Transcript - Lateline - 8 September 2010

SUBJECTS: Deputy Leadership; reaction to new Government; Labor's climate change committee

TONY JONES, PRESENTER:

Joining us now from Parliament House is Christopher Pyne, the Opposition's spokesman on Education and the manager of Opposition Business in the House.

Thanks for being there.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE, MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS IN THE HOUSE:

Good to be with you, Tony.

TONY JONES:

What was Andrew Robb thinking, putting up his hand to dethrone your Deputy Leader Julie Bishop after the best political fightback in the history of the Labor party?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well, we have had a good result, Tony. You're quite correct. It has been a fiasco for the Labor party. For the first time in 78 years a government has lost its majority.

I think it's fair to say that Julia Gillard has never been elected by the Australian public to be Prime Minister.

She took over 8 weeks ago because of faction leaders giving her the job and now two country independents have given her the job, so it's fair to say this government doesn't have any legitmacy...

TONY JONES:

But Christopher Pyne, you have proceeded along a rhetorical path without even answering the question or attempting to, to be fair.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well, it's not for me to say what is in Andrew Robb's head about the deputy leadership. I mean, that's a question you should put to him.

I've said today very clearly that I strongly support Julie Bishop remaining as deputy and Tony Abbott as leader.

This is not the time to be changing the deputy leadership of the party or the leadership for that matter because we've had a very good result - led by Tony Abbott, but the whole team was fantastic in the last nine months.

And we went from a position where we could have lost 22 seats last December to having more seats than the government and more votes than the government and more preferences than the government.

So Andrew Robb, I think from what I understand, has decided not to proceed with any kind of challenge to Julie Bishop tomorrow morning and I'm sure that's because the feedback he got from colleagues is that we need stability and strength at the top.

We've had a good team and we need to continue with that team.

TONY JONES:

Something along the lines of, 'What on earth were you thinking of, Andrew Robb? We've just done very well and now you're creating the impression of political infighting at a time when we should be holding a blowtorch to the Labor government's belly.'

Is that the sort of thing you would have said?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well, your words, not mine, Tony, but I think they're probably pretty close to middle of the target.

TONY JONES:

Did Andrew Robb discuss his potential challenge with anybody? Tony Abbott, for example?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Look I don't know what he has discussed with Tony Abbott. He hasn't discussed it with me, but I was asked about it today and I made my views very clear. We need to demonstrate the stability that has given us the opportunity to be a really alternative government.

And the public have obviously decided that we could be the alternative government, and so we will go ahead with Julie Bishop and Tony Abbott in those two positions, as we should.

TONY JONES:

Okay speaking about this blow torch, are you worried at all that your National Party colleagues are going too far in their attacks on the country independents who made the decision to put Julia Gillard back into power?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Tony, I wouldn't be expecting country Liberals or Nationals to be turning up with bouquets of flowers at the electorate offices of Tony Windsor and Robert Oakeshott. Obviously they are two non-Labor members in two non-Labor seats.

We did get more votes than Labor, more seats and more preferences and most people would have thought the commonsense thing to do would have been to form a government with 73 Coalition MPs and three rural independents who obviously have more in common with us with than Labor.

And I think unfortunately Tony Windsor rather let the cat out of the bag in his press conference yesterday, which seemed like an eternity ago, but it was only yesterday when he said he was supporting the weaker party because he didn't think that they wanted to face the public in an election.

And that would mean that they would have this power for the next three years.

TONY JONES:

Joe Hockey is predicting an early divorce. What chance do you think there is of forcing the country back to the polls?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well, only the government can decide to hold an election, unless the Parliament votes in favour of a no-confidence motion in the government. But the Opposition will be reasonable and mature.

Obviously we'll hold them to account. We've done that very well for three years, particularly the last few months, and the public made that assessment on election day. And we will continue to be a ferocious opposition.

That's the system that we are in. It is an adversarial system. It only works if the Opposition takes the fight up to the government, and we'll do that.

But we won't move a frivolous no-confidence motion. We will judge the government accordingly, and if they are found wanting, as they have been in the last three years, we will move accordingly.

I mean, if we have more crises like the pink batts debacle or the school halls debacle or the continuing problem with open borders, then what the Opposition does will be determined by those circumstances.

TONY JONES:

Okay but there has been - there seems to be a public appetite for some forms of bipartisanship in this new paradigm that has been talked about.

