Today Show
26 Feb 2016
Transcipt E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – Today Show with Lisa Wilkinson
Friday 26th February
SUBJECTS: Senate reform; polling; tax policy; Defence White Paper
LISA WILKINSON: Welcome back well there’s more speculation this morning that we could be heading to an early election, the herald sun reports Malcolm Turnbull is considering going to the polls in early July. For more we have Anthony Albanese here in the studio and Christopher Pyne in Adelaide good morning Gentlemen.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good Morning.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Lisa, good morning Anthony.
LISA WILKINSON: So Christopher is it true? An election in July, probably July 2?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well the election is due in August/ September so an election in July would not be regarded by the public as an early election. We haven’t had an election in July since 1987 so it’s as good a time as any but I don’t think there’s any plan to have an election in July but the Senate does continue to block Government legislation, particularly legislation that we have a mandate for such as the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission both of which we took to the last election to clean up the Building and Construction industry in Australia so it is a bit difficult when you get elected with a mandate and Labor teams up with the cross benches or the Greens to block that mandate.
LISA WILKINSON: OK so July 2 it is. So when we have that double dissolution that means the end of minority parties and people like Jacqui Lambie in the Senate will you be glad to see the back of them?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well it doesn’t, if they can win the quota, if the electoral reforms pass, the individual voters will get to have their preferences decide the outcome of the election rather than preference whisperers making deals in back rooms. But if Jacqui Lambie can get the quota which is 14 per cent for a half Senate election or about 7 per cent for a full Senate election then she and anybody else can get elected. But if you get half a per cent like Ricky Muir then you don’t really have any right to complain. I mean you’re supposed to get 7 per cent not half a per cent.
LISA WILKINSON: OK they’re going to have to get busy on the hustings. Anthony, the Labor party had a good result in the polls this week, fifty-fifty on the two party preferred, Bill Shorten though is still struggling as preferred PM, shouldn’t the numbers be better?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well the fifty-fifty poll was quite promising I think for the Labor party and what’s clear from parliament this week again has reinforced that Malcolm Turnbull had a plan to get rid of Tony Abbot but he doesn’t have a plan to govern. You have the extraordinary circumstances whereby Labor has a tax policy out there, the Government has said it’ll increase housing prices, it’ll decrease housing prices it’ll have every impact possible on the economy, they have been all over the shop this week, and I think Malcolm Turnbull has been a great disappointment to the Australian people, they expected something different from Tony Abbott instead its very clear the Government has no plan and now they’re trying to rush to an election. Which of course, Christopher says is normal timetable, for goodness sake it’ll be a double D!
LISA WILKINSON: Simon Benson in the Daily Telegraph agrees with that assessment Christopher and the numbers in the polls, not so attractive for the Government, Malcolm Turnbull preparing it would seem to abandon serious tax reform. Have the polls actually spooked our PM? Is that why the Government appears to just be wandering around looking for policies rather than delivering them?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Lisa there have been three polls this week, the Liberals have been ahead in two and drawing fifty-fifty in one so I don’t think the polls are worrying anybody in the Government, Labor has a tax policy on negative gearing which increases taxes and then they want to spend that money and it increases house prices on existing, on new houses I should say,
LISA WILKINSON Careful!
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Remember Kelly O’Dwyer
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: She was right! It increases houses, house prices for new houses, it reduces house prices for existing houses, and it pushes rents up. That’s economics 101. It takes demand for one area away on existing houses by removing investors and puts them into a new pool for new houses and that new demand will increase prices. So the laws of economics mean that prices must go down for existing houses, must go up for new houses because there’s more demand for one and less demand for the other.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: The extraordinary thing from that confusing analysis from Christopher is that he has no policy himself. I can’t recall a time, whatever you say about the Howard Government, they actually had plans they had policies we had debates, this is a one sided debate where Labor’s putting policy out there showing leadership-
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Rubbish.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: And the Government is behaving like an opposition. Every answer-
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean other people don’t.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Every answer in question time begins with ‘well Labor’, that’s how they begin. And the Malcolm Turnbull that we got at the beginning of the changeover where he’d stand up and smile and speak about the new politics and having a mature debate with the Australian people, all of that has gone.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well yesterday we announced the Defence White Paper.
LISA WILKINSON: Yeah that’s true we’ll get to that in just a moment Christopher, but didn’t the Prime Minister justify his move in to the PM’s chair saying that we could trust him to deliver a stronger economy but to date he hasn’t done anything different to Tony Abbott?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well that’s not right Lisa, that’s Labor’s analysis but the truth is the economy is getting better and the reality is why would any Government be salami sliced on tax policy when we have a budget to deliver in May.
ANTHONHY ALBANESE: That’s a cut through line for you Christopher.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Government’s announce their tax policy in budgets. They don’t announce their policies on the run like the Labor party is. And let’s not forget that the Labor party wants to increase taxes to spend more money what we want to do is reduce taxes and reduce spending.
LISA WILKINSON: Well talking about spending, the Government delivered the Defence White Paper yesterday promising 12 submarines, 12 offshore patrol vessels, 9 frigates, 3 warfare destroyers and an unmanned surveillance aircraft all at the cost of 195 billion dollars, where on earth is all of this money coming from Christopher?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well there is an extra 29 billion dollars in spending over the next 10 years Lisa and that is easily affordable in our budget the extra spending is 30 billion, what we’ve actually announced yesterday in the Defence White Paper and the Defence Industry policy statement is quite a historic document, we’ve certainly committed to the 12 submarines that we’ve always promised, that Labor didn’t do anything about when they were in Government, and we’ve made Defence Industry really the third pillar of defence and national security in Australia, alongside the Defence Forces and our Intelligence Forces so this is great news for those people who are working in advanced manufacturing and high tech industries this will drive the economy, it works alongside our agenda with innovation and science and research. It is unadulteratedly good news for Australia, particularly South Australia which is a big Defence Industry state, this means jobs, it means growth, and Labor did not ask one question about this this week. They were so busy playing politics, talking about their talking points that they ran out-
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well see if you can use a sentence without Labor Christopher, there’s a challenge for you.
LISA WILKINSON: Well Labor does support this broadly was the statement yesterday, unfortunately we’ll have to leave it there-
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well defence policy should not be an area of partisan politics, it shouldn’t be subject to-
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well there’s been nothing about this-
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well there have been 1500 hundred jobs lost on your watch-
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Because you did nothing.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: [interrupting]
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Because as a government minister you created, you did nothing in 6 years leading up to the valley of death-
LISA WILKINSON: And see if you can use the word salami again in this segment.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Salami slice.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: That’s their economic narrative-
LISA WILKINSON: Alright thanks very much Albo, thanks Christopher hope you both have a good weekend.
[ends]