Doorstop - Adelaide

SUBJECTS: Labor chaos; Higher Education; Cuts to Education Hon Christopher Pyne MP: I’d like to open by explaining that the new Minister for Higher Education Kim Carr has thrown a hand grenade into the centre of higher education in Australia. This is the kind of chaos you expect from a Government that’s had four Higher Education Ministers in four months. Kim Carr has flagged that the Government will be putting the cap back on student numbers at university level. The chaos and dysfunction of the Government has continued. You can put a new, shiny coloured lid on a rubbish can but it’s still a rubbish can and that’s the problem with the Labor Party. They have a new leader but it’s still the same Labor Party. The boats keep arriving, the carbon tax keeps going up, the chaos of Ministerial decision making continues apace. Kim Carr today has thrown the university sector into complete confusion. We have a new Minister for Education in Backstabbing Bill Shorten who’ll always be remembered for tearing down two Prime Ministers in three years. He needs to explain what his predecessor never did, which is how much money are government schools and non-government schools going to get in 2014, 2015 and 2016, because Peter Garrett never explained and Backstabbing Bill needs to explain how they are going to cut schools by $325 million over the forward estimates and still maintain that they are delivering rivers of gold to schools. It is a fraudulent policy and the Government needs to explain to parents and to school communities, how much money they are going to get, not what they are going to get in five or six years’ time. Reporter: Why don’t you support a cap on university places? I mean, the new higher education Minister Kim Carr is concerned that about a rapid rise in places and that’s coming at the expense of standards. Pyne: Well the Coalition warned years ago that if the Government lifted the cap on university places there would be a rush of new applications to universities and because it was a demand driven service, universities would need to take those students and that this could well lead to a demise in quality or a diminution of quality. The government went ahead anyway. Now, surprise, surprise Kim Carr has come back and said that there is a lessening of quality at university level. Now the sector can’t have this constant chopping and changing of Federal Government policy. They’ve had $2.8 billion of cuts from the last Minister for Higher Education, Craig Emerson. Before that, they had a Minister who lifted the cap on university places. They’ve had international education hit with a $5 billion reduction in the size of that business from $19.8 to $15 billion between 2008 and today. The university sector is reeling from a dysfunctional, chaotic government which has not changed with the election of a new leader. Most of these policies that were introduced by the Government were introduced under Kevin Rudd. There’s been a three year interregnum. He’s back but as I said before, you can put a shiny new lid on a rubbish bin, it’s still a rubbish bin. Reporter: So do you share his concerns that there has been a demise in standards of higher education? Pyne: I share his concerns and I want to know what Kim Carr is going to do about it other than simply airily raising it in the newspapers today and sending the higher education sector into a spin. I mean this chaos must end. We have the Prime Minister saying that he’s going to potentially reverse the changes to the Newstart Allowance. He’s apparently going to turn the carbon tax in to a floating figure rather than a set amount. These are billions and billions of dollars of hits to the federal budget. The media need to ask this new Prime Minister and his team, where is the money coming from? It was Kevin Rudd that said the reckless spending must stop and now, six years later, he’s back at it. Reporter: Bill Shorten is negotiating with the States and Territories on Gonski. What would your advice be to those leaders as they have those discussions with him? Pyne: Well, I would be suggesting to the Premiers and Chief Ministers that they ask Bill the Backstabber where the money is coming from in five or six years that will be rivers of gold to schools but more importantly, why is the Government cutting $325 million from schools over the next four years. That is on top of cuts to higher education, apprenticeships and training, early childhood and childcare the total cuts to education are $4.9 billion, but for schools, it’s $325 million. Now why is the Government trying to pretend they are spending more on schools when they are cutting it by 325 million? The deals that the Commonwealth are offering the state governments and the territory governments are bad deals. They involve a massive overreach of Government power into the school system that is owned and run by the states and on top of that they are cutting spending, not increasing it over the next four years. Reporter: But your Liberal colleagues in Tasmania are urging that state to sign up. Pyne: Well that is a matter for Tasmania. The Tasmanian State Labor Government, very sensibly, has worked out that there is a fox in the chicken coop in this plan and that is that the Federal Minister for Education will have unprecedented power over State schools and Tasmania, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory don’t want that and I agree with them. Reporter: Just on to the number of Shadow Ministers at the moment is too large if the Liberals win government, who do you think should get demoted? Pyne: Well, the most important priority over the next few months is for the Coalition to do everything it can to rid the country of a very decrepit government that is divided, is dysfunctional. The old Kevin Rudd is back, nothing’s changed. Reporter: But who should get demoted from a Liberal government? Pyne: Well it’s a bizarre question because there isn’t a Liberal government. If there is a Liberal Government then the new Prime Minister Tony Abbott will deal with that issue. The point is that Kevin Rudd has just demoted a Cabinet Minister. He’s demoted Kate Lundy and forgotten to call her because the old Kevin Rudd is back. He’s kept the media waiting forty five minutes at press conferences. All that those stories we used to hear about the way Kevin Rudd treated the press gallery, the way he treated his colleagues, the way he treated staff, the enormous turnover in the Rudd office as Prime Minister, all of that is back with Kevin Rudd. Nothing has changed. You can put a new lick of paint on a haunted house; it’s still the rat infested, white anted haunted house it was before. Reporter: Why won’t Tony Abbott then debate Kevin Rudd on debt and deficit? Pyne: well, there will be debates in an election campaign, as there should be Reporter: why should debates only be during an election campaign? Pyne: Because that’s when debates are held, and if the Prime Minister wants to debate Tony Abbott, I’m sure Tony Abbott would relish the opportunity. He can call an election for August the 24th; he can have the Prime Ministerial versus Leader of the Opposition debates, which they always have. We’re not going to dance to Kevin Rudd’s tune. Labor has led the Australian people on a merry dance for too long. It is time for them to call an election and put the country out of its misery, and get a government of adults who want to get on with governing rather than constantly changing government policy – with four Higher Education Ministers in four months, with six Small Business Ministers in six years, it is high time that this farce was brought to a close. Reporter: Mr Pyne, just on the local government referendum, what’s your take on that? Tony Abbott said ‘if you don’t trust it, don’t vote for it’. Pyne: Well, the government has to explain this referendum to the Australian people. Referendums are difficult to pass in Australia because we are naturally conservative about changing The Constitution. Labor created the local government referendum as a distraction from all of their troubles, which continue. They haven’t laid the groundwork for why the referendum needs to be passed. My advice to the Australian local government association is that they should ask the Prime Minister to pull the referendum because I believe it will be defeated under the current circumstances, and if it’s defeated a third time no government will want to return to it again. At the moment, people are confused, they are bewildered about what’s happening in Canberra, let alone being asked to pass a change in the constitution. Thank you. ENDS.