ABC 891

SUBJECTS:  Butler concedes Labor is inwardly focussed; Greens

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

Presenter: The Member for Port Adelaide and Labor MP in Federal Parliament and a very serious player in the factional politics within his Party and he joins every Wednesday, good morning Mark Butler.

Hon Mark Butler MP: Morning gentlemen and Christopher.

Presenter: And Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education and Manager of Opposition Health, Opposition matters in the House and likewise a very serious player within his Party, good morning Christopher Pyne.

Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Good morning Mark and gentlemen.

Presenter: Mark Butler are you one hundred per cent locked in behind Julia Gillard as Leader?

Butler: Yes.

Presenter: All the way up to the election?

Butler: Yes.

Presenter: Without any caveats, quid pro quos, you’re, you are not for turning?

Butler: I’m not for turning. I think we, we’ve made it clear on more occasions than I could count unfortunately, but this matter was resolved 12 months ago in February. I think Kevin himself has probably now run out of metaphors for cooling things down. He’s talked about cold showers and ice baths and cryogenic  freezing, I’m not sure if he’s got anything left in his kit bag by way of metaphor. If anyone would have something left it would be Kevin, he’s a great one for the metaphor but this thing was dealt with and as far as we’re concerned we want to get on with other things other than this sort of feeding frenzy about Leadership speculation.

Presenter: Even, if even if, on the current poll and the election is not all that far away anymore, are you going to crash and burn?

Butler: Well I, look we’ve had some very poor polls over the last couple of weeks. And we’ve had I think four polls in twelve days. The regularity of these polls is extraordinary and I think we’re going to have another one next week probably from Newspoll.  And I think for me what they confirm is that when we focus on things that don’t affect the daily lives of Australian voters and inevitably we have done that over the last couple of weeks with things like the election date, with the resignation of a couple of Ministers, Chris Evans and Nicola Roxon when we do that voters mark us down. But we saw in the latter part of last year, the very very early part of this year, that when we talk about things that do effect the daily lives of voters, we are competitive in the polls and I’m confident that if we do that in the lead in to the election we will be very competitive at the election.

Presenter: Regarding the Greens message yesterday from Christine Milne do you, like AWU National Secretary Paul Howe’s say ‘well good riddance to the Greens’? Are you glad to see them off frankly?

Butler: Well, I thought it was a bit bizarre and pretty highly confected. I, I’ve looked at it in the papers this morning on the plane back to Adelaide and I couldn’t really see what Christine Milne was on about. It appears she’s walked away from an agreement on the basis of a matter that wasn’t even in the agreement. I can’t see from my perspective as a Minister or as the Member for Port Adelaide what is going to change. I mean the Greens didn’t preference me at the last election and I’ve always taken the view before yesterday’s Press Club and still today, that to get Aged Care legislation through the Parliament for an example, I’m going to have to make a case to the Greens Party Member in the Lower House. So, I thought it was bizarre and frankly I’m not sure really what it was all about. And it seems to me that it was probably more about internal Greens Party politics than really anything else.

Presenter: Chris Pyne, coming to you. Are you hoping that Mark Butler does stick with Julia Gillard until the next election? That if they change Leaders to Kevin Rudd that will create problems for the, your team?

Pyne: Look I don’t think the problem with the Government is either Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard; it is the entire Labor Party culture of being inwardly focussed. It’s the deep hatreds between factional leaders and faceless men.

Presenter: Well Mark Butler’s effectively, he’s effectively conceded that. That when, when they seem to be inwardly focused, when they’re poisonously self obsessed, then they go down in the polls. When they’re not, they’re very competitive, they’re almost..

Pyne: Well Mark Butler is what Sir Humphrey Appleby would say is being very courageous because you’re actually telling the truth.  The truth is that Labor is inwardly focussed.  They’re not focussed on job security, cost of living, border protection or the economy; they’re dysfunctional and divided and Julia Gillard is not the only problem with Labor.  I mean the Government is a failure and for six years, they have lurched from one crisis to another, the most recent one being the catastrophic mining tax revenue and the Greens of course are thoroughly sick of being associated with a dying Government and have jumped ship.  I would expect very little else from the Greens they’re very ruthless politically they have been since university days and Mark and I would remember from our university politics days.

Presenter:  Based on these consistent polls, the message is very clear.  Is the biggest problem facing your Party that you don’t get too cocky?

Pyne:  Well we don’t ever want to be complacent and there’s six months to go before the election a lot can happen in six months.

Presenter: Have you had to pull some of your colleagues into line saying “don’t get too cocky”?

Pyne:  No.  Nobody in the Coalition …

Presenter: Never?

Pyne:  What’s that?

Presenter: Never?

Pyne:  No.  No one in the Coalition is complacent.  We are all very focussed on putting out a positive agenda surrounding the abolition of the carbon tax, the mining tax, restoring job security, trying to lessen the pressure on the cost of living; a new regime for border protection so we can end the unauthorised arrivals.  The coalition’s very focussed.

Presenter: You must have …

Pyne:  I’m very focussed.

Presenter: You must have those dot points just sort of imprinted in a little bit of your memory.

Pyne:  Well at least somebody in the Parliament is focussed on the message for the voter rather than the Labor Party’s internal machinations because I think the public want the adults in the room to govern and I feel very sorry for Mark Butler, I know that he’s sort of manfully trying to manage his own portfolio ….

Presenter: Oh, Mark Butler.

Pyne: ..which is important.

Presenter: Isn’t that, Mark Butler are you really worried you’re getting sympathy from Chris Pyne?

Butler: It’s a relief to have him in my corner, Matthew.

Presenter: It’s a relief!

Butler: It’s a relief to have him in my corner, I can’t tell you!

Pyne: I mean I know that as a Cabinet Minister, he wants to get on with the job but the problem is Labor can’t get on with the job because they’re constantly dealing with Kevin Rudd and Bill Shorten and Julia Gillard and Greg Combet and every other bit of flotsam and jetsam that floats past in politics.

Presenter: Mark Butler how do you break out of this? Because …

Butler: Well I think the first one is that we are getting on with the job. Only yesterday I was at an opening of a Headspace Service in Bendigo; I opened a wonderful new youth centre in Bendigo. I had a senior’s forum in Bendigo, I was doing things in Kyneton, in central Victoria. I’ve got a full diary of things today and I can tell you at all those forums not one person raised questions of leadership or the internal machination of the Labor Party with me. They raised questions of mental health services, of age care services, and such like. So we are getting on with our business. But I think all of us wish that the sort of the hoi polloi frenzy in the media would focus on some of the policy issues.

Pyne: It’s all the media’s fault?

Butler: No, well it’s not all the media’s fault.

Pyne: Course not.

Butler: And I think they all know that there are people beyond the media who talk about this thing.

Presenter: Well there, there are people in your Government, in your Caucus are there not? Who are only too happy to talk about it?

Butler: Well that’s what I’ve just conceded…

Presenter: And you want them to shut up?

Butler: Well I think it’s important that we all focus on the issues as I said earlier that effect the daily lives of voters because there are very serious issues confronting the country and they should be the major focus of debate leading into September, rather than the internal machinations of one party or another and the several dozen opinion polls that we are going to have to endure between now and September.

Presenter: Look Mark Butler and Chris Pyne we are going to have to leave you there.

ENDS.