Morning Show
04 Feb 2016
Transcipt E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – The Morning Show
Thursday 4 February 2016
SUBJECTS: Parliament Resuming, The Lodge Rennovations, Clive Palmer, Jaqcui Lambie on David Morrison, Paul Keating’s GST comments, Parliamentary Nicknames;
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Kylie, good morning Larry, lovely to be with you.
KYLIE GILLIES: First week back at Parliament, is it anything like a first week back at school? Everyone’s sort of settling in, you know, new lunch boxes et cetera, or business as usual and you pick up where you left off last year?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well it is a bit like a return to Hogwarts after the summer break, and in fact this year there seems to be a breakout of beards, there’s at least half a dozen beards in the House of Representatives and the Senate that weren’t there before so, obviously beards are back and not something I’ve ever been interested in but, on the other hand a lot of people are so that’s been new and obviously we’re back and hard at it. I’ve been back since the 4th of January but back to Parliament this week and very much enjoying it
LARRY EMDUR: Well the hipster vote is huge, so the beards could work. What did you get up to over the break by the way?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, my family and I holidayed down on the south coast of South Australia at a place called Robe and they were there for the whole of January, I went down for the Christmas/new year period and then commuted for weekends while they rested and scuba dived and snorkelled and surfed. I get into a bit of boogie boarding, of course, Larry and Kylie as you can well imagine in my wetsuit.
KYLIE GILLIES: I was going to ask if you were wearing a rashy.
LARRY EMDUR: I don’t want to imagine that.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: People try to roll me back into the water when they see lying on the beach in my wetsuit, it’s very unpleasant, they poor buckets of water over me and say “you’ll be okay, we’ll get you back into the sea.”
KYLIE GILLIES: There are some renovations going on at the Lodge, have you been invite round for a cuppa, have you seen the new digs?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yes I have, and I had dinner there late last week, late last year I should say and dinner there about a week ago with Malcolm Turnbull, the lodge was in a terrible state and many governments over many years had turned a blind eye to it because the public never like politicians spending money on doing things up like the lodge but finally it had to be done, it had been taken over by possums and pigeons as I understand it, and it cost a lot of money to fix it up, probably because it had been left for so long, and not it’s looking great and the nation should be proud of it.
LARRY EMDUR: Possums and pigeons, you’re not talking about the former PMs are you, you’re talking about other things?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, I’m talking about furry creatures and the feathery variety.
LARRY EMDUR: Alright let’s get down to some business, Clive Palmer back in the spotlight, never far from it actually, the MP said there’s nothing wrong with making a hefty political donations to his own Party from his now struggling nickel refinery, which has gone into voluntary administration of course, but what’s really caught our eye in this photo is the businessman counting his own money, right there in Parliament.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I was a bit surprised though that they weren’t hundred dollar bills.
LARRY EMDUR: But you know, like when you sit in those chairs there are cameras on you all the time right?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Sure.
LARRY EMDUR: Okay, it spawned several memes including Clive playing poker, playing Monopoly, there’s counting cash with P Diddy, there’s a very cheeky scenes from Magic Mike…
KYLIE GILLIES: You’re part of that one, in the front now
LARRY EMDUR: Now Christopher you’ve been several memes in the past..
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Sure.
LARRY EMDUR: Can you relate to the mess that Clive is in with this?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, look I find the memes quite amusing usually and it’s part of our modern political environment to take all these things with a laugh and take them in your stride, going back to that previous story, you know you can’t have a glass jaw or a thin skin in politics otherwise you’re in the wrong business and I’m sure Clive will laugh it off but I must admit I think he’s be embarrassed they were such small denominations for..
LARRY EMDUR: I think you’re right.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: For a billionaire.
KYLIE GILLIES: Do Politicians share these memes amongst themselves much like we do or?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Only when they’re particularly hurtful.
LARRY EMDUR: (Laughs) Only behind their back.
