Today Show

E&OE TRANSCRIPT Today Show Channel 9 with Lisa Wilkinson 6/06/2014 LISA WILKINSON: We’re joined now by Education Minister Christopher Pyne and Shadow Transport Minister Anthony Albanese. Good morning to both of you. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Lisa ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good morning. LISA WILKINSON: Christopher I will start with you. Is Malcolm Turnbull right? Do you all harbor leadership ambitions. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I certainly don’t. And Malcolm made it clear last night… [laughter] ANTHONY ALBANESE: [Laughter] CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I can’t even get a word out! LISA WILKINSON: You’re talking to me Christopher. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You and 500,000 Australians. No I don’t think. Malcolm made it perfectly clear last night that he thinks his leadership capacity is between nil and negligible in terms of being leader again and I think he ruled it out pretty well. LISA WILKINSON: Well he did go on to say that you can never say never in politics. I’m paraphrasing, but he said you never know what’s going to happen in the future because politics is a changing game. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I think that question has no right answer when you’re asked about ambitions and whatever you say feeds speculation and I think Malcolm made it perfectly clear that he thinks his chances of becoming leader again and between nil and negligible, which is not much less than that. The leadership ambitions that is on display in Canberra are between old people’s choice over here and the factions choice bill shorten. And Tanya Plibersek of course is in the background as well. Labor has not settled their leadership because Anthony Albanese won the people’s vote from the branch members and bill won the factions vote from the caucus. And until they resolve that. On our side of that Tony Abbott is both the people’s choice and the party’s choice. LISA WILKINSON: Although Tony Abbott and Malcom Turnbull in a popularity competition Malcolm Turnbull seems to win every time. Would Malcolm Turnbull eventually make a good Prime Minister? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Look Malcolm has been the leader and that has ended and he’s very happy being the communications minister, he’s doing an excellent job, and I think he’s been selling the budget as well as anyone in the government. LISA WILKINSON: So why would Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt, both strong conservative supporters attack Malcolm Turnbull they he is, it all looks very un conhesive. Do you think he was right when he called them bullies last night? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I think that’s a good question for Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt to answer. LISA WILKINSON: But from the sidelienes were you shocked by their level and depth of attack? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I’m not really on the sidelines, I’m in the leadership group of the Coalition. LISA WILKINSON: Well then you should have an opinion. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: My view is that Malcolm is doing a fantastic job, he’s a great member of the team. I think the whole team is working well. LISA WILKINSON: But that was very unhelpful. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Which bit was unhelpful? LISA WILKINSON: Well Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones. Because its really divided the party CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Andrew and Alan have to make their own decisions. They’re not members of our Party Room, they’re independent media commentators and how they see things is a matter for them. My view is that Malcolm is doing a sensational job as Communications Minister, he’s doing a great job as a member of the advocates of the Coalition and he should be allowed to get on with his job. LISA WILKINSON: Anthony Albanese you must be loving this. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well that fact is, Christopher has said that Tony Abbott is the peoples choice. The last poll showed that Tony Abbott was not only less popular than Malcolm Turnbull but ‘Don’t Know’ and ‘someone else’ got more votes than Tony Abbott as preferred leader of the Liberal Party. Christopher got… CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I got 1% ANTHONY ALBANESE: It was actually got less than 1%... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That was the Today show staff. ANTHONY ALBANESE: You were an asterix, I’m afraid. Sometimes it’s best not to be in the polls. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: He’s cruel isn’t he. LISA WILKINSON: There is talk though this morning , I think we’ve got one of the front pages here, of a possible cabinet reshuffle. Is that on the cards? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No it certainly isn’t. LISA WILKINSON: Definitely not? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Definitely not. Just more speculation. LISA WILKINSON: So that report in the Age isn’t right? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We’re trying to get on with the budget. ANTHONY ALBANESE: The reason why this is an issue. To get away from all the personalities, is that they’ve had a shocker of a budget. If the budget had any credibility, any common decency other than attacking the Australian values on education, on health support from Medicare, on pensions, then you wouldn’t have this speculation. It’s because they’ve got the policy wrong that the personality issues are rising to the fore. LISA WILKINSON: What do you think of the sideshow politics that are going at the moment with Clive Palmer? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well that’s a part of it as well. I mean Clive Palmer is a populist. Clive Palmer’s a former life member of the LNP. He knows this is a shocker. It’s a shocker particularly in regional Australia. Who voted for a new tax on petrol? Who voted for a cut to pensions? Who voted for a charge every time you go to the doctor? Who voted for cuts to education? Nobody and Clive Palmer knows that. So he’s an opportunist. He’s trying to fill a gap that’s there of traditional Coalition supporters who are angry with them and the dinner with Malcolm Turnbull was just part of feeding into that. LISA WILKINSON: Well we’re just a couple of weeks away from the big change in the senate where we know that Clive Palmer is going to get control of the Senate and his party. So I’d like you both to finish this sentence. Clive Palmer getting control of the Senate fills me with… CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Hope for the future. ANTHONY ALBANESE: He’s already trying to suck up. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Is that how you’re finishing the sentence? [laughter] LISA WILKINSON: That probably works! ANTHONY ALBANESE: With concern LISA WILKINSON: So you’ve got hope for the future with Clive Palmer having that sort of control. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I’ve got hope of the future Lisa with a new Senate not controlled by the Green left which it has been under Labor and the Greens will recognise the need to do things like balance the budget, to live within our means, to deliver the kind of taxes and infrastructure that we need in Australian Government. LISA WILKINSON: And you trust that to Clive Palmer? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think that the Senate will work very well with the Government. In higher education for example I’m looking forward to working with them to bring about reform to the higher education sector. Because we are getting on with the job. I mean Anthony Albanese never delivered a tough budget.. Labor squibbed it every year. ANTHONY ALBANESE: I’ll make this point Lisa, this is karma coming home. For the last parliament they said we won’t negotiate with anyone. We won’t deal with anyone. Well guess what they’re not only talking to them they’re taking them for dinner. LISA WILKINSON: Alright, thankyou both gentleman, have a great weekend. ENDS