5AA

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – 5AA with David Penberthy, Will Goodings & Anthony Albanese
Wednesday 16 March 2016

SUBJECTS: Question Time; Nick Xenophon Team; Preferences; Bill Shorten‘s National Press Club Address;

DAVID PENBERTHY: It’s that time on a Wednesday morning we talk to Christopher Pyne and Anthony Albanese and it’s a … well there’s plenty to talk about at the moment because yesterday Chris Pyne, Federal Parliament was devolved into song. It was you know, engaging a missive against Bill Shorten in the Parliament. If you love Question Time, you’ll love the musical. That’s exactly right. It was pretty extraordinary amongst what’s been an extraordinary period in Parliament at the moment. Before we introduce Chris Pyne and Anthony Albanese, here’s a little bit of what went on yesterday:

(Audio from QUESTION TIME) Christopher Pyne: In fact you remind me very much Mr. Speaker of Dewey Finn in the School of Rock played so admirably by Jack Black when he was asked about his education philosophy and he quoted that wonderful song by Whitney Houston, “I believe that children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside” and I could sing it, I could sing it Mr. Speaker but I’d detract from the seriousness ….this is the kind of pathetic platitudinous rubbish coming from the Leader of the Opposition at the National Press club today.

DAVID PENBERTHY: Please don’t, from the Speaker, Tony Smith stepping in there to maintain order. We are joined now obviously by Chris Pyne the Member for Sturt and his off-sider from the Labor Party Anthony Albanese the Member for Grayndler. Good morning gentlemen how are you both?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning David and Will and Albo.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I’m very well, all the better for missing Christopher’s performance yesterday.

DAVID PENBERTHY: Before we get into the subject of those pot shots which was obviously the speech that Bill Shorten gave to the National Press Club yesterday, I want to talk to both of you about the situation that you both find yourselves in, in your own electorates. It’s kind of similar where you are both under threat from third party candidates. In your case Chris Pyne it’s the prospect of a Nick Xenophon candidate running against you in Sturt and in your case Albo, it’s the Greens, who are very strong in the West of Sydney, targeting your seat of Grayndler. To you first Christopher, yesterday we heard comparisons between Donald Trump and Nick Xenophon in the context of Mr. Xenophon’s opposition to globalisation. Was that a bit of an over the odds slap at Xenophon or do you think it’s a valid comparison?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well that was something that Jamie Briggs, the Member for Mayo said I think he was referring to Nick Xenophon’s policy on globalisation and his anti-free trade rhetoric and of course the free trade agreements that have basically had bi-partisan support in politics are all about creating jobs and growth. I’m more concerned about Nick Xenophon’s threat to direct preferences to the Labor Party in seats like mine because what he’s basically said is effectively if you vote for NXT you could end up electing a Labor member and Bill Shorten as Prime Minister. So he’s taken things to a whole new level because basically he’s saying a vote for NXT could well elect a Labor candidate and Bill Shorten and I’m sure that the electors of Sturt would not expect if they voted for NXT to elect a Labor Member, but that’s exactly what will happen if he preferences the Labor Party

DAVID PENBERTHY: I note that he told the Australian, it was sort of a thinly veiled threat against you Christopher Pyne, he said that if this sort of bickering devolves and gets personal that he might well direct his candidate to preference your opposition, to preference Labor, is that a threat you take seriously does it concern you?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well why I’m disappointed in it is because what he’s saying is don’t scrutinise Nick Xenophon or the Nick Xenophon Team. So he wants to be a major political party but you know Labor and the Liberal party have to put up with being scrutinised, and so they should, they want to be the government of Australia, but Nick Xenophon says if anyone will scrutinise me or disagrees with me publically and says that he’s a threat to jobs because he talks down the South Australian economy, which is what I said, which he does do, he can complain but he can’t deliver that he’s going to threaten to preference against them, and I think what he’s basically saying is hands off me. No one’s allowed to scrutinise my policies or what I say now all I said was he had shades of the Palmer United Party basically he had a long list of complaints, he’s always out there when there’s bad news, but he can’t deliver whereas Labor and the Liberals can deliver because they can form Government.

DAVID PENBERTHY: Over to you Albo, you’re in a similar position aren’t you in Grayndler because that part of Sydney is a very sort of you know groovy inner city, very progressive sort of community and the Greens have always been very strong there, they run the local, they run the local council….

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Not anymore they don’t David,

DAVID PENBERTHY: Has there been a clean out there?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Since you moved out we fixed it.

ALL: [Laughing]

DAVID PENBERTHY: Don’t go blaming me for the Greens!

