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Tony Abbott on Meet The Press

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SeveredPsyche

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Nov 5, 2001
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MEET THE PRESS

INTERVIEW WITH TONY ABBOTT, MINISTER FOR HEALTH

23rd November, 2003

...

MISHA SCHUBERT: Mr Abbott, Australia has a newly emerging public health crisis in both the areas of HIV and Hepatitis C. HIV transmissions are on the rise again in several States. Hepatitis C - independent experts commissioned by your government suggest 800,000 Australians will have the disease by 2020. Are you committed to checking these epidemics, and will you go down the path of more safe sex and more safe injecting messages to curb them?

TONY ABBOTT: Look, I will do whatever I can as a minister and we will do whatever we can as a government to try to help here. But in the end, a lot of these things are a function of personal behaviour and we can't by a magic wand as it were, change personal behaviour. I mean, the best way to avoid Hepatitis C is not to use illicit drugs.

MISHA SCHUBERT: But we changed behaviour in the '80s by encouraging safe sex practices. So are you committed to safe sex and safe injecting practices?

TONY ABBOTT: Look, I am committed to continuing what the Government is doing in this area, but I do make the point that if we want to avoid these sorts of epidemics, personal behaviour matters as well.

BRIAN TOOHEY: But, one area of personal behaviour is things like wearing a condom and yet the Pope, for example, is strongly opposed to that and things like HIV...

TONY ABBOTT: I don't think he needs to. (laughs).

BRIAN TOOHEY: Alright, but he's also preaching that message to millions of people in Africa who are ending up with HIV. Is that a responsible sort of example of personal behaviour?

TONY ABBOTT: I don't want to go into what the Church might or might not be preaching in Africa. But certainly, here in Australia, the best way to avoid getting Hepatitis C is not to use illegal drugs, not to inject yourself with things which are illegal. I would urge people to take the same hardline view on that kind of law breaking as we do on other kinds of law breaking.

MISHA SCHUBERT: But your government has been advocating that approach for seven odd years now...

TONY ABBOTT: And it's working. And it's working.

MISHA SCHUBERT: ..and transmission rates are going back up. Hasn't it failed?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, certainly in other areas it's working very well. For instance, heroin deaths have dropped from nearly 1,000 a year to about 300 a year in the last few years thanks to the 'tough on drugs' message. So, I think we can get a message out there - personal behaviour does matter, and frankly, there are things each of us can do to avoid the risk, or to reduce the risk of getting these kinds of diseases.

PAUL BONGIORNO: But isn't one of the problems in the HIV area is that the safe sex message seems to be diluted as people have become complacent, and that's adding to the increase?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, people shouldn't be complacent, obviously. I mean, these diseases can kill you, and people should not do things which are likely to increase their risk of getting these very serious and potentially fatal diseases.

PAUL BONGIORNO: So, are you saying that money for a renewed or revisited public education campaign won't be available?

TONY ABBOTT: No, I'm not saying that at all. The Government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on these sorts of issues. But in the end, 'just say no' is probably a pretty good message to illegal drug use.

PAUL BONGIORNO: It doesn't seem to work, though, does it?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, um.. lots of things don't work perfectly.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Human fallibility, though.

TONY ABBOTT: Yes, this side of eternity, Paul, we all suffer from that. Original sin is a serious problem in our make-up. But the fact is, we can't give up on the message that people need to take responsibility and that personal choice, counts.

PAUL BONGIORNO: We're right out of time. Thank you very much for joining us today, Health Minister Tony Abbott and our panel, Misha Schubert and Brian Toohey. Until next week, it's goodbye from Meet the Press.
Click to expand...

Full Transcript.

What a legend. This guy has all the answers.

He must have been seriously wasted to have come up with some of those responses.
 
MISHA SCHUBERT: But your government has been advocating that approach for seven odd years now...

TONY ABBOTT: And it's working. And it's working.

MISHA SCHUBERT: ..and transmission rates are going back up. Hasn't it failed?
Click to expand...

hahahaha! Abbott got slaughtered in this interview, IMHO.
 
heroin deaths have dropped from nearly 1,000 a year to about 300 a year in the last few years thanks to the 'tough on drugs' message.
Click to expand...

Hmm, noooooooooo, actually heroin deaths have fallen from that (statistically outlying) high figure because of the heroin drought.

Original sin is a serious problem in our make-up.
Click to expand...

Nice moralising. That'll win the atheist vote.

But in the end, 'just say no' is probably a pretty good message to illegal drug use.
Click to expand...

*Bah-bow* That's not what the National Drug Strategic Framework says, Tony-boy. Fuck, did you even read that before going on here. Lord I hate him. This is SO why I'm not enrolled to vote.

