The Bolt Report

SUBJECTS: The week in Parliament; Craig Thomson saga

E&OE…………

Andrew Bolt: Chris, not a great look.  Did you regret giving Labor and the media that ammunition? 

Christopher Pyne: I don’t because Labor was engaging in a pathetic, juvenile and puerile stunt on that morning where they were trying to get Craig Thomson to vote with the Coalition so they could say we were also accepting his vote.  If they weren’t so embarrassed about accepting Craig Thomson’s vote themselves, they wouldn’t have done that and of course the only way to negate his vote was for me to get out of the chamber.  Now, I could have gone into the advisers box, but because Anna Burke is a very new Deputy Speaker sitting in the Chair – because of the peculiarities these days with our arrangements with the Speaker not being able to sit in the Chair – I thought if I get out of the chamber, there’s no doubt my vote won’t be counted.  So I bolted and I must say I got to the doors and I was out the Chamber.  My children couldn’t believe I could ever run in fact.  They’ve never seen me run, except on the beach playing beach cricket. 

Bolt: But Chris, I know that’s what you were on about, but the thing is it’s given the media a lot of chance to laugh at you and suggest that Tony Abbott is a panic merchant or something.  I’m not quite sure what the sting of the whole tail is, but it’s been a negative. 

Pyne: I think it’s very much an “inside the beltway” issue.  I don’t think anyone in the public really understands what was going on because they don’t know the doors are locked; people’s votes are counted when they’re sitting in their seats so I had to get out of the Chamber.  The next vote of course I asked Anna Burke if she realised if being in the advisers box was not being in the Chamber and she said of course she did so I stayed in the adviser’s box for the next few votes.  Because there’s a very important principal here Andrew and that is the Coalition says Craig Thomson shouldn’t be voting.  We won’t accept his vote.  It’s a tainted vote.  Labor wants to cling to power with his vote and therefore accept it.  They tried to get him to vote with us so that we would look as hypocritical as they are.  We weren’t going to look that hypocritical so I was prepared to be embarrassed momentarily by running out of the Chamber rather than be the hypocrites that Labor are being. 

Bolt: The week before we were told Craig Thomson was too suicidal to criticise, now he’s part of a stunt to try and embarrass you.  I think it worked.  Does that mean he is not too suicidal to criticise?  What’s the story here? 

Pyne:  Labor has been hoisted on their own petard to an extent, Andrew, because the week before last of course we were being told by the end of the week some members of the Labor Party were invoking another member of the Parliament who had committed suicide suggesting the Craig Thomson was so on the edge, so on the brink, that the Coalition would be bearing responsibility for whatever happened.  Now, of course by mid the following week he was laughing and high-fiving and hugging Members of Parliament at the back of the chamber because of the hilarity of this stunt that Labor and he had pulled.

Bolt:  So he’s fair game again?

Pyne:  Well I think the authenticity of Labor’s wringing hands about his mental health being first and foremost has taken somewhat of a punch below the water line.  Look, he’s not fair game, he’s never been fair game.  We think it’s perfectly reasonable for the Coalition to ask the Labor Party and the Member for Dobell about the circumstances surrounding the loss of half a million dollars of Health Services Union members money and that’s the bottom line here. 

Bolt:  That’s true but the thing is there’s been a lot of attacks on the Coalition being too negative and Tony Abbott being too negative.  It seems you’ve been pulling your punches.  You’ve stopped those suspension of standing orders after every question time where you try and disrupt things, make the Government look like it’s out of control.  And you also I read in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday that members of Parliament’s powerful Privileges Committee will mount a go-slow enquiry into Thomson and hand out only the minimum penalty.  Liberals there apparently on the Committee also worried your going in to hard.  Is this true?

Pyne:  Look I haven’t heard that, Andrew, and I don’t speak to the members of the Liberal Party on the Privileges Committee because it would be probably quite wrong for me to do so, so I am being ultra cautious.  The Privileges Committee has written to me asking for a great deal of information, a very comprehensive response to prove that the Member for Dobell mislead the Parliament.  That will take some time to be done properly.  The Privileges matter is not going away.  But the Coalition has certainly not taken its foot off the accelerator about this very bad government.  The reason why we have negative things to say about this government is because they are so rank and so incompetent and basically corrupt.  I mean the Australian Network tender verged on the corrupt. They are incompetent in every respect with the delivery of their programs and they are divided and dysfunctional.

Bolt:  So as the chief Opposition’s tactician, you’re not going to back off on what’s been criticised as too negative?  Negative you will go?

Pyne:  Look the Labor Party are only complaining about the Opposition’s tactics and strategy because they are working, Andrew.  Now the reality is the public hates this Government.  The Prime Minister is 30-60 in the approval in the polls.  The truth is the public wants an election and the Opposition is holding the Government to account as we should.  We’re only reflecting the public’s anger with an incompetent government that taxes to much and spends to much.  If we weren’t doing that then we wouldn’t be doing our job!

Bolt:  Christopher Pyne, thanks for your time I appreciate it.  The fastest man in Parliament!

ENDS