Today Show

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – Today Show with Karl Stefanovic and Joel Fitzgibbon
Friday 17 April 2015

SUBJECTS: COAG Meeting; Malcolm Turnbull; Kevin Rudd.

KARL STEFANOVIC: I'm joined by Education Minister Christopher Pyne and Shadow Agricultural and Rural Affairs Minister Joel Fitzgibbon. Morning lads.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Morning Karl.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Morning Karl, morning Christopher.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Can we sort it out this morning or what? Chris?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Sorting out Premiers, Prime Ministers and buckets of money - it's been decades and decades of discussion about money and buckets of money, what did Paul Keating say, never get between a Premier and a bucket of money. I am sure the Premiers and Prime Minister will sort out these major issues today.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Alright. It's normally you that's under the pump, but I'm going to switch over to you this morning, Joel. Bill Shorten wants to give $300 million to WA bail them out of their budget woes, $300 million - The Daily Telegraph this morning is calling him ‘Buffalo Bill’, it is ridiculous, isn’t it?

JOEL FITZGIBBON: I'm pleased you've come to me because I've learned that Christopher usually does most of the talking on this program.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You can't be nasty on this show, my friend.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Only this week Karl, Barnaby Joyce dropped a story that he was about to introduce a fiscal stimulus package in the worst drought affected parts of NSW and Queensland, he was talking about giving Councils money to bring forward infrastructure projects in those Council areas to stimulate the economy.

KARL STEFANOVIC: On our show you've got to stay on task. I've got to do this. Buffalo Bill it's been called. What do you think about 300 million. This is Bill Shorten's idea to bail WA out.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: This is the point I'm making, it's no different the idea that Barnaby Joyce put out there, they're sweet. But..

KARL STEFANOVIC: So you support that idea?

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Come on Karl, give me a chance. Bill Shorten made it clear - I think the idea, it's general practice in Government to identify an area where there's a difficult economic situation and then to look to providing some economic stimulus. It's not a new or unusual idea.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You do support the idea of giving the WA Government $300 million to bail them out of their budget woes?

I agree that WA is in trouble. But smaller states like Christopher's own state shouldn't lose money to help them out. So what is left? Well, let's have a look whether we can inject fiscal surplus in there to help Western Australians out.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay, you are not going to support that – you are going to cut money to the States in terms of hospital funding to the tune of $50 million. Is that going to happen, can you confirm that?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That's not right. I can’t confirm that. Truth is that hospital funding is going up 9% next year, 9% the year after, 9% the year after that and 6% the year after that.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Less than it should have.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That doesn’t sound like a cut.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Less than it should have.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Labor made a lot of promises, which they never put the money in the budget, they never had the money. Now they've made a $300 million promise to WA, they haven't got the money for that either. Labor always seem to have a money tree somewhere. We're increasing health spending. How can we be increasing it and cutting it at the same time?

KARL STEFANOVIC: Colin Barnett says he's got an idea to solve all their woes – he says, and it seems like something out of House of Cards - he wants to use the bushfire disaster fund to help squeeze out more money. Take a look at this.

COLIN BARNETT: When Victoria had those tragic fires a few years back Western Australia as the first and most generous state to provide financial assistance, same when Queensland was in trouble.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Alright, can we all agree that's going too far?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, the truth is that the GST is collected by the Commonwealth…

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Yes or no?

KARL STEFANOVIC: That's going too far, he's overstepped the mark there.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well he’s backed away from those comments yesterday, at the end of the day he said they were wrong.

KARL STEFANOVIC: How do you even get in a position where you think that is okay to say?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: The point is that the GST is a state tax, we collect it and give it to the states. The states have got to decide whether they want to change the carve-up of it. The Grants Commission is arms-length from the Government. Bill Shorten has apparently made a giveaway, goodness knows where that's coming from. But at the end of the day the states have got to work out between themselves what the share is.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: That's a changing narrative Karl because what Tony Abbott has actually been saying is the states need to make up their mind whether they want to increase the rate of the GST. That's what this is all about. Tony Abbott has cut funding to the states by $80 billion, $10 billion to Western Australia. Now he's saying you can fix this, come and ask me for an increase in the GST.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: ...an increase to WA as well as the $300 million, is that what you are saying?

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Are you serious, you're talking about health funding going up, it's going up by less than it could have been if you hadn't cut the funding.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: This is how they ran Government, they gave money to everyone!

JOEL FITZGIBBON: This is the spin that everybody is sick and tired of.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Whatever they asked they gave to them….

KARL STEFANOVIC: I want everyone to close their eyes at home and just imagine what's going to happen at the COAG meeting today.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: It's going to be a jelly wrestle, mainly between Tony Abbott, Colin Barnett and someone like Will Hodgman, all from his own party.

KARL STEFANOVIC: It's going to be fun.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Sure it be.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Now let’s focus on something a little bit lighter. Two things I want to talk about. Nothing was resolved there, you two are hopeless.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: No jelly wrestling now.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: There will be no jelly wrestling on this show, Karl, while I'm a guest, I can tell you right now.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Never say never. Malcolm Turnbull has sprung back into prominence this week with his cover shoot for GQ magazine, looks absolutely magnificent, ‘primed Minister’, is he back?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It's a two-year-old photograph.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: The comments are not two years old.

KARL STEFANOVIC: The interview's fresh though, is he back?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We're stretching the friendship. It's a two-year-old photo shoot. It isn’t an attempt to do anything other than be a good Minister of the Crown…

JOEL FITZGIBBON: The question is who's next? We've had Julie Bishop, I reckon Christopher Pyne is next.

KARL STEFANOVIC: On GQ?

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Well, I've been thinking about the magazine. I can select a field.

KARL STEFANOVIC: It's surely going to be.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Oh another one.

KARL STEFANOVIC: That's magnificent, you’re a handsome man. Joel we've got you on the cover of GQ as well. There we go. Not too bad.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I don't have the horizontal and vertical stripes.

KARL STEFANOVIC: I know it's all over the shop. That hand looks weird there. Much bigger.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: That's a bit unkind.

KARL STEFANOVIC: We've got Kevin Rudd who wants to make his play now for the UN Secretary-General position. Can you confirm that this morning Joel?

JOEL FITZGIBBON: No, I can't Karl, I haven't spoken with him. Two points, Kevin's never short on ambition and a lot of people have a long period of underestimating Kevin Rudd. So let's see what happens.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Do you think he would go for it?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: He has the credentials. Don’t know.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay, Christopher Pyne?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Joel had a lot to say about Kevin Rudd over the years. He's being nice about him this morning. I think Kevin Rudd could take the UN to a whole new plain if he became the Secretary-General.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Now you're being nasty.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No. People need to reach their full potential and I think Kevin would be a candidate for that.

JOEL FITZGIBBON: Christopher would be on the cover of I think ‘Home Handyman’ because he's the fixer.

KARL STEFANOVIC: He is the fixer.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Nothing to fix here today…nothing broken you want me to fix today. No blinds you want me to fix today. No blinds you want me to put up?

KARL STEFANOVIC: There's stuff broken all over the station. That's it for now.

[ends]