2UE

SUBJECTS: Labor leadership;

E&OE………… 

Christopher Pyne: G’day Paul

Paul Murray: Now it’s no main surprise it’s been coming for a long time what do you think is more damaging is it the votes on the leadership or is it the stuff that gets said about the person who used to be Prime Minister?

Pyne: Well listening to that litany of ministers talking about Kevin Rudd and Martin Fergusson in response, they sound like a bunch of soccer hooligans, not like a group of Cabinet ministers representing 22 million Australians, I think that’s the pity of it. Whatever happens, whether Julia Gillard or Kevin Rudd emerges to be Prime Minister, this thing won’t end because the national right of the ALP has decided to get behind Julia Gillard so that they can keep her there, keep the seat warm until Bill Shorten of Steve Smith take over. The problem is that the Labor Party is utterly internally focussed and the Australian public are thoroughly sick of it.

Murray: I put it to you here where Cabinet Ministers weren’t able to take notes because other Cabinet ministers were gong to write down things that were embarrassing.  We got to a stage when distrust for Kevin Rudd was so massive that all members of the cabinet were told they weren’t allowed to talk to journalists and newspaper editors without talking to the Prime Minister first.  At the very least do you think something comes of this that on Monday this bloke won’t be in the cabinet and while he may be in the back of the bus we will be able to at least have a cabinet that will be able to take notes and start doing basic functions.

Pyne: Paul, there’s one thing you didn’t mention, they were so dysfunctional they wouldn’t even sit next to each other in the cabinet meeting.  Simon Crean and Kevin Rudd had to be separated by Jenny Macklin because they couldn’t sit together.  I mean this is so pathetic you know at a time when people are having all sorts of issues with cost of living pressures, job security, we want our borders protected and yet our government is behaving like a bunch of children in a kindergarten yard.  In fact my kindergarten child behaves better than these people.  So I don’t think whatever happens on Monday, the point is I don’t think it will end.

Murray: Do you think that Kevin Rudd will take that ultimate option though once he’s up the back of the bus, for a few weeks, for a couple of months, we’ll get an announcement saying I’m off to do something else.  I’m resigning my seat, thus we’re off to an election.  Do you think he would walk out literally bat and ball and go home? 

Pyne: No I don’t.  I’ve long said that while Kevin Rudd is in the caucus none shall sleep in the Labor Party because he always wants to be the leader and I’m sure that will weigh on a lot of Labor member’s minds between now and Monday, whether they give him the job because it’s a way of stopping the destabilisation.  Of course when he was the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard and her supporters were destabilising him.  This is the vicious cycle they’re on and I think they need time out.  I think the Australian public want them to have time out.  We need an unambiguous government that can get on with the job of job security, border security and reducing cost of living pressures and getting rid of this terrible carbon tax. 

ENDS