Channel 10 Late News

SUBJECTS: Speakership E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………… Presenter: Mr Pyne thank you for your time. Three Speakers now in just the one Parliament, where does this leave us? How does Parliament function now in the days and months ahead? Pyne: Well the Parliament has been a shambles for the last two years Matt, and today, well tonight in fact Peter Slipper showed the judgement to resign that Julia Gillard didn’t today when she led the Peter Slipper defence team in the Parliament. Julia Gillard can never lecture the Liberal Party again about sexism having led the Peter Slipper defence team in the Parliament today. But Peter Slipper, he saw the sense of resigning tonight. We’ve had three Speakers in two years in this Parliament. It has been a shambles and Julia Gillard was responsible for the mess and Peter Slipper was left to clear it up for her tonight. Presenter: But Mr Pyne you led the calls for him in opposition for him to stand down, you lost the vote in the end, it seems to have been taken by Mr Slipper himself. Pyne: That’s true and the extraordinary thing Matt, is that we lost the vote 70-69 because the Labor Party voted to keep Peter Slipper as the Speaker this afternoon, then a few hours later. Peter Slipper did the right thing and resigned, he showed the judgement Julia Gillard lacked today in another example of why she is un-Prime Ministerial. We did lead the Opposition to Peter Slipper remaining as Speaker because our view is he couldn’t in all good conscience return to the chair and be a fair and impartial Speaker after the revelations that have come from the case in the Federal Court in which he’s involved. Presenter: Mr Pyne on a day when Mr Abbott was under fire for misogyny, I’ve got to ask you was it wise to use the phrase “dying of shame” in reference to the failing Gillard Government. Surely he would have known it would evoke references to the comments made by Alan Jones about her father. Pyne: Well Matt, Tony Abbott has used that phrase dozens and dozens of times to describe a really rancid Government here in Canberra, so it is no surprise that he used that phrase. It certainly wasn’t deliberate as part of any kind of campaign to like himself with Alan Jones. I think the point is the Labor Party can never lecture the Liberal Party again about misogyny or sexism after the Prime Minister lost all her credibility today on that issue by defending Peter Slipper against the charges of misogyny, I mean the extraordinary lack of intellectual nous of the Prime Minister is that she says Tony Abbott is misogynistic and Peter Slipper is misogynistic, but her view was that Peter Slipper should remain as Speaker. Now she’s lost all her credibility on that subject. Presenter: Well we do hope that out of this there is some integrity returned to the institution of Parliament. Christopher Pyne thank you for joining us tonight. Pyne: Pleasure. ENDS