Today Show

E&OE TRANSCRIPT Today Show Channel 9 with Karl Stefanovic: Panel discussion 23/05/2014 KARL STEFANOVIC: The Government is in a world of pain as a result of the Budget. We're joined now by Education Minister Christopher Pyne and Shadow Transport Minister Anthony Albanese. A round of applause for the lads please. [Applause] KARL STEFANOVIC: It's been a tough week hasn't it? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well that's the first clap he's got all week. [Laughter] KARL STEFANOVIC: It's mainly been jeers. What happened last night at the Sydney University? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I must admit I didn't really notice the protesters. I'm sorry that - apparently they were there but... KARL STEFANOVIC: That's because you had a hundred cops in between. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: There were a lot of policemen there I must say and the protesters are a bit misguided though of course, because we're actually trying to spread opportunity and make our universities excellent and give people who don't have a degree the opportunity to go to university and those students seem to be happy to slam the door behind them and say we don't want any more students to get the chance to come to our uni. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well Australians aren't just concerned about themselves, they're concerned about others and what they're concerned about is opportunity. People like myself got to go to university, first in the family. I want others to have that opportunity as well. That's why people are angry. Today it's confirmed that fees could double under your plan. KARL STEFANOVIC: You can't deny that. You don't know. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, universities will decide this. But the point is that Anthony just said he wants more first generation people to go to university and that's exactly what my reforms will bring about because there'll be 80,000 more students who don't have a degree now who'll get the opportunity to go through these pathway programs... ANTHONY ALBANESE: This is about... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: ...here's Commonwealth scholarships, and I think Anthony would support that because we want more people from low SES backgrounds getting the chance to go to uni and then earning 75 per cent more over a life time than those people who don't go to uni. KARL STEFANOVIC: Just on the protest. Julie Bishop was also involved in a scuffle a couple of days ago. You've said I think on radio that she was assaulted. In what way was she assaulted? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well assault in a technical sense and a legal sense is if you feel threatened, but you're certainly being assaulted if you're being pushed and shoved and her person was touched and grabbed by these protesters, so there's no doubt that she was assaulted. KARL STEFANOVIC: Anthony, have they gone too far? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Of course protesters should be peaceful at all times. I mean I experienced a demonstration where there was certainly pushing and I was grabbed outside my electorate office led by Sophie Mirabella who at the time was part of Tony Abbott's front bench team. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It's always about you... ANTHONY ALBANESE: No... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: But the point is why hasn't Bill Shorten come out [indistinct]... ANTHONY ALBANESE: No Christopher, I just didn't see you - I just didn't see you out there at the time when Sophie Mirabella was out there. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I don't [indistinct] pushed and shoved... ANTHONY ALBANESE: It was on the news and Sophie Mirabella was there and participated in it with a coffin with my name on it. From time to time people do go too far and when they do it should be condemned. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Bill Shorten hasn't condemned that. ANTHONY ALBANESE: That's nonsense. Every person in the Labor Party... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Bill Shorten has not condemned the assault of the Foreign Minister by the students. ANTHONY ALBANESE: ...condemns violence. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well why hasn't Bill Shorten done what you've done? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Every person when asked certainly does do that. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I guess that's why you're the people's choice and he's the faction’s choice. ANTHONY ALBANESE: No it doesn't distract from the issue here which is about education and opportunity and we want opportunity for everyone, not this sort of dumb but rich opportunity that your scheme will provide for. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well that's not what we're doing [indistinct]. KARL STEFANOVIC: The Courier Mail has an interesting front page this morning leading the discourse into a very different direction. That is, have we gone from a nation of larrikins to a nation of whingers. What do you think about that - have we turned into whingers? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Absolutely not. What we've turned about - into is what we've always been - a nation that prides ourselves on equity and opportunity and a fair go. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Someone's got to pay for all that... ANTHONY ALBANESE: This is a Budget whereby Christopher and I do better than people who are earning $30,000 or $40,000 a year... KARL STEFANOVIC: Do you think you could do the Budget... ANTHONY ALBANESE: That is a disgrace. KARL STEFANOVIC: Do you think you could do the Budget better than...? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Absolutely. KARL STEFANOVIC: You had a long time to do it when you were in office and you... ANTHONY ALBANESE: And what we did was stop Australia going into recession... