Doorstop - Parliament House

SUBJECT: Labor Leadership; school funding E&OE................................ Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Good morning everyone. Well, Labor can change their leadership if they wish to, but the same problems will beset the Government that have beset it for the last six years. The boats will still keep coming, because Kevin Rudd changed the policy in 2008. The Carbon Tax will still be in place, pushing up electricity prices. The Mining Tax will still be in place, pushing down investment, putting jobs at risk. The Government’s dysfunction and division will remain. Essentially, you can put a lick of paint on a haunted house, but it will still be the rat infested, white-anted haunted house that it was before, and that’s the problem with this Labor Party. Even if they change from Julia Gillard to Kevin Rudd, it will still be the same rat infested, white-anted haunted house that it’s been for the last few years. The Gillard supporters will undermine Kevin Rudd. Cabinet Ministers will resign from the front bench and sit on the backbench, and we’ll go from the C team to the D team in the Ministry under Kevin Rudd. The only way to solve this problem is to go to the election on September the 14th, or earlier if possible, to change the government and give the Australian people the adults in the room, putting the Australian people first rather than the internal machinations of the Labor Party. Journalist: Does it worry the Coalition that if Rudd was to become Prime Minister, then after preferences it would be 50-50? Pyne: The only thing that worried the Coalition is the fact that people can’t pay their bills, people are worried about their jobs, the borders are entirely porous, and there is not the economic management that is necessary to manage the budget and a $1.3 trillion economy that Australia has. That’s what worries the coalition. Labor can change leader, but the fundamentals remain the same. They are a divided and dysfunctional rabble that aren’t putting the interests of the Australian people first. Journalist: The Nielson Poll today also shows that Malcolm Turnbull is more preferable over Tony Abbott as PM. Is that something that’s concerning? Pyne: Well, I don’t take much heart by the polls, whether they’re very positive or whether they’re very negative. The truth is that there are a litany of polls. All of them show that the public are thoroughly sick of the Labor Party and this Government. All of them show that they want an adult in the room that puts the interests of the Australian people first, rather than the interests of political survival first. There will be more polls published between now and election day, but the truth is the Australian public are thoroughly sick of the divided and dysfunctional rabble that are running the country at the moment. Journalist: Will you vote against the Gonski education bill when it goes through in the next few weeks? Pyne: Well the Gonski, this isn’t the Gonski bill. The Gonski report called for $6.5 billion of new spending every year in order to meet the recommendations of the report. This school funding model cuts spending by $325 million over the next four years. So, the Government isn’t introducing the recommendations of the Gonski report. When it passed through the House of Representatives last sitting week we didn’t vote for it or against it, because how could we vote for or against it when there’s no national agreement. The Government has three jurisdictions out of eight that have signed up to it. They are offering side deals and chicanery all around the country to try and bribe state governments into signing up. My hunch is that there won’t be a national agreement. There won’t be a national plan. What happens to the legislation is a matter for the Senate this next fortnight. Journalist: (inaudible) two final states signed up. Would you still repeal the bill? Pyne: Well, I wasn’t in the business of having a Dutch auction with the Government. We’ve said that if there’s an overwhelming majority of states and territories, we won’t create more uncertainty by doing it. But, three out of eight jurisdictions is not even a majority. ENDS.