Transcript - ABC Today - 9 September 2010

SUBJECTS: Non-Government legislation; Parliamentary reforms

LYNDAL CURTIS:

Well the Government front, the new Government front bench will be sworn in next week. Now it may be announced a little earlier than that.

I gather Tony Abbott will be waiting until he sees the shape of the Government front bench before announcing his as well. He is being urged by some MPs to make his front bench a bit more aggressive, to bring in some new blood, particularly in the more junior ministries.

The Opposition of course has to decide how it is going to approach this new Parliament as well.

One of the MPs who will be looking at that closely and also looking at the issue of getting private members' bills, Coalition bills through the Parliament is the manager of Opposition business in the Lower House Christopher Pyne and I spoke with him a short time ago.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

One of the really important improvements in the standing orders that we've negotiated is that private members' business will be given greater prominence. And private members' bills will be voted upon.

That gives the Opposition an opportunity to move private members' bills about the things that we think are important - for example there's already a private members' bill from the Leader of the Opposition about the wild rivers legislation in Queensland - and to have those bills voted upon.

So we will definitely be taking advantage of the fact that in this new Parliament we would be able to win votes on the floor of the House and try and make Australia a better place through doing so.

LYNDAL CURTIS:

Would you look to target some legislation at laws that could, potentially could realistically win the support of parties like the Greens?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well we will seek support from all members of the House of Representatives. That includes the Greens, Andrew Wilkie and the Independents.

LYNDAL CURTIS:

You do though have a problem that in order to pass bills that have a cost attached to them, that need funding, you do at some stage need the support of the Government don't you?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well the House of Representatives of course can pass money bills. Only the Senate can't initiate money bills.

LYNDAL CURTIS:

But in the end they need to get the assent of the Governor-General and she acts on the advice of ministers.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

And those things will all need to be taken into account in terms of the kinds of private members' bills that we would move.

LYNDAL CURTIS:

Is the potential though to say to a government that it would be a foolish government indeed that ignored the will of both Houses if legislation, if private members' bills made its way through both Houses?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

And that would be something that the Government would need to consider when it decided to thumb its nose at the Parliament.

I mean the Government has lost its majority in the Parliament. It now relies on Independents, the Greens and a left-leaning Independent in Denison to pass its own legislation and motions.

And of course they therefore aren't in a position to claim that they have a mandate from the Australian people. In fact they have lost 16 seats. And they would need to take into account the attitude they take to the Parliament.

LYNDAL CURTIS:

You were one of the ones who was negotiating the parliamentary reforms. Do you really believe they'll usher in a new era of accountability and transparency and allow particularly backbenchers more freedom than they've had in the past?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

They'll certainly give backbenchers a much greater go in the Parliament which I think will be a big improvement. They will certainly change Question Time because we won't have to put up with interminable 11-and-a-half minute answers from Government ministers.

And of course one of the strategies that Labor adopted in the last Parliament was to bore people to death in Question Time, drive the press gallery back to their offices and let Question Time go on as long as possible and be as dull as possible.

Now that won't be happening because of the time limits on answers. And with a more independent speaker and the capacity to interpret the standing orders to require answers to be directly relevant to the question the speaker's job will be very important in keeping the Government on the straight and narrow.

LYNDAL CURTIS:

You've just had your first party meeting of the new Parliament. Does the Coalition have to decide what sort of Opposition, whether it will be oppositionist, whether it will be aggressive, or whether it will try and make this new Parliament work?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

The public expects the Opposition to do its job. Its job is to hold the Government to account and be an alternative government. That's what we've been doing for three years. And given the result of the election we've been doing it very successfully.

We'll continue to do that. If the Government does something right we'll give it a tick. If it does something wrong we'll give it a flick. And that's how our system works.

LYNDAL CURTIS:

Christopher Pyne, thank you very much for your time.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Pleasure Lyndal.

ENDS