ABC 891

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
ABC 891 Adelaide
12 March 2014

SUBJECT: State election

COMPERE:

Joining us now is Mark Butler, Labor MP for Port Adelaide. He’s the Opposition’s climate change spokesman, good morning to you Mark Butler.

MARK BUTLER:

Good morning.

COMPERE:

And, just turning on your mic again.

MARK BUTLER:

Good morning.

COMPERE:

Good morning.  And Chris Pyne, MP for Sturt, Education Minister and Leader of the House in federal parliament. Good morning to you, Christopher Pyne.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Morning, Matthew, David and Mark.

COMPERE:

What do you two make of this pamphlet?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well it is a thinly veiled racist attack on Carolyn Habib and of course it’s entirely predictable, a senior federal Labor member told me only about less than a month ago that Labor would target Carolyn Habib in Elder because they thought her name would be a problem and you know this is exactly what Jay Weatherill said he would put an end to.  We had the Labor volunteers pretending to be Family First volunteers in the last state election in 2010.  Now we’ve got Labor launching a racist attack on Carolyn Habib who is an Anglican, who was born in Alice Springs, whose father is Greek Orthodox by the way.  And this is what we expect from Labor, this is why they need time out in Opposition to get their act together and start focussing on jobs rather than slurs.

COMPERE:

Mark Butler?

MARK BUTLER:

Well I have only just seen it, David has just handed the pamphlet over to me.  I have heard a little bit of the interview that just happened but I didn’t hear the full explanation that I think Tom Koutsantonis was giving.  You know, I don’t know anything about you know Marion council rate increases and various other allegations about Ms Habib’s time on the Marion Council.  Look I think these are pretty vigorously fought contests nowadays at a grassroots level.

COMPERE:

What do you reckon the wall which if you see visions of, look there may be a wall like that in Elder somewhere.  But if you see vision of Syria, if you see vision of Lebanon, after a bad week, if you see any vision from the Middle East, there will be walls like that in the background,, smashed up walls or, it’s not bullet popped but you get the picture.  It’s very scratchy, is this a good example of… dog whistling?  No one can say, everyone can say and put their hands up and say what’s wrong with saying that, can you trust Habib? But it is the image that is very powerful?

MARK BUTLER:

Yeah, it is a confronting image.  I have finally got a photocopy of it but it is a confronting image.  It has only been just put in front of me; I don’t know the background to it. I can see that it is pretty vigorous pamphlet.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

At least you are not trying to defend it, Mark.

MARK BUTLER:

Well it’s hard to defend something that is put straight in front of you.  I didn’t hear the interview that just happened, with the candidate, with Tom Koutsantonis doing the cut and thrust, and I just, you know it has been put in front of me.

COMPERE:

Chris Pyne, are you being a bit two-faced here, the Liberal Party, you don’t need to talk to many Liberal MPs to have them comment on Carolyn Habib’s looks?  And they even use the name ‘Hubba Hubba Habib’.  So you know, here you are getting in high dudgeon about the Labor Party mounting a racist attack when if you talk to a few Liberal MPs about Carolyn Habib you would be thinking, I don’t share this opinion by the way, you would be thinking she would be picked on her looks.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well there’s a big difference between complimenting somebody because they are attractive, and attacking somebody on the basis of racism.  And I would prefer to be the former, rather than the latter.  And I think as I said famously during the federal election, that I wish somebody said I had sex appeal.

COMPERE:

That’s only because you are incredible handsome.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

No, I said I wished somebody said I had sex appeal. Of course since then people have been constantly saying it to me I must say.

COMPERE:

I am just asking whether… taking the high moral ground here is a bit of low moral….

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Not really.  There is an enormous difference between being praised and being attacked viciously on the basis of racism.  This is systematic of Jay Weatherill’s whole campaign.  Now we are in the last three days of the state election, here they are derailed again Labor, derailed from talking about jobs and the economy because yet again they are fighting a rear-guard action over stupid electoral tactics, bully-boy tactics which they all decided down at South Terrace sounded all very clever at the time, or in the Digance campaign, they thought another slur against somebody would work for them like they tried in Andrew Southcott in Boothby.  They are doing it all over again here in Elder and Jay Weatherill’s message is being drowned out yet again.

