ABC NewsRadio

Subjects: Closure of Garden Island Naval Base; Labor’s disastrous election campaign; Fringe Benefits Tax; Gambling EO&E........................................................................................................................................... MARIUS BENSON: Christopher Pyne, good morning. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Marius. BENSON: What do you think of this latter day Brisbane Lions strategy? PYNE: It’s another Kevin Rudd’s thought bubble in the middle of an election campaign, entirely un-costed. It could cost up to several billion dollars and cost several thousand jobs in New South Wales. Labor doesn’t even know whether the move would be to Brisbane or to Townsville or to one of the other ports in Queensland. This is our save our seats in Queensland strategy designed to boost Kevin Rudd in Queensland at the expense of New South Wales. I think it will be seen along with the Northern Territory company tax cut announcement as another moment in Kevin Rudd’s campaign when he was off the rails. BENSON: Kevin Rudd would argue that it wasn’t a thought bubble; he spoke to News Radio a little this morning. He would argue that it’s not a thought bubble, it’s been long in development and is subject to military analysis and there’s logic there that much of the need, particularly for humanitarian work in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean dictates that a northern site is far more logical. PYNE: A great deal more work needs to be going in to proposals such as these rather than just Prime Ministerial thought bubbles on the VIP jet as he’s flitting about the country from city to city, in his frenetic and chaotic campaign. Kevin Rudd has been rattled for weeks since he returned as Prime Minister and his campaign has been off the rails for weeks. They’re spending $1.5 billion, or borrowing $1.5 billion, adding to our net debt every week since he’s been Prime Minister. Yesterday it was revealed again that he had to bus people in to a child care centre to pretend that they had children at the child care centre, exactly the same way he had to bus bowlers in in Richmond, New South Wales to pretend he was a man of the people. The truth is, is Kevin Rudd’s campaign is as chaotic as his thinking and this Garden Island proposal is another chaotic, un-thought through policy proposal which will cost billions of dollars. It’s entirely un-costed and will cost thousands of jobs in Sydney. BENSON: But chaos is a part of campaigns isn’t it. I mean there are awkward moments on both sides, for example when Jaymes Diaz your candidate in Western Sydney for the second time couldn’t nominate the six points turn back the boat plan. I mean chaos is standard in the hectic world of campaigning surely? PYNE: Well Marius there’s an enormous difference between the candidate for Greenway and the Prime Minister of Australia and I think people expect the Prime Minster of Australia to campaign in a considered, sensible and intelligent way, just as Tony Abbott is doing in showing his Prime Ministerial stature and then Kevin Rudd who is flitting about in a frenetic way. Coming up with thought bubbles whether it’s a company tax cut in the Northern Territory which has been un-costed and now the Garden Island proposal, which is un-costed, going to cost jobs. The only time Kevin Rudd does something, he costs people their jobs, like the $1.8 billion hit to the car industry which is hurting jobs across Australia as we speak. Kevin Rudd is a danger to jobs; we’ve seen that every day. Its time to put this country out of its misery and change the government on September 7. BENSON: Just quickly can I bounce a couple of stories in the newspaper this morning off you Christopher Pyne. One, The Age is an assessment of the Opposition plans to support smaller government while increasing money on defence, paid parental leave, reinstating the private health insurance rebate. Economists are warning that if you do all of that, somewhere, somebody is going to feel a lot of pain. PYNE: Well over the next ten years, we have a vision for Australia. We have a vision where there are governments having surplus budgets as they did in the Howard/Costello era, defence expenditure, the Private Health Insurance rebate has been put back rightfully where it should be without the means test that Labor introduced after lying about in 2007 and again in 2010 and the people expect governments to have visions over the next ten years and that’s exactly what you should be doing, it not something that we should be concerned about, its something we should be pleased about. The Howard Government dis increase spending on defence and delivered surplus budgets. You’re perfectly capable of doing that if you live within your means and put money aside for a rainy day just like the Howard Government has done. We did it before and we can do it again. Labor will never do it. BENSON: Just quickly Tim Costello, the chairman of the Churches Gambling Taskforce of relying on clubs and the gaming industry to provide advice to deal with problem gambling, he says he’s very disturbed, Dracula in charge of the blood bank. PYNE: Well I have concerns about gambling in Australia, gambling levels in Australia and we have to work through all those issues, as Tony Abbott would say as well. The truth is that clubs and pubs are a very big part of Australian social life and so is gambling and we have to work people like Tim Costello to produce policies that ensure that problem gamblers get the treatment they so desperately need and we wil do that in Government. BENSON: I’ll leave it there, Christopher Pyne thank you very much. PYNE: Thank you Marius. ENDS