ABC News Radio

SUBJECTS: AWU Scandal; asylum seekers

E&OE................................

Marius Benson: Christopher Pyne it has been reported in The Australian this morning that the Opposition’s approach in Parliament today is that you will be calling for law reform to crack down on union slush funds that’s a way of attacking the Prime Minister over her role in setting up a slush fund two decades ago.

Christopher Pyne: Well Marius obviously these union slush funds that their members aren’t aware of are very prevalent in the union movement. Most union leaders have admitted that in some unions there are numerous slush funds. In the case of the AWU in 1990’s, these slush funds weren’t used for the re-election of union officials but for the personal improvement of Bruce Wilson and other of his associates. So it’s a serious issue. We have tried of course to have the rules that apply to company director apply to union directors but the Labor party have defeated that. We’ll see if they front up for this particular move on behalf of the Opposition.

Benson: In relation the Prime Minster, do you have allegations or just questions?

Pyne: Well the Prime Minister really needs to clear the air. I mean there are so many unanswered questions with respect to this AWU slush fund. Just for an example, Marius, it seems surprising that the Prime Minister didn’t open a file at the Slater & Gordon law firm where she worked if indeed the opening of this slush fund, the conveyancing of the Fitzroy house were all as routine as she says they were in fact if they were so routine why did they remain hidden for so long?

Benson: Ok so there are questions but is there any claim from the Opposition that the Prime Minister broke a law?

Pyne: Well indeed of course if the Prime Minister was party to the siphoning of funds off for the misuse by Bruce Wilson or others then she could well have been party to a particular civil or criminal action and that’s the matter she needs to needs to explain to the House in terms of some of these loose ends. I mean for example if $5,000 appeared in her accounts in 1995, now that was a lot of money in 1995, she needs to explain whether she actually asked Bruce Wilson where this money was coming from or whether she just accepted that it was in fact his. I mean these are questions that the public want answers to because they go to the Prime Minister’s answers that she’s already given in press conferences and the like.

Benson: On your own side of politics there are some questions over the asylum seeker issue with moderates like Russel Broadbent and Mal Washer expected to raise questions in the party room about the statement last week by the Leader, Tony Abbott, that he would be scrapping the plan to end the number of asylum seekers to be allowed into Australia from 14,000 to 20,000. Are you concerned about tensions like that within the party?

Pyne: Well I think the tensions over asylum seeker policy are all on the Labor side, Marius. I mean we have some members of the Labor Party in basically open revolt, the Prime Minister careering from one disastrous decision about border policy to another. There have been 30,000 boat arrivals since the Government changed the Howard Government’s laws on border protection and that compares with 300 in the last five years of the Howard Government. So clearly the Government has lost control of our borders. It’s one of the key tests of any government and they’ve failed it.

Benson: Tony Windsor, the Independent, says the asylum seeker debate is laced with veiled racism and he is expressing concern about that. Is it veiled racism when the Opposition Leader and Scott Morrison refer to a ‘peaceful invasion’?

Pyne: Look I don’t think it’s anything to do with racism, Marius. I think the Australian public expect the Government to protect its borders and having 20,000 unauthorised arrivals in five years, which is more than the population of Alice Springs, gives the public great pause for thought about the competence of the Government and its perfectly reasonable for the Opposition to suggest policies the Government could adopt to stop that and also criticise them for their failures in the first place.

Benson: But what about a phrase like ‘peaceful invasion’, which seems like an oxymoron anyway?

Pyne: Yes it does somewhat. Well Marius a lot of things get said in politics. The truth is there have been 20,000 unauthorised arrivals in the last five years. Some people might categorise that as a peaceful invasion. It’s certainly not the kind of borders we want in this country. It demonstrates porous borders and we want firm borders so we can control who comes into this country and the circumstances in which they come.

Benson: Christopher Pyne, thank you very much.

Pyne: That’s a pleasure. Thank you.

ENDS