2GB

SUBJECTS: 1996 Parliament House Riot

E&OE… 

Ben Fordham: Mr Pyne, good afternoon. 

Christopher Pyne: Ben, how are you going?

Fordham: That was a big day. 

Pyne: It was an extraordinary day and I was a young Member of Parliament then.  I was elected about three years before and it struck me that people were getting very worked up and excited about a few lines on posters which may or may not be a good idea, but are essentially expressions of freedom of speech, even if they’re unsavoury and unpleasant.  But at the Press Gallery in Canberra in particular they tried to suggest that this is somehow Tony Abbott’s responsibility and therefore he has to do something about it.  But how quickly they forget that 15 years ago trade union protestors were smashing the front doors of Parliament House, wounding attendants and security guards, people were going to hospital.  There was literally blood on the marble floor of the reception hall of Parliament House and the Parliament was under siege.  

Fordham: I can remember being in the gift shop there of Parliament House; this is the main entrance of the building.  I can remember looting going on in the gift shop, everything was smashed up, the front doors were smashed up.  I remember a female police officer, holding her head and blood dripping all the way down her arm and dripping off the bottom of her elbow, and you reminded people today that effigies of John Howard and Amanda Vanstone were burnt during the proceedings.  It sounds a lot hotter than what we’ve seen recently outside Parliament House. 

Pyne: Yes, either we’ve all become much more sensitive or their might be a double standard operating, depending on who’s doing the protesting.  I’d probably think it’s more the latter than the former because there were posters of broken glass pictured above John Howard’s head where he was bleeding to death; “the kindest cut of all” was the slogan written on those posters 15 years ago. 

Fordham: I don’t remember a huge outcry Christopher Pyne.  I don’t remember a huge outcry all those years ago about the posters.  Nothing. 

Pyne: It’s funny that. 

Fordham: In fact, Bill Keelty who was the boss of the ACTU – now whether he was the boss of the ACTU or the former boss, but I interviewed him on that day and I pointed at the doors of Parliament House and I asked him “what do you think about this?” and he said, “this is the proudest day in the history of the union movement in this country.” 

Pyne: Yes well I think you’ll find Greg Combet would have a lot less to say about it these days if you contacted him because I think from memory he was also at that rally and Kim Beazley of course addressed the rally, but I’m sure Labor today would rather have a, think that they were purer than the driven snow and a few unpleasant posters offend their sensibilities.  I was there when people like Trish Worth and Brendan Nelson and even I without any training at all actually tending to people who had been hurt in this riot and as you say the gift shop was utterly ransacked, there was hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage done and I think that’s all a lot more serious than a few unpleasant posters.

Fordham: Should Tony Abbott, on another issue, should he be doing a deal with Julia Gillard in terms of offshore processing?

Pyne: Well obviously Julia Gillard has got herself into a pretty pickle over the Malaysian Solution which we always said was a bad idea.  We believe that Nauru can go ahead in spite of the Solicitor General’s advice because our view is that in fact that advice doesn’t rule out Nauru, and Nauru of course is planning on signing the convention on refugees as we speak and have indicated they are prepared to make any changes that are needed to domestic laws to take asylum seekers and process them, but even if the Government says they need legislation, we’ve indicated we’re prepared to sit down and work with them because we have been saying all along, the Government’s got it wrong, the Howard Government policy was right and if they have to return to that we’re prepared to facilitate that for interests of the country.

Fordham: Well I’ve only got twenty seconds until the news will Julia Gillard lead Labor to the next election?

Pyne: That’s the $64 question Ben, I think that’s probably better to put that to Bill Shorten, Steve Smith, Graham Richardson, Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan there is a plethora of people who want her job.

Fordham: Alright Christopher Pyne thank you very much.

Pyne: Pleasure.

ENDS