5AA Adelaide

Subjects: Future Submarine Program, same-sex marriage plebiscite

JOURNALIST: It is that time on a Wednesday morning when the two tribes do go to war, Anthony Albanese and Christopher Pyne join us, good morning to you both.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Will, good morning Albo and David.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: G’day.

JOURNALIST: Now can we start with you Chris Pyne, we’ve just conducted a pretty extraordinary interview with Dick Smith following on from that full page advertisement he took out yesterday in the Australian with regard to the awarding of the future submarines contract to DCNS in which he raised a whole host of concerns about the capacity for Australian industry to change a nuclear model into a conventional submarine in which he questioned whether we should in fact build something of this sophistication in Australia at all, but he also made some pretty other extraordinary accusations on our program and I’d just like you to listen and perhaps respond to this.

Audio clip begins

DICK SMITH: It was to get two seats for the federal government and in fact it only gone one seat.

JOURNALIST: That’s a pretty serious allegation though that’s being levelled then at the heads of defence who are a component of this to say they can be so easily brow beaten to put lives at risk for the sake of two seats.

DICK SMITH: Well they have to do what they’re told, they don’t have a career unless they do that they’re told and if you’re telling me that the heads of Defence would want to convert a nuclear submarine that doesn’t yet exist into a piston engine powered submarine that’s ridiculous. I can’t believe, once we pointed that out, that that was a nuclear submarine they’re going to base the design on everyone just laughs.

Audio clip ends

JOURNALIST: It’s your portfolio area Christopher Pyne, what do you make of that?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well look Dick Smith and the four businessmen who are taking out these advertisements, they’re entitled to their opinion but they’re misguided, they’re wrong, they’re misinformed and they simply don’t have all the facts at their disposal and you know I can’t say much more than that, I mean they’re just not right.

JOURNALIST: What do you make of it Albo, I mean the suggestion that there’s some sort of seat buying exercise?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Oh look this has bipartisan support, I think Dick Smith, I had a bit to do with him as Transport Minister, he’s a good person but he does like getting his name in the paper…

JOURNALIST: Well we mentioned that to him about his perennial…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: He does getting his name in the paper and we’re talking about him now so his KPI has been met. You know every election he’s going to run for a seat and every election it gets a front page splash and every election he doesn’t run.

JOURNALIST: Hey, I’ll change tack, I want to talk to you about the baby bonus because it sounds like and agreement has been reached between the government and the opposition about some of the budget saving measures over which the Treasurer Scott Morrison and that Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen have been crunching the numbers, now one of the things that looks like it’s going to fall by the wayside is the baby bonus which currently gives new parents 2 grand for baby number one and $1000 for every child thereafter, to you Chris as the relevant government Minister, do you think it’s fair that new parents are being enlisted to the cause of budget repair?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I think we have to clear that up, according to Mathias Cormann who’s the Finance Minister the baby bonus that you’re talking about is not what is being removed here, this was an extra bonus as part of child care reforms that the government proposed in 2015 that the Labor Party in the Senate never supported so in fact it’s a spending measure that’s never been implemented, so it’s not actually taking anything away from young couples as you’ve suggested. so.

JOURNALIST: So it was scheduled to come in was it?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yeah it’s never actually been implemented according to Mathias on Steve Price so I think what’s happened is that there’s been a conflating of the two phrases, baby bonus, this was a proposed spending measure that the government wanted to go forward with but the Senate didn’t support and we’re simply now not going to go ahead with that and Labor agrees with that so no one’s actually losing any money. On the wider issue of course of spending measures, I mean there’s a difference between spending money when you have surplus budgets and growing revenue as we had under the Howard-Costello period, and then implementing spending measures in a time when you have budge deficits and debt as you’ve had since the Rudd-Gillard period.

JOURNALIST: What do you think of the thrust of these savings Albo, I mean a lot of people who are sort of stuck in the middle on about the $80,000 combined family income, do you think that people on that level of income should be expected, or should be regarded as being in a higher income bracket and should be expected to make some of the higher sacrifices?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, that’s not the case but the truth is that if you are on $80,000 you’re not wealthy but you’re more wealthy relative to if you’re on a disability support pension or an age pension or on newstart and these people would have been hit by the cut. The deal that has been done is a good one, it’s a compromise deal, it makes savings for the budget, but it also in terms of the baby bonus is a good example, you can’t ask people to tighten belts at the same time as you’re introducing a new payment which is what the government proposed. We got rid of the baby bonus as part of bringing in paid parental leave, and the Coalition promised to get it back, that hadn’t gone through the processes, Chris is right here hadn’t been implemented but Malcolm Turnbull promised as part of the deal with the Nats after he became the Prime Minister a year ago to bring it back, it is good that the government has recognised that that’s not a sensible proposition and I think Mathias Cormann and Chris Bowen deserve credit for coming up with some common sense solutions.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I agree.

