Doorstop - Canberra

SUBJECTS: Labor’s chaotic management of the House; Gillard and Williamson

E&OE………………

Hon Christopher Pyne MP: The Government’s programme in this Parliament is in complete chaos. We’re seeing today as we’ve been seeing in recent weeks the Government introducing legislation one day and demanding it be debated and passed the next day. We’ve got at least five examples where this has happened over the last few weeks. On the supertrawler legislation, on the support for community workers, on the legislation we’re debating today, on the expert panel on asylum seekers, the appropriation for the Houston Report, on the unclaimed money the taxation office wants to claim from punters and the fair work amendment, which is a response to the review of the Fair Work Act. Now all of these pieces of legislation are important and the Government has always over many decades given at least a week for the Opposition to go through its processes, for the Government to go through its processes. The Greens and Independents always in the past have said that they would not support debating and passing legislation in the same week that it’s introduced and yet the Greens and Independents now are being part of this alliance in government are more than happy to simply tick and flick these pieces of legislation through the Parliament and we’re seeing the consequences of that of course which is amendments being returned to the Parliament weeks later to fix up the problems that the Government has made most notably on the carbon tax which has now been changed I think nine times. So the Opposition is very disappointed that the Government is failing to manage the Parliamentary programme successfully, we’re sick of it. Today we saw a ‘fastie’ being pulled on the Parliament where the Selection Committee had sent a Bill, the unclaimed monies Bill to committee. The Government started the second reading before that report from the Selection Committee was given in order to stop it being referred to the committee for any meaningful investigation, so the Opposition is thoroughly sick of that and we won’t simply cooperate in allowing the Government to pass this legislation through the Parliament. It is a chaotic and dysfunctional government, cobbling together legislation at the last minute, trying to clear the decks, many people would suggest because they think they’ll have an election in March next year and they want to clear all this legislation through before it’s too late.

On the Michael Williamson issue that is dominating the news today, the Prime Minister cannot escape from the fact that she is linked to Michael Williamson and they go together like carrots and peas and like fish and scales. It’s been revealed in Tales from the Political Trenches that Julia Gillard relied on Michael Williamson’s support to become leader in the political coup that replaced Kevin Rudd. It’s been revealed in that book and also by Paul Howes on Lateline the night of the coup that Michael Williamson was directing HSU members of the Parliament to support Julia Gillard. So Julia Gillard was elected on the back of Michael Williamson’s support in the coup that replaced Kevin Rudd. She can’t get away from that. She also can’t get away from the fact that he has been charged with very serious charges by the New South Wales Police involving the misappropriation of hundreds of thousands of dollars of union members money and she has to explain why since she boasted about how she drafted the Fair Work Act, it doesn’t have in the Fair Work Act the capacity for the Government to recover misappropriated funds of union members from any kind of fund. She also to explain why she hasn’t responded to the Cooper Review recommendations about union appointed directors of superannuation industry funds. The Prime Minister likes to try and slither away from these crucial questions and say “I’ve answered all that before”. She hasn’t answered these questions before. Michael Williamson is now in a very serious position and he was President of the Australian Labor Party. He did support Julia Gillard to become Prime Minister. She got elected on the back of his support and she has to explain today why she hasn’t acted in an appropriate way to deal with the misappropriation of union funds in the Fair Work Act and why she hasn’t responded to the Cooper reviews recommendations about union appointed directors of superannuation industry funds.

Journalist: What sort of notice were you given about the selection committee last night what was the process there?

Pyne: Look, I’m not sure exactly the notice for the selection committee. I’m not on the selection committee. What I understand is that there was a selection committee meeting last night called at 9:30 well not called, it was held at 9:30. The usual process of course is for a report from a selection committee to be tabled in the Parliament at the earliest opportunity. That would have been after the Afghanistan statements this morning from the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. I understand that that document was handed to the Chair, to the Speaker, the Acting Speaker and was held onto for some time, in fact held onto until after the unclaimed money Bill was begun in its second reading and of course that then technically means that the report of the House committee into these matters is basically a dead duck. Now whether that was deliberate, whether it was unwitting I don’t know, but I do know it has had the effect of ensuring this rushed bill can now be debated and taken through to its final third reading in this week.

Journalist: But it might have just been a slip by the acting Speaker?

Pyne: It might have been but it seems very unusual that when the Clerk hands to the Acting Speaker a document and says this needs to be tabled usually the Acting Speaker doesn’t of their own volition decide to ignore the Clerk’s advice. So, I’m not sure what happened, I’m not sure what intervention there might have been from the Government. Joel Fitzgibbon certainly looked very sheepish about the ‘fastie’ that was pulled on the Parliament today and I have asked the Speaker to undo what has been done because if it wasn’t a ‘fastie’ surely the Government will want to support that.

