Transcript - 5AA - 25 June 2010

SUBJECTS: Labor Leadership Coup; Julia Gillard's Failed Policies

Mike Smithson: (inaudible)

Christopher Pyne: Well, Mike, what I think happened yesterday in Canberra was a very dark day for Australian democracy. It was a historic day, not just because a woman was elected Prime Minister, because I think most people will be pleased that that particular glass ceiling has been broken; but it was an historic day because for the first time in our history a first term Prime Minister was assassinated by his own political party. That was a job, if it was to be done, for the Australian people and in our case the South Australian people. They elected Kevin Rudd. Fair and square, he got elected. It was up to the Australian people to decide whether he should continue as Prime Minister or not.

Smithson: That's very convenient, Christopher. Very convenient for the Liberal Party. You'd rather challenge and be up against Kevin Rudd at the next federal election than Julia Gillard. It smells of that to me that you're more worried about Julia Gillard than Kevin Rudd.

Pyne: No, I actually have a contrary view, Mike. I think what the Labor Party has done yesterday has strengthened the likelihood of a Coalition victory at the election. I don't think the Australian public will react anything like the Press Gallery response in Canberra.

Smithson: How can you say that though? Because the Australian public, as I read it, and certainly the calls to this program were very uncomplimentary about Kevin Rudd and much more complimentary about Julia Gillard. I think you're fudging it a bit.

Pyne: No. Let me say why I think it's going to strengthen our position. Certainly they've changed the face of the Government. The New South Wales Labor machine and the Australian Workers Union have changed the face of the Labor Party, but they haven't changed the Government. Their policies on boat people are still the same; their policies on the education school hall debacle are still the same, the mining tax policies are still the same. And the public are going to say to themselves, "We've got a new Prime Minister, but the Labor Party is still the same Labor Party. We've got a new jockey, but exactly the same Labor Party." And I don't think the public would like the decision about who is Prime Minister being taken out of their hands by factional war lords from New South Wales and union bosses in darkened rooms and that's exactly what happened.

Smithson: Well, we see a feminine side of the Labor Party and a macho side of the Liberal Party i.e. Tony Abbott, and I'll throw yourself into that; the hard hitters. You're not shy in throwing criticism when necessary and dishing a bit of dirt; it's thrown at you and you throw it back. Could it be voters say, "Well, the alternative to that and a contrast to that is Julia Gillard."

Pyne: Well, that's quite funny really. I mean, I'm no shrinking violet, but neither is Julia Gillard. She's the Minister I've been shadowing for the last two years and I can tell you that Julia Gillard is no shrinking violet. She's as tough as boots and that image is indelibly printed on people's minds. We have a woman Prime Minister, but the Government is still the same. And if Labor thinks that by tricking the public into thinking the Government has changed they'll hang onto power, I think the public will react very negatively to that. It's one thing in New South Wales to change the Premier three times in one term. It's quite a different thing in Australia to essentially butcher a Prime Minister in his first term, and that's what happened.

The real test of course will be whether Julia does change anything; whether she does stop the mining tax, whether she will still spend the five and a half billion dollars still to be spent on the school hall debacle that Gillard has managed until she knows she is going to get value for money; whether she stops the boats. She said when she was Shadow Minister for Immigration that every boat arrival was a policy failure, and there's been three a week this year, three a week. So she can either maintain that position or actually go and do something about it.

Smithson: Alright, Chris Pyne thanks very much for joining us.

Ends.