ABC 891

SUBJECTS: Bernard Finnigan; Carbon tax impact; Alan Jones

E&OE…………

(Greetings omitted)

Journalist: Don Farrell let’s start with you. Should Bernard Finnigan stand down from Parliament?

Senator Don Farrell: Oh, well, David I am on the public record about this.  This honestly is a sort of very difficult position for those people who knew and worked with Bernard.  I have taken the view that this is a matter before the courts and that I don’t propose to sort of comment on the issue or the issue that you’ve specifically raised.

Journalist: I only raise the issue because it has been raised by your Labor colleagues, Premier Jay Weatherill, he’s put it out there saying that he should resign from Parliament.  Now someone who was instrumental in getting Bernard Finnigan into Parliament, I think it’s relevant to ask you.  So do you think he should stay on in the House?

Farrell: Well what you are saying is correct, I did support Bernard going into Parliament. But I am now in the federal Parliament, this is an issue for my state colleagues and the Premier.  I don’t propose to sort of have an ongoing comment on the issue and I have taken the view that I don’t propose to comment on it while the matter is before the court and I intend to continue to do that.

Journalist: I understand, we accept that it is difficult for you and don’t want to make it more difficult, I can hear that in your voice. I know that he regarded you as a mentor and I know you, thought, I don’t know, you thought very fondly of him in terms of his capacity otherwise you wouldn’t have recommended him for Parliament. The case put forward by Jay Weatherill wasn’t to his innocence of guilt although we did question him on that, it is that now that his name is out there and has been associated with these charges of this nature that whatever happens even if he is found innocent by the courts, it makes his job untenable. That’s the point.

Farrell: Look Matt, I have taken the view that those are matters for my state parliamentary colleagues. You’re right, this is a difficult time and these are horrible charges that have been faced against Bernard. But the matter is ongoing and when issues were raised with Liberal Members of Parliament I took the same view that it wasn’t appropriate to then to comment on them and I continue to adopt that position.

Journalist: Christopher Pyne, question for you regarding power prices.  We hear this morning that they are going down at least for people on standing contracts. Doesn’t that show how much the carbon price impact was oversold by your party?

Christopher Pyne: No, in fact the Reserve Bank only yesterday in their statement following their announcement about interest rates said that the effect of the carbon tax continues to flow through the economy and will do so for some quarters into the future.  As we said all along the carbon tax is a python squeeze on the economy.

Journalist: I thought it was a cobra strike wasn’t it?

Pyne: It is a cobra strike to some industries as it has been proven with the Olympic Dam and to the outer harbour expansion at Port Hedland and to the expansion  of the Twiggy Forest mining industry at Pilbara.  But it is a python squeeze for households and cost of living.  No one seriously can pretend that the carbon tax hasn’t had an impact on electricity prices.  My own electricity bill that we received about a few weeks ago was a third more than it was than the previous quarter and my daily usage had gone down.

Journalist: Why do you keep attributing the deferment of the Olympic Dam expansion to the carbon price, when BHP Billiton is on the record saying that it is not responsible?  Why do you keep saying that?

Pyne: Well actually that is not correct.  Marius Kloppers and Jack Nasser have both said at various times in the past few months that there was a number of reasons why Olympic Dam fell over.  The carbon tax, the mining tax, uncertainty about accelerated depreciation union militancy and of course the price of iron ore and copper....

Journalist: Don Farrell?

Farrell: The one thing we know from what Mr Kloppers did say about why Olympic Dam didn’t proceed was that it wasn’t anything to do with the carbon tax...

Pyne: Rubbish, not true. I have been getting quote after quote from Marius Kloppers and Jack Nasser directly talking about the carbon tax.

Journalist: Senator Don Farrell, you should explain.

Farrell: Well look, look there is a whole host of reasons why the BHP didn’t proceed with the Olympic Dam expansion and of course they haven’t made a final decision (inaudible) sometime in the future, I understand that they are looking at ways of extraction that are not so expensive.  But he made it very clear that neither the Minerals Resource Tax or the carbon tax were the reasons why that didn’t proceed. Prices, you know, prices of uranium fell and after the Fukushima catastrophe in Japan, that obviously affected the long term forecasts but you know this is just I think another example of Christopher and Tony Abbott blaming the carbon tax for all of our problems.

Journalist: Chris Pyne I think you have had a fair shake on that.  Senator Don Farrell. Chris Pyne, here on 891 ABC Adelaide at five minutes to nine, will you be going on the Alan Jones programme in the future in light of the comments he has made about Julia Gillard?

Pyne: Well I think Alan Jones’ comments were crass and he quite correctly apologised for them, they were totally out of line.  But I have absolutely no intention on being lectured by the Labor Party about which radio or television show that I do.  Alan Jones has an enormous audience and I want to get the Liberal  message out to that audience about the good things that we would do in government and how bad this government is.

Journalist: If he had a smaller audience would you boycott his programme?

Pyne: No, If he had a smaller audience I’d go on his programme as well because quite frankly it is important to get the message out about the grotesque hypocrisy of this government.

Journalist: Imagine having a big audience, because his audience is huge isn’t it?

Pyne: I don’t think it is as big as your audience boys, but I am not going to be lectured by Kevin Rudd or any other Minister about Alan Jones.  Kevin Rudd sucking up to Alan Jones when he was Leader of the Opposition was nauseous.  He beat a path to Alan Jones’ door and his comments on radio with Alan Jones were vomitous. And yet today he thinks he can lecture the Coalition, it is disgraceful.

Journalist: Senator Don Farrell, your party has tried to link Tony Jones, sorry, Tony Abbott to Alan Jones and suggesting that Tony Abbott has somehow brutalized the nature of politics.  Has your party’s treatment of Kevin Rudd added to that brutal nature of politics?

Farrell: Oh look, the way we dealt with the issue of Kevin Rudd I think is in the past at the moment.  We took the decision as a party that our best chances of winning the 2010 election was with the current Prime Minster Julia Gillard.

Journalist: But is it a bit rich to complain that Tony Abbott has somehow brutalized politics when you were instrumental in knifing a first-term Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and then when he said after a torrid 12/18 months under Julia Gillard he said ‘I reckon I could have done a better go at this’ was then defamed horribly by people from within his own party.

Farrell: Well look things happen during the course of challenges like that perhaps would have, you know, been better not said but look it was in February and the party made an overwhelming decision to continue to support Julia Gillard.  I was one of those people who voted for Julia Gillard and I still think that was the best result.

Journalist: And will you go on Alan Jones’ programme, just to close here we are running out of time?

Farrell: Look I don’t expect to be asked by Alan Jones. In fact I am privileged to be asked by you and David to be on your programme.

Journalist: Stop, oh please.

Pyne: It’s a rare occurrence for you Don, your last gig was 5UV...

Farrell: Look,  John Laws was absolutely right last night, the things that Alan Jones didn’t apologise for and Tony Abbott should have apologised for was the cruel nature of the comment that Alan Jones made.  That was the shocking part of it I think, Laws hit it right on the head last night.

Journalist: Senator Don Farrell, thank you. Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water and Christopher Pyne, Liberal MP and Shadow Minister for Education. Thank you both for coming.

ENDS