Transcript - ABC 891 SA Radio - 7th April 2008

ABC 891 SA Radio

Excerpts of “Two Chrisses”

7th April 2008, 10am (CST)

Journalist:

Discussion about South Australian Newspoll in The Australian today.

Christopher Pyne MP:

I thought the Newspoll was interesting. I thought the spin on the Newspoll by The Australian… The story about it wasn’t really reflective, in my view, of the actual poll. When I read the story I thought, gosh that doesn’t look so good, but when I actually looked at the tables myself, it actually showed an improvement in the Liberal Party primary vote, a tightening of the two-party preferred vote…

Journalist:

It did

Pyne:

And a strong, for an Opposition leader, for traditionally Opposition leaders don’t poll well, it showed a good 24 or 25 poll for Martin Hamilton-Smith versus Mike Rann, and showed his personal approval at about 45 on his own. So I’d have thought it was a very good poll. If I was Martin Hamilton-Smith two years out from an election, looking at that, I’m at striking distance on two-party preferred...

Journalist:

…Well 45 is more than Mike Rann ever had as an Opposition Leader it’s fair to say, again, he was up against a very unpopular premier in John Olsen, I say that as a fact based on Newspoll, not as an opinion, Newspoll showed John Olsen struggled to get to 50 in terms of personal approval rating and Mike Rann was similarly behind him.

Pyne:

Being Opposition Leader, you’re not traditionally likely to poll very well.

Journalist:

But despite that the Government’s still sitting pretty isn’t it at 53% two-party preferred.

Pyne:

Well around the country, that is a good result for an opposition two years out from an election, if you look at all the other states, that is not a bad result for the Opposition. Two years out from an election, I don’t think you’d expect to be doing much better than that. I thought it was a bit of a feather in Martin Hamilton-Smith’s cap that his Opposition Leader rating at 25 versus the Premier is very good, because let’s face it, we in this studio know that all the aces are in the Governments hand. They’re the ones that make big spending announcements or significant announcements that don’t cost any money, like respond to the Mulligan Inquiry etc. Martin Hamilton-Smith has been getting out there, I saw yet again, he’s getting out there on a new issue which is a permanent standing corruption inquiry in South Australia - something the Rann Government hadn’t acted on, most other states have. He’s taking a running on issues, and I think that is a good result for him.

Chris Schacht:

…I don’t disagree with you Chris (Pyne) this result is a lot better for the Libs than two or three years ago…

Pyne:

There are a lot of votes up for grabs. The other interesting thing is the Family First vote has dropped to 1, the Democrats vote has dropped to 1, the Xenophon factor is not recorded except in Others where Others is 12. I mean, Others is coming third.

Schacht:

That’s an interesting point, from 3% to 12% is Others.

Pyne:

It’s Family First, Democrat, Xenophon, it’s a mixture of those, all not committing to Liberal or Labor, and they’re up for grabs. Two years out they’re not convinced about the Rann Government, and they need to be convinced about the Opposition, and I thought as an Opposition member, I’d be quite impressed by that.

Schacht:

The Greens have gone from 6% to 8%... that’s a guaranteed seat in the Legislative Council.

Pyne:

Sure, but there’s a hesitation factor too… There’s a huge hesitation factor for the Greens, we talk about the Greens as a huge phenomenon, but Others was about 3% on election day, the Greens are about 6%, in this poll the Greens are at 8%, Others is 12%, there are still a lot of people who think the Greens are a bit “out there”, a bit “kooky” not sure about voting for them, not like the Democrats who used to attract all sorts of people on the basis that they seemed to be a bit more mainstream.

Caller:

C2 – Christopher Pyne – I rang you to congratulate you about the article that appeared in the Sunday Mail, I believe that to be the best summary of the actual events that happened last week at the meeting of our leaders from the various states…there is no guarantee that any water until 2019… Mike Rann’s popularity is going to plummet.

Pyne:

It’s very nice of you to call. Graham (Caller) is absolutely right, he’s referring to a column I wrote in the Sunday Mail yesterday about water, and the great COAG con a couple of weeks ago, where South Australians are expected to believe that all is fixed with the Murray Darling, far from it, we have been sold down the river, and while it’s not popular to say so, it is in my view what has happened, so I wrote a column for the Sunday Mail about it…

Journalist:

Brendan Nelson’s just realised the lower lakes are drying up…

Pyne:

…he went there and visited it, and he talked to the people down there, and he saw first hand what’s really happening, and the COAG con is not going to deliver one extra bucket of water to South Australia, until 2011 at the very earliest, and in all likelihood 2019, and even after 2011 a state can disagree with the allocations and that can be arbitrated with no end in sight. There’s no mechanism for the end of the arbitration. So if you’re Queensland, New South Wales or Victoria and you don’t like it, they’ve dragged it out for 107 years, what’s wrong with dragging it out a bit longer after 2011.

Journalist/Schacht:

Discussion about Cubbie Station cotton irrigation

Pyne:

I remember when Premier Peter Beattie had to give Cubbie Station licenses to close the Condamine River that used to flow into the Darling, Premier Beattie gave them the licenses to do this. About 5 years later Premier Beattie said the Commonwealth Government had to use taxpayers money to buy Cubbie Station back, so that they could reopen the Condamine River. Absolutely unbelievable.

Pyne:

South Australia is in need of action on the Murray. The problem was the COAG agreement which was supposed to convince South Australians that this had all been fixed was a great con… When it comes to water I don’t think there is any room for politics in South Australia.

Journalist:

Raises child slavey.

Pyne:

Well I was at a forum this morning with Tim Costello and a man named David Batstone, at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Adelaide. They’re part of an international abolitionist campaign to do with 27 million slaves that still exist in the world, particularly child slaves. I’m signing up to this campaign, and I’m going to be, over the next few months, organising a number of events and ideas to encourage people to become aware of what actually is going on across the world in terms of who makes our chocolate, who makes our matches and so on, to try and make a difference.

Journalist:

So running shoes

Pyne:

All the things that have been going on it Peru and Ghana and Uganda and Thailand, Cambodia, right across the world, and even in our own backyard. The people who are brought here under false pretences and then put into bonded slavey essentially as workers, whether they’re sex workers or chefs or washing dishes, whatever they might be doing, this is going on amongst us and across the world. I think it’s time for me, as a politician to try and make a difference in this area and I’ll be calling on a lot of people’s help in the months and probably years ahead to try and bring attention to this in our own backyard.

Journalist:

Raises Mulligan report and coverage in the Australian

Pyne:

Obviously this Mulligan Report should give whatever Government and whatever enforcement agencies the impetus to take action, wherever they find this is occurring.

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