Doorstop - Parliament House

SUBJECT: 103 Bills before Parliament; no confidence motion; republic; NBN Asbestos; border protection; Pauline Hanson E&OE................................ Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Good morning everybody. We have three weeks to go of this parliamentary year, and the Government has 103 Bills that are before the Parliament but they’re yet to be debated. The Government has got themselves into such a scarifyingly incompetent position that the Parliament will finish in three weeks, they still intend to continue to introduce legislation, but they have 103 Bills that are still outstanding – that have been introduced and yet to be debated. Goodness knows how they believe they’ll get through that process, and I think the truth is they know they won’t. They seem to introduce the Bills to try and tick a box, and whether it gets through the Parliament or not is beside the point. I believe that Ministers are rushing legislation into the Parliament to fulfil promises that they have made to lobby groups and other organisations with no real prospect of success, and when the Parliament rises and the writs are issued for the election, all of those Bills will lapse, and so it is a false dawn that they are presenting to the electorate. On the issue of boats, can I say that there are now over 700 boats that have arrived on this Governments watch – Almost 43,000 people. Nothing speaks more of the failure of this Government and its general incompetence than their failure to protect our borders. It is a national scandal, and the Prime Minister will need to answer for that this week. Journalist: Are you going to bring in a motion of no-confidence, Mr Pyne? Pyne: Well, I wrote to the independents last week – I’m sure you have that letter as well, David – and I made it clear to them in that letter that if we had an equivocal response from them, we would take that to assume that they were supportive of the Government remaining in office and supportive of Julia Gillard. Tony Windsor and Robert Oakeshott have indicated that they are in lock step with Julia Gillard. They want to stand shoulder to shoulder with Julia Gillard. They have decided to keep this Government in power, and they want their electorates of Lyne and New England to know that they think Julia Gillard is the person who should be Prime Minister. Now I think that is out of step with their electorates and out of step with the wider public, but Tony Windsor and Robert Oakeshott want everyone to know that they are standing shoulder to shoulder with Julia Gillard. For that reason, if they wish to indicate that they’d bring in a confidence motion, as they’ve said they want to, then they should do so. If they want to express confidence in the Prime Minister, if they want to praise and congratulate this Government, then they should put their money where their mouth is. Now we’ve written to the independents saying that we would support a no-confidence motion if they would. They’ve indicated they won’t. They’ve gone so far as to say that they are prepared to introduce a confidence motion, and I look forward to Tony Windsor and Robert Oakeshott having the political guts to do what they what they have been threatening over the weekend Journalist: So that plan by you is dead, then? The no-confidence motion. Pyne: Well, I always thought that if there was no support for a no-confidence motion, we wouldn’t waste the time of the Parliament with a long debate that’s unlikely to achieve anything. As I have said, there’s 103 bills still to be debated in this parliament in the next three weeks, which is very unlikely in itself, so we won’t be proceeding with a no confidence motion unless we get an indication from the cross benches that there’s some prospects for its success. Journalist: Does Parliament need to sit for an extra week or two to go through the backlog before the election? Pyne: Well, if I was running the parliamentary agenda, we wouldn’t be in this position. So far, we wouldn’t have sat seventeen or less weeks a year for the last six years, which is a very low level of parliamentary sittings, and if we needed to sit more, we would sit more. I assume that Anthony Albanese will want the Parliament to sit for another week in order to deal with the backlog, but it would take at least a week. The Government’s got itself in a very pretty pickle. Journalist: What are your thoughts… [inaudible] Pyne: I think Campbell Newman is making it clear that the Government isn’t really introducing the Gonski Report. The Gonski Report called for $6.5 billion of new spending every year. Now, over the forward estimates that’s $26 billion of new money. This Government is cutting education spending by $325 million, so it is a swindle. The Government is trying to get a swindle past the Australian public, and Campbell Newman, quite rightly, is calling her out on that, and saying Queensland won’t buy up to this swindle. If they wanted to introduce the Gonski Report, they would need $26 billion. Instead they’re cutting by $325 million. Journalist: What are your thoughts on a republic? Do you think that should be considered? Pyne: Well I spent the weekend going to football, and aerobics competitions and all sorts of things with my children. Every person who raised politics with