Transcript - Today with Karl Stefanovic & Sarah Abo

KARL STEFANOVIC, CO-HOST: Well, thousands of activists yesterday ignored the Prime Minister’s calls for unity, didn’t they? On one end of the country a bomb scare rocked a peaceful rally; on the other an Australian flag was set on fire. 

SARAH ABO, CO-HOST: To discuss we are joined by Education Minister Jason Clare, who’s in Adelaide this morning. Good to see you, Minister. So we also saw neo-Nazis declaring “the Jew is our greatest enemy,” which is such an awful thing to even repeat. So much for unity. What’s going on out there? 

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: It’s all just seriously bad. That bomb or what looked like a bomb thrown into the crowd in Perth could have killed people if it was real or if it had worked. In Sydney, that neo-Nazi was just repeating –

There’s the lawn mower; it’s definitely summer.

What the neo-Nazi said, haven’t we learnt anything, guys? Words can lead to bullets. We learnt that the hard way in December, and spewing that sort of bile and that sort of hate just encourages the most evil of acts. That’s why we passed those hate laws only last week. And that knob in Brisbane that burnt the flag, obviously just trying to attract attention, and that’s exactly what he’s done. 

ABO: The message isn’t getting through though, is it? 

CLARE: Well, not to those people. But let’s make sure we’re not forgetting, what regular Aussies were doing yesterday. Regular Aussies weren’t protesting, they were at barbecues, they were catching up with their mates having a few beers, eating a bit of pavlova, getting ready for school to come back and getting ready to go back to work. That’s what most Aussies were doing – celebrating the fact that we live in the best country in the world. 

Throwing bombs or what looked like bombs, burning flags and spewing out bile on stage are getting all of the headlines. It doesn’t mean, though, that they represent us or what we are. We’ve got to turn the temperature down here and do what the boss has said, what the Prime Minister has said – unite behind the fact that we’re the best country in the world and we should be celebrating that. 

STEFANOVIC: The problem is that it’s not regular Aussies who are the issue. The problem is it’s these elements. You’ve introduced laws and, as we saw yesterday, people just have scant regard for it. Things like burning Australian flag, I mean, that should just be illegal. 

CLARE: Well, there’s already laws that do that at the state level. I remember John Howard said something about this back when he was PM. He said that if you change the law here you turn yahoos into martyrs. I think most Australians when they saw that yesterday on the tele would have just been shaking their head and thought, “This is not me.” 

We look up to the flag. When it goes up the flagpole at the Olympic Games we stop and admire it; we don’t burn it, what this knob was doing.

So I think most Australians would just be saying, this is not on. But, again, it’s not us, mate. These are the extremes in our community. It’s not middle Australia. We know what middle Australia was doing yesterday. 

ABO: Well, let’s move on to your portfolio now, because we know that the Northern Territory government is going to mandate singing the national anthem at school assemblies. Is this something you’d like to see spread out across the country? 

CLARE: It sort of happens already, Sarah. 

I know when I became a pollie I’d go to schools and kids would sing the national anthem and they’d sing the first verse and the second verse. 

I don’t know what it was like when you were a kid – when I was a kid you just sang the first verse. And so I sat there hearing kids singing the second verse, and I learnt it for the first time myself. There’s a line in it that says, “With courage let us all combine to advance Australia fair.” When you see some of the pretty awful and evil things that happened yesterday, that’s a good message for all of us. So if the NT is going to make sure that kids sing both verses, then good on them. But so far as I can tell, most schools do it already. 

STEFANOVIC: Have you got any insect repellent on this morning? I mean, it’s just fascinating watching you do that. 

ABO: And 40-degree heat. 

STEFANOVIC: It’s the great Australian fly swat. 

CLARE: I could be ready for the Australian Open almost. 

ABO: You could be. 

STEFANOVIC: Look, on the subject of these kind of things, medical experts want mandatory sunscreen breaks for students, which I think is an interesting idea. But the practicalities of it are going to be difficult in terms of, I guess, who pays for it, what sort of sunscreen, is it just the teachers who we fall back on. What are your initial thoughts about that? 

CLARE: Well, look, we do a better job than we used to when we were kids. This is pretty personal for me because, as you know, mate, I got melanoma a couple of years ago, probably the result of too much time without sunscreen or a hat on the playground or out on the cricket field. If it wasn’t for the fact that I spotted that there was a mole on my leg that was changing colour and I went to the doctor I might not be here now. The fact that it got cut out saved my life. 

At childcare centres where my little guy goes, you’re not allowed outside unless you’ve got sunscreen on and you’ve got a hat. And my big guy at primary school, it’s no hat, no play. But you’re right, it’s different when you get to high school. Just look at the beach and you can see that sometimes the message isn’t getting through. So if there’s something more that I can do as Minister for Education to help to get that message through, working with state ministers and territory ministers, then I’ll do it. 

STEFANOVIC: Good. 

CLARE: Because I know that the sun kills. And if you’ve got sunscreen on then it can save a life. 

ABO: Know what else, though, is this heat that’s wreaking havoc. I mean, a lot of students are returning school in some states today and we’ve got, like, when you are now in Adelaide and also in Melbourne, 45 degrees today. A lot of these public schools don’t even have air-conditioning in their classrooms, Jason. And this is a concern when you’re sending kids into this kind of environment especially the first day or first week of school. 

CLARE: Yeah, and most classrooms do now, Sarah, but you’re right – if the classroom is red hot, then it’s not just not a good place to learn, it can be unsafe. I think I heard just in a report a moment ago it can be dangerous to garden at the moment. It could be dangerous if you’re in a box that’s more than 40 degrees. 

ABO: Yeah. 

CLARE: That’s why it’s important to make sure that all of our classrooms are air-conditioned. And I know that as kids go back to school today in South Australia and Victoria and Queensland, this will be top of mind for teachers and principals right across the country. 

STEFANOVIC: Geez, I remember in year 12 at St Augustine’s in Cairns just our arms were sticking to the exams. 

ABO: Those portables, do you remember those. They were absolutely awful. 

STEFANOVIC: Jason, just before we go, give us a quick wax on, wax off, if you don’t mind ….with the flies. 

CLARE: This one. 

ABO: You’ve been doing a stellar job all morning. 

STEFANOVIC: I know what you were thinking. The straight-talking Jason Clare. Appreciate you being on the show. 

ABO: Don’t swallow those flies.