5AA

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – 5AA
Wednesday 6 April 2016

SUBJECTS: Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten’s Leadership, Defence in SA;

JOURNALIST: I’m very excited about two tribes this morning, we got a sneak preview before we might have but at this time every Wednesday, Anthony Albanese and Christopher Pyne join us, albeit the band hasn’t been together in the last couple of weeks, it could be why I’m particularly excited to talk to them about all matters affecting South Australia and the country this morning, Christopher Pyne, good morning.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Will, I’m glad you’re so excited about the two tribes today, you obviously aren’t the getting out enough.

JOURNALIST: (laughs) I know he’s easily amused, good morning to you too Albo.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: G’day, welcome back Christopher, I’m actually in Adelaide next Wednesday so I don’t know if Christopher’s around then, we could come in and have a sort of arm wrestle or do something…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yeah, come into the studio.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: And you could narrate it on live radio.

JOURNALIST: That’s a great idea.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That will make Will Goodings ever more excited.

JOURNALIST: I was going to say you think I’m excited today.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Exactly.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You know you could just make stuff up, given it’s radio, you know, you could pretend we’re in a race or a swimming race or anything at all really.

JOURNALIST: Let’s try to make that happen, I reckon it’s a great idea. Hey Chris we want to kick off with you today, you were on Q & A Monday night and they sort of sprung then Newspoll results on you on during live TV, you conceded that the Government had had a bit of a messy week last week. A lot of people now are talking about Malcolm Turnbull and his style. I see that Graham Morris, John Howard’s former Chief of Staff, calling Mr Turnbull a waffler. The whole point of changing leaders to a large degree was about, in Malcolm Turnbull’s own words, the need to communicate, is communication the big thing the Government needs to work on?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, I don’t think so, I think the problem is that the commentators are just desperate to talk relentlessly about the cycle of politics and, you know, who’s got the ball and who’s kicking it to whom, rather than the substance of policy and the truth is the next election will be decided about a choice between Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull, who’s best to represent us on the world stage, who’s got a plan for jobs and growth, and we’ve got the National Innovation and Science Agenda, the Defence Industry White Paper, the competition law reform, things like the media law reform. I mean we’re actually getting on with the job that’ll create jobs and growth while Labor is kind of in the mire of talking about the day to day political cycle…

JOURNALIST: But why are you struggling to cut through then though, why are you failing to cut through?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I don’t think we are…

JOURNALIST: Newspoll shows you are.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: The same day there was a Newspoll showing it 51-49, hardly a terrifying result, there was a Morgan poll showing quite the opposite. In fact 53-47 our way so these polls come and go and the public know that. Now the real question is, is Labor going to support the reform of the building and construction industry when the Senate’s recalled on the 18^th of April? Because obviously that’s a big part of the productivity of the economy, it employs a million Australians and again, there’s an issue of substance, rather than who’s up or down in the polls.

JOURNALIST: Albo, to you, on this poll turnaround, I thought it was quite interesting this morning, buried away in one of the stories analysing Malcolm Turnbull’s woes was an account of a plot that was apparently drawn up by Labor Party figures two months ago who were then spooked by the arrival of Malcolm Turnbull to knock off Bill Shorten as leader, presumably replacing him with you, did that plot exist?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, what has happened is we’ve been a united team the whole way through. Christopher said polls come and go, I used to say that too when we were going down the tube, it’s all in one direction and it is because of substance, it’s because of the extraordinary decision by Malcolm Turnbull to float nine sets of income taxes on one day, then the next day say that the funding for public education would be precisely zero, zip, and that the Commonwealth would just fund private education, that I think said it all about how out of touch Malcolm Turnbull is, and I think there’s just been a great deal of disappointment in Malcolm Turnbull. People were pleased with the change, that’s the truth. When Tony Abbott was dumped he had stratospheric figures in the polls and people wanted him to succeed. I think people still want him to succeed and want the country to go well, but they’re just wondering about this bloke’s judgement.

JOURNALIST: So that whole thing about the plot to knock off Bill Shorten, though, it never got to that?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, you know, you’ll notice that there’s no quotes from me in there and nor did the journalist bother to pick up the phone to me, so I don’t take it terribly seriously.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: There’s no doubt that it existed because Troy Bramston in the Australian wrote about it earlier in the year in February and Graham Richardson wrote about it in the Australian and talked about it on Sky News. They actually outlined how polling has been handed around in New South Wales, shown to everybody other than Bill Shorten. I don’t know if it was shown to Anthony Albanese, that Bill Shorten was going to take the Labor Party to a catastrophic defeat and that he needed to be replaced as Labor leader. The obvious person to replace him is Anthony Albanese and, you know, that plot did exist…

JOURNALIST: You’re not just being modest are you Albo?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Thanks for your support Christopher.