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: He’s always been a bit groovy, David.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: No there’s a Labor mayor in town now in Leichhardt and he’s a very good fellow, Darcy Byrne.

DAVID PENBERTHY: But if the Libs run dead in your seat, it’s quite easy to see a scenario where the Greens just coast in on the back of their preferences.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well its extraordinary that Michael Kroger has confirmed that there’s what he calls a loose arrangement with the Greens which is a euphemism for a deal and that Liberals are prepared to vote number two for a, or at least put the Greens candidate before my good self, when the Greens candidate has spent more time as part of a revolutionary Marxists party than he has in the Greens, when he has said some quite extraordinary things about Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal party, where he’s someone who if he did get in to Parliament would make Lee Rhiannon look like a moderate. It’s quite extraordinary that they on the one hand are saying that they’re opposed to the Greens and everything they stand for but are prepared to give them preferences in seats which wont of course enhance the chance of the Coalition forming Government and that’s why I think there’s a big reaction from members of the Liberal Party against this preference deal.

DAVID PENBERTHY: But is this an example of the problem that both of you guys are going to have in terms of your own seats because in the broad national perspective, you know Labor and the Libs are you know pretty uncomfortable with the idea of the Greens getting their hands on the wheels of Government. Equally I’m sure that both parties are spooked by the rise of Xenophon type candidates who can sweep up all the sort of disenfranchised protest votes, but when it comes down to specific seats the truth is that the Libs would like to knock you off Albo as a former Deputy Prime Minister, former Deputy Leader of the Labor Party and equally to you Chris Pyne, Labor would probably say we don’t care if the Xenophon candidate gets up we get to knock off Chris Pyne.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I don’t know if we want to knock off Anthony Albanese, I don’t think the place would be the same without Albo. I wouldn’t mind knocking him off with a Liberal candidate, I mean there is no deal with the Greens over preferences and there hasn’t been, we haven’t preferenced the greens in a very, very long time so we’re a long way from any kind of deal with the Greens over preferences there’s quite a bit of speculation, Anthony’s doing what he’s good at which is trying to front end this debate so that the Liberal Party gets pushed in to a position where we just make some announcements but the election is months away why on earth would we make announcements about preferences now?

DAVID PENBERTHY: How many months?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Because it’s humiliating for you to be out there being positioned as supporting these people in seats like mine and Sydney and-

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well we’re not supporting, we’re supporting our own candidate in our own seats…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: No you’re not you don’t even have one!

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You don’t have one in Sturt! You’re running dead in Sturt! It’s time the Labor party got their act together; I’ve got to carry their campaign as well as my own…

DAVID PENBERTHY: We don’t want to be in a situation where we’ve got to cast around for new talent after the Federal Election. Hey just finally, your Whitney Houston point yesterday to the Opposition Leader Chris Pyne, do you still think though that you guys have got the vacuum problem, how soon are we going to see some hard policy?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well you’ve got the Defence White Paper, the Defence Industry Policy Statement, the National Innovation and Science Agenda, Media Law reform, Senate reform, you’ve got 5 things I can tell you off the top of my head so the idea that we haven’t got any meaty policy out there is rubbish.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: None of them were about the economy or tax policy

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: My point, what innovation is not about the economy? Innovation is not about jobs?

DAVID PENBERTHY: The biggies are tax, the biggies are education and there’s still a lot of detail to come there.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Which governments announce their budgets in March when the budget isn’t due till May? The point I was making yesterday was there’s a great scene in the school of rock where Jack Black was playing the character and he was asked what his education policy was and he started saying I believe the children are our future, teach them well, let them lead the way show them all the beauty they possess inside, my point is-

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You could have sung that then Christopher, that was your chance

DAVID PENBERTHY: Well I was going to say, if Tony Smith hadn’t stepped in what would it have sounded like Chris Pyne?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: My point is Shorten gave a terrible speech to the National Press Club yesterday –

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You don’t want your ratings to go down

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: –it was just full of platitudinous rubbish, I mean of course he’s in favour of full employment, we’re all in favour of full employment and the last time it was achieved was under the Howard Government!

DAVID PENBERTHY: We’re going to have to leave it there because otherwise there’s a real risk that we’re going to hear Stevie Nicks’ Edge of Seventeen which is another hit song from School of Rock but Chris Pyne and Anthony Albanese we always enjoy our chats

WILL GOODINGS: Sing off next week

DAVID PENBERHY: Let’s cancel the Federal Election and have a sing off…

WILL GOODINGS: A sing off! That’s a great movie School of Rock it’s terrific, it’s a good movie to watch your kids, lot of fun.

DAVID PENBERTHY: Good movie with which to deride the opposition with too apparently, I didn’t know that till yesterday.

[ends]