LAURA JAYES, HOST: Welcome back. You're watching AM Agenda. We have some breaking news that's just come into the newsroom. The Prime Minister is about to hold a media conference at 11 o'clock this morning. In 20 minutes time. At that media conference, we expect him to be standing beside Bill Shorten. Bill Shorten is expected to announce his retirement from politics. So, this is a big development, and I've got to say, a shock. Tim Ayres joins me here at the desk. We've just heard this information. You've heard it just here with me, Tim, but he's certainly a loss for the team.
SENATOR TIM AYRES, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR A FUTURE MADE IN AUSTRALIA AND TRADE: Well, let's see what the announcement actually is. I've only heard what you've heard. It's the risk, isn't it? Turning up in the studio when there's breaking news.
JAYES: It wasn’t planned! Sorry about that.
AYRES: I’m sure it wasn’t! I don't know what's going to be announced in this press conference, but Bill's contribution that I think Australians will remember that is so central to this Labor government, and indeed the last Labor government, that enduring legacy of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I've enjoyed very much working within the senate, with Bill, on the passage of the reform legislation that the government worked so hard to secure, not just the passage through the parliament, but consultation with disability groups and the community more broadly to make sure that it is an enduring reform for Australians. But in terms of what's been announced at the press conference today, I'm caught short just like I suspect you are, and everyone will just have to wait till 11 o'clock.
JAYES: Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten aren't political allies. Yes, they're part of the same Labor team, and their core values, I think, remain in sync, but they have been rivals, and they have both been at the top of the Labor Party. What is it like when there is such ambition between two people on a day like this, if we can, you know, confirm what's going to happen in 20 minutes time?
AYRES: Well, we've all got ambition for the country. And I think what has been a singular difference between this government and the government that preceded us, is that discipline. And that discipline is not achieved by setting a set of rules. It's because everybody in the caucus, everybody in the cabinet and the ministry, has got an ambition for the country and knows that working together is the best way to achieve that. We've achieved a lot in government with that sense of discipline and unity, and it's contrast to what we saw in the 15 years before that of, you know, a focus of Canberra being focused on its own interests and its own politics, rather than this government, which I think even its detractors would agree, has been focused on the national interest and on the interest of the people that we're elected to represent.
JAYES: There's a great nobility in public service, and I don't think many people are cut out for it. And I think it's a very difficult job to be a politician, even more so these days to be a journeyman and do that successfully in politics. Yeah, it has great nobility in that. I remember, you know, Bill Shorten came into households and became a household name in Beaconsfield. And he made that path, didn't he, that traditional Labor path, up through the union movement into parliament and then as opposition leader, leader of the Labor Party. And he did so after the messy years of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. How important was - you know, he came so close to winning an election, [but] he didn't. I'm sure that is something that he's reconciled with himself. But can you speak to how important the stability of his leadership was after those Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years?
AYRES: Well, that's one of the things that, as I say, it's defined the Labor Party for all of that period after the Rudd and Gillard period. We learnt our lesson the hard way about the cost of disunity and being focused on the internal politics. But we’ve changed fundamentally. And as you say, politics is hard, but I actually think it's much easier if you're not focused on yourself, if you're focused on what you can do for the country and what the Labor party and the Labor Government can do for the country. It's a shared experience. When things go well, we share in that, but when times are tough, we share in that together and work hard to achieve a better outcome. That's what Anthony Albanese has brought to this government, and it's a different kind of government, and I think that’s the kind of approach that Australians want to see in governments.
JAYES: This is not cynical, but I'm looking at this announcement today and thinking an election is probably pretty close now.
AYRES: Well, I don't know what the announcement today is going to be. We know there is likely to be an election in the first half of next year. None of that changes. We are working through, in a systematic way, making sure that all the candidates are in the field. All of that work in terms of party organization is happening. Contrary distinction, I have to say to our opponents in the New South Wales Liberals, who have got this sort of extremist takeover of NSW. The idea that you can't run this sort of basket case of a political party in New South Wales, but you want to run the national economy...it is a terrible show, and it's been used as an opportunity by the most extreme elements of the Liberal Party to take the show over. They are falling apart, internally, focused on themselves. We are focused on where the community is at and what needs to happen for the economy now and into the future.
JAYES: It's getting harder and harder to attract good people to politics, to be frank, I think it's a really tough job. I think that the time you spend away from your family, the lack of productivity in parliament, sometimes can be frustrating, the factional elements of it all. It's, you know, high stakes stuff, if I can put it that way. Is there a conversation that needs to be had around how long you should stay and when it's time to go? And Bill Shorten I think, has earned the right to make this call on his own, and not many people in politics, I would say, Tim, get to actually decide when you go. You either lose and then leave, or, you know, you kind of go before you've completed the things that you wanted to do.
If we're about to see this announcement, which I'm pretty sure we are - I'm pretty solid on this information...is there something to be said for Bill, in particular, being able to make his own call, his own agency, over when he goes?
AYRES: Can I make two points about this? The first is that I think it's different for different people. All of us have a different capacity to give. But secondly, it's one of the reasons why that unity that I've talked about, that discipline is...but also the reforms that we're undertaking and have undertaken in terms of the parliament itself - I think all of those issues that you point to are right, but we are making them better, and we're delivering a better kind of government and a better kind of parliament, not perfect in the parliament, but we are working hard to lift the standard, following particularly the Jenkins report, because that makes it better for everybody, for MPs and senators, for staff, but also better outcomes for the public. And that's where we should be focused on. How do we produce better outcomes for the Australian public who we're very honoured to serve.
JAYES: Is anything you'd like to say to Bill ahead of this announcement?
AYRES: Well, I want to see the announcement - let's wait and see. I'm not in a position to forecast this announcement but, as you say, it sounds like there's a press conference at 11 o'clock. Let's wait and see. But, you know, we are all in this together in the Labor show. We are determined to keep acting in the public interest. You know, that's the singular focus of this government, and I think that's what Australians want to see.
JAYES: Tim, thanks so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Thank you.
ENDS.
