Doorstop - Adelaide

SUBJECTS:  Labor Government resignations; Computers in Schools programme; South Australian State Leadership E&OE................................ Christopher Pyne: Today the Prime Minister has serious questions to answer about how she intends to govern for the next seven months with what is clearly an unravelling Government. The Prime Minister needs to confirm whether by-elections will be held in the normal course of events, say within two to three months of a resignation and not held off until September in order to keep the Prime Minister’s tenuous hold on power in place. We know that we’ve had the resignations of Nicola Roxon and Chris Evans. We know that Peter Slipper and Craig Thomson are under a legal cloud. Robert McClelland has announced his retirement and that he will be applying for jobs which could take him out of the Parliament. There are rumours of other Labor MP’s and frontbenchers to follow and the Prime Minister is leaving very vague whether she will pursue the normal course of events which is by-elections within one, two or at most three months of resignations or whether she will hold those off to the September 14 election date, that’s not good enough for the Australian public. This Government is starting to resemble a scene from Downfall and the Prime Minister is presiding over a divided and dysfunctional Government. The Coalition on the other hand has a plan for a safe, secure Australia and a strong and prosperous Australia. We want the Government to get its act together because if this wasn’t so serious it would be funny. The public deserve a lot better. In my electorate people tell me they can’t pay their electricity bills, they’re struggling with their mortgages, they’re worried about their children’s futures, they’re worried about their job security and they’re worried the Governments not protecting our borders. And yet this Government appears to be unravelling on a daily basis. If this is what it’s like after three days of an election campaign, what would another three years of a Labor Government do? On another issue today the revelations in the newspapers in Melbourne show that the computers, the Laptops in Schools Programme has turned into the fiasco we always expected it to be. It was an election stunt five years ago, now five years later there is no funding for the ongoing programme. Parents and children are being asked to pay for themselves, the laptops they’re being asked to be paid for themselves to connect to the internet. The Labor Party is talking about more funding for education, and yet in the MYEFO last year they cut $3.9 billion from education and in the budget last year they cut $400 million from the Laptops in Schools Programme. They effectively ended the programme, and the question remains why students are in the last five years in need of laptops, but students in the next five years apparently have no need of the Laptops in Schools Programme. Journalist:  Christopher Pyne, the Government says that Tony Abbott is too scared to shuffle the frontbench and doesn’t have the guts to do it.  Is there a need for rejuvenation? Pyne:  Well that sounds like a desperate play from the Labor Party to shift the focus from their unravelling frontbench to the Opposition.  But it does highlight that we have a very stable frontbench.  Sixteen of Tony Abbott’s Shadow Cabinet Ministers were Ministers in the Howard Government.  Tony Abbott has the longest service in Government of any Leader of the Opposition who could be Prime Minister this year, even more than John Howard when he became Prime Minister.  We don’t have a great need to reshuffle our frontbench because we are very happy with the job they are doing.  The truth is, on the other hand, Julia Gillard leads a divided and dysfunctional rabble which has all the hallmarks of a bad plot from Home and Away rather than a government of adults that is addressing the issues that the Australian public care about. Journalist:  So you don’t believe that the frontbench needs a bit of freshening up?   Pyne:  No I don’t.  I think our frontbench is doing a very good job.  Everyone in it can expect to have those jobs in government.  But it does highlight the comparison between a government in disarray and an Opposition that is ready for Government, that are the adults in the room.  And if only Julia Gillard could get her act together. Journalist:  Do you promote talent from the backbench? Pyne:  Well there is a lot of talent on the backbench in the Coalition.  We’ve attracted some tremendous new Members of Parliament in the last couple of elections.  But, as I say, we have so much talent we have an embarrassment of riches.  Labor, on the other hand, is promoting squeaky wheels like Melissa Parke and Kelvin Thomson.  So the message from their promotion is the more trouble you cause the more likely it is you are going to be promoted. Journalist:  Do Arthur Sinodinos and Josh Frydenberg deserve promotion? Pyne:  There’s a lot of people who deserve promotion.  But the Coalition frontbench is not the issue today.  It’s the unravelling nature of this government and the failure of Julia Gillard to hold her shaky coalition of left, right, Greens, Independents together.  We have lots of very good members on the backbench and over time they will all get a go at some point.  Hopefully the Coalition Government will be in power, if we are fortunate enough to get elected, for many years and that will give everyone a chance to make a difference to Australia. Journalist:  Earlier in the week you made reference to wanting to be the Speaker? Pyne:  (Laughs) That was an editing error by the AFR I think. Journalist:  Do you have interest in being the Speaker of the House?   Pyne:  The Op Ed that I wrote for the AFR and the speech refer to me if I am Leader of the House and the things I would seek to do to improve the Parliament, to restore faith in the Parliament.  From what I can gather there was an editing error at the AFR that changed ‘Leader of the House’ to ‘Speaker of the House.’  So no I have no intention of being Speaker. Journalist:  Who do you think should be Speaker of the House? Pyne:  Well I think the Speaker should be a ‘little i’ independent.  I think whoever it is they should remove themselves from their respective party rooms and the Deputy Speaker should be taken from the other major party.  I think my experience in 20 years has been is that the more independent the Speaker the more they are free to make the decisions in the House that help it to function effectively and in a sensible and sober way.  So I have no idea who wants to be Speaker if the Coalition is elected but we don’t want to jump the gun.  We have to win an election and the Coalition is ready for Government.  Julia Gillard has shown over the last three days that Labor is ready to be out of Government. Pyne: Kevin Rudd said the laptop was the toolbox of the 21^st century, we knew then it was an electoral stunt designed to win an election, five years later the Government has cut all the remaining funds to the laptops in schools programme. That was $400 million as part of their $4.3 billion of cuts to education if you include what they cut from MYEFO last year. Why should Victorian school parents be forced to pay for their laptops and their connection to the internet simply because the Government has dispensed finally with an election stunt.   Journalist: In relation to Martin Hamilton-Smith, he hasn’t confirmed yet whether he is a contender, but do you think they would be a good team? Do you think Steven Marshall and Martin Hamilton-Smith would be a good team?   Pyne: Well I think we’re absolutely delighted that Steven Marshall appears to be going to be elected unanimously as Leader tomorrow morning and we wish him all the best in getting rid of a very poor State Labor Government. Who they choose as their Deputy Leader is really a matter for the State Parliamentary Party and I doubt they would welcome my advice on that matter, but Martin Hamilton-Smith, Vickie Chapman, there are others I think considering it, but they’ll make that decision tomorrow morning. Journalist: Should we encourage fresher blood than Martin Hamilton-Smith and Vickie Chapman, have they been around too long, should we be looking... Pyne:  Well we now have a Leader who has now been in Parliament three years but brings a wealth of 25 years of experience in the business community which is what the state needs right now, so an experienced Deputy Leader, if that’s who they choose would be a good balance with a Parliamentarian who has been in politics for three years but business for 25 before that. ENDS