KYLIE GILLIES: Well what you make of Senator Jacquie Lambie’s comments re the Australian of the year David Morrison’s to resign over those alleged abuse cover-ups in the defence force. What do you make of those comments and that issue?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Kylie that’s a pretty serious issue and I don’t think that Parliamentary privilege in the Senate should be used to make attacks on people, I think that’s the wrong purpose for it and I think Jacquie Lambie has given us another example of why voting for independents and personality based political parties creates instability in the political system. Now, David Morrison would not have been made Australian of the Year without some pretty serious background checks being done, people don’t just get plucked out of the air and made Australian of the Year and I think Jacquie Lambie really has to back up these claims that she has made, and that she really has absolute faith in them, not just rely on Parliamentary privilege to make them. You should not produce the reputation of a person under parliamentary privilege just because you can and I think David Morrison’s is a very upstanding Australian citizen. He was made Australian of the Year because of his attitude towards gender equality in the Defence Force so this is a very big claim by Jacqui Lambie and she needs to back it up and if she can’t it’s just another example of why you should support the major political parties because they are much more stable.
LARRY EMDUR: Plenty more to come on that one, alright Paul Keating has weighed into the GST debate slamming a potential increase and the PM is now facing that backbench revolt, what are your thoughts, what’s going on in your mind?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well my takeout of Paul Keating’s remarks is that we should stop extravagant spending, now Labor brings the Zsa Zsa Gabor approach to spending, and I think that what he was saying to them was that, for example, you can’t just go out and say, for example, that you’re going to increase spending on school by $37.5 billion without showing where it’s coming from. Now, if the Government had $37.5 billion, Larry, does anybody seriously think we’d be hiding it under the front doormat, now the truth is that kind of money is not sloshing around in the federal government. What Labor’s proving is that they haven’t changed at all from the time when they were in government, they’re still taxing, spending and borrowing and I think Paul Keating was saying extravagant spending has to end because our income has been reduced. In anybody’s household, whether it’s your or mine or Kylie’s or any of your viewers, if the income is reduced the spending has to be reduced too or you quickly run into trouble, and our income has been cut, our revenue has been cut because the mining boom has come off, and we need to match our spending equally.
KYLIE GILLIES: I’m just back from a three week holiday, best to leave by budget out of discussion…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yes indeed.
LARRY EMDUR: How’s the conversion?
KYLIE GILLIES: The US conversion, not so good as it turns out.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Not as good as it was before but it’s belter for exporters .
KYLIE GILLIES: True.
LARRY EMDUR: Not better for Kylie buying shoes, and that’s what’s important.
KYLIE GILLIES: Let’s talk about your, Parliament back this week of course, what are your goals for this year Christopher?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I’m going to be focused this year on jobs and growth particularly in South Australia, there are big decisions to make this year on the defence industry, and obviously I have to implement the National Innovation and Science Agenda that Malcolm and I announced in December so it’ll be a busy year. It’ll be my tenth election later this year and I am looking forward to putting myself to the voters of Sturt again, and hopefully getting their support
LARRY EMDUR: And, of course, spending plenty of quality television time on the Morning Show…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I’m very excited about that Larry.
LARRY EMDUR: And we’re excited to have you. Now, before you go let’s end on a serious note if you don’t mind, let’s talk about nicknames. Scott Morrison is sometimes referred to as “Sco-Mo,” does the Prime Minster have a nickname that you’re able to talk to us about in this timeslot?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think the fact that he is known by his first name, Malcom, speaks volumes around Australia because he’s such a well known quantity and he’s so familiar that he just called Malcom, and I think he’s transcended nicknames, especially when you’re the Prime Minister
KYLIE GILLIES: It worked for Malcolm Fraser didn’t it?
LARRY EMDUR: And Kylie Minogue.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: He was called Big Mal wasn’t he, Malcolm Fraser?
LARRY EMDUR: Yes Kylie, what’s your recollect of what Malcolm Fraser was called?
KYLIE GILLIES: Big Malc does ring a bell…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: He was so tall.
KYLIE GILLIES: I do remember something about pants too but that was…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: The two are not connected
KYLIE GILLIES: (Laughs) No, I wouldn’t know.
LARRY EMDUR: There’s our political insider for you, there it is, right there.
KYLIE GILLIES: Do we call you Christopher, Christopher or now that you’re part of the team should we have a nickname for you too?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: well, you’ll have to decide that but I’ve been called lots things over the years and I basically ride with the punches.
KYLIE GILLIES: Okay.
LARRY EMDUR: Alright.
KYLIE GILLIES: For now, Christopher it is…
LARRY EMDUR: Now, remember if anybody upsets you you’re entitled to 45 weeks off, thank you.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: What a marvellous thing.
LARRY EMDUR: Thanks for that.
[ends]