me talked about the cost of living, and how they couldn’t pay their bills. They next talked about border protection and stopping the boats. They’re worried about economic management. They’re anxious about their jobs. I talked to people that have lost their jobs. I can tell you, no one raised the republic with me. And you have to be in a particular kind of bubble, as Wayne Swan obviously is, if you think that the public want a debate, right now, about the republic, and they want that to be a first order issue for the government after the election. The most important …. Journalist: Is Malcolm Turnbull also in that bubble then? Pyne: Well, Malcolm Turnbull hasn’t said that the Republic should be a first order issue after the election. Wayne Swan has said if Labor is re-elected that Labor will make the republic a first order issue. I think that is extraordinary that Labor is so out of touch with what working men and women want in Australia that he would think that was a high priority for any new government. Journalist: How would the Coalition Government deal with the asbestos issue with Telstra pits if it rolls out its own version of the NBN. Pyne: Well we wouldn’t be doing what the Government has done. We wouldn’t be ripping up all the streets to lay cables for a national broadband network. Malcolm Turnbull’s made it very clear that we would use a variety of different technologies and wireless technology and satellite technology would be two of those. So, we wouldn’t be in this position. That’s why the blame for the fact that asbestos is now an issue in Western Sydney lies squarely at the feet of the Government that has foolishly proceeded with our National Broadband Network that we can’t afford and that requires the streets of Sydney to be torn up to lay it. Journalist: But wouldn’t the plans still involve using those pits from Telstra? Wouldn’t it still involve having to deal with asbestos? Pyne: Well we said that we’d use a variety of technologies and some of those would be wireless … Journalist: But would they include the pits from Telstra as well? Pyne: Some of those would be wireless, some of them would be satellite and where it’s safe to do so, cables would be laid but obviously, where there is asbestos, it is not safe to do so. Journalist: Well, … [inaudible] people taking advantage of… [inaudible] Pyne: Well, the Government is yet to display any evidence of rorting of the 457 visas. The Government is trying to create a xenophobic campaign that is most unpleasant. It’s a dog whistle to try and cause Australians to turn against foreign workers and it’s leading to bad policy decisions being made in Government. For example, I know that Labor has in their drawer a list of institutions that should be able to grant post study work rights to international students. They wanted to expand that. It was ready to go in January. I understand that they haven’t proceeded with it because they don’t want on the one hand be demonising foreign workers on 457 visas and on the other hand, allowing international students work rights in their post study period so this is leading to bad Government policy because those work rights should be extended. Journalist: Will the Coalition be ditching the asylum seeker policy to turn back the boats to Indonesia now that it’s been completely dismissed by the Indonesian Ambassador. Pyne: No, we won’t be. We will be having off-shore processing. We will turn back the boats where it’s safe to do so and we will reintroduce temporary protection visas. We have to remember with respect to the boats over 700 have arrived. 43,000 people have arrived. The Government expects it to cost $2.9 billion in this Budget to process their policy failure. Now that assumes a 50 per cent drop in boats so they’re already building into the Budget the booby trap of a massive blowout in spending on asylum seeker arrivals. They’re like a bad tenant. They’re not happy just to trash the joint though. They’re also laying booby traps for the new tenants in order to try and destroy their amenity. It’s a very bad way to run a Government. That’s one of the reasons why they’re so unpopular in the electorate. Journalist: Indonesia’s already said no, do you think you’ll be able to come to some sort of working arrangement given their ….. ? Pyne: I have no doubt at all that where it is safe to do so, boats will be turned around. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again. Journalist: …. (inaudible) support for a republic within your own Party and has this been raised as a wedge issue? Pyne: No, I don’t think it’s been raised as a wedge issue. I think it’s been raised as a distraction from the hopelessness of the Government, from the failure of the Budget, from the 43,000 boat arrivals; 700 now over the weekend; from the anxiousness of people over economic management; about the fact that people can’t pay their bills because of the carbon tax; because of people’s job insecurity over the Mining Tax and a myriad of issues which has caused the Government to try and find yet another distraction floating past them to push people away from their own failures. Journalist: Would you like to see Pauline Hanson come into Federal Parliament? Pyne: If Pauline Hanson wants to run, she can run. If she wins, she wins but I wouldn’t be voting for her. ENDS.