Sky News Agenda

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview - Sky News Agenda
Monday 7 September 2015

SUBJECTS: Higher education reforms; China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: … sitting there is a group of photographs. I like to have photographs of my wife and children around me on the desk and inevitably you collect art works by my children of which they are of variable quality but they're all beautiful to me and a few different headlines that have grabbed me over the years, whether it's my higher education reforms or other things. Some of the more interesting people that I've come to know over time, not necessarily presidents and prime ministers but people like Tony Staley for example that I've always had a high regard for. So- and you get given lots of different bits and pieces over the years, so I collect them all and that's 23 years of political history behind me on my desk.

QUESTION: Well you mentioned higher education reforms, we'll get to that in a moment but I've just got to ask you obviously about the anniversary today. Two years of the lifecycle of the Abbott Government as well as the news poll that's out today as a bit of a birthday present from The Australian for the Government. Look it hasn't been a good trot on the polls, I know that you don't like to comment on polls but when you get up to 18 consecutive months of being behind on the two-party preferred vote, surely it is time to offer a comment about what you need to do to try and turn that around?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well obviously the polls have been sticky for some time and yeah would be- not be realistic to recognise that fact. But what we're trying to do in the Government is focus on jobs growth on the economy, on the things that matter and we are sometimes distracting ourselves from the agenda that's important to the Australian people.

It's difficult in Australia at the moment, because we are transitioning in the economic sense, particularly in states like South Australia and Victoria, from a reliance on heavy manufacturing to a reliance on things like information technology, the defence industry, agriculture, adding value and try and explain to the Australian people that that mining boom period of the Howard Government and the Hawke/Keating period couldn't last forever hasn't been as easy as anybody would have expected. So sure we have challenges but luckily we're in government and not Labor because as Graham Richardson wrote on the weekend, at least the Government accepts that there is an issue that needs to be dealt with, whereas the Labor Party simply pretends there's no problems at all and that you can keep on wildly spending as though there was no tomorrow. Let's not forget even the Intergenerational Report, an independent report said under Labor if they'd kept going where they were, our spending [indistinct] the Commonwealth would be 36 per cent of GDP and to put that in perspective, the highest it's ever been is 25 per cent.

QUESTION: Your colleague though, your South Australian colleague Andrew Southcott has announced that he won't be contesting the next election. It's going to be very hard to hold a seat like Boothby without if you like the profile and the stickiness of a local member who's built up a profile over almost two decades.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well inevitably everyone either retires or is defeated in politics. That's the nature of the business. Andrew's had 20 years, or will have had 20 years by the time of the next election. He's decided to hang up his gloves and good luck to him, that's his decision. He's been a valued colleague and he's a friend. I assure you we will get an excellent candidate for Boothby and I'm sure that Andrew will put his best foot forward to make sure that candidate wins the seat and I am very confident that we will win Boothby and Sturt in South Australia at the next election and Hindmarsh.

We are 12 months from an election. The doomsayers who talk about the polls right now, what that means for an election, I have to remember Peter as I'm sure you know in our business we have to make a sale very three years. We don't have to make it the day of the news poll we have to make it the day of the election and I've done that eight times, Andrew did it seven times, I believe that we will win Boothby and Sturt at the next election and I'm sure Andrew will help us to get a great candidate in Boothby that makes that happen.

QUESTION: You've done it all those times, that's true and quite often when your political demise has been incorrectly predicated by some commentators but you haven't had to do it with the situation with the Nick Xenophon party which is now going to manifest itself in lower house seats in South Australia. He is extremely popular over there and the nature of the political climate around the talk around subs and issues and concerns around a lack of protectionism for local industry there, it's going to make it very hard for both major parties isn't it when you've got a major parties in some of its seats.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Peter one of the reasons that Nick Xenophon is popular in South Australia is because he doesn't have an opponent. Now every time I say something the Labor Party disagrees with me and puts a different view but when Labor says something, the Liberal Party provides a rebuttal. With Nick Xenophon and because he's an independent in the Senate he hasn't run lower house candidates before, he's never been put under a great deal of scrutiny. Nick Xenophon decides to run candidates in lower house seats, he'll be coming on to the same pitch as Liberal and Labor and he'll be dealt with in exactly the same way as Liberal and Labor deal with each other. I remind you that in the last federal election, sorry the last state election, Nick Xenophon was polling very highly in South Australia. Labor decided to take him on attacking him over penalty rates and his vote halved in that period. So when Nick Xenophon is on the same pitch as Labor and Liberal should he put himself there, he'll be subject to the same level of scrutiny and the media who at the moment live to write everything that Nick Xenophon says as though it's been handed down from Mount Sinai I think will discover that they can train [indistinct] the media but I know how they change.

