Sky News Morning Shift

E&O Transcript

The Morning Shift – Sky News

15 August 2017

Subjects: Barnaby Joyce, Doubt over Labor MP’s Citizenship;

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Minister, you’ve said that it’s time to put up or shut up on these Labor MP’s that you have named, will you be referring them to the High Court?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well there’s a number of Labor MP’s who have a doubt around their citizenship but apparently we’re supposed to trust Bill Shorten’s word, a person who no one trusts in this building, who didn’t remember donations from Unibuilt for his election campaign, who didn’t tell the Industry Super Fund or the AWU that he had a conflict of interest, who didn’t tell the national executive of the AWU that he was giving $100,000 to GetUp, and who neither Kevin Rudd nor Julia Gillard could trust to rely on when they were both Prime Ministers of Australia. So what he needs to do, if he has so much to say about other people’s citizenship is produce the evidence that he claims that he has in at least the case of 4, possibly 7, maybe even more Labor MP’s.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: They made that clear that they won’t be doing that and they put out a letter yesterday from Noah Carroll so…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well then, he needs to stop talking about Barnaby Joyce’s citizenship because he’s the Emperor with no clothes.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Or you’ll refer them to the High Court?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well we have taken the adult action of saying that Section 44 needs to be clarified by the High Court. Clearly, it’s absurd that a person who was born in 1967 in Australia, whose father left New Zealand in 1947 before New Zealand even had citizenship, can have citizenship conferred upon him by a foreign country. It would be as absurd as Kim Jong-un deciding that every member of the House of Representatives was actually North Korean, and all of us having to resign on the basis of having citizenship conferred by a foreign country. So we need the High Court to clarify exactly what section 44(1) means in the modern era, that’s what we’ve asked them to do because that’s what sensible, good governments do.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Okay, you’ve named a number of MP’s, Tony Zappia, Justine Keay.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Maria Vamvakinou.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: And Brendan O’Connor.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Susan Lamb, I didn’t name Brendan O’Connor actually.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Brendan O’Connor is named in that front page article in the Australian, he’s currently with his wife who is undergoing chemotherapy this morning, should you really be calling a whole bunch of journalists to call Brendan O’Connor this morning?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I didn’t name Brendan O’Connor; in fact I specifically left Brendan O’Connor out of the list so I think that’s an unfair question.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Alright, is this…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I have great respect for Brendan O’Connor and I’m very sorry that he’s in the situation that he’s in, and that’s why, not only the reason, but I didn’t name him at all.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Is this a dirty tricks campaign by Labor, we’ve had the New Zealand government today confirm that Labor got asked to ask this question by the ALP, do they need to answer some questions about this?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well clearly the Labor Party are involved in a conspiracy using a foreign government, in this case New Zealand, to try and bring down the Australian government. But I wouldn’t expect anything better of the ALP; this is the party that supported Craig Thomson for three years to continue as the Member for Dobell to stay in power. This is the party that got Peter Slipper into the Speaker’s chair over Harry Jenkins, because it denied us one vote in the 43rd Parliament. So Labor never stoop too low for their own standards and that’s always a great pity to us but that’s a matter for them. If they want to use the New Zealand Labour Party to try and bring down the Australian government they’ll have to face the judgement of the Australian people.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: And it terms of potentially bringing down the Turnbull government, have you spoken to any of the cross-benchers about whether they would guarantee supply and confidence in the event that you were reduced to a minority government?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Barnaby Joyce will not be found, in our opinion, to be disqualified from the House of Representatives. The Solicitor-General’s advice is very clear that he’ll continue to be the Member for New England, and in fact the Speaker said yesterday until the High Court rules otherwise he’s the Member for New England. But of course Cathy McGowan, Andrew Wilkie, and Bob Katter all indicated immediately following the last election that they would guarantee supply and confidence in the Turnbull government.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: And just finally, who’s paying for Barnaby Joyce’s legal fees?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You’d have to ask the Attorney-General that question, I don’t know the answer.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Would it be appropriate for the government to pay his legal fees if, as you argue, it’s an important matter for the government?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yeah I think it would be appropriate, because of course he is an officer of the government, he’s a member of the Cabinet and usually that would be the case that their legal fees would be paid by the government but I just don’t know the answer to the question, but I think it would be appropriate.

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Okay, Christopher Pyne thanks a lot for your time this morning.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Always a pleasure.