JOURNALIST: What a wonderful endorsement.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I’ll give you the exclusive news on 5AA, Christopher Pyne doesn’t have a vote in the Labor caucus.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: He’s the best of a bad bunch, there’s no doubt about that.

JOURNALIST: You can hand out how to vote cards for him.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Damning with faint praise, I did notice that Troy Bramston actually wrote an article last week that didn’t condemn me so I was shocked by that.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, there you go, you see, everybody’s running to your flag…

JOURNALIST: Alright.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Everybody, now are you going to deny it, of course, Anthony, that’s the real question?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I already have.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: But you were the people’s choice weren’t you after the election, the Labor Party membership voted for you.

JOURNALIST: Okay…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I stood in a ballot, I put myself forward, I wasn’t successful and what I’ve done is got on with the job that I’ve been given and I think I’ve done it pretty well of holding the Government to account on infrastructure. I mean, yesterday they were out there claiming again that the Torrens section of the South Road project, somehow, is something to do with them, it was fully funded in the 2013 Budget and construction, all the pre-construction work underway back in 2013 when we were in Government. They actually stopped the project and only now is it getting going again and I look forward to I look forward to having a look next week.

(inaudible)

JOURNALIST: Alright now, that’s enough about history, can we turn our attention for a second…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, let’s talk about the future, because if Labor loses the next election, is Anthony going to stand for leader again after the election?

JOURNALIST: Well…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good distraction Christopher but the problems are all on your side not ours…

JOURNALIST: Well, let’s talk about one of the things…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: And at the moment on those figures we’ll win the election and I’ll be a Minister.

JOURNALIST: Guys, let’s talk about one of the things that have been put forward…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Kevin Andrews…

JOURNALIST: Alright, we can easily do that, there’s this magic button that allows me to get my question off. Christopher Pyne, to you on the future submarines project and the location of the construction, is the Advertiser right this morning in saying that there is going to be an announcement in early May with regard to where that construction will take place and then perhaps after the election, there will be a final decision made public with regard to who won the competitive evaluation process.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I don’t know where the Advertiser gets their stories from but the reality is that we are all working in Canberra to try and resolve the competitive evaluation process as soon as possible, obviously we want certainty around the future of the naval shipbuilding industry. This Government – the Coalition Government – has committed to 12 submarines for the navy, 9 frigates, future frigates which will be built at Osborne, offshore patrol vessels, Pacific patrol vessels. This is in stark contrast to Labor who awarded two navy contracts in their entire time in Government…

JOURNALIST: So to be clear on that point then, will any statement be made on the location of the construction before the federal election?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well look, there hasn’t been and election called, Marise Payne and…

JOURNALIST: There will be one later this year though, will there be a statement made about the location of the construction of the submarines before that?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, if the election is in September then obviously that gives us a lot more time, if the Senate votes against the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission Bills again in April, and Labor says that there’s no need to reform building and construction, then that means the election could well be earlier, there could well be a double dissolution election in July. That gives us less time, but I can tell you that as the senior South Australian Cabinet Minister, I and Marise Payne and Malcolm Turnbull are working overtime to resolve the competitive evaluation process, because we think South Australian voters will want to know where the submarines are being built, but at least we’re making these decisions. For six years Labor made no decisions about these things, and the only contracts they awarded were to overseas builders.

JOURNALIST: Is it possible to do what the Advertiser outlines, and that is make a statement about where the construction will take place before resolving the competitive evaluation process.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I’m not going to get drawn into the weeds on these things because, there’s so much speculation about it that every time I say anything about it at all it all gets parsed and split up interpreted and everyone looks at the entrails of their chickens to see what it all means, and I’d rather we stop the speculation and just let the Government get on with the job of making the decision.

JOURNALIST: We’re going to have to leave it there, unless you want to weigh in on the subs question Albo, what’s the…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, yeah, just to say that in terms of Christopher’s argument about when the election will be, I mean, why is it that they didn’t deal with the ABCC legislation and all that, we sat for five weeks out of seven, they didn’t deal with it, it wasn’t a priority. That just shows that it’s all a furfy.

JOURNALIST: Christopher Pyne, Anthony Albanese, appreciate your time on this Wednesday morning.

JOURNALIST: We’re going to do it live next Wednesday.

JOURNALIST: That’s going to be exciting!

JOURNALIST: We’ll sort that out afterwards.

JOURNALIST: we’ll have to do a partition up in the studio…

JOURNALIST: Yeah I know, we’ll have to keep them on opposite sides of the studio.

[ENDS]