GOVERNMENT MEDIA MONITORING UNIT

DATE: JUNE 6 TH , 2005

TIME: 7:15AM

STATION: 720 ABC BREAKFAST (CAMERON)

SUBJECT: KENNEDY – STATE POLITICS

This transcript is produced for information purposes only. Although all care is taken, no warranty as to its accuracy or completeness is given. It is your responsibility to ensure by independent verification that all information is correct before placing any reliance on it.

CAMERON

Let’s talk politics with Peter Kennedy…[greetings and football talk not transcribed]

Now I said you’ve got a big scoop this morning, and I suppose we should start with that.

KENNEDY

Well Nicky Roberts made the… made the point in our news bulletin, at seven o’clock, the appointment of the new Governor, to be announced by as part of the Foundation Day ceremonies today, later this morning, in fact, at Government House….

CAMERON

…but it’s going to be announced by Peter Kennedy on 720.

KENNEDY

Well… well, alright, let’s not beat around the bush. Dr Ken Michael is… is the short- priced favourite to be named as governor of Western today by…

CAMERON

…from here on in known as ‘His Excellency’.

KENNEDY

Well he certainly will be, with a vice regal… a vice regal position. And he is a former senior public servant, of course, a very highly respected public servant, a commissioner of Main Roads, he’s chancellor of the University of WA, he was the… he was the gas regulator actually and came in… that was a position of some controversy. Remember - 2 – the price of gas through the pipeline with Epic Energy, that caused all sorts of difficulties and he… and his decision on that issue was roundly criticised by financial journalists, but he stuck to his guns and no-one actually criticised the logic of his decision. There was a sort of… people were saying, look, you’ve got to be pragmatic about this, you’ve got to… that’s not the right decision, but no-one criticised the logic, and the, sort of, I suppose you’d say, the academic rigor in his decision. But… because he interpreted it according to the rules that applied, and that was what he was required to do.

CAMERON

Is he the first public servant to become governor?

KENNEDY

Well I think… I think he would be… I think he would be the first former public servant to become… to become governor, because, I mean, there haven’t been too… and, of course, the Michael family’s a leading family in the Greek community in Western Australia so you’ve got that public service background, you’ve also got sort of an ethnic or migrant background from that perspective, although, of course, they’ve been part of the fabric of the Western Australian society for years and years and years, but, I mean, when you look back on it the number of West Australians who have actually been appointed to the position of governor is not very big. And I recall, you go back to the late forties and Sir James Mitchell was governor, was a former politician of course, and then you go back to… they returned to the sort of trend of having sort of former English military people in the position, but at one stage the editor of The West Australian referred to them as ‘English functionaries’, that was in the late sixties, and that caused quite a meltdown.

CAMERON

The proverbial hit the fan, did it?

KENNEDY

That caused quite a meltdown on the board of The West Australian Newspapers , and leading to very significant changes. But then the Tonkin Government appointed Group Captain Huey Edwards who was a former South Fremantle footballer, apart from being a sort of a World War II war hero, as it were, and that was a fairly lively time at Government House when Huey Edwards was there.

CAMERON

Mrs Edwards had the penchant for calling out the Fire Brigade, didn’t she?

KENNEDY

There was at least one incident which… which caused quite a bit of discussion, Eoin, and…

- 3 –

CAMERON

…around the traps, I recall that.

KENNEDY

1974, I think it was, and I remember I spoke… I was the industrial reporter for The West Australian at the time and Bill Latter was secretary of the Fire Brigade Union, and he had chapter and verse on the incident and he regailed me with it with quite a deal of enthusiasm.

CAMERON

I’ll bet he did.

KENNEDY

But that was the day the Fire Brigade was called to Government House late in the morning I think, and then… then it went back to the… to the English tradition and I think, for example, though he had… well we’re talking about , he was there from ’75 to ’80, father of Peter Kyle of course, and then it went to Sir Richard Trowbidge* and then back to the… back to the Australian with Professor .

CAMERON

Yep, yep, and then the more recent…

KENNEDY

Mmm, but from a public service background, I think you’re right. So… so…

CAMERON

…that’s the man.

KENNEDY

Indeed, and the… it wasn’t known until yesterday. I mean, Dr Gallop’s moved very quickly on this, this is quite interesting, because the… as you said, the… Lieutenant General Sanderson doesn’t go ‘til mid-August, so this relative… a relatively early announcement.

CAMERON

So in mid-August the scotch and gin bottles get changed over to Ouzo and retziner.

KENNEDY

I don’t know about that, but I’m told… you may be right, but I am told that the Government House has a splendid cellar, I haven’t tasted it, myself, but I heard it on - 4 –

very good advice that it’s first-class.

CAMERON

Now a bit of sad news that we picked up on earlier, Clive Hale has passed away.

KENNEDY

Yes, I heard that on the six o’clock bulletin, and Clive Hale, of course, ABC presenter, radio and television…

CAMERON

…for many moons, yeah….

KENNEDY

…and very closely associated with the ABC in Perth. Among other things, Eoin, like yourself, being an ABC newsreader, television newsreader, but Clive had the distinction, along with Ian Beatty and Earl Reeve, of being in the first group of television newsreaders when the ABC started television in Perth, in the beginning of the sixties…

CAMERON

…back in the 1960s, yeah.

KENNEDY

… in the Adelaide Terrace building, of course, which was brand new at that stage. But, of course, he left… Clive left Perth, went on to make a name for himself on national television, all sorts of programs, not only news reading but…

CAMERON

…presenting other sorts of things as well.

KENNEDY

Mmm, and that… and that program on antiques on television, which ran for quite some time.

CAMERON

Yeah.

