ABC NewsRadio

E&OE……… 

Benson:               Christopher Pyne you’ve attacked Julia Gillard’s honesty over whether Bob Carr was sounded out over coming to Canberra as Foreign Minister, but what’s wrong with sounding people out as the prime minister says she’s done?

Pyne:                    There’s nothing wrong with Julia Gillard seeking to bring Bob Carr to Canberra to be Foreign Minister, because she obviously doesn’t think there’s anybody in her current caucus who can do the job. The point is she tried to mislead the public about the circumstances in which this occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday when she said that stories in the newspaper were completely untrue. Now it turned out that those stories were true or at least partly true and yet the Prime Minister, again, not failing in terms of the point of bringing Bob Carr to Canberra, but being unable to be truthful about the circumstances, and that’s what the opposition pinged her for this week.

Benson:               But is the opposition any better when it comes to honesty and truth than the government? After all it was Tony Abbott, soon after he became opposition leader, who declared his statements shouldn’t be taken as gospel truth unless they were part of carefully prepared scripted statements.

Pyne:                    Well Tony Abbott isn’t the leader who is battling stories about the role of her office in the Australia Day riots, what she knew or didn’t know about the fair work enquiry into the member for Dobell, what she knew or didn’t know about the circumstances of the botched attempt to bring Bob Carr to Canberra to be foreign minister. He’s not battling claims that he said there would be no carbon tax under a government I lead, or the East Timor processing centre, or the Malaysian Solution, or the pokies deal with Andrew Wilkie. The list, unfortunately Marius, is endless, of the Prime Minister not being truthful with the Australian people, and the Australian people know it.

Benson:               Can I turn to a statement, or indeed an essay by Wayne Swan, the Treasurer, who’s writing in the Monthly Magazine? He says there is a tiny minority of wealthy businesspeople in Australia who are using their money and influence to poison the political debate, and they’re undermining the fair go tradition of Australia. What do you think of that view from Wayne Swan?

Pyne:               Well Labor always falls back on class wars, class warfare and the politics of envy when they have nothing left in the cupboard to talk about of any substance. Australians don’t like the politics of envy. We do appreciate and we do value the contribution that entrepreneurs have made to this country. It wouldn’t be Australia without people like the Lang Hancocks and the Rupert Murdochs, really, of this world.

Benson:           What about the people Wayne Swan has singled out, Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forest and Clive Palmer. Are they people that should be admired or are they making a destructive contribution to the national debate?

Pyne:               Well there are many billionaires in Australia that are making a contribution to Australia and jobs and to the wealth of our country. Singling individuals out as Wayne Swan has done is bad politics designed to hurt those people, it’s designed to make people feel envious of them. I don’t think it is a tactic that will work and it is because Wayne Swan has nothing left of substance to talk about.

Benson:           Statistically Australia has become a less equal society in the past two or three decades. The gap between the very well off and the others has widened. Is that a concern in your mind?

Pyne:               Australia is a very wealthy country and we have a… we are in a fortunate position of having industries like manufacturing, mining, the agricultural industry, education and so on, that mean that we are one of the best countries in the world in terms of our wealth and our economy. Everybody, all the boats are lifted, everyone is better off when the economy is growing and unfortunately last year was the first year in twenty when there were no new net jobs created on this governments watch.

Benson:           So a growing sense of inequity that Wayne Swan points to, is that a reality in your mind?

Pyne:               Well I need to look closely at the statistics because I have seen other statistics, other statistics that point to a growing middle class and the lowest twenty percent of Australians actually being better off than they were two or three decades ago, so I think it very much depends on how you pass the statistics.

Benson:           Do you think Australia is still a land of the fair go, or a land of inherited privilege now?

Pyne:               I have no doubt that Australia is very much the same country it has always been, it is a country of opportunity, where hard work gets rewarded and where hopefully the Australian people have hope for the future. This government has reduced those traditions, the coalition will restore them, but I have no doubt we are still the country of the fair go.

Benson:           Christopher Pyne, thank you very much.

Pyne:               Thanks Marius.