Radio 4BC

SUBJECTS: Asylum seeker boats; Carbon tax

E&OE………

Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Look Kieran, turning back the boats where it is safe to do so is only one part of a three part strategy to restore the protection of our borders and there is far too much focus on turning back the boats as part of that strategy. The vitally important part is offshore processing at Nauru and other centres like Manus Island and of course the return of temporary protection visas. Now where it’s safe to do so the Navy can turn back boats, the Howard Government did it, if that’s what the Government instructs them to do, of course they won’t be able to turn back boats where it’s not safe to do so, but really it’s only a very small part. Now what’s happening in terms of asylum seekers using the Navy as an NRMA in order to come into Australia is just another symptom of the Government’s complete failure to protect our borders since August 2008, when they reversed the Howard Government’s proven policies.

Kieran Gilbert: I know it’s only one part of your policy, but it seems a problematic one, particularly when the individuals on the boats are saying... go back to Indonesia for your own safety, the seas are too rough, they didn’t do that, they kept going to Christmas Island, it seems that component of the Coalition’s policy could only work if those on board the boat were compliant with it.

Pyne: Well Kieran they keep trying to come to Christmas Island because when they get there they know they will get permanent residency under the Labor Government, so it’s a very attractive sugar on the table for the people smugglers to sell to desperate people who want to get out of their countries of their origin. That’s why they’ll keep coming through rough seas and that’s why boats will keep going down and people will keep drowning, because the Government has put back on the table a very attractive proposition, which is permanent residency in a first world country and if the Government removed that by returning temporary protection visas, the people smugglers wouldn’t have a product to sell. It is as simple as that. And then the boats will stop coming and then people will stop drowning and boats will stop sinking.

Gilbert: And with the Angus Houston led inquiry are you optimistic or at least hopeful that there might be something out of that the Coalition and the Government could accept to break this impasse that continues as we speak?

Pyne: Well, Kieran, neither the Government nor the Opposition need Angus Houston to tell us what needs to be done; the Government knows what needs to be done. Mark Bishop the Senator from Western Australia, a Labor Senator belled the cat on the weekend from within the Labor Party. They know what needs to be done; they know we need to have off shore processing and border protection policies that include temporary protection visas. We don’t need Angus Houston to tell us that, until the Government bring those things back the boats will continue to come and the Government will be responsible for all the actions that happen as a consequence of that.

Gilbert: Let’s look at the first week of the carbon tax, now, a Senior Minister has been quoted in the Australian Financial Review as saying the carbon tax has had a very soft landing, that Tony Abbott must be worried about how little momentum there is in the campaign so soon after the tax took effect. What do you make of those comments, are you worried that there is a bit of, or might have been a reduction in the momentum that the Abbott campaign has had.

Pyne: Look, Kieran the Government has moved from the desperate, to the theatre of the absurd, to complete denial. Only last week they were absolutely desperate about the disastrous situation they find themselves in because they have a toxic tax built on a lie before the election, then we had Craig Emerson performing a soft shoe shuffle routine as a Cabinet Minister humiliating himself and the country in the process, now we have the theatre of the absurd and denial where the Government is saying that in fact everything is going very well. It’s starting to sound like comical Ali during the Iraq war, there’s no US Marines in Baghdad and in fact the carbon tax is apparently tremendously successful and has been embraced by all. I mean quite frankly they need to get out more and meet some voters, all of whom are furious about the pressure on their cost of living because of the carbon tax, concerned about their jobs, concerned about industry. They are in despair that they know that carbon emissions will continue to rise, in spite the carbon tax and their furious with the Prime Minister who lied to them before the election, and now want applause for doing so.

Gilbert: There’s an ANU analysis out today by the Crawford School of Economics that says, its apparently surveyed the views of Australian large emitters carbon financiers carbon market experts, while there is obviously uncertainty about this tax, it’s found that 80% of those surveyed in this analysis believe there will be a carbon price of some sort by 2020, do you agree there will be?

