYNARD: Well, Susan, just on the issue of a referendum, given that you were part of a government that ran the last referendum on the voice and the estimation is that cost the taxpayers $450 million, why does it cost that much money? And why can't we have a process where if it's a referendum necessary for constitutional change or a plebiscite, why can't that just be part of a general election? Because surely a lot of money then be saved.
TEMPLEMAN: Well, even when it is part of a general election, there's still obviously extra costs. But certainly, that has been done in the past with some of the referendums. They've been run at the same time as a general election. You know, I think the only referendum that anyone would have any interest in is the one that would actually save us money, and that is giving four-year terms to governments so that we weren't going back to the polls.
MAYNARD: I agree with you. Well, why don't we just why don't we put a couple of questions at the end of the ballot paper on the 17th of May, if that's going to be the date, we can ask about dual citizenship issues and we can ask about four-year terms. Why not?
HUGHES: It’s about education of the electorate so they understand. This election will be a referendum on the Albanese government's incompetence. Its managing of this cost-of-living crisis.
MAYNARD: I think we underestimate the public's intelligence when we say we need a, you know, six-month public education campaign.
TEMPLEMAN: Look, I think that there's a lot of things that happen in the lead up to an election. And governments who have failed at referendums over multiple times have recognised that having one thought and making it about one thing can in some ways be a positive for a referendum. Not that we have a good track record of getting constitutional change. You know, right now the election is going to be about cost of living, and this is just a distraction for Peter Dutton and the team. They are just wanting to say to people, let's look over here, here's something scary and let's play that up. Rather than thinking about what the policies are that would help continue making this country not just survive. You know, we've got through without a recession, but we've got a lot of building that we need to do.
MAYNARD: Well, reality is, next week will all be about economic policies because the treasurer will hand down the budget on Tuesday night, and then the opposition leader will reply to that on Thursday night. So that will be the debate next week. Hey, just on a lighter note, I noticed this statistic that 4.5 million books every single year end up in landfill. And it raises the question, what do we do with old books? Are you an avid reader, Susan?
TEMPLEMAN: Oh, I'm just a total bookaholic and I really confronted this when my house burnt down a bit over a decade ago. I lost every book I'd had since I was a kid, and that was one of the heartbreaking things. And you can't redo that collection. So in my head, I went, right, I'm going to stick to Kindle. I'm just going to read on Kindle, delete it when it's done. But as it turned out, I could not resist. So I have now not rebuilt my whole collection. But I do love having books. The idea of throwing them out is just horrific to me. I like to give them away to places where someone else might enjoy them, but more often than not, I find I keep them on my bookshelf, I lend them to friends, and hopefully those friends give them back to me.
MAYNARD: Hollie, what do you do with old books?
HUGHES: I have so many books, and I have an ex-husband who actually lost a box of books when we were moving. And –
MAYNARD: You didn't hide it from him, did you? Didn't throw it out.
HUGHES: No but honestly, we like to laugh, it actually included books I had kept from Highschool including my 3-unit Ancient History texts that were all annotated and highlighted in case any of my children had done Herodotus Book 8 when they hit high school!
TEMPLEMAN: Oh Hollie I had those too! I had the same ones too!
HUGHES: So yes I have a lot of books and I’m about to pack up my office and I’m actually wondering where I’m going to put all of the books out of there. So no I never throw a book away, yes I’m starting to run out of room.
MAYNARD: I’m an avid reader of biographies I don’t read a lot of fiction. I do use my iPad for e books, its very convenient. I do read a lot of political books, call me a bit of a nerd. If I’m buying a political book it’ll always be via the iPad. If it’s a biography on a sportsperson or a musician that I love I’ll buy the hard copy so I can put that on the shelf people don’t laugh at my bookcase
TEMPLEMAN: I do the opposite I have all of the fiction on the shelf. That’s my escape
MAYNARD: Is that the political books? You’re saying the political books… if they’re fiction
TEMPLEMAN: Sometimes I find that the political books are things that I’ve lived. It’s interesting looking at books on history and going yeah I was there when that happened. So I am an absolute fiction reader, because for me its an escape, it switches my mind at the end of the day. Reading is such joy no matter how you do it.
MAYNARD: Good on you Ladies, thank you for joining us we’ll be back next week.
ENDS
