ABC 891

SUBJECTS: Labor leadership; recent polls E&OE................................ DAVID BEVAN: Mark Butler you’d be feeling a bit better today that you did this time last week? MARK BUTLER MP: It’s been a pretty tumultuous week, there’s no question about that you know both for me in terms of changing portfolio but most importantly for the Government and for the Country, coming to grips with a change of Leadership in the governing Party and consequently a change of Prime Minister. BEVAN: So yes, you feel a bit better? BUTLER: Well … BEVAN: Are you glad that’s behind you? BUTLER: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean this was a tough period and we had an interview the day after the Leadership ballot on your program last week, as did Christopher. I think this was a very tough period for the Labor Party and I know it was a tough period for the community, watching this play out but I’m still very confident that the Labor Party made the right decision and we’re now focussed as a Government and as individual ministers over what we do over the next several weeks. BEVAN: Well you’re now the Minister for Climate Change. Do you know anything about climate change? BUTLER: I think I know a fair bit about climate change, I’ve followed this area of policy for many years, well before I came into the Parliament and I’ve followed and been a part of debates and forums on climate change since we have been in Government over the last five or six years. BEVAN: And there’s now widespread speculation that you’re being asked to work on a way of dropping the carbon tax and moving to some sort of floating price – is that what you’re spending your days doing? BUTLER: Well over the last 40 hours that I’ve been the Minister, I’ve been spending my time on Departmental briefings, not just on climate change but also on the various portfolios of Environment, Heritage and Water. BEVAN: Are you working on a way to drop the carbon tax? BUTLER: Well there’s a fair bit of speculation about – has been since Kevin Rudd became the Prime Minister again, about different areas of policy including climate change that might be the subject of significant change, but the Prime Minister’s been very clear that that would only happen after a full and proper Cabinet process. So beyond that the question of climate change policy by the Government is still a matter of speculation. BEVAN: Well it would obviously still have to be signed off by Cabinet, but the question I’ve got for you , and you are a servant of the people, Minister for Climate Change– are you working on a way of dropping the carbon tax? Now you might bring a proposal to Cabinet and they say that’s a stupid idea, Mark, go back and do it again, or they might say, it’s a great idea, you’ve excelled yourself – just want to know what you’re working on? BUTLER: Well the Prime Minister’s made clear that the Cabinet would consider this in the full and proper way, and so any question about review of policies including climate change policy would go to the Cabinet before it came to your to your program unfortunately David. BEVAN: Christopher Pyne the Shadow Minister for Education, Manager of Opposition Business, are you worried now? You’ve got a much more popular Government Leader, Prime Minister than you had a week ago? HON CHRISTOPHER PYNE MP: Well David, I’m surprised that Mark sounds so bright and breezy this morning given that he and his friend Penny Wong stuck the knife deeply into their friend Julia Gillard’s back, last week and it seems that they can just move straight on. The truth is that you can put a shiny new lid on a rubbish bin; it’s still a bin that’s full of rubbish and the problem for the Labor Party is that they haven’t addressed the key issues. The Carbon Tax continues to go up and up, forcing up cost of living; the boats keep arriving. Another one arrived yesterday, another one arrived the day before that. Kevin Rudd changed the border protection policies and now he has to stop the boats rather than just try to blame someone else or give up and of course, people still feel very anxious about their jobs because they have no confidence that the Labor Party is governing for Australia rather than just trying to cling to power. BEVAN: All of the polls since the ascendency of Kevin Rudd they all give the same consistent message and that is that people actually like Kevin Rudd, you’re back to 50/50. Are the people silly? PYNE: No I think the consistent message is that people are relieved that Julia Gillard’s no longer the Prime Minister and the polls reflect a honeymoon period for Kevin Rudd but I think that will come to a shuddering halt. Laurie Ferguson the Member for Werriwa is in the newspapers in Sydney today talking about how that Labor has New South Wales disease. Kate Lundy has reported how the Prime Minister didn’t even ring her to dump her from her portfolio. Andrew Constance a Minister in New South Wales has described how he was dropped from a speaking engagement as the New South Wales Minister for Disabilities so that Kevin Rudd could have a platform. So the ego mania is back. The, Kevin Rudd hasn’t changed at all and the feedback that I’ve had over the weekend from people is that yes they’re glad that Julia Gillard’s gone but she was a particularly loathed figure, they don’t believe that Labor has changed at all. BEVAN: So you think those polls will swing back the Coalition’s way? PYNE: I think the public will decide on election day that Labor needs time out. They need to sort out their mess in Opposition rather than on the peoples’ time and I think if Kevin Rudd announces that he’s pushing the election date out, people will be burning effigies in the street in horror of the prospect of not going to an election sooner rather than later. BEVAN: But do you think it will be more than just scraping over the line which is what those, the week end polls are showing. It’s 50/50. You’d win. You’d win because the Government has to pick up seats but you think it would more than that. PYNE: Well getting into Government is like climbing Mount Everest from Opposition, so I don’t take anything for granted, at all. It will be a tough fight. It would have been a tough fight even if Mark his friends hadn’t stabbed Julia in the back. The truth is, they panicked and they butchered another Leader three years after they butchered Kevin Rudd. Now the public aren’t stupid and, they want a Government that is stable and run by adults not run by panic stricken Labor Members desperate to hang on to their seats. BEVAN: Mark Butler, if you do change carbon policy again, won’t this just be a repeat of the problems which have got you in this situation you’ve been in for the last few months, and that is constantly changing policies so people wonder exactly what it is you stand for, climate change in particular because that was the thing which brought undone Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, and now you’re being asked to asked to change the policy yet again? BUTLER: Well I’m not going to get into speculation about whether we might change the policy and if so – how? But I can say that the Labor Party has had a very consistent and long standing position around strong and sensible action on climate change. This is a really complex and difficult policy that’s going to be with us for a long, long time or policy challenge for all of us, Labor Party, the Liberal Party whose position has changed on a number of very significant occasions over the last decade with John Howard vigorously opposing emissions trading and then adopting emissions trading and then Tony Abbott after Nick Minchin supported him in the coup over Malcolm Turnbull.. BEVAN: But you can get away with a lot in Opposition, once you actually get to government, people expect those sort of shenanigans to well and truly die down? BUTLER: Even the speculation though that is out and about in the papers is essentially speculation about a continuation of the Labor Party’s commitment to strong and sensible action on climate change, it really is a reflection I think of the smoothness with which the new regime has come into place under the climate change regulator, very strong pricing regime has been very successful. We’ve seen in its first eleven months carbon pollution from electricity generation for example come down by seven and a half per cent because of the increase in renewables. So look I’m very, very proud and happy about our record on climate change, but that doesn’t mean that you know we’re not going to look at improving our policies in the future. BEVAN: Well we’ll look at that when it comes out, Mark Butler, thanks for your time. BUTLER: Thanks David. BEVAN: Minister for Climate Change, Member for Port Adelaide, before that Chris Pyne, Member, Liberal Member for Sturt and Shadow Education Minister. ENDS.