2GB Ben Fordham
25 Mar 2015
Transcipt E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – 2GB Ben Fordham with Anthony Albanese
Wednesday 25 March 2015
SUBJECTS: NSW State Election; Foreign Aid; Leaders of the House Portrait Gallery.
BEN FORDHAM: Well well well, Christopher Pyne, the Minister for Education and Anthony Albanese, the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure. Christopher, good afternoon.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good afternoon, Ben. Good afternoon Anthony.
BEN FORDHAM: Isn’t he polite, Anthony? He always says good afternoon directly to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Oh, he is a polite gentleman some of the time. G’day to both of you.
BEN FORDHAM: G’day to both of you. Now NSW is heading to the polls on Saturday. Premier Mike Baird, Opposition Leader Luke Foley, they’ve been campaigning across the state. It is looking good for Mike Baird going into the polls. Albo, you would almost concede this Wednesday afternoon that Labor is not going to win the State election, wouldn’t you – almost?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Ah, no. I don’t take voters for granted and I think the issue of the privatisation of electricity is cutting through out there. I have been in a number of electorates during the last month and people are concerned about the long term sustainability of the budget and they are concerned that all of Mr Baird’s promises are all predicated on that, it is like selling your house to go on a holiday. You can have a good holiday, but what happens when you come back?
BEN FORDHAM: They are leasing the house, aren’t they?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, that’s right. If they had any confidence at all, I think they must be cutting through when the Liberals are doing ads saying it is not privatisation – we are not selling anything. Well that is nonsense, that is just treating the electorate as mugs.
BEN FORDHAM: Christopher, are you ready to call a Liberal victory for Saturday? I know I am getting a head of myself, usually we wait until at least five minutes after the polling booths have closed but are you ready to go? You are always keen?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I would never count my chickens before they hatch but I think on terms of the polls and wires debate, the Labor Party campaign has been described best by Martin Ferguson on the 11th of March 2015 when he said it is deliberately misleading the public creating unnecessary fear and trying to scare people into voting Labor not on merit but on misinformation. He said in many ways ‘I am ashamed of the party’ – that is Martin Ferguson, very well respected Labor figure calling out Labor campaign for what it is – a campaign of misinformation and fear. Now Anthony Albanese just talked about privatising electricity – in fact 49 per cent of the polls and wires would be leased which mean the public would still the asset. So it is just not true, and I think Labor has been caught out by a very smart NSW public which knows that they are being fed a campaign of lies.
BEN FORDHAM: Gentlemen, I have got to quickly go to Graham who has called in, you’ll understand why when you hear the seriousness of this. Graham, good afternoon, what is happening on the Princes Highway right now?
CALLER GRAHAM: Basically there is a deer on the side of the road, well he actually was on the road, he has just moved off to the side of the road up half way up Mount Ousley.
BEN FORDHAM: A deer?
CALLER GRAHAM: Yes.
BEN FORDHAM: But he is off the road now?
CALLER GRAHAM: Yeah, he just moved off the road. He is having a bit of a feeding on the grass of the side.
BEN FORDHAM: We are assuming it is a he. Graham, thank you very much. Back to Christopher Pyne and Anthony Albanese. I am sorry about that fellas, but you never know particularly when people are driving along all of a sudden…
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Yeh, sure.
BEN FORDHAM: …and there is a deer in the headlights. Now there are a lot of Labor people that have come out questioning the approach that has been taken by Luke Foley, I mean when you go through the list… Eric Roozendaal, Michael Costa…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Paul Keating…
BEN FORDHAM: Paul Keating, Mark Latham. I can’t believe I am quoting Mark Latham…
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Mark Latham!
BEN FORDHAM: But he says the only conclusion any sensible person, and we know that Mark is sensible, can draw that electricity privatisation is overwhelmingly good for NSW. What I am worried about with Luke Foley is the denial of facts. And I know you are not going to pay too much attention to Mark Latham, but Paul Keating, Albo? ‘I support the Premier’s view about this’.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Nah, Paul Keating is strongly supporting Luke Foley in this election.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: But not in this policy.
BEN FORDHAM: Not this key policy?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: As for – well Paul Keating has supported at various times supporting assets, no secret there. The problem here is it is a bad deal, it is a one off sugar hit that will then take away $1.7 billion from the budget that could be used to fund nurses and police and teachers. The State Government says that it is under fiscal pressure. Well the way you do that is to hold on to the debt, and to get rid of the assets that produce a return to the government.
BEN FORDHAM: But Anthony…
ANTHONY ALBANESE: And that is the concern here.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You guys are just being troglodytes. Morris Iemma tried to do this, Bob Carr wanted to do it. Paul Keating has described Luke Foley as an obscurantist, in another words he is against change for no good reason.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Paul Keating has not said that at all.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: He said there is still some obscurantists in the Labor Party.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Paul Keating has not described Luke Foley in that way at all, and you just gave yourself up.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: On the 28th of November 2014!
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Don’t verbal…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: …obscurantists in the Labor Party. That’s what he said!
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Don’t verbal Paul Keating, you are better than that, Christopher.
BEN FORDHAM: Hang on, what did he say?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I am reading out what he said. On the 28th of November, on the ABC News Online, he said there are still some obscurantists in the Labor Party. There are still some there, this is about electricity privatisation. Now Luke Foley was opposing the polls and wires policy which means he is an obscurantist.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: He is very proudly.
