Marius Benson - Newsradio

[audio:http://www.pyneonline.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/pnn-9.12.11.mp3]

SUBJECTS: Labor reshuffle

E&OE……

Marius Benson: Christopher Pyne the talk of a reshuffle in Government ranks is just speculation but the Opposition is obviously quite interested in fuelling that speculation.

Christopher Pyne MP: Well there is very strong talk in the last 48 hours that Robert McClelland the Attorney-General will announce his retirement on Sunday and Julia Gillard will use it as an opportunity to have a wider reshuffle, bringing Bill Shorten into the Cabinet. The real question of course is whether Kevin Rudd will stay or whether Kevin Rudd will go as given last weeks build up of the fight between Rudd and Gillard, you might assume this was part of a wider plan to undermine Kevin Rudd.

Benson: That would be dismissed by most as mischief making on the part of an Opposition Member because no analyst that I’ve read would see anyway that Kevin Rudd would go without destabilising the Government to the extent that no Prime Minister would want.

Pyne: Well there has been talk in the last month or so that Kevin Rudd would like to go and then use that as an opportunity to challenge the Prime Minister in the New Year. Now, all this points to the fact that we have a very dysfunctional Government, when Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard are hardly on speaking terms, where she waits for him to leave the country before she makes important decisions, like the Australia Network where she doesn’t even consult him, or the ban on live cattle exports or about the Malaysian Solution or indeed the selling of Uranium to India all of which you would think she would talk to her Foreign Minister about.

Benson: Well all of those are allegations made by the Opposition in the past where you say all of this points to, but there’s nothing new apart from you in this case speculating about what the Government might do.

Pyne: And on the weekend of the ALP conference of course it suggested Julia Gillard’s supporters selectively leaked from the Faulkner review of the Labor Party to damage Kevin Rudd and now of course there are calls for the whole review to be released so that it can be seen for what it is, of course all of this does point to a dysfunctional and divided and directionless Government and if Julia Gillard really wanted to show some leadership, she would call Kevin Rudd out and say let’s have a ballot and see who has the numbers in the Labor Party caucus.

Benson: Reshuffles are a pretty standard part of Government and indeed Opposition without being evidence necessarily of being in a state of collapse. From the Opposition side, are you going to have a reshuffle yourself?

Pyne: Well let’s see what Julia Gillard’s reshuffle is all about; let’s see who gets rewarded, who gets promoted. There’s strong speculation that Rudd supporters will be demoted and that Gillard supporters will be promoted only adding to the division that exists within the Labor Party so let’s see what her reshuffle shows. It will probably show a weakened Prime Minister who goes until the end of the year well behind in the polls and with the public wanting to have an election so they can have an unambiguous government. Reshuffles don’t necessarily mean a government in a state of collapse it’s the actual reshuffle itself you need to look at in able to determine whether it is a good reshuffle or a bad reshuffle. Tony Abbott’s team is actually performing very well; it has performed well all year. You couldn’t say that Chris Bowen in immigration has performed well, there have been seven boats arrive just this week.

Benson: When you say there is strong speculation the Government is likely to reply that the speculator is you.

Pyne: Well I’m entitled to speculate just as much as anyone else is Marius, in fact oppositions are often paid to speculate and usually they are amongst the first group prepared to bell the cat. If she doesn’t have a reshuffle, well that’s her business if she does have a reshuffle the speculation would have been seen to be prescient.

Benson: So you might be right and you might be wrong?

Pyne: This is the business I’m in.

Benson: Christopher Pyne thanks very much.

ENDS