TODAY Show

BEN FORDHAM: In just two weeks’ time Australia will hold its first national gun amnesty since the Port Arthur massacre, it comes just weeks after the shooting of the Queensland police officer Brett Forte. Joining me to discuss all of this is the Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne, who is in Adelaide, and here in the studio the Shadow Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese. Albo good morning and Christopher good morning to you. Let's start with you Christopher.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good morning to you

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Nice to see you again.

BEN FORDHAM: Great to see you as well. Why now, we're just all wondering, it's been a long time between gun amnesties?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, the government made a decision a little while ago that now is a good time to renew the amnesty in order to ensure that a whole swathe of weapons, particularly illegal weapons if they are out there are taken out of the market. You might remember during the last few months of the previous government there was a movement of glock pistols through Sylvania Waters Post Office, that was one example of attempts to get illegal weapons into Australia. So we are putting an amnesty in place in order to ensure that anyone who does want to hand in those kinds of weapons and any other weapons can do so without any kind of penalty to get them out of the system, because obviously if they're not in the system they can't kill people like the very tragic death of the police officer Brett Forte recently in Queensland.

BEN FORDHAM: Albo they believe that there's 260,000 illegal firearms currently in Australia, that's a lot. It’s going to be fascinating to watch just how many are out there and how many people respond to this call for them to be handed in.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, we would certainly encourage people to do the right thing and to hand them in…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Absolutely.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: One illegal firearm is one too many. The fact that there are so many out there is an issue of concern. It's a good thing that this amnesty is happening, and it certainly has bipartisan support.

BEN FORDHAM: Let me move on to the other issue that's got everyone talking this morning, and that is the mid-winter ball in Canberra. This is a time when the journalists and the politicians all get together and have a bit of a laugh at their own expense, and also it turns out at the expense of the US President Donald Trump. Malcolm Turnbull delivered a light-hearted speech and it’s supposed to be off-the-record but it's ended up being leaked, it was on Instagram. There was a part of the speech that was revealed but then Nine's Laurie Oakes, who was not present at the dinner and therefore didn't feel like he was bound by the confidentiality. He revealed this part of the tape yesterday afternoon on ninenews.com.au:

[audio clip begins]

MALCOLM TURNBULL: It was beautiful, one of the most beautiful things ever, the Donald and I, we are winning and winning in the polls. We are winning so much, we are winning like we have never won before, we’re winning the polls, we are, we are. Not the fake polls, not the fake polls, they’re ones we’re not winning, we’re into the real polls, you know, the online polls, they are so easy to win, did you know that, I know that, did you know that, I kind of know that, they are so easy to win, I have this Russian guy, believe me it’s true, it is true.

[audio clip ends]

BEN FORDHAM: So Christopher Pyne, this is now being picked up by the American media. How do you reckon this is going to go down with President Trump?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Look, I don't think it’s going to worry him or anyone else at all. The truth is the reason Bill Shorten's speech wasn't leaked was because it was such a stinker. On the other hand, Malcolm Turnbull’s was very funny, the whole point of the mid-winter ball speeches is to be funny. And I think it’s great that the Australian public have got to see a side of Malcolm Turnbull that I see on a regular basis, which is he's really a very fun and funny guy and I don't think anybody is going to take this too seriously at all.

BEN FORDHAM: Albo I'm guessing you were there, were you having a laugh like those people in the room?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I was, I think it’s unfortunate that it has leaked because I think it will dampen the potential for people to go along and have a laugh at themselves at every one, and both Malcolm and Bill did that. There are ethics here, and I think they've been breached by whoever taped Malcolm's speech, and I don't think it should have happened. I don't want to see the spirit of larrikinism that is part of the definition of being an Aussie disappear. And one of the things that happens when people get together is that we have a joke at our own expense, and sometimes at the expense of others. Malcolm did that, Bill did that, I hope that the press gallery ball continues to exist and raise money, we raised $350,000 for charities on Wednesday night.

BEN FORDHAM: The thing about it, it's an interesting kind of dilemma isn’t it, because Laurie Oakes takes the view he's never believed in these kind of nights where everyone signs up to be keeping their mouths shut about things when really he believes that you owe it to the public to tell the public what’s going on. But you're right, that larrikin side of Australia means that wouldn't it be better, Christopher, if we were all able to actually, like they do in America where they have the correspondence dinner, the politicians can still take the Mickey out of themselves but we should all be able to see it shouldn’t we?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yeah, look I’ve got no problem with that, but the White House correspondence ball is the equivalent in Washington, everyone gets it in Washington, that’s why neither President Trump, nor anyone around him is going to take offence. The guys in the media, the guys and gals in the media can't really on the one hand say that we politicians are washed out one dimensional and not very interesting, and then when we prove that that's not the case like Malcolm's very amusing speech turn around and criticise him, you can't have it both ways. So I think we're just going to have to suck up the fact it's been leaked, it's very unfortunate and Laurie Oakes can say whatever he likes, but the truth is that it has damaged politicians’ belief in the mid-winter ball being somewhere they can let their hair down. Obviously that's not the case, and it's a pity, but that's just the reality of politics these days.

BEN FORDHAM: No-one would ever describe you guys as one dimensional, Albo and Christopher have a great weekend.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Same to you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Same to you mate.