STEFANOVIC: Nice to see you, the Prime Minister said yesterday, quote, put simply, I think that there is a line which has been crossed here. What line was that exactly?
WONG: The Prime Minister has made the right call in what has been a pretty difficult circumstance. And remember that shes had to balance a couple of things, and one is that in this country politicians arent judge and jury and there are proper processes that have to be followed. But at the same time, we were getting, I think, to the point where the institution of the Parliament, a very important institution in this nation, was being questioned. And I think she made the right call in a pretty difficult set of circumstances.
STEFANOVIC: But what line was it that was crossed?
WONG: As she explained, she has had to balance a range of things and she did come to the view after returning from overseas that she needed to speak to both Mr Slipper and Mr Thomson, put her view about what should happen and shes acted to preserve the integrity of the Parliament. As I said, have to balance that against the fact that we dont have politicians putting people on trial you know, thats a matter for the courts, thats a matter for the police and other independent bodies. So shes had to balance all of those things and I think it did get to the point where she had to act, and she has.
STEFANOVIC: I understand its difficult for you to answer for what the Prime Minister said yesterday, but a line has been crossed, its definitive and surely that line was crossed before she went away ...
WONG: These are always matters of judgement and I think people will criticise her for acting or not for acting. Ultimately she had to make a call about what was occurring in terms of respect for the institution of Parliament. She had to act to ensure the institution was protected and she did so after speaking to Mr Slipper and Mr Thomson and shes made the right call.
STEFANOVIC: That call was that at some point somebody crossed a line, what was that line?
WONG: Karl, were going over old ground here...
STEFANOVIC: Penny, with respect you havent told me what the line was.
WONG: I think I have actually Karl, you just might not agree with it. What I said was I think we did get to the point where the reputation of the Parliament was being compromised to a point where the Prime Minister had to act. Now you wouldnt want a politician being... acting as a court all the time. But as the leader of the nation, she did come to the view that she did need to act and I think it was the right call.
STEFANOVIC: Anthony Albanese, as you know, Bill Shorten, Craig Emerson, theyve spent the last... the better part of last week defending these two. They didnt think a line had been crossed, were they wrong?
WONG: I think people quite rightly were of the view that its not a good situation in the country when various allegations end up being determined by politicians through the media. I dont thinkthat is good practice. You might recall in 2007 there were three Liberal MPs investigated for entitlements breaches by the Australian Federal Police and that was appropriately handled the police investigated, not the Parliament. On her return as she said yesterday, she spoke to Mr Thomson, spoke to Mr Slipper and shes made a decision and now I think the Government is certainly very focused on next weeks Budget, a surplus budget in the interests of the country.
STEFANOVIC: But it makes it difficult, you have to agree with it, for Anthony Albanese, Bill Shorten, Craig Emerson to have vehemently defended the process here and then for the Prime Minister to have come along and said to them that basically it had to be a line drawn at some point, which flew in their face theyve been publicly doing this all for the last week and then bang.
WONG: I think the processes should still be respected, and regrettably thats not the way some players in this including Tony Abbott have approached this. Those legal processes do need to be respected and the Prime Minister is respecting them. As she has said, we got to a point where we had to preserve the integrity of the Parliament and so, as a leader, thats what she has done.
STEFANOVIC: Its just an odd thing though, youd have to agree Penny wouldnt you... ok, you actually havent done anything wrong but weve got to move you aside anyway ...
WONG: This is what I mean, I think people might criticise both sides of this debate, they might criticise people for acting or not acting. Shes the Prime Minister of the country, she has to make a judgement call and shes done that.
STEFANOVIC: There are two opinion pieces from Fairfax this morning, hardly a bastion of anti-Labor sentiment, Im sure you would agree. Peter Hartcher writes, quote, if Julia Gillard was seeking to sanitise her government on any point of principle, it might carry some force. But the Prime Minister decided to take out her political rubbish, not because she objected to the putrefaction but because the neighbours wouldn't stop talking about the smell.
And Michelle Grattan goes on one further in The Age and says, quote, Julia Gillard should consider falling on her sword for the good of the Labor Party, because she can no longer present an even slightly credible face at the election. Her spectacular U-turn on everything she'd said before on Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper has left her looking nakedly expedient, and further exposed the state of crisis within the government. Will she be your leader at the next election Penny?
WONG: Yes, she will. And first Im not going to get into a judgement about Fairfax, which is how you started your question. People have their opinions and I think a couple of the comments that you just read to me assumed that theyre inside the Prime Ministers head and heart and I think thats not reasonable. She has made what has been, I think, the right decision in a series of pretty difficult circumstances and I know the Prime Minister is focused on doing what is right for the country and doing whats right for working Australians.
Thats certainly the way were approaching our Budget and were very focused on doing the right thing for the economy thats returning to surplus budget but also making sure low and middle income Australians are our priority in next weeks Budget.
STEFANOVIC: One final one for you Penny, I know that you would be aware of the polls of this morning. You are going to get belted at the next election if it keeps going the way its going ...
WONG: Weve got a lot of work to do, we know that and theres no resiling from that but that work, the next big step in that as I said, is the Budget. Well lay out our plans and people can judge them.
STEFANOVIC: Penny, always good to talk to you. Thank you very much for your time this morning, appreciate it.
WONG: Good to speak with you Karl.
ENDS