ABC 891

SUBJECTS: Newspoll; NDIS

E&OE………

Matthew Abraham: Mr Farrell, good morning to you. 

Don Farrell: Good morning Matthew. 

Abraham: Are you sitting on a crystal beach looking at azure water in the Tiwi Islands? 

Farrell: Pretty close to that.  It’s quite magnificent up here Matthew.  We’re up here to launch a programme that I think was mentioned on AM this morning where we’re delivering clean, fresh water to Bathurst Island.  That’s the first time an indigenous community is getting some fluoridation with their water.  We put in a huge tank; about one point eight mega litres of fresh water.  We sometimes think that there are no water problems in the north, that they have ample supplies, but in fact in lots of areas they need a little bit of help like they do in the rest of the country.  So we’re up here to launch that. 

Abraham: Chris Pyne, Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives and the Liberal MP for Sturt.  I imagine he’s in a windowless room in Canberra.  Chris Pyne, good morning to you. 

Pyne: (inaudible)

Abraham: It doesn’t sound like he’s anywhere.  Chris Pyne, good morning to you. 

Pyne: Good morning David and Matthew and Don.  I seemed to be routed through the producer’s studio for a moment, but I’m here now. 

Abraham: Excellent, Chris Pyne.  Chris Pyne as Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Reps; the latest Newspoll, you wouldn’t be worried about being in an election thumping position.  Are you at all worried about your leader’s standing? 

Pyne: Well I just remember that in 1996 Matthew when Paul Keating was beaten by John Howard there was a poll on Election Day, which had Paul Keating at 47 as preferred Prime Minister and John Howard at 42.  So Keating was a five point clear winner as preferred PM and yet history would suggest to us that Paul Keating was terribly unpopular and we won an easy election. 

Abraham: I wonder if that’s a good analogy because isn’t Tony Abbott ahead of Julia Gillard as preferred Prime Minister? 

Pyne: No, but the point I’m making is preferred PMs or approval ratings or disapproval ratings; none of those things are as important as the primary vote and the two party preferred vote and on that front Labor is in the cellar and they’re in the cellar because they don’t stand for anything and they’re a rotten Government and they’ve introduced a carbon tax when they said they wouldn’t. 

David Bevan: Senator Don Farrell, even allowing for a big flow of these undecided votes back to Labor, can you win on a primary vote in the low 30s? 

Farrell: It’s a long time to go before the election.  We’re only two thirds of the way through our term.  We’ve done two years; we’ve got another year to go.  The polls are certainly bad at the moment and if there’d been an election last weekend based on those figures we wouldn’t have won it, but the election is still 12 months away.  I think the Government has done a pretty good job on a whole range of areas.  We’ve got low inflation, low unemployment – we’d like it lower, but it’s low, the economy is strong, but there are sections of the economy that aren’t doing so well; we want to make sure we look after those people and I think winning the election that is held about this time next year, people will look back – the hip pocket nerve is always the most sensitive thing in politics – and I think they will come to the conclusion that their best interests and the country’s best interests will be served by re-electing a Gillard Government. 

Abraham: Let’s move away from the polls for once.  Let’s talk about the policies.  The National Disability Insurance Scheme we understand South Australia will be one of these test sites.  Queensland apparently says it can’t afford it.  We’ve already got the Gillard Government throwing $125 million as a sweetener for New South Wales.  Senator Don Farrell, wasn’t the idea here that the states wouldn’t back off from their disability funding because the federal government was rolling out the national scheme and is the federal government played off the break here by the states?

Farrell: Well look you know the states I guess always find if the commonwealth (inaudible) their fair share.  We have committed to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.  The government is going to provide the large share of the funding.  But the government thought there ought to be a contribution from the states.  That is still a discussion that has to take place.

Bevan: Surely the states would continue their funding and the federal government would step in with extra funding, isn’t that the idea?

Farrell: And look the federal government is going to step in with the funding.  The lion’s share of this funding to set up a national disability insurance funding will come from the commonwealth.  Just how much the states will contribute is yet to be decided and there are still discussions taking place.  You’ve rightly said some of the states are looking for a greater contribution from the commonwealth and the discussions are still ongoing.  The good thing about the scheme of course is it is one of the few areas where there has been some opposition support for the scheme and we know …

Abraham: I’m sorry as we roll across to the nine o clock news, Chris Pyne finally as the federal Liberal MP for Sturt – does this one have bipartisan support?

Pyne: The National Disability Insurance Scheme does have bipartisan support and in fact Tony Abbott wrote to Julia Gillard offering to work with her on a committee to implement it so it would be a lasting scheme that would last beyond all governments.  She unfortunately rejected that offer and she wrote back 38 days in fact which was almost a record and she said she wouldn’t work with him.  I think one of the things we are having now of course is we are running into problems with the states because Julia Gillard didn’t accept the opportunity for a bipartisan approach with the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Bevan: Would that have made a difference? Didn’t Paul Keating once say never get between a state premier and a bucket of money?

Pyne: I think it would have made a difference if all the state governments realised that there was a parliamentary committee made up of those opposition and government senior people who were going to implement the National Disability Insurance Scheme for all time and it is a pity that Julia Gillard rejected the overture from Tony Abbott to do that through her relentless negativity on all subjects, but it is a bipartisan area and we do strongly support the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Farrell: Talking about relentless negativity…

Pyne: Don, I let you speak the whole morning without interruption so it is a bit rude that you are interrupting me.

Farrell: It is a little bit rude I appreciate that (inaudible)

Abraham: Chris Pyne, this is not a filibuster, Chris Pyne. 

Pyne: I haven’t finished my answer and Don Farrell was interrupting…

Abraham: I think you are just straying into the territory of just talking down the clock.  Don Farrell?

Farrell: Well look I think in terms of negativity I think the Coalition has been the one that has opposed all the policies that the government has raised including the attempt to solve the asylum seeker issue.  It hasn’t been Julia Gillard that has been negative, it has been Tony Abbott.  When the voters get the vote in the election next year, it will be Julia Gillard they will see that as the positive candidate and Tony Abbott as the negative one.

Abraham: Don Farrell, thank you, Parliamentary Sectary for Urban Water and Sustainability, Labor Senator for South Australia.  Chris Pyne, Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Reps, Liberal MP for Sturt and he talks the Opposition on Education, Apprenticeships and Training.

ENDS