BEN FORDHAM: So he was talking about someone else, was he Albo?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Most people... well Luke Foley wasn’t the leader of the Labor Party.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: But he is opposing the polls and wires policy.
BEN FORDHAM: Alright, alright. It has been revealed…
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Luke Foley is with the mob, you can be with the elite, Christopher.
BEN FORDHAM: It has been revealed that Labor would have doubled the amount of spent on foreign aid if they were in power, so we are told.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: $18 billion.
BEN FORDHAM: Shadow Foreign Minister, Tanya Plibersek wanted to spend more than $44 billion on foreign aid between 2013 and 2014 compared with the Government’s $25 billion spend so that would hit the taxpayer with an extra $18 billion bill. Mr Albanese, what do you make of this? Are we paying more than…
ANTHONY ALBANESE: I make a point that the Daily Telegraph should have an authorisation on the bottom of it at the moment, authorised by the Liberal Party. They are campaigning, they are campaigning hard each and every day against Luke Foley and NSW Labor. That is fine, they are entitled to do that, but it should be seen for what it is, article after article in that newspaper bagging Labor. The fact is…
BEN FORDHAM: They have just made this up, have they?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Absolutely. Since John Howard….
BEN FORDHAM: But where did they get this figure from?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: I have no idea.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I can tell you.
BEN FORDHAM: Well can you tell me, Christopher?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I can tell you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: John Howard…
BEN FORDHAM: I want to get to this, where did this come from, Christopher?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Tanya Plibersek has said Labor Party will meet the Millennium Development Goals, she said it three times, and that 0.5% of GDP will be in foreign aid. Now that is $18 billion dollars more.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: When? When?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: $18 billion more than what is currently being spent. Now we took from the Labor Party, I think everybody accepts that they didn’t deliver a surplus ever but delivered $123 billion of deficits into the future…
ANTHONY ALBANESE: How’s your surplus going?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: …and we got elected on the basis of getting the budget under control. One of those areas where we made reductions in foreign aid because we think you shouldn’t be borrowing money from foreign banks to then send it to overseas in foreign aid. Now Labor on the other hand want to increase the foreign aid budget by $18 billion to meet that 0.5% commitment.
BEN FORDHAM: Alright I am guessing, let me go back to Anthony, I am guessing and I know you are not the Foreign Affairs Minister or the Labor Leader, Anthony, but I am guessing that that is not official Labor Policy, would you say?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: That is just, look since John Howard, the Liberal Party have had the same target of 0.5%. If that has changed, the same target that we have had okay, so we could argue exactly the same in terms of plucking a figure out. The fact is that because of the reductions that have occurred, of course the target won’t be able to be met under the same time frame but that is something that the Liberal Party have shared since John Howard. There is also, it is important to say this, a self-interest here. We do things like fund schools in Indonesia that stopped young Indonesian kids being…
BEN FORDHAM: Radicalised.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: ...going to schools that are funded by the jihadists.
BEN FORDHAM: Yeah.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: So you do want to increase foreign aid by an additional $18 billon?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: You are just making it up, Christopher. We fund schools in Papua New Guinea, under this government, under this government as they should we fund health because of the proximity to Australia, the spread of disease in PNG and today in this world today can have an impact on us.
BEN FORDHAM: As we know there is not going to be any cut to foreign aid in the budget because it looks like Julie Bishop and Joe Jockey sorted that out during the week.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: The old eye roll.
BEN FORDHAM: Yes, the eye roll. Now there was a bit of a secret meeting last night I understand, that you both attended. And no journalists were allowed to go it. What was this all about?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, you can’t be coming to everything.
BEN FORDHAM: What was this all about?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well…
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well….
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Oh, sorry.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: You go Chris.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No you go ahead Anthony.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: It was a terrific event that Christopher hosted outside his office for the current, himself and past Leaders of the House that included myself, the Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and Peter Reith and other Members from all sides of the Parliament came and it was the unveiling the various position around the Parliament, Speakers and Prime Ministers, the portrait galleries - in this case it is photographs of everyone who has held the office. And it was actually a nice something convivial get together outside what is Christopher’s office, and used to be mine. And it was good example, not enough of it happens I think, where we get together on a friendly basis, put down, put down the sword.
BEN FORDHAM: Isn’t that nice?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: And it was a very good occasion.
BEN FORDHAM: Well Anthony would you like to have more of those friendly occasions Albo, I know you are taking a bit of a holiday next week, Christopher you could always go with Albo on holidays if you want to spend more time together?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That might be a bridge too far.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: It might. But for everybody concerned I think. I am looking forward to having my much better half Carmel Tebbutt of course retires from State Parliament on Saturday and we realise that our son is fourteen and we actually have never had a long holiday like ever as a family in his entire life so…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I don’t think Carmel or Nathan would really be pleased if I joined the holiday.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: No we are looking forward to turning the phone off.
BEN FORDHAM: You get a holiday from Christopher as well.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I might be wrong,but I don’t think so.
BEN FORDHAM: Well Christopher maybe you can lend Albo your wet suit, he can always use that while he is away?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: He wouldn’t be able to get into my wet suit -would have to get him a bigger wet suit.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Now he is being mean after I was so nice before.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Indeed.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: I am sure Carolyn wouldn’t want me coming… Christopher’s kids don’t want me on their holiday either.
BEN FORDHAM: We don’t even need to think about it. We’ll talk to you both soon.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Okay, thank you.
[ends]