3AW Neil Mitchell transcripts
November 30, 2010
November 25, 2010 - with Neil Mitchell on 3AW about the pokies during his traditional "whackos and fringe dwellers" session.
Neil Mitchell: Hello Stephen.
Stephen Mayne: Neil.
Neil Mitchell: Yes.
Stephen Mayne: yes. Stephen Mayne, I'm running as an independent in the Upper House in the Northern Metropolitan region, so all the way from Richmond to the inner city, up to Broady and through Whittlesea.
The platform is backed by senator Nick Xenophon, it's a stop the pokies platform, and the other element is that I'm offering to keep your local council honest and expose the expenses claims and executive salaries and all those sorts of things, that councils are currently not exposed.
Neil Mitchell: So when you say stop the pokies, would you ban the pokies totally?
Stephen Mayne: No, you'd have $1 maximum bets they've all got to close by midday, compulsory pre-commitment, y'know we're the world's biggest gamblers we lost $2.6 billion ...
Neil Mitchell: Close by midday? So you close down pokies venues at midday?
Stephen Mayne: No, sorry, midnight. My local pokies venues is open to 7 in the morning. It markets to kids - it's just ridiculous! We're the world's biggest gamblers and we're the world's lowest smoking rate.
Neil Mitchell: And what would that cost if in revenue?
Stephen Mayne: Oh look, a lot! But it's costing enormous damage in society and enormous misery....
Neil Mitchell: Stephen. Stephen. You're a man with a financial background, not to say a background in media. How much would it cost, and how would you recover that lost revenue to government?
Stephen Mayne: Neil, that's the wrong argument.
Neil Mitchell: (Laughs)
Stephen Mayne: That's what the industry says, they always say ...
Neil Mitchell: Hang on, it's a legitimate question! By doing this you will cost the state budget a pile of money. Now it may well be the right thing to do. How do you, how do you make up...
Stephen Mayne: A billion dollars.
Neil Mitchell: How much?
Stephen Mayne: A billion dollars.
Neil Mitchell: Ok. How do you make that up?
Stephen Mayne: Canberra has got to get involved, that's the Nick Xenophon...
Neil Mitchell: where's Canberra going to get an extra billion dollars?
Stephen Mayne: Well Canberra has got all the taxing power. The poor old states ...
Neil Mitchell: So who you going to tax, you're going to put an extra tax on us?
Stephen Mayne: Yes! Absolutely! The worst possible ...
Neil Mitchell: Us?!
Stephen Mayne: ... tax is the pokies tax.
Neil Mitchell: So you're going to increase the tax on Victorians are you?
Stephen Mayne: I would happily increase tax on Victorians to reduce the massive social damage being caused by the pokies and the fact we're the worlds biggest gamblers.
Neil Mitchell: You are going to take an extra billion dollars in taxation out of Victorians?
Stephen Mayne: Well, preferably more.
Neil Mitchell: more? So you're running on a platform of increasing taxation?
Stephen Mayne: Yes - to get rid of the pokies.
Neil Mitchell: How would you work that tax? Would it be some form of payroll tax, income tax, a stamp duty on houses, what would it be?
Stephen Mayne: Any sort of tax.
Neil Mitchell: Any?! You can't just go into an election and say any tax. What would it be?
Stephen Mayne: Put up payroll tax ...
Neil Mitchell: payroll tax. There go jobs....
Stephen Mayne: ... put up the GST, put up any tax...
Neil Mitchell: GST?! You need a constitutional agreement by all the states!
Stephen Mayne: Well, I mean, Neil, you don't back the pokies do you? I mean, we're the world's biggest gamblers ...
Neil Mitchell: that's not the point! I'm looking for logic to your argument. I'm looking for accountability. If you are taking a million dollars out of the revenue, where are you going to get it back - you're putting up taxes. Where? How?
Stephen Mayne: well anything you like. Payroll tax is fine.
