Today Show

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview - Today Show with Lisa Wilkinson, Karl Stefanovic, Sylvia Jeffreys and Tim Gilbert
Tuesday 17 March 2015

SUBJECT: Higher education reforms.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Welcome back to the show. Questions over Prime Minister Tony Abbott's leadership have resurfaced this morning with reports the PM will have to resign before the next election if he fails to turn around the party's disastrous poll results. The claims aired in ABC's Four Corners last night. Prime Minister could still be on borrowed time it said. For more we're joined by Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne. Good morning to you Christopher.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Karl and happy Saint Patrick's Day to you.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Indeed, indeed pretty obvious though isn't it in light of that show last night if he doesn't perform he goes. How long does the PM have to turn things around?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well the show on Four Corners last night was a real fizzer. I don't think that had anything new in it of any interest whatsoever.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Well Amanda Vanstone didn't think so; this is what she said last night.

[Excerpt from Four Corners]

AMANDA VANSTONE: If things don't change the party room will.

QUESTION: Will change the leader?

AMANDA VANSTONE: Yeah if things don't change. There's one absolute certainty about a party room vote on leadership and that is as you get closer to election they focus on whether they can win or not.

[End of Excerpt]

KARL STEFANOVIC: Amanda's a very bright woman, she is right, isn't she?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well things are changing Karl. The point is things are improving since the spill motion the Government has reset its agenda; we are getting on with the task of governing for Australia. Whether it is the country of origin labelling laws, the foreign investment in land law changes. Now Tony Abbott is getting out and about doing swings through all the states over the last several weeks. And what I am picking up is a real change in mood in the electorate. They want us to succeed and now they can see that we are focused on the things that matter to them. And I do believe that we will win the next election and that Tony Abbott will lead us to it.

KARL STEFANOVIC: The problem is you changed so many times you don't resemble what you got elected for.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well we got elected because the Labor Party was a party of chaos and dysfunction and backbiting let by Bill Shorten who stabbed two prime ministers in the back. Now Tony Abbott has been the prime minister for 18 months. We've started turning things around. There are green shoots in the economy. Job ads are up. Housing starts are up. New company registrations are up. Growth is up. The carbon tax is abolished. The mining tax is abolished. The boats have been stopped; we are getting on with the job.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay so you are saying to me this morning that your government is willing to change, right?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well we have changed and we - I think - are getting better. I think the public are seeing that and they don't want Bill Shorten to be prime minister. They looked at him and realised he is an empty vessel.

KARL STEFANOVIC: But you are not going to change your mind on de-regulation at universities, are you?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Karl, de-regulating the universities and freeing them up is the most important thing that I can be doing as education minister. It is vital reform, it's good for universities, it's good for students. It will make an enormous difference to our productivity. It protects our international education exports and I am using every possible means at my disposal to see it pass.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You have changed your mind though, you're splitting the bill and you've dropped linking the reforms to cutting research jobs; you're watering it down.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I have taken away all the distractions. Anything that the crossbench said was a distraction, whether it was the research funding, whether it was the 20 per cent cut to the Commonwealth Grant Scheme, reduce the ten year government bond rate to CPI, created a hundred million dollar structural adjustment fund, I've done everything the crossbenchers have asked us to do. Now if they now vote against the reform, well, I don't think anybody could say that I haven't left - I haven't overturned every stone to try and make this change.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay so you have overturned stones. You have said previously you would rather see the plan fail than be watered down too far. You also said you would not so adulterate the reforms that they are now meaningless. We've seen so many adulterated forms in this; it looks like Fifty Shades of Grey Chris.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Karl, only you would know about Fifty Shades of Grey, I haven't read that book nor seen that movie.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Well I wasn't the one that said adulterated. That's what it looks like doesn't it?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I am not allowed to see movies like that Karl. That is a bit too racy for me. But the point is, I have kept the deregulation, that has been the core. Now I've said that since the beginning of this debate in May that I would keep the core which is the de-regulation. I've done that everything else I've stripped away so that the crossbenchers have no impediment to vote for these reforms. But the core, which is de-regulating and freeing up the universities to be their best - that very much remains at the centre of this reform.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay Chris I am telling you this morning it's a dead duck.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Karl, I never give up.

KARL STEFANOVIC: That's it?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I never give up, no, I will not give up. It is too important. It is too important to allow the Labor Party who are political opportunists and the Greens who are the same to wreck this reform. Now they're saying they know better than every peak body and 40 out of 41 vice chancellors. Well I think when you have lined up 40 out of 41 vice chancellors and every -

KARL STEFANOVIC: You don't have to convince me, Chris, you don't have to convince me…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I'm convincing your listeners, I'm convincing your viewers.

KARL STEFANOVIC: … it is the senators and they say it is a dead duck, it's gone, let it go, let it fly away.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, no Karl. It is very hard, you couldn't kill me with an axe Karl, I'm going to keep coming back.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Well good luck with the senators and we will see you Friday morning bright and early.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: See you Friday.

KARL STEFANOVIC: With that peking duck, it's gone.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Happy St Patrick's Day.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You too.

[ends]