Journalist: On another issue are you expecting Parliament to sit into the weekend when it holds its final sitting week or maybe sit for another week in terms to try and pass some of its MYEFO legislation that the Government needs to pass to try and get its Budget into surplus?

Pyne: Look, the Government is in chaos in terms of its programme and the Opposition has been quite reasonable about this but we’ve got to the point where there is just example after example of the government introducing legislation and demanding it be debated and passed the next day. Now it’s not the Opposition’s fault that the Government doesn’t want the Parliament to sit. This week we’re sitting 17 weeks. When I was first elected in 1993, we were sitting typically 21, 22 weeks. The Government doesn’t want to sit because when the Parliament sits, their complete failure of having an economic strategy this week the example has been the fast disappearing surplus and the mining tax with no revenue. When Parliament sits they are held to account in Question Time by the Opposition so they don’t want Parliament to sit so they schedule only seventeen weeks, then they run out of time at the end of the year and insist that the Opposition allow legislation through and then when that’s found to be deficient, they have to amend it. I mean this is no way to run a country and adults wouldn’t run the country the way that this Government is. We've had five years of this chaotic Government and we really can't afford another three years of them.

Journalist: Do you expect to hold more sitting weeks if you get into government next year?

Pyne: Well I love sitting in the Parliament. Well no one physically loves sitting in the Parliament, but I think the Parliament is very important and I think that the Parliament has a very important role and I don’t think that we should deliberately diminish the Parliament by not having it sit. I think if we were in Government we would sit as much as appropriate in order to get our legislation through with proper accountability and transparency and that’s not happening with seventeen weeks. If we have to sit for eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one weeks, we'll sit for as long as required in order to do the job properly because when you get elected to Federal Parliament you should get elected with your eyes open knowing you'll be coming to Canberra to sit and if you don't want to do that, then you shouldn’t run for Federal Parliament.

Journalist: So you do you know if any of the MYEFO measures that need to be legislated, will be debated in the final sitting week of Parliament? Are you aware if that’s happening yet?

Pyne: I think it’s a good question. The Government hasn't indicated, the Government is, as usual operating on a wing and a prayer and if they do expect the MYEFO matters to be legislated and dealt with this year. They're leaving it very, very late and if they have to schedule more sitting weeks, they should schedule more sitting weeks. They shouldn’t say to the Opposition, well if you don’t role over, we'll sit to 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. in the morning and that apparently is a threat that we would therefore roll over. The truth is, if the Parliament needs to sit, it should sit and the Government shouldn't have a chaotic, dysfunctional approach to the programming of the Parliament.

Journalist: Is it pretty lazy that you're only sitting for seventeen weeks in Canberra?

Pyne: Well I don’t think seventeen weeks very much, no. There are fifty-two weeks in the year. I think seventeen weeks is a pretty poor effort. But the reason why they are sitting seventeen weeks is, because of course the Opposition doesn’t decide this schedule, is because they don’t want to be scrutinised in Question Time, because when they are scrutinised in Question Time they are found to be wanting. The Prime Minister always looks very angry and nasty and spiteful in Question Time and they prefer not to have that image on the television screens. John McTernan wants her to be out there doing set piece speeches and visiting primary schools where primary school children usually aren’t rude to people. I mean when was the last time the Prime Minister went to a supermarket or a boutique, because when she went to the one in Brisbane, that woman came up to her and say why did you lie to the Australian people. So she's been deliberately kept out of talking to real people. She goes to set piece speeches, she doesn’t take questions. The mining conference in Kalgoorlie was a classic example. She goes to primary schools; she always disappears when there's bad news to talk about. Now is she about talking today about Michael Williamson and how she got elected on the back of his support? I think you'll find she won't be.

Journalist: Just on the union issue, is it firm Coalition policy that you would hold a full scale Royal Commission into union corruption if elected?

Pyne: Well I don’t think we've announced that so that’s a matter for the leadership group and the party over the coming months before the next election. If we were to announce such a Royal Commission I imagine it would have to through proper processes but it hasn’t been put to me.

Journalist: It's been mentioned at doorstops and so on over the past few months when questions have been asked, is that your definite policy?

Pyne: Well I'm the wrong person to ask about that. If there was to be a Royal Commission into endemic union corruption then I imagine the correct spokesman on that would be Eric Abetz or George Brandis.

Journalist: Just on the bills that were fast tracked, will there be a special joint-parties meeting to look at those or has Shadow Cabinet been given approval to give them the tick.

Pyne: Well the party will go through the normal, proper processes to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to have their say. We do have of course a truncated period in which to properly investigate all the implications of all this legislation and that’s unfortunate as the Australian people are not getting the best Parliament they can because of the dysfunction of this Government.

ENDS