Contact Agent
Ph: +612 8920 1233
e: leasing@fivex.com.au
Alan Jones Interview with Lesli Berger
fadmin • August 14, 2013
Berger discusses Kevin Rudd’s plan to prevent property developers standing for pre-selection for the NSW Labor Party, and says that he should not be banned as he is a law abiding citizen and wants to employ people and invest in the city.
| ALAN JONES: | Lesli Berger, good morning. |
| LESLI BERGER: | Good morning Alan. |
| ALAN JONES: | So your political ambitions have gone out the window? |
| LESLI BERGER: | [Laughs] Well I never had any aspirations to join the New South Wales Labor Party, but I think the principle is that if I wanted to be a member of the Labor Party, and if I wished to run for state or Federal Parliament, why should I be banned? I’m a law abiding citizen. I want to do good developments, I want to employ people, I want to invest in our city. What’s wrong with that? |
| ALAN JONES: | Well I suppose you’re just a scapegoat, are you? |
| LESLI BERGER: | Well. Exactly. |
| ALAN JONES: | Is this going to solve the rotten culture of the Labor Party? |
| LESLI BERGER: | Not at all. |
| ALAN JONES: | Is it going to solve the corrupt practices of current and former parliamentarians? |
| LESLI BERGER: | If any of them were property developers. They’re crooked. The issue is that they were criminals. |
| ALAN JONES: | That’s it. So the cloud that still hangs over Julia Gillard and the AWU, Craig Thomson, the Health Services Union, Michael Williamson in the Health Services Union, Eddie Obeid in whatever. Got nothing to do with you. |
| LESLI BERGER: | Well which one of them are property developers? |
| ALAN JONES: | Yeah. They’re not property developers. The allegation-yep? |
| LESLI BERGER: | Surely they should have banned nurses, union officials, publishers, farmers, lawyers, I mean- |
| ALAN JONES: | Well you can find a reason – that’s dead right. So ban the publishers from standing for preselection or being a member of the party. Farmers, teachers – where do you stop? |
| LESLI BERGER: | Oh it’s just nonsense. |
| ALAN JONES: | So is Kevin Rudd virtually believing that the vast majority of property developers are not law abiding citizens, and unfit for political life? |
| LESLI BERGER: | Well that’s what he’s suggesting. |
| ALAN JONES: | Yep. Property developers want to make a profit. What’s wrong with that? |
| LESLI BERGER: | Well why doesn’t he just ban business people and their descendants? |
| ALAN JONES: | Yep. Oh he says he’s in favour of business people. We’re going to have better relationships with business people he said. |
| LESLI BERGER: | Well. He also claimed that he was going to consult more widely – well where was the consultation on this issue? |
| ALAN JONES: | So ban anyone who’s a business person aye? |
| LESLI BERGER: | [Laughs] Well that’s the next step, isn’t it? |
| ALAN JONES: | Wouldn’t that mean the Prime Minister wouldn’t be eligible to join his own political party? His wife’s a business person isn’t she? |
| LESLI BERGER: | [Laughs] That’s right. |
| ALAN JONES: | What? |
| LESLI BERGER: | [Laughs] That’s right. |
| ALAN JONES: | But does anyone believe that excluding any law-abiding category of citizen from a political party and its internal deliberations is likely to stand up to constitutional challenge? What’s this bloke on about? |
| LESLI BERGER: | Well Alan, one of the few constitutional protections we have in this country is the implied political freedom of speech. And at the end of the day, if you actually prohibit law-abiding citizens from actually participating in the political process then in my view then I don’t see how that could be constitutional and how that could actually- |
| ALAN JONES: | [Interrupts] Well it’s electoral apartheid. |
| LESLI BERGER: | It is. It is. You’re basically deciding that some law abiding citizens are allowed to be members of Parliament, and others aren’t. |
| ALAN JONES: | So Kevin Rudd 2007 has changed, hey? Hey? |
| LESLI BERGER: | [Laughs] |
| ALAN JONES: | The bloke’s more power-hungry than ever. |
| LESLI BERGER: | Well the leopard doesn’t change its spots Alan. |
| ALAN JONES: | So a citizen who happens to be a property developer though, has got to cop the odium that’s created by this attitude towards him – vilified, ostracised, alienated and people think: well there must be something terrible about these property developers, the Labor Party doesn’t want anything to do with them. I mean it’s a very, very dangerous precedent to set, isn’t it? |
| LESLI BERGER: | Well it is. Where do you stop if… |
| ALAN JONES: | [Interrupts] Where do you stop. |
| LESLI BERGER: | … start targeting minority interests, I mean so what we now start basing on ethnic, you know, background? Where do you stop? |
| ALAN JONES: | Mmmm. |
| LESLI BERGER: | Where do you stop? I mean this is absolute nonsense. I mean the criteria for being a member of the Labor Party, and being a member of the state or Federal Parliament should be very simple – you should be a law-abiding citizen, and basically you should not have a criminal history. |
| ALAN JONES: | Well I don’t pretend to know you very well, I don’t think when I went out to you to do that job for you that you told me any lies. I know people like Bob Rose – wonderful property developer, he’s never told me any lies, or anyone any lies. Kevin Rudd tells lies. Julia Gillard tells lies. Wayne Swann tells lies. They’re full of it. |
| LESLI BERGER: | [Laughs] I think that’s the nature of the profession, isn’t it? |
| ALAN JONES: | It is. So give me a property developer any day. Ahead of this lot. Good to talk to you. |
| LESLI BERGER: | Thanks for your time. |
| ALAN JONES: | Good to talk to you. |
| LESLI BERGER: | Cheers. |
| ALAN JONES: | That’s where we are. And that’s where we’re being led. And there’s a letter to the editor today, I’ll share it with you later, about all this. Can we be so gullible, is the question we all have to answer, to buy this rubbish. |
2GB The Alan Jones Breakfast Show, 11 July 2013