TRANSCRIPT - ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING - MONDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2026

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: I want to bring in my political panel for today. Patrick Gorman is the Assistant Employment Minister. Garth Hamilton is the Shadow Assistant Energy Security Minister. Welcome to both of you.

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Thank you.

GARTH HAMILTON, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR ENERGY SECURITY: Thank you.

KARVELAS: Well, Barnaby Joyce says she wasn't accused of theft. It wasn't such a bad thing.
 
HAMILTON: It is difficult watching a man of his age perform gymnastics like that. I genuinely feel sorry for him. The amount of times he's had to apologise for statements from his leader. I know Barnaby. I have worked with him. I think he's a good man. I think he's in the wrong damn party. Statements by Pauline, whether it's comments she made about Mr. Hastie, the Prime Minister's mother, they're unbecoming of a Senator and certainly unbecoming of someone who wants to be Prime Minister.
 
KARVELAS: She has been roundly condemned. Is that useful? You know, is that a good use of your time to condemn comments made by Pauline Hanson, or should they be ignored?
 
GORMAN: Well, Senator Hanson should have apologised for these comments. They were mean and nasty. And shouldn't have been made. And I don't understand why Senator Hanson can't say sorry. I don't understand why she can't do that.
 
KARVELAS: She stands by the comments, that's why.
 
HAMILTON: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. And that's a political performance.
 
KARVELAS: And that’s the point, right? She doesn't think she has anything to be sorry about.
 
HAMILTON: And I think it's great that people get to see that. I genuinely do. I think people should be able to expose themselves to her comments and form a view. You know, how is this in any way in the interest of Australians right now, going through the challenging economic times that we're facing? And what we have from One Nation is a continuing display of crass, undignified, angry comments, designed purely so that we'll talk about them. That's all this is about, PK. This is the scheme. It's putting a burqa on. It's saying the ridiculous and highly offensive stuff she said today about Indigenous Australians. That's what this is all about. To get her on the front page and get us talking about it. And it works fantastically.
 
KARVELAS: Okay? We are talking about it because she's a Senator. She's also leading in the polls, right? Like, that's why we have decided that her comments are worth reflecting on, because she is more popular than both of your parties. 
 
HAMILTON: And yet can't win on 2 PP. So, when everyone says that she's saying what people are thinking - no, 70 per cent of people are not thinking that, and that's in the polls as well. So, I push back on this. I don't think that's what people are thinking at all. I think people are decent, and I think people want to see us fight on policy, as Pat and I often do.
 
GORMAN: But also, I know that voters decide at elections, but they listen in between elections. My dad grew up in public housing. I know a lot of people who've been through public housing. And people hear those comments that Senator Hanson makes, and they don't hear it just about the Prime Minister or his late mother. They hear it about people in our community. They hear it about themselves. And it was mean. And it was nasty. And it was inappropriate, and people will hear it for what it was.
 
KARVELAS: Garth, today you referred to the comments that were unearthed. They're not fresh comments. They're from a podcast that she's recorded earlier where she does say, 'Aboriginal culture is primitive'. It is rather jarring given the way we generally talk about Aboriginal culture and our other cultures in this country. Were you surprised to hear them?
 
HAMILTON: No, because this is her designing her language to be provocative and to get a stir. And that's what it takes on these podcasts. You know, they're unedited and they're screaming into the abyss. We live in echo chambers now, and that's the only way to be heard - is to make these ridiculous statements. And it's not designed in any way to bring people together. It's not designed to resolve the issues that our Aboriginal brothers and sisters have. It's designed to be offensive and to get a demographic of people behind her.
 
KARVELAS: Those comments about Aboriginal culture being primitive, it is obviously, you know, it's not just a random comment. There are Aboriginal people who have expressed how disturbed they are and upset by it. Are they right to be upset?
 
GORMAN: Yeah. I condemn those comments and I understand why many Aboriginal people are upset by them. Because it doesn't correspond with historical truth. If I think about the Noongar people in Western Australia, when we had European settlers arrive in Perth and in Albany - if it weren't for Noongar leaders and people who helped them get water and food when they first arrived, there would have been no settlement. Now, that is not a primitive culture. That is a culture who has tens of thousands of years of knowledge of the land on which they were living. And you see that rich culture throughout Australia. So, it's just historically inaccurate. And I would have thought that anyone in Parliament should have to be able to recognise the history of the land on which we live and also treat all Australians, First Nation Australians and others, with respect. And I'm not seeing a lot of respect from Senator Hanson right now. And we've got to lift the standard, simple as that.
 
