Morning Show

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – Morning Show
Monday 15 February 2016

SUBJECTS: Polls; Julie Bishop; Barnaby Joyce Deputy PM; Valentine’s Day

LARRY EMDUR: Christopher Pyne joins us now, good morning to you Christopher.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Larry good morning Kylie.

LARRY EMDUR: Polls, do we worry about polls? Do we care about polls?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Larry we were never going to keep those stratospheric heights forever, I was amazed that the Malcolm Turnbull honeymoon as we call it lasted 6 months because honeymoons never last that long for those of us who’ve been through, uh well I’ve only been through one happily, I don’t know how many times you’ve been married Larry, but you are in show business after all.

LARRY EMDUR: Yes we get married a lot in show business.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Much more than we do, we can’t afford to get married as often as people in show business can, but it was a very long run in these 56-44 kind of poll positions but we’re still ahead and obviously to be 64-19 Malcolm Turnbull versus Bill Shorten is a number I’ll take every day of the week so I’m a bit surprised by the breathless reporting by the commentators this morning.

KYLIE GILLIES: Okay, let’s move on to all matters Julie Bishop, it’s been reported this morning that the foreign minister took dozens of foreign diplomats on a sightseeing tour of her home state which is of course WA, costing tax payers around $2000 an hour, what do we think about that?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well it’s a good idea quite frankly, I’m surprised that there’s any criticism of it, Julie Bishop did the same thing in Adelaide last year, she’s showcasing the wares of Adelaide and Perth and the rest of Australia quite frankly to the world, these are the 70 members of the consular diplomatic core in Canberra we want the rest of the world to know what a magnificent country we are and for I think $150 000 for 70 people to see the great things in Perth and around Perth, that’s the kind of thing the Foreign Minister should be doing so I don’t think she should be criticised for that I think she’s getting on with her job.

LARRY EMDUR: Okay, the Prime Minister’s new cabinet was announced on the weekend, lot of new faces now Bill Shorten says the Party is in chaos,

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: [laughs]

LARRY EMDUR: I can tell by your laugh that you don’t necessarily agree with him?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well listening to Bill Shorten giving us lectures about that is like listening to Dean Martin talking about alcohol abuse quite frankly Larry. In the entire period of the Howard government, 11 and half years, we had the same number of Ministers as the 5 and a half years of the Rudd, Gillard, Rudd government. So the idea that Labor would be lecturing us about chaos is quite frankly startling, the Government is doing a good job, we’re getting on with the job we’re doing the things the Australian public want, we’re listening to them so we know that they didn’t want to increase the GST and we’ve responded to that. The simple truth is that Labor has nowhere to go, Bill Shorten has no ideas, we have a plan for jobs and growth and we’re getting on with it. Bill Shorten is still shouting from the side lines and that old politics that the public are thoroughly sick of.

KYLIE GILLIES: Okay, let’s move on like if you had to ask the electorate who the Deputy Prime Minister was sometimes they wouldn’t be able to tell you, but the name Barnaby Joyce of course is one well known now to the electorate because of those famous Johnny Depp, dogs bugger off comments he made some time ago. What’s your, does Malcolm have a bit of a loose cannon on his hands trying to keep Barnaby under control?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Kylie I think the good thing about the Malcolm Turnbull Barnaby Joyce ticket at the top of the coalition is that it does cover the whole of the political spectrum so everyone in Australia whether you’re from the city or from the country can vote for the Coalition knowing that they have a voice at the top table. Barnaby obviously is a strong voice for rural Australia, Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals represent many of the rural seats but also Malcolm Turnbull knows the city extremely well so therefore we have a wide spectrum of support; more progressive views with some of our members, more conservative views with others and that’s what makes us a good party of government that we don’t just represent one special interest group like the trade union movement for example, we represent the whole of the political spectrum so I think it’s a good thing for Australia to have Barnaby Joyce as the Deputy PM and Malcolm as the PM.

KYLIE GILLIES: Even when he uses language such as telling Johnny Depp’s dogs to bugger off?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well it’s cut-through, it’s cut-through language Kylie, there’s nothing wrong with being able to cut through to the nub of the issue, and Johnny Depp’s dogs should have been in the quarantine, just because he’s Johnny Depp doesn’t mean his dogs get to be treated differently to everybody else’s dogs.

LARRY EMDUR: Is there a slight concern that Johnny Depp and Pistol and Boo will be fronting Bill Shorten’s campaign?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I think if Bill Shorten is having to work with animals to get elected then we’ll know that he’s really jumped the shark.

LARRY EMDUR: Alright let’s get to the good stuff yesterday was Valentine ’s Day, what happens in your household? Were you up early in your ugg boots and your g-string cooking lovely pancakes?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That is an image that I don’t think anybody in Australia needs to have in their minds.

LARRY EMDUR: You’re right, it would not sell a single calendar in Canberra you’re right.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That is unfortunately something that’s been said that can never be unsaid. Isn’t it Larry?

LARRY EMDUR: What’s Valentine’s Day like in your house?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: uh well we’re pretty low key, we have four children Larry, we have certainly well done valentine’s day many times over 20 years, last night we celebrated by being on the Annabel Crabb show as part of the fringe festival here in Adelaide, I was one of the guests along with Leigh Sales and Adam Liaw the MasterChef winner, Carolyn and all the children came to that, we had a great night it was good fun, Annabel Crabb is good fun.

KYLIE GILLIES: Yes she is. What did you think about the Prime Minister’s Facebook message, I saw a snap on Instagram, it was him and his wife Lucy of course, he’s copped a bit of flak from this because of the government’s stance on same sex marriage, do you think that criticism is warranted?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Malcom is obviously in favour of marriage equality as am I and I don’t think anybody should criticise Malcolm Turnbull around marriage equality, he has been upfront about that for many years and he is a great champion for recognising same sex couple in the same way as different sex couples in their relationships. And he is the kind of person that people who want to support that issue should be supporting because he can make it happen.

LARRY EMDUR: Alright Christopher thank you very much for joining us this morning,

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Always a pleasure.

LARRY EMDUR: If this was a taped program we would definitely edit out my question about you in g-strings and ugg boots, but unfortunately it’s gone out there now.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Please Larry, please, let’s not do that again.

LARRY EMDUR: It will never be done again.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: The viewers can’t go there twice.

LARRY EMDUR: Thanks for joining us this morning it’s been a good chat

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Pleasure.

KYLIE GILLIES: Thanks Christopher

[ends]