Neil Mitchell: Anything?! There go jobs. There go jobs.
Stephen Mayne: Well there goes better social cohesion. There goes less misery. There goes less bankruptcy. There goes less fraud, driven by gambling addicts. All the social damage. It's the most regressive tax of all, is the pokies tax, because it targets the poor people.
So anyone who is living in all those inner city areas up to Broadmeadows, Group C above the line on the big yellow ballot paper on Saturday, and you can get a message, backed by Nick Xenophon, to slam the pokies which has destroyed live music as well.
Neil Mitchell: your former boss Jeff Kennett is in after ten, you got a question for him?
Stephen Mayne: Well look he's doing a good job at Hawthorn, but I wish he would get Hawthorn out of the pokies. I mean all the other AFL clubs are massively into the pokies as well, and that's how it becomes so ingrained in our society.
Neil Mitchell: Well, I hope if you are elected to parliament, you pay more attention to accuracy than you did when you were running the Crikey website.
Stephen Mayne: C'mon Neil. You've got to let bygones be bygones.
Neil Mitchell: No I don't. I believe in accuracy in journalism Stephen.
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November 30, 2010 - Neil Mitchel has a whinge about refusing his interview and discusses the chances of holding the last upper house seat.
Neil Mitchell: Last Thursday, I dedicated some of the program to the 'whackos and fringe dwellers' in politics - these are the people who are standing without a lot of logic behind them, and just in the hope they can have an impact.
One of those I spoke to was Stephen Mayne. Journalist, former staffer to Jeff Kennett. Ran a scurrilous website called Crikey, which he has now sold, and the word is he could well be in a very, very powerful position.
I had a brief discussion with him after he called in, which gives you an indication of what we could be in for ...
Neil Mitchell: You are going to take an extra billion dollars in taxation out of Victorians?
Stephen Mayne: Well, preferably more.
Neil Mitchell: more? So you're running on a platform of increasing taxation?
Stephen Mayne: Yes - to get rid of the pokies.
Neil Mitchell: How would you work that tax? Would it be some form of payroll tax, income tax, a stamp duty on houses, what would it be?
Stephen Mayne: Any sort of tax.
Neil Mitchell: Any?! You can't just go into an election and say any tax. What would it be?
Stephen Mayne: Put up payroll tax ...
Neil Mitchell: payroll tax. There go jobs....
Stephen Mayne: ... put up the GST, put up any tax...
Neil Mitchell: GST?! You need a constitutional agreement by all the states!
Stephen Mayne: Well, I mean, Neil, you don't back the pokies do you? I mean, we're the world's biggest gamblers ...
Neil Mitchell: that's not the point! I'm looking for logic to your argument. I'm looking for accountability. If you are taking a million dollars out of the revenue, where are you going to get it back - you're putting up taxes. Where? How?
Stephen Mayne: well anything you like.
Neil Mitchell: Okay. That is what you are in for. Stephen Mayne, won't talk to me today. He says he wasn't happy with the treatment I gave him last week, and yeah, I did put him on the spot - I don't apologise for that.
He rang in to a segment called 'Fringe dwellers and whackos', admitting he was a fringe dweller, if not a whacko. What did he expect? Of course he had to be made answerable to.
But the real point here is the loophole in democracy. He could have the balance of power. At this stage he has won just over 3,000 votes or about 1% of the vote. Argh!
This is what terrifies me. Someone with 0.4 or 1% of the vote, could in fact be in a very powerful position in the Upper House.
This is a strange situation. This is the way it works I guess.
In the case of Stephen Mayne, he is opposed to pokies - no more pokies. That rips revenue out of the system, where does it come from - new taxes. You could have a back bloke sitting there with the ear of government.
Whackos and fringe dwellers. One of them could be, whether it be Stephen Mayne or somebody else, one of the whackos or fringe dwellers I spent Thursday trying to expose to the world, could actually be in there wielding a big stick.
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