KARVELAS: This is my last question on this because I do want to move on to one other issue which I think is pretty important - people's jobs. But one other issue is, just generally, that cartoon that One Nation puts out. It kind of - it often mocks lots of different people. If you watch them, and I do, I watch everything. That's my job. It's also made fun of a very young Senator. There's been a lot of mockery of this young Labor Senator. I know you've seen it. Is that the sort of stuff that you think is below the belt?
 
HAMILTON: Look, I did raise concerns here. We've talked about the comments about Andrew Hastie - but they use a man's voice for the character for Senator Wong. Made fun of the disabilities of Senator Steele-John. And yes, I think there's an element of misogyny in the way they characterise Senator Walker. I don't have to agree with any of the policy positions of any of those, but I'd like to fight them on policy. But I would point this out from a conservative's point of view, do you think that the negative depictions of Peter Dutton helped or hurt Mr. Albanese at the last election? I say this to One Nation voters. Pauline makes this thing about, ‘we need to work with her’. She has spent, you know, her career dragging down conservative politicians and attacking them. And those depictions of Mr. Dutton were not kind. They weren't trying to prop him up. You want to know how Labor wins with such a low primary? Think about the impact of Pauline's attacks on the conservative side of politics.
 
KARVELAS: That is an interesting point. I want to move on.
 
GORMAN: Hang on. We weren't the ones at the last election doing written preference deals with One Nation. And if you want to talk about what had more of an impact, I mean, your party is out there, Garth, doing deals with One Nation for preferences. I think that has a bit more of an impact than –   
 
HAMILTON: If you are going to go into the deals conversation, Pat, let’s talk about the Greens. Let's talk about the extremes on either side of this. To be really clear, my comment is this, if Ms. Hanson tries to pretend that she's the victim of attacks here, when she's been perpetrating them for a long, long period of time. Sometimes they're against us, often they're against conservatives. Which is, you know –
 
GORMAN: I agree with you, the cartoon's inappropriate.
 
HAMILTON: But there's been across the board and I've been willing to call that out.
 
KARVELAS: All right. In the last couple of minutes, the Whyalla Steelworks is obviously a devastating bunch of news for people, especially if you have a job. 500 jobs gone. You’ve invested money in this plant and yet 500 jobs going today. That's a failure, isn't it?
 
GORMAN: Well, we know from what has been said by the administrators today is that this is the result of underinvestment over many, many years. Firstly, to the workers who are going home today, facing a really uncertain future. I want to say, I know what a kick in the guts this is, and there's no other way to put it. When it comes to the work we will do in the immediate term. That is about making sure those workers get all of their entitlements and the support they rightly deserve to move into other parts of the economy and other parts of the business in Whyalla. But this is not an outcome that anyone should have been championing, and no one should welcome. This is not a time for anyone to say, ‘I told you so’. We have been working really hard to support these workers and we'll continue to do so.
 
KARVELAS: Has it been a waste of public money trying to prop this thing up?
 
HAMILTON: I think there's much better ways to re-industrialise Australia and keep good jobs and good pay in these key areas. Pat is right. There's a long history of underinvestment. The reason for that is because we've demonised industries that emit. We've made it difficult for people to invest in industries that emit. And yet these are the industries that we need. When we talk about bringing back manufacturing, these are the foundational industries that we have. Get away with penalties for emitters. Drop net zero and allow energy to be produced across Australia in the way that is the most advantageous for industry. That's what Australia needs. Because if we have a strong economy, then we can build our standard of living and recover those things that I think most Australians feel we've lost. Energy is fundamental to this conversation and it's at the heart of why jobs like these are being lost. They're not being transferred, they're not going to go somewhere else. They're being lost and that's a sad day for Australia.
 
KARVELAS: You have got 30 second reply.
 
GORMAN: Well, the last time the Liberal Party was in government, they got rid of a range of pieces of climate action and then they closed the Australian car industry. They are no friend of building up industry in Australia. We will continue to invest.

KARVELAS: Alright, well, we'll keep having this discussion because a lot of people's jobs are obviously being affected deeply. And I'm glad we talked about that issue because it’s a big day for the people in South Australia. Thanks to both of you.
 
GORMAN: Thanks, PK.
 
HAMILTON: Thanks, PK.
 


ENDS