Today Show

SUBJECTS: Political Donations; Sam Dastyari; Albanese Travel

KARL STEFANOVIC: Christopher Pyne and Anthony Albanese, good morning guys.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good to be with you.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay first up to you Christopher has the Chinese firm at the centre of this scandal, Top Education, received any preferential treatment from your government at any time?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: None whatsoever, so the streamlined visa processing arrangements were decision made by the public service, they weren’t the decisions made by a Minister or the government, and of course Top Education is fine to give donations to political parties, it’s the payment of people’s personal debts that are the problem, and Sam Dastyari had personal debts paid, and neither he nor Bill Shorten yet get it. Bill Shorten’s talking about bringing Sam Dastyari back within 24 hours of him resigning, so they still don’t understand the problem.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Alright, so they donate $65,000 to the party and then they get what they wanted, an extended visa program from you to the private sector, but they weren’t greasing any polls.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Look, Top Education or anybody else is entitled to give donations to political parties.

KARL STEFANOVIC: It looks suss though does it, you must admit?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No it doesn’t because it’s not the same as having your personal debts paid, Sam Dastyari had a $40,000 legal bill paid and a $1600 travel bill paid which were his personal debts.

KARL STEFANOVIC: So hang on a Chinese firm pays $65,000 then they get what they want in their lobbying, it looks suss, it looks completely suss.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Karl the only reason they would have been given streamlined visa processing is they along with 20 or so other education businesses in Australia met the requirements that the public service decided were required to allow them to have streamlined visa processing. Nothing to do wit the Liberal Party or Labor Party for that matter or the government of the day, so trying to link the two is completely wrong.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Well Labor said no, Labor said no to it, Albo why did you say no?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: They didn’t have the streamlined visa processing.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: We stopped it, we had it for public universities and for the public education system, but we stopped it for the private sector education system because we were concerned about the potential for abuse, just like we know that the vocational education and training system has been abused.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Well it has been abuses hasn’t it, it continue to be abused.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Absolutely…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: They’re two very different things…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: But when it comes to foreign donations what we need to do and we can do it next week, we can do it in a couple of hours in both Houses can support banning foreign donations. Malcolm Turnbull has said that he supports action on that front, we can do it very quickly, we could do it next week.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Labor could reject foreign donations right now, of the $5.5 million of foreign donations $3.8 million went to the Labor Party.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: It’s the same with you, that says nothing.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You’ve all got your nose in the trough.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: What we need is reform, what we need is reform and that is the way to do it.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay, we’ll get to that in a second, Christopher just on Top Education, how many times did you meet with them?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I had a photograph taken with the head of Top Education at Tony Abbott and Phillip Ruddock’s 40th anniversary…

KARL STEFANOVIC: What were they doing there?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: They were probably there to support Phillip Ruddock’s 40th anniversary…

KARL STEFANOVIC: (inaudible)

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well there’s nothing wrong with that, I mean the point is different…

KARL STEFANOVIC: It is when you get changes to the system…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No that’s not right, trying to link the two Karl is actually quite defamatory, the truth is that…

KARL STEFANOVIC: Are you going to sue me?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: People having person debts paid is completely different to receiving a campaign – I’ve never received a donation from Top Education, never, so trying to link the two…

KARL STEFANOVIC: have you received any donations from any Chinese firm?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, not personally of course not, I’ve never had a personal debt paid by any business because it’s wrong. The fact that Sam Dastyari doesn’t realise it’s wrong and Bill Shorten doesn’t realise it’s wrong is a massive problem, and Bill Shorten’s already talking about bringing Sam back, they just don’t get it, you don’t have your personal debts paid by other businesses.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You were about to say that I’m going to have to check.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I’ve never had a personal debt paid, campaign donations I’m sure I’ve received campaign donations from Chinese businesses or any other businesses, I’ve been in Parliament for 23 years Karl, I don’t know them all off the top of my head.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Albo what about you, have you got donations from any Chinese firms, campaign donations?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, what we do is we have donations through the Labor Party centrally, I run my own campaign, I rely upon local donations, anything else is through the Party national office.

KARL STEFANOVIC: (inaudible)

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: All the donations that come to the Liberal Party come from.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Hang on Christopher.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, not that I’m aware of no, in terms of we go through the national office of the party, the issue here is Karl, how do you fix this problem? You fix it by banning foreign donations

KARL STEFANOVIC: You also fix it by banning third parties and unions as Tony Abbott said today so will you be willing to ban union donations?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, not at all.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay, well what about Christopher would you ban business donations?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I would ban company and union donations, I would only have donations from individuals but you also have to do something about third party campaigning, otherwise the unions will simply give all their money to GetUp! and use them to campaign against the Liberal Party.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You sound like Tony Abbott this morning.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’s not as simple as everyone thinks it is…

KARL STEFANOVIC: No I know.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: and that’s why it has to be done sensibly and calmly and put through a proper process, you can’t just ban donations from one group and then not expect there to be a flow on effect elsewhere…

KARL STEFANOVIC: Gee you sound like (inaudible).

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: And of course I don’t receive donations Karl, donations come to the Liberal Party and I represent the Liberal Party in Parliament, but I don’t personally get a donation put in my bank account or do anything else with it, that’s wrong and that’s what Labor doesn’t get.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Christopher…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well you’ve actually tried to this morning to set up a straw man Karl and it needs to be broken down, what you’ve said is wrong.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well don’t defame me on national television.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Don’t defame me by saying I’m defaming you.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That’s not the case and you know that Karl.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay, you’ve run into trouble this morning Albo and Christopher I want to get your thoughts on this too, $3000 you’ve allegedly spent our money going to two grand finals to support your Hawks.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well that’s ridiculous, as you know Karl last year the airfair was actually to appear on the TODAY Show with Christopher. Christopher would have an airfare as well, then I met with the editor in fact of the Herald Sun, as well as the opinion editor at the Herald Sun as well as a press conference about rail in Melbourne. I didn’t charge one single dollar for transport to or from the grand final or in terms of accommodation on that night.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Quickly does he have anything to answer here for Christopher Pyne?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Look, Anthony is the Shadow Minister for Tourism…

KARL STEFANOVIC: Exactly say no more.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: The idea that he shouldn’t be going to the AFL Grand Final is absolutely absurd.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Oh this is good we’re back together again.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You’ve got to be sensible about this stuff, that’s just ridiculous.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Alright, thank you Christopher, thank you Albo, good to talk to you.