Doorstop - Adelaide

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well thank you very much for coming this morning. Anthony Albanese has fired the starter gun on the Labor Party leadership contest last night in his speech. He very clearly has contradicted Bill Shorten on three seminal messages that Bill Shorten has been crafting since he was the leader of the opposition. Firstly, Bill Shorten has made it clear that he is at war with business, as part of his class warfare rhetoric and Anthony Albanese said that Labor should be getting closer to business both small and big business. Secondly Bill Shorten has made it clear that the union movement should be at the centrepiece of a public policy in Australia and Anthony Albanese made it very clear that what Labor should be doing is reaching out to all the workers who are not members of unions given that less than 10 per cent of the Australian workforce is unionised and thirdly whereas Bill Shorten has repudiated the Hawke-Keating legacy of supporting the aspiration of Australians and having a class warfare over support for across the board tax cuts, Anthony Albanese made it very clear that he intends to be the holder of the flame in the Hawke-Keating legacy; so he has very clearly repudiated Bill Shorten’s political strategy. Bill Shorten’s political strategy has been to divide the nation, to have a class war election, to be opposed to increased tax cuts across the board. Anthony Albanese has made it quite clear that he thinks that strategy is false, that Labor should be supporting and working closely with business that it should be not having the unions at the centre of its policy development and that it should be the aspirational party of Hawke and Keating rather than the socialist Party that Bill Shorten has made Labor since he was the leader of the opposition.

This is the beginning of the leadership contest that will only end inevitably in a ballot between Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten. Bill Shorten should bring that on sooner rather than later, give the caucus a real choice about who the Labor leader should be and the direction that the Labor Party should take. His leadership has failed. Anthony Albanese has called time on that in his speech last night, we all know where this is going to end and the sooner that Bill Shorten gets on with it he has a leadership ballot the better.

QUESTION: Is this Albo on the March? Shoring of his leadership credentials? What do you think Bill Shorten thinks of the comments?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I'm sure Bill Shorten is white hot with fury about the fact that Anthony Albanese has declared that the leadership contest is well and truly on. It has been bubbling for some time, there have been many instances over the last few months where Anthony Albanese has contradicted Bill Shorten but last night Anthony Albanese fired the starter gun on leadership contest, we know where it's going to end, it will end in a ballot of the Labor Party membership and the caucus and the sooner Bill Shorten gets on with it the better.

QUESTION: Anthony Albanese is says the Government promotes division, would you be open to more bi-partisanship with the parties?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I get along well with Anthony Albanese we do quite a bit of television and radio together. He is the more old school Labor leader in as much as he believes that bringing people together is more useful than dividing them. He's made that clear last night in his speech about working more closely with business both small and large, reaching out to working class Australians and middle-class Australia who aren't members of unions, and let's not forget nine per cent of the workforce is unionised and yet Bill Shorten has made the unions the centre of his policy development and pre-selection process. Anthony Albanese has made it very clear that he wants to repudiate that strategy.

Anthony Albanese has made it very clear to the Labor caucus that there is a choice. There's a choice between Bill Shorten who wants to have a war on business, who wants to have the unions at the centrepiece of Labor's agenda, who wants to reject aspiration versus Anthony Albanese who wants to embrace the Hawke-Keating legacy of being pro-aspiration, wants to reach out to business, and reach out to Australians who aren't members of unions.

QUESTION: Why is it that when Anthony Albanese makes a speech, it’s on in Labor but when say, Tony Abbott makes some comments critical of the Government, it’s not in the Liberal Party?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Anthony Albanese is a very senior member of the Shadow Cabinet. He's a former deputy Prime Minister, He’s not on the backbench, he's in the Labor Party Shadow Cabinet. He's sits very close to Bill Shorten. Clearly he is campaigning for the leadership of the Labor Party; it's a very different situation. Backbenchers in the Liberal Party are entitled to have different views about policy issues. Nobody has thrown down the gauntlet to Malcolm Turnbull in the way that Anthony Albanese has thrown down the gauntlet to Bill Shorten.

QUESTION: If Labor lose any of the by-elections, do you think that will be the final nail for Bill Shorten?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well there’s absolutely no expectation of the government winning any of these elections. A government has not won a by-election on the opposition since 1920. If Bill Shorten loses any of these by-elections, he will be in very serious strife. But the expectation of that has got to be very low. It would be the first time in almost 100 years that that happens.

QUESTION: Labor, if they want to engage big business will that be threatening to you as its encroaching on traditional liberal territory?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well as much as I appreciate Anthony Albanese reaching out the hand of friendship to big business, I don't see big business about to immediately embrace a Labor Party which is opposed to a competitive corporate tax rate, has policies that bring the CFMEU into the centre of the Australian government, give them a seat at the Cabinet table. I can see what Anthony Albanese is doing. He is saying to the caucus there is another way. There is the Albanese way vs. the Shorten way and he's asking them to choose, but I'm not immediately threatened by the idea of an Anthony Albanese leadership. That's a matter for Labor to sort out. We have the policies that are growing jobs, increasing growth, giving the corporate world a competitive tax rate internationally which also adds into jobs, balancing the budget, providing essential services that Australians have come to expect. And I think we have the right policies but Labor has got to sort out their leadership contest between Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten.

QUESTION: Do you think Senator Hanson can be persuaded to support the company tax cuts?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well that's a matter for the Senate to determine this week and I'll leave that up to my Senate colleagues particularly Matthias Cormann to manage those negotiations.

QUESTION: If they don't pass will the Coalition be taking those the election?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We're committed to the corporate tax cut and the Senate will have an opportunity this week to vote for it.

QUESTION: Just on the Future Frigates Contact, with an impending announcement there, can you confirm if the Government is considering singling out Austal to be part of that build?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well the three tenders for the build of the thirty-five-billion-dollar Future Frigate project are Fincantieri, Navantia and BAE. The government has said that we will make an announcement about the successful tenderer in mid this year which is June and July. We will definitely do that. If any of the successful tenderers wish to subcontract to Australian shipbuilders like Austal, we're perfectly open to them doing so but that is a matter for the successful tender.

QUESTION: Do you think Australians would welcome Donald Trump to Australia later in the year?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I'm sure they would. We always welcome the United States Presidents coming to Australia as our most significant and important and longstanding ally. We have 100 years of Mate-ship with the United States this year. And if Donald Trump chooses to visit as part of APEC, of course we'd welcome them here.

QUESTION: Do you think there’ll be protests?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: There's almost always protests when an American President visits Australia, in fact we've had protests on the floor of the house of Representatives with Bob Brown when George Bush visited so protests are part of democracy.

QUESTION: Sheep exports? Why has the Government suspended live exports licence of Emanuel exports?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well that's probably a question you should put to David Littleproud. He's the appropriate Minister for the suspension of that license for Emanuel Exports.

QUESTION: Should Australians be worried though that decision effectively knocks out 50 per cent of the live sheep export industry. Are you concerned at all about this?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think it's very important for people who are undertaking the very sensitive export of lives sheep to the Middle East that they abide by the rules. If the license has been suspended by the Minister for Agriculture or the Department of Agriculture, that is probably for good reasons. And we are putting the welfare of the sheep primary in that decision-making process as we should.