2GB

SUBJECTS: Question Time

E&OE………

Christopher Pyne: G’day Ben, how are you going? 

Ben Fordham: I’m alright, but you’ve been bad? 

Pyne: Well, “I’m not the Messiah, I’m just a very naughty boy” I think is the line from the Life of Bryan. 

Fordham: I thought young men brought up in Adelaide didn’t use the word scumbag.

Pyne: The Treasurer was doing his usual slagging and bagging of Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer and Twiggy Forest and the Coalition and I take the view that there’s almost no level the Treasurer won’t stoop in his relentlessly negative campaign against Tony Abbott, which seems to be what the Government is obsessed about.   So I described him as a scumbag, which I think is pretty mild considering some of the ways in which he has been described in the past. 

Fordham: Let’s have a listen to what unfolded a short time ago in Question Time:

GRAB

Wayne Swan: (inaudible)

Peter Slipper: The Member for Sturt will remove himself from the Chamber under the provisions of standing order 94A.  I specifically heard him use the word “scumbag”.  And before he goes he will go to the dispatch box and withdraw that term. 

Pyne: Mr Speaker I withdraw and I apologise for describing the Treasurer as a “scumbag”. 

Fordham: There you go.  An apology from you to the Treasurer; do you want to do it here as well Christopher Pyne? 

Pyne: No, I think once is enough any day, but I was really just making sure that the Speaker understood that I was withdrawing.  Of course Paul Keating used to describe the Coalition as scumbags on a daily basis, but we’re a bit more thin skinned these days in Canberra. 

Fordham: Absolutely, nice to talk to you. 

Pyne: Thanks. 

ENDS