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: [Indistinct]... ANTHONY ALBANESE: ...with the global financial crisis... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: [Indistinct]... ANTHONY ALBANESE: There is no economy in the world you would rather be than Australia. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: [Indistinct] you had a good run. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well which economy would you rather be? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: A $667 billion debt and $123 billion deficit... ANTHONY ALBANESE: [Indistinct], again made up. KARL STEFANOVIC: Could we do something a bit different... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Again? ANTHONY ALBANESE: An arm wrestle... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: What do you mean? It makes me nervous. ANTHONY ALBANESE: This could go anywhere. KARL STEFANOVIC: So weird sometimes the things you say... [Laughter] KARL STEFANOVIC: Hey we've got some... ANTHONY ALBANESE: You've noticed too Karl. [Laughter] KARL STEFANOVIC: Everyone does know that you're going to be the next Labor prime minister right? So I've brought in a whiteboard. It used to be [indistinct] whiteboard. It's now Albo's whiteboard on how Albo can save the budget and save the country because it's time you stood up I reckon. So we've got a pen there. So how are you going to save that billion a month? It's just the interest bill. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, one of the things that we would do... KARL STEFANOVIC: C'mon, you can stand up if you like. ANTHONY ALBANESE: This is without notice. KARL STEFANOVIC: Yeah, it is without notice. It's a start. ANTHONY ALBANESE: As was the other one. One of the things that we would do is for the savings - take for example, superannuation, at the moment we have... KARL STEFANOVIC: He's very good with the whiteboard. He did it on Budget night. ANTHONY ALBANESE: We had those people who earn $100,000-plus from their income so they have to have super accounts of about $2 million, $4 million. We had them paying more. They knocked that out and instead hit those people who were going to benefit from the low income super bonus. So we would help these people... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: [Indistinct]...? ANTHONY ALBANESE: From here. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: How much from there? How much would that have raised? KARL STEFANOVIC: So it's a billion a month in just interest for payments alone? ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, $100,000, they would pay a higher, a higher rate of tax than they do now... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: How much would that raise? ANTHONY ALBANESE: We had that in the - I don't know the precise figures... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: He doesn't know the figures. ANTHONY ALBANESE: I don't know the precise figures off the top of my head, it's super. I can do infrastructure. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: [Indistinct] your deficit [indistinct]... ANTHONY ALBANESE: That is one example of what you would do. What we would do is make sure that we targeted the higher income earners rather than the low income earners. So probably this budget is targeted to people who can least afford to pay and someone like Christopher and I, I think the figure's about $4000 we'll be worse off... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: But you haven't shown how you're going to save the debt [indistinct]... ANTHONY ALBANESE: ...in terms of those over $180,000. Those people who are on low incomes will pay some of them, those under about $60,000 - one of the figures I saw was about $6000. It's pretty simple. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It's not that simple. KARL STEFANOVIC: It's still a big number that you've still got to save and you had a big crack at it... ANTHONY ALBANESE: Sure, and we had a whole range of savings that have been rejected in the Budget. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Can I have a go at [indistinct] now? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Let's see if you can draw a car, you can draw a... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: These are the numbers you've got to remember. $667 billion... ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, well you're making that up. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: ...of debt and - lovely writing, $123 billion of deficit and we are collecting $5.7 billion less in tax this year and still reducing the deficit and the debt and you didn't do that in six years. In six years you gave us this instead. Six years. ANTHONY ALBANESE: That's not true. No, no, no, what we did. What we did was save 200,000 jobs [indistinct]. There they are - happy, happy, happy... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That's not a very good drawing. ANTHONY ALBANESE: I can't draw. What you've got is these people being angry... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I want a different coloured pen. ANTHONY ALBANESE: There you go Karl... KARL STEFANOVIC: Can you guys keep going. I'm going to check in - this is great stuff. I think eventually... ANTHONY ALBANESE: The drawings not going to get better... KARL STEFANOVIC: See, this is why he's going to be the next Labor prime minister. The whiteboard's back folks... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Hopefully in 20 years time. KARL STEFANOVIC: Whenever it is, certain it's going to be him. So keep going, keep going with the figures... ANTHONY ALBANESE: How about it just be the infrastructure... KARL STEFANOVIC: We're going to come back after the break and check on how Albo's going with solving the budget crisis with the whiteboard. So just keep going, just talk amongst yourselves. We'll be back in a moment folks. [ends]