ABC News Radio

SUBJECTS: Gillard dumps Wilkie deal; Education funding

E&OE…

Marius Benson: Christopher Pyne, good morning. 

Christopher Pyne: Good morning Marius. 

Benson: How secure does the Gillard Government look to you?  Does it look to be guaranteed to be there until the next election which is due at the end of next year? 

Pyne: The Government is about as shaky as you could possibly imagine.  At the end of last year having done another dirty deal to remove Harry Jenkins from the speakership and replace him Peter Slipper the Government was cock-a-hoot with their apparent political savvyness.  Over the weekend, that’s all come crashing down and now they entirely rely on Craig Thomson, the member for Dobell, who’s a tainted member of parliament, to remain in power because Andrew Wilkie has withdrawn his support from the Government and now they’re going to have to work much harder for his vote in the Parliament.  So the Government should do the right thing.  They should give the people an unambiguous Government.  It should call an election so that the Australian people could have a Government that rather than being focussed on self survival and stitching together deals and arrangements can actually get on with fighting the issues that are important to them; cost of living, job security and education. 

Benson: In the dirty deals you just referred to one of the dirty deals is one of your own Peter Slipper who has taken the position of speaker.  Tony Abbott has said he hopes Peter Slipper will act honourably if there is a vote on confidence in the house.  Have you been speaking to Peter Slipper since he left your ranks? 

Pyne: No I haven’t, but I have no doubt at all should Peter Slipper be faced with the prospect of voting on legislation that he’s already that he’s already opposed before he will act in the way his electorate would expect.  He went to the election opposing abolishing the private health insurance rebate.  When that legislation is introduced, just to give one example, I would be very surprised if he didn’t want to make sure that he could defeat that legislation just to give you one example.  There are many other examples.  The Government is now teetering on the edge of the abyss and the best thing it could do is to give the Australian people a chance to have an unambiguous Government, so that the Government can be focussing on the issues that matter rather than constantly naval gazing like this Government does, with the Prime Minister constantly looking over her shoulder to see if Kevin Rudd is going to strike.

Benson: Will you attempt to tip them into that abyss with a no-confidence vote early in proceedings?

Pyne: We won’t be flagging our tactics in the Parliament.  A no-confidence motion should only be moved in the gravest of circumstances when the government has reached an absolute nadir.  (Inaudible)... we have reached the point where the Government is relying on the vote of Craig Thomson to stay in power.  Clearly we want to know why the Fair Work Australia has not concluded a three year investigation into what is an open and shut case.  We want to know what role the Prime Minster has played in all that. 

Benson: Just quickly Christopher Pyne, your own shadow responsibility for education.  Julia Gillard says that Australia is risking losing the education.  She says we may be becoming the runt of the litter in education terms.  Is that a real danger? 

Pyne: Well, it’s strikes me as Madam Mao engaging in self criticism given that the Government has been in power for the last four and a half years and been responsible for education.  Education spending has increased because they’ve spent it on school halls and lap top giveaway programs.  At the same time they’ve cut literacy and numeracy programs and they’ve cut maths and science programs.  Their priorities are all wrong.  They should be giving principals more autonomy, bringing back vouchers for tuition in literacy and numeracy, supporting the maths and science Olympiads and other programs like that and not spending taxpayers’ money on school halls and lap to programs and crying after spilt milk at the end of the event. 

ENDS