Doorstop

SUBJECTS:  Labor’s shambolic state; Media reforms

E&OE................................

Pyne: Good morning ladies and gentlemen.  Today is the 50^th anniversary of the publication of this photograph of Arthur Calwell and his two masters as they were described in the newspapers in those days.  The faceless men of the Labor Party giving Arthur Calwell his instructions fifty years ago today.  And unfortunately for the country the Labor Party is still doing exactly the same thing.  We have the spectre of every time you walk down a corridor a Labor Member of Parliament has a mobile phone pressed to their ear, scurrying behind columns, coming out of trap doors, disappearing into offices of Kevin Rudd or Joel Fitzgibbon or wherever else they might be plotting and scheming against the Prime Minister or for the Prime Minister.  This is no way to run a country and the media laws that are still being negotiated and debated today, which they said would not be bartered about not be negotiated, are becoming the most important aspect as to whether the Prime Minister keeps her leadership or not.  The Coalition regards the media laws vote today, if it is in fact held today, as a vote of confidence or no confidence in the Government.  If the Government loses that vote we expect them to call an election because it has become the most important policy aspect that this government is promoting at this particular point in time.  And when you think that the Fadden Government fell in 1941 because John Curtin added one pound to the budget in an amendment, then if the media laws which the Prime Minister and Steve Conroy have described as the most important regulation of the press ever in peace time, if they fail that will be a matter of confidence in the Government.   

Journalist: (inaudible)… if the vote does pass do you consider that a vote of confidence in the Government?

Pyne: Well the Government expects the Bill to pass.  Every single Bill has passed in parliament in the last two and a half years.  Bills that they don’t expect to pass they pull.  Like the ‘Malaysia Solution’ Bill was never put to the Parliament, despite the Prime Minister repeating often that we voted against it.  Actually we never had a vote on it.  So if the bills pass that’s what you would expect but if the bills fail that is what you wouldn’t expect.  If the bills fail it is a matter of confidence in the Government and we would expect them to call an election.

Journalist: Shouldn’t you be spending less time concerned about the internals of the Labor Party and more time developing policy?

Pyne: Wouldn’t we love to.  What a great question!  You should get a gold star for that question.  If only the Government was stable and allowed the Opposition to get on with its job of developing policy, holding it to account, making sure its policies are well-implemented instead of this circus, this soap-opera, this Bold and the Beautiful that the Government has become where you see Members of Parliament constantly campaigning against the Prime Minister, you have the Chief Whip Joel Fitzgibbon putting the leadership of the agenda again yesterday morning, you have the spectre of a parliament that is a shambles.  It is a joke and yet the Government should hang its head in shame because basically for five and a half years all they’ve done is first conspire and plot against Kevin Rudd and then conspire and plot against Julia Gillard.  It’s no way to run a country.  I know it’s what Labor prefers to do – this is how they run their conferences and their branch meeting and their SEC meetings.  It is probably time to get some adults back in charge of the country and that’s why we need an election and a new Government.

Journalist: (inaudible)

Pyne: Well the question was answered is why we are obsessed about answering questions about Labor leadership.  Exactly, we would much rather be asked questions about bringing back the Australian Building and Construction…

Journalist: Why are you spending time, you yourself are spending time talking about the internals of the Labor Party?

Pyne: You can’t blame me surely for the Labor Party being in shambles.  I mean I know the media would love to blame Tony Abbott and the Opposition for every aspect of what goes on in Canberra but now trying to blame me for the shambles that is the Labor Party I think that is the (inaudible).

Journalist: I’m not blaming you but I am just saying that you and the Liberal Party are spending a lot of time thinking about this.  Are you thinking about your own issues and your own politics?

Pyne: I spend most of my time talking about, and thinking about, and giving speeches about university policy, school curriculum, teacher quality, parental engagement, principal autonomy and a new school funding model. But on a day when every single media outlet is full of stories about the Labor Party being in meltdown, it would be unusual if the Opposition didn’t have a view.

Journalist: Any thoughts on the apology to support the victims of forced adoptions?

Pyne: Well, we welcome the apology and we will take full part in it today.

Journalist: How symbolic will this be for the 100,000 mothers affected?

Pyne: For those people who have been aggrieved by a policy that the government, both sides of politics don’t now support and hasn’t for some time, it will be a very significant day. And it is a great shame that a very important day for them to draw a line in these and if you like under decades of ill feeling and unhappiness is causing up in this constant maelstrom of who is Labor leader today or next week or next month.

Journalist: (inaudible)

Pyne: Well look I think if Kevin Rudd had the numbers he would have used them by now.  I was listening to the radio this morning and I thought it was terrific to hear his supporters saying that they were hoping that he would make himself available.  Well Kevin has been available since he was defeated as Labor leader and for a man who was making jokes on St Patrick’s Day about the shambles of the Labor Party, releasing videos last night where he openly mocking the Prime Minster and the government.  He is not fit to be the Prime Minister or the leader of the Labor Party.  But if they choose to put a man in who has made a mockery of them for two and half years, well good luck goes to them.  But my view is that if he had the numbers he would have used them, that’s what we usually do in politics.

ENDS.