*goes off to make a "punch Tony Abbott" flash game*
 
PAUL BONGIORNO: Human fallibility, though.

TONY ABBOTT: Yes, this side of eternity, Paul, we all suffer from that. Original sin is a serious problem in our make-up.
Click to expand...

It is indeed! So how are you going to address this important issue Mr Abbott?

Lord I hate him.
Click to expand...

That's exactly how I felt when I read it (minus the "Lord" part). I was inititally lost for words. What can one say in the face of such stupidity? Does not compute.
 
aunty establishment said:
... This is SO why I'm not enrolled to vote.
Click to expand...

This is from the "Dont blame me, i didnt vote" school of thinking.

If you ask me, not voting is worse than voting for the wrong person.
 
Interesting that all of their millions of dollars are used to enforce with "Just say no", yet little seems to have changed when it comes to the tragedies of black market drugs. I wonder if the injecting rooms have contributed to the decrease in deaths. I'll need to look up any stats. But to me he really hasn't gotten over the 80's, still suck in those old campaigns. Poor old conservative bugger. He really did not know what he was talking about the whole time, almost as if he had no clue about the topic.

I think my dad would have had done a better job...

:)
 
Shorza, I didn't ask you ;) You're in no position to leap to conclusions about my political ideology on the basis of a single flippant remark. I stand by my conviction that I will enrol to vote for the first politician whose platform I support morally and ethically and that I will pay the fine for each subsequent year I cannot find an appropriate candidate. I could ramble on about why I've made this choice but it would be off topic. Suffice to say I choose to reserve my right to vote as a responsible citizen.

Back on topic: Leprechaun, be careful when trying to identify causal relationships between harm reduction strategies like injecting rooms and their effects. There are so many other factors that cannot be controlled that I would posit governments cannot claim their policies have or have not worked in the short- to medium-term. Long-term sustainability of these initiatives is the best way to determine success, and unfortunately our political system is not set up for long term strategic planning.

But I'll shut up now.
 
aunty - why don't you enrol and vote for a minority party (ie. greens)? at the very least it would certainly be a cheaper way of protesting the running of this country than not enrolling, and at the most, they might win some seats and gain some control from the morons that are currently running this place?
 
aunty establishment said:
Hmm, noooooooooo, actually heroin deaths have fallen from that (statistically outlying) high figure because of the heroin drought.
Click to expand...


And their 'Tough on Drugs' campaign is a good % of why there is a heroin drought - busts.
 
Original sin? I know Mr Abbott was on the way to joining the clergy sometime back but I don't think theological concepts exactly fit into drug or health policies. Most of that interview was political speak anyways - all waffle and no substance.

As for enrolling to vote, if you're not happy with the current parties or choices - run for office yourself or try and help someone whose ideas you support. Or don't vote but you can't really complain about the political system without looking a bit silly because you refused to participate in the political process at all.
 
Ahh, but Insane Platypus, your whole little argument rests on the assumption that our political process is inherently fair.
IMO it's a rather blind assumption to make.
If you want to debate this subject, come into CE&P, I'll be happy to talk about it.

RE: Tony Abbot
The man needs a bullet. Always has, always will.

Down with the separation of church and state!
Three cheers for moralist politics! 8(
Amen?
 
apathenol said:
And their 'Tough on Drugs' campaign is a good % of why there is a heroin drought - busts.
Click to expand...
That's laughable.
In fact I actually spilled shit all over myself after reading that tidbit of misinformation.
 
SteveElektro said:
Ahh, but Insane Platypus, your whole little argument rests on the assumption that our political process is inherently fair.
Click to expand...

Where did I assume our political system was fair?

Anyways off-topic so I'll leave it alone now.
 
Apathenol, the "good" percentage you refer to is around 12%, according to this source. That leaves 88% of the decrease unaccounted for by the "tough on drugs" stance.

villz - you make a good point but I don't think voting once every few years is enough to constitute active citizenship, also Independent candidates and Greens can only pass laws by merging with major parties to form a majority vote and I think this leads to many compromised bills being passed. I think our legal and political systems are unnecessarily convoluted and so I choose to participate in other ways. This is not to discourage people from voting if they wish, just to encourage them to think about other, more direct, ways they can contribute as a citizen. And anyway, my initial point was simply that Tony Abbott (and many others like him) gains the public vote by painting causality where none exists by latching onto controversial topics. This is not something we should tolerate.
 
I promise I'll stay on topic now BT ;) I think this thread is about how the political process affects us as drug users, so it's OK as is.
 
In his first answer, he recognises that they can't 'wave a magic wand' and change the the personal behaviours of people. So why try and change the behaviours by taking the drugs away? Why not clean all the drugs up and make it so people know exactly what they are taking! Maybe people will become a little more responsible then!
 
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