QUESTION: Is there a chance though, Christopher Pyne you're the most senior South Australia Liberal, if there a chance that the Liberal and the Labor parties in South Australia might do to Nick Xenophon what you did to Janine Haines from the Democrats when she tried to shift to the lower house and swapped preferences between yourselves to if you like eliminate that third, that otherwise becomes a real problem if you get to either of the major parties giving preferences?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I think that kind of discussion is very premature. We are a long way from the next election, and discussing things like that doesn't really advance the political debate in the current environment. But all I'm saying to you is that Nick Xenophon has faced very little scrutiny as a political entity because he has remained in the Senate. If he chooses to come into the Lower House he will have made the decision to play with the big major parties, and the big major parties will respond accordingly. Look again, Nick Xenophon's Senate vote- let's not forget Nick Xenophon's Senate vote was highest in seats like Kingston and Makin and Wakefield — all Labor seats. So if Nick Xenophon runs senator candidates in those Labor seats he has more chance of winning those than he does of winning Liberal seats.

QUESTION: …that certainly is much of an issue for Labor as it could well be for Liberals in seats like Boothby, but let's move on. Let me ask you about what you've got planned for this week and next. You're the Manager of Government Business, could you give our viewers a bit of a window into what the Government's strategy will be over the next two weeks, ideally in question time.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well obviously we need to continue to prosecute the China Free Trade Agreement, China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which is absolutely vital to jobs and our economy in Australia, and that Labor is trying to vandalise and sabotage because they are the cat's paw of the CFMEU, and Bill Shorten needs to stand up to the union movement rather than demonstrate the weakness, which is one of his problems in the polls because the public sees him as a weak man and a weak leader. So we will continue to prosecute the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. We're [indistinct] legislation in the next fortnight dealing with things like the Asia Investment Bank, which needs to pass through the parliament, the issues around changes to citizenship for dual nationals who are fighting with terrorist organisations, are likely to come back either in the next fortnight for debate and passing through the House of Representatives. So we have as usual a full slate of activities in the parliament.

QUESTION: Is there any room to move from the Government perspective on the China Free Trade Agreement? It looks like Bill Shorten has boxed himself into a corner with the unions that are being very aggressive in attacking the deal that was inked with China. Is the Government at all open to a compromise just to get it through? Or is it a case of take it or leave it Mr Shorten?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement has been subject to meticulous negotiation over a 10 year period. I remind you, starting at the Howard Government, continuing throughout the Rudd-Gillard Government, who would never bring it into port, and then finally concluding under Andrew Rob and Tony Abbott in a way that would be incredibly beneficial to Australia. Ninety-five per cent of Australian exports to China will be tariff free, giving us a huge boost to our economy post the mining boom.

Now, China and Australia have negotiated this. Up until recently Labor indicated they support it. The CFMEU have yanked on Bill Shorten's chain, pulling him back into line because they are running the Labor Party, and what this indicates to us is the risk that Labor poses to jobs and growth in Australia, and that the CFMEU will backpack the cabinet table with their own seat if Labor should win the next federal election.

QUESTION: You mentioned that there's some memorabilia behind you around some higher education. I suspect that's cartoons from what I can see there. But what about the legislation? That's not coming back in this parliamentary period is it, but it will come back before the Christmas break? Would that be a fair assumption?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I'm continuing my discussions with crossbenchers about higher education reform agenda. They are progressing and I intend to renew those with enthusiasm. My intention is to bring the bill back in this spring session, and I hope it will be passed because it's very important for maintaining our international reputation for high quality, for getting more revenue into universities, supporting students, and spreading opportunity to tens of thousands of more Australians to get the chance that people like you and I did to get a higher education.

QUESTION: Christopher Pyne, one final question if I can. You're probably the most senior moderate in the Liberal Party I would argue, but then I wouldn't really think that Julie Bishop is a moderate or not I suppose. What's your view on refugees and this issue? We've heard Craig Laundy come out over the weekend and talk about the need for Australia to up the overall intake. The Prime Minister, according to David Speers, is leaving the door open on that without saying he's going to do so, but we will certainly take more refugees at least from the Syrian area. Would you like to see Australia increase its refugee intake? Or because we already lead the world in that amount per capita we do have enough already as long as we target it towards where the conflict zone is?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Peter, under the Abbott Government we have increased the overall humanitarian intake to over 18,000 from the 14,500 that was previously. So we have increased the intake. I believe Australia can do a great deal to support genuine refugees, especially once we have secured our own borders and therefore return confidence in the Australian people in the immigration intake. Australians are a very generous people, they're happy to take migrants, they're happy to take refugees, but they want them to come the right way.

And what we're seeing in the last 24 hours is the Government sending our most senior person in this area, Peter Dutton, to Geneva to discuss how we can help more. We are going to increase the number of people from that area who are forming part of our humanitarian intake, and there will be further announcements around our response to the Middle East crisis over the coming days and weeks, all of which I believe will get large support from the Australian public.

QUESTION: And we'll bring that all to our viewers here on Sky News when it happens, Christopher Pyne, Manager of Government Business in the house. We appreciate you joining us. Thanks again, we'll see you next Monday.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It's a great pleasure, thank you Peter.

[ends]