So let me ask you this, as a party leader who believes in man-made climate change, will you be seeking to join the proposed climate change committee to seek a bipartisan appropriate to the problem of climate change?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

No, I won't be, and I wouldn't expect any member of the Opposition to be doing so.

This talk about Kumbaya and holding hands and smoking peace pipes is really only coming from the Greens and the now aligned independents who have signed agreements with the government.

And of course with the Government, because in the current parliament, Labor doesn't have a majority in either house of Parliament, so obviously they want to try to subborn the Opposition into some kind of peace now activist campaign.

Well, that's not what the Opposition will be doing...

TONY JONES:

But, uh...

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Our supporters expect us to hold them to account and we will.

TONY JONES:

Christopher Pyne, you almost had a bipartisan approach on climate change when Malcolm Turnbull was the leader, so is it really inconceivable that this could ever happen again?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well, the Government's emissions trading scheme legislation was found to be so wanting that the Government abandoned it. They abandoned it themselves.

I think Rod Cameron made the point that they didn't have any integrity. They didn't have any courage of their convictions. They listened to focus groups.

I think it's pretty clear from what Rod Cameron had to say that the use-by date of Karl Bitar, Bill Shorten and Mark Arbib is up.

What people liked about Tony Abbott, was whether you agreed with him or not, the feedback I got in the campaign was that what you see is what you get with Tony Abbott. He is a politician of conviction.

Julia Gillard clearly isn't. She was so little a politician of conviction, she had to declare halfway through the campaign that she had been the fake Julia and was now going to be the real Julia.

Well, the public didn't buy it and they won't be buying it for the next three years either.

TONY JONES:

I take it you would object to Malcolm Turnbull joining this climate change committee, considering he has indicated only recently that he still favours a price on carbon and he is very worried about climate change policy?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well, I'm not sure exactly what the climate change committee will be up to. The citizens assembly has apparently gone by the wayside. I think they would have been given the task of coming up with a proposal that looked at only one side of the debate.

I'm sure the climate change committee will be given terms of reference that won't be expected to come down and say that the Coalition's policy of direct action on climate change is better than the Government's emissions trading scheme.

TONY JONES:

As I understand it, this is an idea brought up by the country independents and at least some of them believe in the idea of direct action. Why not join to get some sort of bipartisan approach on such a big issue?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well, we will say when the Government does a good job. We will give them a tick when they do a good job. When they do a bad job, we will give them a flick.

We don't believe in their emissions trading scheme or the Labor-Green alliance carbon tax. We just don't believe in those things. We're not going to pretend we do.

TONY JONES:

But why not join a process to seek a bipartisan approach to an issue that everyone - well, many people in the country are deeply concerned about?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well, let's see what this climate change committee is tasked with doing.

At the moment it is a thought bubble of a prime minister who hasn't been elected by the Australian people who was trying to win over two non-Labor independents, which she did do.

And you have to give her marks for her honeyed words and her negotiating skills.

But I think unfortunately Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott were more driven by not wanting to have an election and lose their power than they were by the national interest.

TONY JONES:

I've just got to ask this obvious question because you said earlier that you wouldn't want any members of the Opposition joining this committee.

That would mean you would be ruling out the possibility of people with a strong view on this subject joining that committee to try to influence policy, such as Malcolm Turnbull?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well, Tony Abbott has already indicated that no Coalition MP will be joining this committee.

TONY JONES:

And I presume that includes no Coalition mp might even be able to consider what Rob Oakeshott wanted, which is kind of a rainbow Coalition in the cabinet.

Looks like he might be joining Julia Gillard's cabinet. If there were an approach to Malcolm Turnbull to also join the cabinet in a kind of unified fashion, you wouldn't agree with that, clearly.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well, the rainbow Coalition, as you quite correctly put it, is on the government side of the house.

We have a Green, a left-leaning Independent who has run as a Green, we've got two rural Independents in non-Labor seats and we have 72 Labor members of Parliament who have joined a rainbow Coalition.

Rainbow Coalitions are kind of quaint and interesting, but I'm not sure it's the way to govern the 14th largest economy in the world, Tony, and I think it will be found wanting - very much found wanting and pleas for "Kumbaya" from the rural independents, or the Greens or Andrew Wilkie or even the Labor party will be met with the contempt that they deserve.

TONY JONES:

Christopher Pyne, interesting to be back to politics as usual. We thank you very much for joining us tonight.

We'll speak to you soon.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

It's a great pleasure. Thank you.

ENDS