ABC 891

JOURNALIST: He’s a Minister for Defence Industry; he’s the Leader of the House for the Turnbull government, Christopher Pyne welcome to the program.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Matthew.

JOURNALIST: Christopher Pyne we thought we’d start with one of our listeners and that was Jean. Now Gene was our very first caller we took this morning while it was still dark in Adelaide just after 6 o’clock, this is Gene responding to Donald Trump.

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GENE: One thing I agreed with Mr Trump was when he said we should clean our house, meaning the masses in the White House at the moment, I think we should clean out our swamp that’s in Canberra at the moment because I think the way the politicians walk all over us is dreadful and one thing I disagree with is the way that they disregard people like me who’ve had the audacity to save for their old age so that we’ll be independent so that was very bad so we’ll tax them.

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JOURNALIST: Christopher Pyne how do you respond to Gene and others who think like that?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well with the facts and the facts are that we just had an election in July this year and the Australian public have voted for the Senate that they wanted and for the government that they wanted. We’re very lucky in Australia to have such a vibrant democracy and of course people who have retired and are self funded retirees paid little or no tax so in fact the facts are that we do reward people who save for their retirement.

JOURNALIST: Not if they’re putting away money in super at the moment though.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well if Gene has more than $1.6 million worth of assets then we’re asking her to pay 15% on the income over that $1.6 million, if she has income up to $1.6 million she’s being asked to pay no tax.

JOURNALIST: You’re on the record for wanting a Hillary victory, you made comments to that effect, they were broadcast to our listeners again this morning, do you regret that, should you perhaps have been taking a leaf from Cory Bernardi’s book?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No not at all, I was asked about who I thought would be better for Australia and the truth is that Hillary Clinton believes strongly in America’s pivot to Asia which is very much in Australia’s interests and she also strongly supports a free trade agenda. So in fact I quite objectively believe that she was the candidate with the policies that would suit Australia but the Americans have also got a vibrant democracy and they’ve chosen Donald Trump and of course America is our great ally, it’s our only formal ally along with New Zealand and ANZUS and I’ve just been in Washington, we are very well liked there and we’ll continue to be well liked there

JOURNALIST: On that front therefore we are a defence state, defence industry is very important to South Australia but from high tech weaponry to submarines, what are the concerns, both strategically with a shift by Donald Trump and also in terms of tariffs?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well the good news is that Donald Trump has in his election campaign strongly endorsed a large military build up in the United States which provides us with real opportunities. He’s talked about seventy new navy ships, one hundred new air force planes, 13 new marine battalions so…

JOURNALIST: But he will want all those jobs in America, not in Adelaide

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well there are Australian companies that very successfully sell into the United States, CEA with their phased array radar, Austal with catamarans and ships, there are many, many examples, the US Australia free trade agreement is not in question…

JOURNALIST: No but I asked you about the threats, what are the threats to South Australia, and Australia? I know you’ve talked about the opportunities and the good news and that’s valid, I did ask you though about the threats, are there concerns?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I don’t think there are any threats to Australia from a Trump Presidency at all.

JOURNALIST: But isn’t that inconsistent if Hillary Clinton was going to be better for Australia and she didn’t win then doesn’t it follow that he will not be as good for Australia.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No I just think she had the policies, particularly in terms of the Asia pivot which suited Australia but I’m not a voter in America and asked objectively about my view I think that is a fair view to take but certainly Donald Trump has been to Australia many times, he’s a known fan of Australia. He has a policy which says that countries that aren’t spending up to 2% of their GDP on defence will be required to do so if they intend to be good US allies, Australia’s already there so we have a plan to be there, I think we’re going to be there ahead of schedule so truth is there is no threats to Australia in terms of our alliance with the US and Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull, our foreign policy team have worked hard to make we sure we have strong links with both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party and that will continue.

JOURNALIST: Can I just ask you to reflect on the broader political implications of what has happened and whether there are any messages here? Again Cory Bernardi, your Liberal South Australian colleague, believes there are, he’s tweeted “the movement against the establishment political parties who have consistently and wilfully ignored the mainstream majority in favour of their own power and self interest is moving across the globe, we need to change politics and unite Australian conservatives to make that change for our nation, if you want to be part of the movement please register your interest at Australian Conservatives”. Christopher Pyne will you be joining Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No I’m a member of the Australian Liberal Party and I think…

JOURNALIST: So’s he…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: What he’s doing with that website is trying to counter organisations like Getup! And I think that is a very positive development, why should we allow the internet, the Twitterverse to be controlled by the left.

JOURNALIST: But do you think Bernardi’s call is right that there is something going on here and the major parties ignore it at their peril.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well we’ve just seen a very divisive United States election, every four years US elections are often very divisive and after the election they tack back to the centre and Donald Trump’s speech last night in accepting his election victory was very gracious and Hillary Clinton’s was also very gracious and we’re already seeing in the Unites States a move back to a more sensible political discourse than we’ve seen in the last 18 months.

JOURNALIST: So it Bernardi making too much of this?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Look that’s a matter for him, you should ask Senator Bernardi.

JOURNALIST: Well I’m asking you, I’m asking you to have a discussion about the wider implications, not an unreasonable thing to do, do you think he’s making too much of this?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I think you should ask him that question.

JOURNALIST: Okay, well do you think there’s a message for the media here that people don’t trust the media, that media should perhaps just get back to reporting the facts, challenging powerful people and stop campaigning.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I think the media and political commentators got it very, very wrong and in fact Greg Sheridan I think has written an excellent column in the Australian today where he quite honestly says well he got it wrong. A lot of people got it wrong, I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win and I said so you know I got that wrong but that’s democracy. The media are full of barrackers, there’s no doubt about that, particularly on the left side of politics and they got this horribly wrong and the pollsters of course they also got it wrong as they did in the federal election in many respects so there’s always changes in politics and we’ve just seen a pretty significant change in the US.

JOURNALIST: Chris Pyne can we play you something else; I think you’ll enjoy this one, are you ready?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I enjoyed the last one.

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JOURNALIST: It’ll be madam President.

JOURNALIST: She’s going to win, going to romp it in.

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JOURNALIST: That was me yesterday morning.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well we can all laugh now I suppose, you know we don’t get everything right do we.

JOURNALIST: Christopher Pyne thanks for talking to us.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Pleasure