KENNEDY

So, yes, I mean one of the… one of the veterans, I guess, of ABC Radio and television, and very sad, very sad that Clive has died.

- 5 –

CAMERON

You know, I had the distinction of being the first newsreader to read news in colour on Channel Two when it started in the 1970s.

KENNEDY

How did that come about?

CAMERON

It was shocking, it was… I…

KENNEDY

…what, the colour or the…

CAMERON

Yeah, the colour was shocking, because I don’t think we’d got everything quite right and I had a green jacket. Many people will remember that green jacket and it came out fluoro, and the make-up was all that pancake stuff so you looked like you had a bright orange face and I think most people who were watching it or people who had colour television sets on their old Rank Arena. Remember they were…

KENNEDY

….I certainly do remember…

CAMERON

…onto the sets.

KENNEDY

…and Admiral.

CAMERON

Admiral, yep, yep.

KENNEDY

Motorola.

CAMERON

And I got to read it because it was a special bulletin at midday because what they... threw the switch to colour I think at midday on that particular day. But, anyway, I digress. - 6 –

The Libs have started campaigning for the next federal election, by the look of it.

KENNEDY

Look, this is interesting and it’s… with regard to Western Australian and the House of Representative seats, it’s only, what, seven or eight months since the last election.

CAMERON

Yep.

KENNEDY

The WA Liberal Party is calling for nominations for the seats of Brand and also Cowan. Now, I made some enquiries yesterday, just what was going on and the point is this, that the local divisions have requested that they get cracking early in both seats. And you might recall the last election there were good swings to the Liberal Party in both seats, even though they were held by the Labor Party. Brand, of course, held by and Cowan held by Graham Edwards, but the… Kim Beazley’s majority in Brand was halved and the Graham Edwards’ seat up there in Cowan that was in doubt for some days it was that close.

CAMERON

Yes, it was very close, wasn’t it?

KENNEDY

Mmm, so you can see the… it could be a very good strategy here, with regard to Brand, you get in a candidate, Kim Beazley’s now leader of the Labor Party, he’s spending a lot of time interstate, because that’s what you have to do, but if you’ve got a strong Liberal candidate in your home seat making announcements, sort of raising local issues, then… and the federal member is away, then there could be difficulties for Mr Beazley.

And in Cowan, I mean, if this is going to be Mr Edwards’ last campaign, last term in government, or last term, rather, in the seat, then it might be a good time to have a good, strong candidate in the field early and you have a head start.

By the way, if Graham Edwards does decide to give it away one of the Burke family is suggested as a possible Labor candidate at the next election, Sarah Burke, the vice- president of the…

CAMERON

…oh, yeah, she’s been hanging around there for a while I think.

KENNEDY

Well, well, she’s been active, and, sort of, considered that one may have… it may be a - 7 –

good candidate for Labor at the next election. So that is one to watch.

CAMERON

Now what’s going on with this nuclear energy debate? Bob Carr is saying something in New South Wales and our Premier’s completely opposite.

KENNEDY

Quite a lot’s going on with the nuclear debate. You might see that John Howard’s interested in nuclear energy, and John Howard’s interested in perhaps the possibility of uranium exports to China, all sorts of things are happening. Uranium is being talked about more and more now and…

CAMERON

…it’s so hot it’s glowing.

KENNEDY

It is, indeed, and as a source of energy too, with the greenhouse and that sort of thing. Bob Carr, the New South Wales Premier, was on 60 Minutes last night about the issue climate change, water shortage and the issue of uranium was raised, and he said that’s… that’s a matter that they’ll have to consider very, very closely, given the fact that the Labor Party’s been very strongly opposed to having any more than two or three uranium mines in Australia. So Bob Carr says, yes, we’ll have to have a look at it; Geoff Gallop, on the other hand, has said, no uranium mining in Western Australia while I’m Premier. So that’s quite a strong..

CAMERON

…diversion of viewpoint.

KENNEDY

Yes. And the next… another power station has to be given the all-clear later in the year and it’s tipped to be coal, so the Labor Party… the Government in WA could have a problem over uranium.

CAMERON

And what’s coming up, Peter?

KENNEDY

Oh, look, the Parliament’s sitting this week, the estimates committees in the Lower House are going through the budget with a fine-toothed comb, and one thing very interesting and that is the inquiry into the management of offenders, the justice system conducted by Dennis Mahoney, that will have a public hearing later in the week so that will effectively kick off. And very interesting too, Matt Birney, the Opposition leader, has - 8 – invited the press gallery to drinks on Thursday, so…

CAMERON

…oh, the man’s a repeat offender.

KENNEDY

Lights… lights… premium lights, there’ll be lots of premium lights.

CAMERON

And a lot of people taking a tally, I think.

KENNEDY

This invitation was extended before the ‘incident’… before the ‘incident’, but… and the response has been very strong. I think there’ll be very few absentees but we’ll all be there with our log books, so looking forward to that Thursday night. And I’ll give you a report Friday morning, Eoin.

CAMERON

I’ll look forward to that, Peter.

KENNEDY

With… with the log book.

CAM ERON

The war office has called through to Brad to say that she’s kept that green jacket, it’s not gone to the jacket graveyard yet.

KENNEDY

Will you wear it on Friday?

CAMERON

Well Brad wants me to wear it tomorrow, to smarten myself up a bit but…

KENNEDY

…oh well… well, Eoin, you’ll have it on web cam?

CAMERON

I’m not sure about that, Peter. Thanks for that.

- 9 –

KENNEDY

Please… please try.

CAMERON

See you Friday.

KENNEDY

Thanks, Eoin.

CAMERON

Peter Kennedy with all the latest in politics here on 720 ABC Perth.

ENDS… dlr