Today Show - In The House

SUBJECT: NBN Asbestos; No-confidence motion; Electoral funding legislation E&OE................................ Lisa Wilkinson: Welcome back to the show and it’s time now for ‘in the House’. Joining us today is our Transport Minister Anthony Albanese and Shadow Education Minister Christopher Pyne. Good morning to both of you. Christopher Pyne: Good morning. Karl Stefanovic: No salami on the table, see. Zero. There’ll be no throwing anything. Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Only fruit. Wilkinson: Exactly. Let’s start with this debacle in Western Sydney with the Telstra asbestos pits, it’s an absolute disgrace. Anthony this is in your city. Hon Anthony Albanese MP: It is and asbestos is everywhere in this city and that’s why we need to be really careful about the way that it’s handled. Wilkinson: But how did this roll out happen without anyone knowing about it? Albanese: Well Lisa a park was fixed in my electorate recently and guess what, they found asbestos that had been buried under the park, you know decades ago. This is a real problem for our city. It’s a real wake up call that we need to be extra cautious when it comes to asbestos. Stefanovic: The reality is people did know about it. Telstra knew about it two years ago. They’re Telstras’ pits. So Telstra has absolutely stuffed this up royally. Now lives down the track potentially could be on the line. Albanese: We need to make sure, this isn’t the first time incidents like this have happened with respect to asbestos because it was just sprayed everywhere. I mean the Labor Party does not need lectures about asbestos. We are the party that took on James Hardie… Stefanovic: So why aren’t you jumping up and down about this? Albanese: We are, we are. It is an outrage. People are right to be angry about it and we need to fix it. Stefanovic: We don’t know where it stops either. We don’t know how many pits are like this in the country. Albanese: What we know is when you dig in this city, but in other cities as well there is a possibility of finding asbestos and that is why you need to make sure that all the right precautions are put in place. Wilkinson: Should you come to power after September 14, what’s your handling going to be of this? Pyne: Well unfortunately this asbestos disaster is part of the ongoing fiasco of the National Broadband Network. As Karl says, NBN was warned about it two years ago. Telstra said two years ago there is a potential problem with asbestos if we’re going to dig all these pits, these lines for the cables. Malcolm Turnbull’s policy, the Coalition’s policy is that we should be able to deliver the NBN using different methods. So wireless would be one of those. Obviously where there are serious health issues regarding asbestos we will need to look at proper alternatives. But there needs to be a proper inquiry into the dangers that are there and also who knew what and when. I mean the NBN is miles behind schedule. It’s now just ground to a halt. The Government’s running the country, what are they doing about it? Stefanovic: Do you accept there should an inquiry? Inquiry, inquiry there are so many inquiries, but something needs to be done about this because of the potential risk to so many people. Albanese: Oh look what needs to be put in place is all the proper precautions when it comes to health and safety issues when you do. I’ve had at my house, or former house, had something done a few years ago. Guess what they found asbestos so we had to get people in to do it properly. Stefanovic: I realise that but they knew about this and there was still an issue… Albanese: Well you do know Karl that if you dig a hole in Sydney there is a possibility… Stefanovic: So again this highlights the fact that they’ve stuffed it up royally. Albanese: And Telstra have accepted responsibility for what has occurred in Penrith and you know it’s not acceptable… Pyne: I think the question is who knew what and when at the NBN and the subcontractors to Telstra and other people, but who knew what at the NBN? Wilkinson: Absolutely. Albanese: Lets be very clear here. This is Telstra doing the job in Telstra ducts that it owns… Pyne: Yes but not on the front page of The Australian. Albanese: On the front page of The Australian is your no confidence motion as well. Pyne: There’s one story about Penrith, but The Australian breaks other stories today about other places with asbestos. Stefanovic: I understand. And we’re going to talk about that no confidence motion. Are you going, you’ve got no chance of getting that up Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott are never going to go for it. Pyne: Well let’s hope that they do. Stefanovic: They’re not going to go for it, you know they’re not. Pyne: There’s so many reasons why they should. Stefanovic: Yeah, but they won’t, you know they won’t. Pyne: And if they won’t they’re proving that they’re not really part of the, best part of the Government, they’re not really independent. Steanovic: It’s pointless to go with it if you know they’re not going to go for it. Pyne: That’s why I’ve written to them. Albanese: Can I ask … Pyne: Asking them whether they are open to the possibility, if they come back and say, you know, forget it, well we are not going to waste everyone’s time. Wilkinson: Well that’s ….. Pyne: That’s why I’ve written to them to see what their position is I think we’ll see what their response is by next week. Albanese: Lisa and Karl can I, can I sort of take over a little bit here. Just a quick question, did you actually write to them or did you put it on the front page