Today Show

LISA WILKINSON: And they are here. And there are political fireworks this is morning with Tony Abbott’s strongest ever attack on the government or more particularly Malcolm Turnbull's leadership warning he must change policy now or risk losing the election. Take a look.

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Plainly, there are lots of people who are concerned about a direction and plainly, the risk is that we will drift to defeat if we don't lift our game.

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So what do our pollies think? Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne is in Adelaide for us this morning and here in the studio, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Anthony Albanese. Good morning to both of you.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good morning Lisa.

LISA WILKINSON: Christopher you won't be surprised I'd like to start with you this morning. Now Tony Abbott says lift your game or face defeat and the polls certainly back that up. Has he got a point?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, all the views of backbenchers are very welcome in the government and he is a backbencher and he's free to state his views, but we won't be going down the track of putting a freeze on immigration for example which Tony Abbott wants to do because it would be catastrophic in places like Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, most places outside the capital cities for example. We won't be slashing spending. Tony Abbott tried that in 2014 and the budget during his leadership but of course a whole lot of zombie legislation sat in the Senate unable to be passed. We're getting on with the job, Lisa, of creating jobs, of dealing with cost of living issues because of rising electricity prices and unstable energy because of some of Labor's policies of the past, we’re dealing with childcare, affordability and accessibility. We're not going to simply get distracted by some of these issues. The public want us to get on with good government and that's what we're doing
LISA WILKINSON: Well he’s watching it all obviously from close quarters. He describes the current situation as a collision of toxic egos and someone's vanity project. This is getting very personal.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, look, Lisa as I said the worst thing we could do is get distracted. The government is working very well in Canberra. The Cabinet is very united by behind Malcolm Turnbull...

LISA WILKINSON: But he's not making it look that way. This has got a feeling of a remake of Rudd-Gillard years. Have you got a plan to make it stop because he really hasn't stopped since he lost office?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, that's a matter for Tony Abbott and I think the Australian public are factoring that into their equation. They're pretty happy with the government. They're pretty happy with Malcolm Turnbull's leadership. The last time Tony Abbott was leader, one of the last polls had him at 30% to Bill Shorten's 48%, as preferred Prime Minister. So, we are on the right track with Malcolm Turnbull and with the government's policies. More importantly; we're focus on the bread and butter issues that the Australian public are interested in like childcare, like jobs like ensuring they have the kind of standard of living and cost of living they can afford. We're not going to be distracted. Like I'm not distracted from building a national defence industry which is good for our government…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: The government is a shambles Lisa and I'm almost reluctant to intervene in this blue between a virtual Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne. But the fact is, that Tony Abbott is stepping in because there's a vacuum because the Government doesn't have an agenda, doesn't have a sense of purpose. Tony Abbott's solution is to say, take what I did in the 2014 budget and go more extreme. Go harder. He just hasn't got the message at all. Tony Abbott is delusional and the government is dysfunctional.

LISA WILKINSON: Alright. Let's move on; and a major political battle has erupted over the weekend wages issue after yesterday's historic ruling by the Fair Work Commission to slash penalty rates. Now, Anthony, Bill Shorten is the person solely responsible for reviewing the penalty rates as workplace relations minister back in 2012. He backed the review. And then last year as Opposition Leader he pledged he would accept the decision and yesterday he said he would do everything to block it. What gives?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, the fact is this is a disastrous decision for hundreds of thousands of Australians who rely upon penalty rates in order to pay their bills, in order to pay their mortgage.

LISA WILKINSON: But it was an independent review and Bill Shorten backed it….

ANTHONY ALBANESE: This is a disastrous result and outcome. Bill Shorten, made it very clear that he couldn't conceive of a decision by the Fair Work Commission. I mean we have had 100 years of industrial relations commission decisions. This is the first one that has ever actually cut pay rates. This is a real cut to the standard of living from some of the lowest income people in society. Whether they be people struggling to work, do the second job, whether they be students, whether they be people just trying to get by, and who rely upon penalty rates; this is mean spirited and some of the commentators out there who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars, talking about what a great decision this is for jobs, I think there's no self-awareness amongst some of those people.

LISA WILKINSON: Alright

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Lisa, Bill Shorten...

LISA WILKINSON: Just a quick word Christopher, very quick…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Bill Shorten knows all about taking away people's penalty rates because his AWU did that to the clean event workers when he was the secretary.

LISA WILKINSON: Alright. We’re going to have to leave it there. We've run out of time gentleman. Good to see you. See you next Friday…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: See you at the next brawl. We await Tony Abbott's comments during the week.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’s Pyne v Albo, not Pyne vs Abbo…

SYLVIA JEFFRIES: We love Pyne vs Albo.