COMPERE:

Mark Butler, this does look like it is getting into a dirty campaign.

MARK BUTLER:

Look, this is the last campaign in an incredibly important election campaign for South Australia.  Jay’s run a very positive campaign about the need to build on the work of the last twelve years and I think South Australians are going to go to the polls on Saturday thinking you know do they want to continue to build on the economic diversification, the rebuilding of our infrastructure, the rebuilding of a whole lot of social policy programs we have seen under this government or do they want to take a leap into the unknown, to hand over the reins of power to the most inexperienced person who’s ever sought to be Premier of South Australia.  This is an incredible important election campaign at a time where the state is going to go through a very difficult economic transition.  And I think that’s what will be on people’s minds as they go into the ballot box.

COMPERE:

What are people telling you about the campaign at a local level?  How intense is it this time round, for instance in Hartley in the eastern suburbs.  Grace Portolesi I understand is pouring out an enormous amount of material.  We have got this going on in Elder, what are people telling you Mark Butler?

MARK BUTLER:

I think this is a very vigorously fought campaign all around the state. 

COMPERE:

Is that code for dirty, the word vigorous?

MARK BUTLER:

No I think it’s vigorous.  People are out there very active even some of the MPs that have been in parliament for several terms are knocking on doors, doing street corner meetings, they are putting out material …

COMPERE:

You mean they haven’t beforehand?

MARK BUTLER:

No this is an incredibly active campaign and I think what we are seeing is local MPs, incumbents and candidates, really raising their profile and I think what you will see is some unusual results, or some results that don’t necessary match the state-wide trends because of the vigour of which the peoples are running these local campaigns.

COMPERE:

What do you mean by that?

MARK BUTLER:

Well I think that as we saw in 2010, there will  be a variety of results, there will be you know swings to the Labor Party very big swings against the Labor Party in different seats and the result that will occur on Sunday morning…

COMPERE:

So you can win without getting 50% is effectively what you are saying, despite there being legislation that is meant to make that happen in South Australia.

COMPERE:

Chris Pyne, maybe the Liberal Party needs to learn to fight a bit dirtier and win.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Look we always expect Labor will turn dirty.  They always do. Every…

COMPERE:

No, but maybe you need to be more vigorous…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

No but we don’t want to play a dirty game like Labor does.  I mean we know that every election, federal or state…

COMPERE:

Nice guys and girls finish last?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Not necessarily.  We are in every government in every State and Territory, except the ACT, South Australia and Tasmania; and the Commonwealth levels so we always assume that Labor will fight dirty because it is a choice between a positive message about South Australia’s economic future or the chum bucket.  Labor always choose the chum bucket.  That’s how they have won elections in the past.  The chum bucket is the bucket you use…

MARK BUTLER:

What is a chum bucket?

COMPERE:

It is to throw out when you are fishing, the chum bucket, as Matthew would know as well, it is where you put the off stuff to throw out to attract the fish.

COMPERE:

What, burley?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

The chum bucket holds the burley.  

MARK BUTLER:

Why don’t you call it burley?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Because burley goes in the chum bucket.  Goodness gracious.  Goodness gracious.

COMPERE:

I hate to say this, it’s called the burley bucket. But anyway.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

It can be called the chum bucket.  Look up chum bucket.  Google it.  Look it up.

COMPERE:

Is this what our campaign has come to?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

The difference between Labor and Liberal is we have a positive economic agenda about grasping our own destiny. Labor has resorted to the dirty tactics that they always resort to. 

COMPERE:

I knew it always ends up talking about fishing.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

It does on your show.

COMPERE:

Anyway.  Christopher Pyne, Liberal MP for Sturt, Education Minister and Leader of the House.  Thank you for coming into the studio.  Thank you also Mark Butler, Labor MP for Port Adelaide, Opposition environment and climate change spokesperson.

[ends]