JOURNALIST: Oh that’s tremendous, very good.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: There you go, there’ you go that’s just stuffed up your program.

JOURNALIST: It had to happen eventually, it’s a regular segment I think, it’s lost its luster.

JOURNALIST: It’s a pleasant change from last week after the Sam Dastyari stink.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: We’ll get on the Swans and the Crows.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Oh yeah.

JOURNALIST: Oh yeah Hawthorn boy.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I thought you were a Hawthorn fellow.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I am mate

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You just go to anybody’s finals.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: But I’m cheering for the Swans on Saturday.

JOURNALIST: Oh right, hey Albo I’ve got to say.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: That just proves I don’t just say what people want to hear, it’s a very brave thing to do but I am doing it from the distance of Canberra.

JOURNALIST: You are a typical Sydney bandwagon jumper mate.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Exactly.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I’m a Hawks, I think the Hawks you know have got a good chance, the Bulldogs and then GWS.

JOURNALIST: Mate I reckon…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: GWS is going to be hard to beat.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: It’s a strategic move.

JOURNALIST: You’re the type of Sydney AFL fan that would stand there at the footy shouting knock on.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Oh mate how many Sydney teams are in the top four again?

JOURNALIST: Two.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: We do know something about this sport.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’s a nice change, it’s a good thing.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Poor old Port Adelaide.

JOURNALIST: As much as I’ve enjoyed this sort of you know let’s segway into football that we’ve somehow managed to achieve we might just drag it back to Canberra just for a brief moment.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We were all shocked that we agreed with each other about something.

JOURNALIST: I know it totally blew things out of the water.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: (inaudible)

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Someone’s just fallen off their couch at home in the suburbs.

JOURNALIST: Chris Pyne can you just explain to our listeners how it’s going to come to pass that this 10 member committee that will overseas the advertising that will accompany the plebiscite debate on both sides, how they’re going to possibly assure that it’s not going to become hateful or it’s not going to become beyond the pale.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yeah good question, well it’s two reasons, one the people who’ll be put on the yes and no committees will obviously be sensible people, we won’t be putting people on who want to say hateful things about anybody on either side of the debate. Secondly the advertisement that they want to run will need to be approved through the government services delivery and coordination committee, which is called the SDCC, it’s the government advertising committee so that’s made up of members of the government of course and various public servants and others and that will not be approving advertisements that you know denigrate people or discriminate against people so I think that they are important valves to ensure that there is a reasonable debate and I quite frankly trust the Australian people to be able to conduct this debate in a sensible way and I am a bit shocked that Bill Shorten who used to support the plebiscite, now doesn’t trust the Australian people.

JOURNALIST: What do you think Albo, can it be done without rancour and hate speech and abuse?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well I think if people have a look at the sort of material that was put around during the federal election campaign in Seaside Barton and Banks and I’m sure in seats in South Australia, then unfortunately it is difficult to see how it can be done without some rancour and without hurt. I think the big issue here that people are missing out on is the term marriage equality, the key here is equality, why is it that this issue is being singled out for a plebiscite unlike issues that frankly are more important to most people? Jobs, the economy, the subs, education, health, none of that goes to a plebiscite, none of that goes to a debate and what we will end up having is a debate about the value and relative merit of people’s relationships and that to me is not appropriate. The Parliament should do its job, we should have a vote like we had a vote to change the act we can have a vote to change to act back, that essentially is what our job is to do. We’re legislators, and the plebiscite won’t avoid a Parliamentary debate and a vote, it’s just a step in between.Why is this issue being singled out for a step in between when other issues aren’t?

JOURNALIST: Chris and Albo thanks for joining us and before we let you go Albo we’ve got to say, well we would say good luck at the SCG on Saturday but honesty forbid, and if you do get up you’ll be defying history because the Crows have won 11 out of the last 17 at the so-called home of football there in Moore Park.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Mate and I’ve been at quite a few actually with the Crows, I don’t think I’ve seen the Crows not win at the SCG.

JOURNALIST: The last one wasn’t so good but we won’t talk about that.

JOURNALIST: No the last one was forgettable but the rest of them were excellent.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: That was in Adelaide though wasn’t it…

JOURNALIST: No that was when we won but the one before that in Sydney we got absolutely smashed by your…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Albo follows any team, doesn’t matter who.

JOURNALIST: Thank you guys.