Pyne: Well Kieran we have a carbon price, it’s called a carbon tax, it started on Sunday, so those analysts don’t really need to win a Nobel Prize for discovering that there will be a carbon price by 2020, because there was one introduced four days ago. The Government has introduced a carbon tax.

Gilbert: What they’re saying is that after the repeal by the Coalition, if the Coalition, which is looks very likely at the moment, is going win the next election, that once you repeal that, there will be a return to a carbon price of some sort by 2020. Do you think that is likely, or once it’s gone its gone forever?

Pyne: Look, there is absolutely no possibility of an Abbott Government introducing a carbon tax, we will be repealing the carbon tax and this is a startling finding that these economists and analysts know what an Abbott Government are going to do by 2020, when we’re in 2012. Quite frankly they should spend their either tax payer’s money, or private funds on more useful pursuits. If an Abbott Government is elected, if we are lucky enough to be elected the carbon tax will be repealed on day one, well we’ll start the repealing of it on day one and it will be gone. After doing that, after getting rid of this toxic carbon tax, we are hardly going to turn around and introduce another one. So I’m afraid those economists might have missed the boat on the political reality of the next eight years.

Gilbert: Would a reduction in the floor price, post 2015 there is talk of a $15 floor price will be reduced, potentially linked in with the European scheme. Will that be preferable, or at least workable in your view?

Pyne: Look Kieran, the Government is already crab walking away from its carbon tax, because they know it’s bad policy, bad for the economy, bad for the country and it won’t reduce emissions. So they’re trying to get away from it within days of its introduction where they’re already trying to change it, where they’re trying to make it more salvageable because they know it’s destroying their prospects because it was built on a lie six days before the election. Putting aside the carbon tax itself which is bad policy, which is hurting the country, the Prime Minister promised the Australian people she would not introduce a carbon tax and then promptly within weeks did so. Now they’ll never get over that in the Government and the public will never forgive them for it. So already within days they’re talking about changing the carbon tax, introducing a whole new round of uncertainty. The only party that offers any certainty is the Coalition, which says that if we are elected, if we are fortunate to win the confidence of the people, we will abolish the carbon tax, no ifs and no buts.

Gilbert: Tony Abbott intervened to stop Clive Palmer running in the seat of Lilley, in Brisbane. Why is that? Do you think that Clive Palmer would make a good edition to the Coalition ranks federally?

Pyne: Look there have been some very good candidates put forward in Lilley. There was a good candidate in the last election. If Tony Abbott advised Clive Palmer along the lines you have suggested, it’s because there already very good candidates lining up to take on Wayne Swan and of course the really hot rumour in Brisbane is that Wayne Swan won’t contest the next election Lilley anyway, that he will grab a parachute and jump out of the Labor plane well before the next election is over, so he won’t even be contesting it. So we have some very good candidates already lined up. If Clive Palmer wants to run in other seat, that’s entirely up to Clive Palmer’s decision making process. He’s talked about other seats, let’s see if he nominates. He’s a great Australian he’s made a great difference to Queensland in particular, he employs a lot of Australians and is a very generous man to his employees. Let’s see what he decides.

Gilbert: And finally Mal Brough is facing a bit of a challenge in Fisher for pre selection, do you support Mal Brough, or James McGrath, the architect of Campbell Newman’s win in Queensland a couple of months ago.

Pyne: Well both Mal Brough and James McGrath are two very good men. The great thing about the Liberal Party is that we are not a Stalinist Party; we do not have factional warlords sitting around in smoke filled rooms making decisions about who gets what seat. It’s a real democracy, we enjoy the fact that our party membership get to vote and chose who represents the party in Parliament and represents those seats. I took on a sitting member in 1992 myself and defeated that member twenty years ago. So it’s a real competition. Mal faces a competition from James McGrath, one of them will win and both will make great colleagues if either of them gets elected.

Gilbert: Christopher Pyne thanks for your time this morning.

Pyne: It’s a pleasure Kieran.

ENDS.