Transcript - ABC News Radio - 3 June 2011

SUBJECTS: Parliament News; Carbon Tax

Marius Benson: A frequent subject of Harry's wrath is the Leader of Opposition Business in the House, Christopher Pyne, the Member for Sturt and I spoke to him about the Speaker's difficult week.

Christopher Pyne, the Speaker, Harry Jenkins, almost lost his job on a vote of a ruling of his. Tony Abbott was the one to rally to his side and express support for him. What do you think of Harry Jenkins as a Speaker?

Christopher Pyne: I think Harry does a very good job in very difficult circumstances. I thought it was a fascinating moment when it was the Opposition seized the initiative, the Opposition who dominated the Parliament by moving a motion of confidence in Harry Jenkins as Speaker and the Prime Minster had to follow Tony Abbott and the Prime Minister had to second his motion, rather than being in front the Government was behind. Harry Jenkins has the support of the Opposition and lets not forget that it was the Government who wanted to ditch Harry Jenkins as Speaker, and try and find a member of the opposition as Speaker

Benson: Was the Opposition's view formed by the desire to avoid losing one number by putting up your own speaker?

Pyne: It was formed by the view that Harry Jenkins is both a decent man and a person of integrity; a fair person and we knew that he would do a good job in difficult circumstances and he is.

Benson: You mentioned that Harry Jenkins works in difficult circumstances, would you consider yourself one of the most difficult circumstances, if not the most difficult circumstance he faces, because the Member for Sturt, yourself is probably the most often expelled and reprimanded?

Pyne: Well in fact I haven't been ejected from the chamber in the last two sitting weeks -

Benson: Is that a record?

Pyne: No, no the Speakers relationship and I are on the improve. The difficult circumstances are the hung parliament that is a difficult circumstance the fact that the Government has lost fourteen votes on the floor of the House and you might remember in the last fortnight they lost a vote on closing the Leader of the Opposition down, on gagging our motion, our suspension motion.

Benson: Of course the Government replies by saying that we get our legislation through, it's working.

Pyne: Well the Menzies Government between [19]61-63 which was a hung parliament lost four votes. Four votes in two and a half years and they called an election because they thought that the Parliament wasn't working-

Benson: And because they thought they'd win-

Pyne: This Government has lost fourteen votes in nine months, and they are an illegitimate hollow government.

Benson: Christopher Pyne, the past week or fortnight seems to have been pretty good for Labor in the perception of many. Do you see it that way?

Pyne: No, I don't see it that way at all, in fact quite the opposite. In the parliament in the last fortnight Labor has failed to maintain a quorum in the house, has lost the most important vote in the parliament since 1975 which was the naming by the speaker which they were defeated on, has seen a detention network inquiry established which they said two weeks ago was a stunt. Yesterday it passed through the House of Representatives with Labor capitulating because they didn't have the numbers to defeat it. And there's been a relentless focus on their major Achilles heel which is the lie they told that there'd be no carbon tax before the election and they're now trying to introduce a carbon tax. So, far from being a good fortnight, in fact I think it's been a very bad fortnight for the Labor Party.

Benson: Ok, politics is perception. Let me give you another perception of recent politics. This is from the Sydney Morning Herald editorial this Friday morning. It says, "After a long winning run in the polls the Opposition is looking overconfident and undisciplined. When it has attempted to set out an alternative agenda for Government the result has either been platitudinous, which is Abbott's budget reply, or incompetent, the Coalition's climate change policy. With little concrete to offer, its relentless negativism is starting to sound hollow." That's the SMH's view.

Pyne: Yes, well I would expect that from the Fairfax press of course. When I was highlighting examples about BER waste in the school hall program, they were the only newspapers which didn't touch the story. In fact the rest of the media pursued the story because it was a story of waste and incompetence on behalf of Julia Gillard while the Fairfax press ignored it. So I would expect that from the Fairfax press to some extent, but editorials come and go and I'm not too fussed about them.

Benson: You mentioned climate change previously. The Government is pointing to a range of support expressed this week in support of climate change. There was a public endorsement led by actor Cate Blanchett, but also including Nobel Prize winning scientists. And there also was an endorsement from a group of leading economists and the Government says that shows the substance of their policy. You, the opposition can point to no substantial economist backing your direct action plan.

Pyne: Well that's' one characterisation of it, the public don't support the carbon tax so all the economists and all the actresses in the world can support the Government if they wish to, the truth is the public doesn't support the carbon tax but of course the minerals council met on Wednesday night and there was mining executive after mining executive explaining how it would cost the mining industry and jobs moving overseas for no good reason because emissions will simply go up in other countries where our industries locate.

Benson: Let me pick up on the Minerals Council meeting this week because Tony Abbott addressed it and of course the Prime Minister also addressed it essentially issuing a cry saying get political for the next few months, get political for the next couple of years. The Minerals Council's response was they didn't want to revisit the tensions of a year ago when they had their public campaign against Kevin Rudd's mining tax that was seen as a bit of a rebuff for Tony Abbott.

Pyne: Well the Minerals Council opposes the carbon tax. The mining companies of Australia oppose the carbon tax, the manufacturing industry opposes the carbon tax, the energy industry opposes the carbon tax, the food industry opposes the carbon tax so simply because the minerals council didn't announce that they'd run a public campaign over the mining tax doesn't mean that the government suddenly had an endorsement from all of those industries for their carbon tax.

Benson: Christopher Pyne I'll leave it there thank you very much.

Pyne: Thanks Marius good to talk to you.

ENDS