ABC 891

SUBJECTS: Restoring faith in the Parliament; Tim Mathieson’s comment

E&OE................................

Presenter: Member for Port Adelaide and Minister for Mental Health and Ageing and Social Inclusion and Joins us now, good morning to you Minister.

Hon Mark Butler MP: Good morning.

Presenter: And Christopher Pyne.  He’s the Federal MP for Sturt, Shadow Education Minister and Manager of Opposition Business in the House, good morning to you Christopher Pyne.

Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Good morning Mathew, David and Mark.

Presenter: Both of you on the road today by the sound of it.

Presenter: I think it’s fair to say.

Pyne:  Yeah, I’m in Melbourne giving a speech about reform in the Parliament, restoring faith in the Parliament.

Presenter: And that was front page of the Fin Review.  Maybe it was a quiet day on the markets.  I don’t want to be unkind.

Pyne: No I think people have lost faith in the Parliament and the Coalition with me as Leader of the House have some plans about how to restore faith in that Institution.

Presenter: And you have, do you bear any responsibility for the loss of faith and bad behaviour in Parliament?

Pyne: Well, the tone of the Parliament is set by the Prime Minister and Julia Gillard has been the Prime Minister for two and a half years.  Certainly when John Howard was Prime Minister the Parliament wasn’t held in the low regard that it is now and Julia Gillard is the past master at the vicious and vindictive speech from the despatch box, then retreating to use her gender as a shield to try and stop herself from being criticised and I think that is damaging the Parliament.

Presenter: Has Christopher Pyne ever been guilty of anything that might be categorised as vicious?

Pyne: No, in fact, I think I have a reputation in Parliament of being one of the people who hold the Parliament in high regard and try to raise the standard.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t take the fight to the, my Labor opponents and try to hold the Government to account and represent Sturt but I’ve never stooped to being vicious or vindictive, ever.

Presenter: Mark Butler.  Do you accept this?

Butler: Well, perhaps it’s better engaging in that debate.  Look, I think Christopher ‘s contribution is a welcome one, it builds on the contributions that Malcolm Turnbull made a few months ago about this and also on frankly the substantial reform that Christopher would have to admit this Parliament has gone through.  There is a very different process in Question Time and time limits with the tactics of supplementary questions with Private Members contributions before  Question Time, much longer sitting hours than we had on average in the Howard Government.

Presenter: What about an independent Speaker?  Christopher Pyne has flagged that saying whoever becomes Speaker does not sit in Party meetings.

Butler: I think I heard him say small “I” independent and the idea that the Speaker would not participate in Party Room business as Harry Jenkins and Anna Burke do, I think that’s something worth talking about and something that I think our Speakers over the last five years have pursued anyway, but look frankly the idea that Tony Abbott of all people will lead us into some new era of peace and mutual respect is pretty laughable.  I mean he had a just reputation in the Howard Government as the main ‘attack dog’ in Parliament and in Opposition he’s clearly set out to wreck Question Time.  A third of Question Time’s been cut short by Tony Abbott suspending Standing Orders and the questions themselves have been ridiculously one dimensional.  Last year for example we had 166 questions on the carbon pricing regime and four questions on health so I welcome Christopher’s contributions.

Presenter: Ok.

Butler: The real test will be Tony Abbott’s behaviour when we return to parliament, next week.

Presenter: Christopher.  Mark Butler and Chris Pyne are our guests here as they are on Wednesdays and we look at back and forward into the week in politics midweek.  Its seven minutes to nine on 891 breakfast.  Sixteen at the moment 26 the forecast top.  Mark Butler, Tim Mathieson’s statement about if you are going to have a rectal exam you should as a male, for your prostate, then you should “make sure you have a small Asian woman doctor” doing that.  If Tony Abbott had said that, would you have attacked him for being misogynist, sexist and possibly racist?

Butler: Well, look I think Tim’s joke was in extremely poor taste. I think his apology was the appropriate one. I think the Prime Minister made clear…

Presenter: That’s not the question though is it though?

Butler: And I think these things are what the degree which you make accusations about people’s behaviour is taken from the broader context of their behaviouring? Look Tim made a very bad joke, but otherwise doesn’t have a reputation for these sorts of things. He was chastised by his partner in public, he made an apology. God knows what happened when behind closed doors later that night, but it was very poor taste on his part and rightly he has apologised.

Presenter: Chris Pyne do you accept that he does not have a track record for this sort of thing, he does good work? There was even an ABC political reporter who sung his praises yesterday in his defence, that’s interesting on Twitter.

Pyne: Well Mark Butler didn’t answer your question and your question was, had the Labor Party’s confected outrage about Tony Abbott been exposed once again…

Presenter: No, that wasn’t my question but anyway thank you, but that wasn’t my question…

Pyne: Well the truth that you asked is for if Tony Abbott had asked this would Labor have attacked him and the truth is that yesterday Tanya Plibersek, Nicola Roxon and Jenny Macklin, dubbed the ‘handbag hit squad’ were notably silent when Tim Mathieson used a sexist and racist joke. Whereas if Tony Abbott had said anything even approaching that they of course he would have been back at their dark arts trying to turn the election from an election about the economy into an election about irrelevant issues to do with Tony Abbott. The truth is Labor’s had rather confected outrage campaign for most of the second half of last year; they will continue to denigrate Tony Abbott all this year because that’s all they have left to say. As for Tim Mathieson’s joke, obviously it wasn’t very funny, but the Coalition don’t have this instantaneous, routine oversensitivity that Labor has about every single remark that everyone makes.

Presenter: Well Christopher Pyne, it’s easy to find a lot of people that say well what was wrong with this joke?

Pyne: (inaudible)..The Coalition doesn’t enter into this oversensitivity, which is the hypersensitivity of Tanya Plibersek, Nicola Roxon and Jenny Macklin which of course is all designed to get a headline.

Presenter: But you said that it was in poor taste?

Pyne: Of course it was in poor taste. It’s a question of whether he should be put in the stocks in the middle of Victoria Square and of course Labor thinks that Tony Abbott should be put in the stocks in Victoria Square for every remark he’s ever made. Whereas if Tim Mathieson says something of course they all disappear from the battlefield.

Presenter: Well that’s not quite either because Mark Butler has just said that it was in poor taste in his opinion and the fellow has apologised, let’s move on.

Presenter: Mark Butler do you think we’ve got to a point in this country where people can’t make a joke without somebody looking over their shoulder that somebody’s going to tell them off?

Butler: Well I think that jokes that 20 or 30 years ago when I was growing up were acceptable are not seen as acceptable today, particularly when they poke fun of people of race or disability or gender and I think that’s broadly a good thing. I take Christopher’s point about not us not getting too oversensitive about things and quite where the line is I think shifts as society develops. But I think a one off, very poor taste joke is quite qualitatively a different thing from the sort of course of conduct from which is complained about from Tony Abbott’s behaviour.

Presenter: Ok. Mark Butler we do thank you for joining us and look forward to seeing you next Wednesday, MP for Port Adelaide thank you.

Butler: Thank you very much.

Presenter: Thanks very much Minister for Mental Health and Chris Pyne the Federal MP for Sturt, Shadow Education Minister thank you for joining us as well.

Pyne: Always a pleasure.

ENDS.