of the Oz. Pyne: I’ve written to them. Albanese: Have they got the letters? Pyne: I hope so. Albanese: They haven’t. Pyne: I put them in the internal Parliamentary House mail. Albanese: They haven’t I spoke to them. Pyne: Which you run that as well. Are you saying they’re no good? Albanese: I spoke to them. You know that you just put … Pyne: Are you saying they’re no good, the Parliament House mail? Albanese: You say that you’ve written to them, what you did was plonk a nonsense story on the front page of the Oz. Pyne: I’ve written to them. I’ve always thought the postmen in Parliament House were very good. Stefanovic: It sounds like you are having a go at the postmen. Albanese: You’re in the same room as them. Pyne: Why are you attacking the postmen? Albanese: You’re in the same room as them. Pyne: It sounds like you are attacking the postmen. I don’t think my daughter will like you attacking the postmen. Albanese: Have you spoken to them about it … Wilkinson: Let’s… Albanese: This is nonsense. Stefanovic: Who writes letters anyway, these days? Pyne: I write letters. I write hand written letters. Albanese: No, no he was with them. He was with them yesterday Pyne: I’m going to write you a hand written letter to cheer you up. Stefanovic: Why didn’t you say “Tony, …. Wilkinson: “Oy” Albanese: … are you going to support this No confidence motion”. Wilkinson: “Oy” works a treat in this country. Albanese: I know, it’s ridiculous. Pyne: Well it’s so silly not to write letters Albanese: You wrote a letter to the Oz. (inaudible) Albanese: Page one splash, exclusive! Pyne: It doesn’t matter, it’s all via email Wilkinson: Let’s … Albanese: Nonsense Pyne: A firmly worded letter as well. Wilksinon: Can we talk about Tony Abbott’s backflip Albanese: You’re trying to get him onside. Pyne: What was that movie, the firmly worded letters? The a …. Stefanovic: How can we trust Tony Abbott now after he rolled over yesterday. Wilkinson: The votes for cash deal? Pyne: Oh well, the story here, if you take a step back from this, Labor still wants to go ahead with this trousering the tax payer bill. Tony Abbott… Albanese: Rubbish. Pyne: Tony Abbott, you do! Tony Abbott said “No” we’ve listened to the people and he said “Forget it”. Wilksinson: No, no, hang on. Both sides of Parliament, all sides of Parliament have been working on this deal for two years …. Pyne: They’ve been talking about it. Wilkinson: … and Tony Abbott was right in there and the legislation was ready to go and Tony Abbott a week ago, signed a letter to the Attorney General saying “Yes, I have confidence in this” Pyne: But the Bill hadn’t even been Wilksinon: And he’s done a complete back flip and that’s exactly what he’s accused Julia Gillard of for the last three years. Pyne: Well he’s said that he would consider this Bill. Albanese: No he didn’t. Wilkinson: No, no he didn’t. No he didn’t Pyne: We hadn’t even actually got the Bill. Once we got the Bill and the final draft, which we only got on Wednesday, it went through our processes, we listened to the people and we’re not going ahead with it. Wilkson: So why did Tony Abbott send a letter a week ago? Pyne: Well, because he was saying we would consider the Bill if they brought one forward … Wilkinson: No he didn’t. Albanese: No Wilkinson: No he didn’t Pyne: But the bottom line is, we don’t want to go ahead with the Bill. Labor does want to go ahead with the Bill Wilkinson: The bottom line is, you did do a back flip Albanese: Well that’s not true. I’m here Chris. I’m here. Pyne: Well Julia Gillard was saying yesterday Albanese: It’s not happening. Pyne: … that Labor wanted to go ahead with the Bill. Albanese: No, no. We’ll be going ahead with different legislation. Different legislation that’s before the Senate that has a one thousand dollar limit Pyne: That’s because you’re more worried about that than you are about keeping Al Qaeda terrorists behind pool fences in the Adelaide Hills, that’s what this week should be about. Stefanovic: To be fair, to be fair … Albanese: There’s a connection, there’s a connection. Pyne: That’s an important thing. Stefanovic: There’s a connection, to be fair though let’s be honest, the Bill was a silly one. The people did speak. It was a silly bill. Pyne: No, no. Tony Abbott killed it. Stefanovic: The people of Australia said we don’t want this. It’s ridiculous, it’s being greedy and they said they don’t want it. Albanese: Karl let’s be very clear about what happened. Pyne: Tony Abbott killed it. Albanese: Tony Abbott wrote a letter, stitched up Christopher Pyne and others were mentioned as being involved in the process in the letter. He was in it. He supported it, he gave it the tick. He then… Pyne: It was your Bill. Albanese: … pretended he had nothing to do with it. Didn’t know about it; they went out and leaked it. “Oh, there’s nothing to do with us”, then the letter got exposed. What happened wasn’t about the people; it was that their own State branches objected. Pyne: What happened… (inaudible) Pyne: … you introduced a trousering the tax payer Bill and Tony Abbott killed it. Stefanovic: Boys we’ve got to stop but there is some good news for you chaps. You know how there’s that Winter Ball coming up? Well you guys aren’t doing that, the Game of Thrones thing. You blokes are going to Vegas. Are you ready for this? Stefanovic: That was the PM, Ready? Stefanovic: There look, it’s the Hangover 3 look at Albo, there on the right now looking fantastic and Christopher Pyne. Wilkinson: What a trio Stefanovic: We’ll have more of The Buzz with Fordo coming up after the break. Stay with us on Today. ENDS.