2GB Ben Fordham

04 Feb 2015 Transcipt

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – 2GB Sydney with Ben Fordham and Anthony Albanese
Wednesday 4 February 2015

SUBJECTS: Federal Government; Budget; Tom Uren.

BEN FORDHAM: Christopher Pyne, good afternoon.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good afternoon Ben and good afternoon Anthony.

BEN FORDHAM: Anthony Albanese, good afternoon to you, sir.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: G’day Ben, G’day Christopher.

BEN FORDHAM: Once upon a time Christopher you would have had a field day about Labor leadership problems, this time it is you guys in focus. The latest today is that we have had Malcolm Turnbull accused of doing the ring around and canvassing backbenchers for support, he has come out to say that that’s not the case. You have also revealed today that Julie Bishop is a bit miffed that her loyalty is being questioned. I tell you what; from the outside looking in it doesn’t look good.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Look it is not a week we would like to see repeated over and over again and neither was last week and I think I said that last week too. So it is something that needs to be put behind us and people need to get on with the job of putting the Australian peoples’ interests first which means jobs, means looking after families and the Prime Minister began to outline that in his National Press Club speech on Monday around childcare reform and small business tax relief etc. So that is what we should be doing. I can tell you categorically that Malcolm Turnbull has not been ringing colleagues and canvassing for support because I asked him myself point-blank and he told me it was not true. So I can tell you that it is not true.

BEN FORDHAM: When was that conversation?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Today, of course after I have seen the reports.

BEN FORDHAM: What time?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It was late in the morning. I don’t know the exact time, it was late in the morning.

BEN FORDHAM: I am interested in how a conversation like that plays out.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No. It is a private conversation.

BEN FORDHAM: Well you just revealed the contents of it.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well there you got, you got it, you got it – the exclusive on your radio show, Ben.

BEN FORDHAM: Let me go to you if I can, Anthony Albanese, be honest, I mean are you guys sitting back rubbing your hands together saying oh it’s nice that someone else can experience what we have gone through for the past few years?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well Christopher is certainly right that Australians deserve better than this and this shouldn’t be the focus of the Government. But you know they just don’t have the plan to govern, they have a plan to get there and it was the three word slogans and repeating the mantra and pretty effective about it. They won the election by a considerable margin but since then there is no narrative to this Government, there is no purpose to this Government and it is not surprising that it is collapsing in and on itself at the moment. It is an extraordinary performance. It is only just over a bit of a year since they were elected and this is a Government at war with itself.

BEN FORDHAM: Their efforts have not been helped by you guys in the Senate and others in the Senate by blocking just about everything they have tried to put through there, particularly key budget measures. I mean you know people wanting to go to the doctor and pay $5 just to see a doctor, things that most Australians probably say okay if we have to cop that medicine we will, if it is for the greater good. But you guys ran a very effective campaign against it, you haven’t helped.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well two points there, Ben. The first is that Medicare, we believe, should be paid for through the tax system so that I should pay more than average punters out there listening to your program on $65,000 a year.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: And you already do.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: We believe that that is the appropriate system. We don’t believe that if you move to a system whereby you get better care the more money you pay. And we don’t believe in undermining the universality of Medicare. The Government said very clearly prior to the election that there would be none, none, hands off Medicare, would stay the same. The other thing that is quite extraordinary is that the narrative that this is about budget savings, they said this would go to a medical fund that no one heard about until budget night so has no impact on the budget in terms of the budget bottom line. This is an example of how the Government just hasn’t thought through things – undermined by an examination of the detail of their own argument.

BEN FORDHAM: Okay, let me underline that word, undermine, and let me flick it to you Christopher Pyne and ask you why are the likes of Dennis Jensen, Warren Entsch, why are they undermining Prime Minister Tony Abbott just twenty-four hours after he tried to reset the agenda at the National Press Club and what do you make of their behaviour and why isn’t anyone going hard on them over that? I mean if it is treachery why didn’t you call it treachery?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Ben the important thing is that people feel that they are included in the Government. So going out and calling a backbencher traitor wouldn’t exactly be a good start of that conversation. I as a Cabinet Minister, Leader of the House and as Education Minister, I try and engage with the backbench on a daily basis as Leader of the House. I have an Education Hour once a week when Parliament is sitting so that my colleagues can come and sit down and talk to me about issues in education as well as of course as dealing with all the correspondence that they send me and the other contact they make with me.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I wouldn’t mind coming to that, Christopher.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well you would be very welcome, Anthony to come and... you have got quite a lot of problems so it could take more than an hour I think to go through all of your problems. I don’t want to get in to all of the personal problems…

BEN FORDHAM: Why did you feel the need, Christopher Pyne, to ask Malcolm Turnbull whether or not he had been canvassing the backbench?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Because I was sitting next to him at the time and I saw the report of the tweet from Julia Baird so I thought that I should ask him and he told me. I mean Malcolm and I are very good friends, why on earth wouldn’t I? I am not sitting here in a monastery where you can’t speak to each other.

BEN FORDHAM: I feel a bit sorry for Julie Bishop’s loyalty being questioned – I gather from your comments today, Christopher Pyne, she is quite annoyed about the whole thing?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I think Julie has been unfairly maligned in the press by some of the stories suggesting that she was not being as loyal as she should’ve been. The truth is that she has been a steadfast deputy for seven years, seven or eight years; I think she quite rightly felt that she shouldn’t have had her loyalty being questioned.

BEN FORDHAM: If I can go to you, Mr Albanese, you have had a pretty heavy day today, Labor Party figure and good friend of you, Tom Uren has been farewelled today in a State Funeral at Town Hall – can you tell us about that send off today and I am gathering that it is continuing in some way shape of form?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well it was a wonderful send-off and Tom Uren was someone who even people who disagreed with some of his views I think respected him. He fought for this nation, being a prisoner of war for four years at the Japanese and suffered the deprivation and trauma that occurred to people who worked on the Thai-Burma railway. It was actually fantastic to see today at his funeral someone from the other side of politics, Sir John Carrick who also served, a great figure in the Liberal Party, a giant of Australian politics, there he was, aged ninety-six, at Tom’s funeral. He came along with former Prime Minister John Howard. It was a wonderful send-off to Tom; it was one that he deserved. Tom was a man of conviction, a man of principle. He was much loved and I think that he made and extraordinary contribution over ninety-three as defending Australia as a sportsman, as a parliamentarian, and as a political activist.

BEN FORDHAM: It is nice to see when both sides of politics can put all their differences aside to you know for one common goal but sadly it takes a funeral to get you all together but not you two, you are here every single week, that’s right.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: And can I just say that I know that Tom Uren was a particularly favourite of Anthony’s and in fact I tweeted soon after his death that I passed on my condolences but also noticed that he was a particular favourite of Anthony’s and it is because I think he was a politician with conviction … that is exactly what people respect. I don’t think people always need to agree with you, but if you seem to the courage of your convictions, I think that goes a long way.

BEN FORDHAM: Well said. Good to speak to you both. We’ll chat next week.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Thank you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Indeed we will.

BEN FORDHAM: Anthony Albanese and Christopher Pyne.

[ends]


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