Sky News AM Agenda

SUBJECTS: Nielsen poll; education funding E&OE............................... (Greetings omitted) Christopher Pyne MP: Well, if Labor believes those polls Kieran, then they should call the election. The last election was in August 2010. It’s due in August 2013, any later than that is a late election and Kevin Rudd is simply trying to hang on for power for even longer. The Coalition is not in the least bit concerned about polls. What we’re concerned about is cost of living pressure, job security, border protection failures and the general economic management of the country. Kieran Gilbert: There’ve been ten national polls though Mr Pyne since Kevin Rudd’s return on the 26 of June and the average of all ten of those have this now 50/50. It shows it’s going to be, it is going to be a very tight election isn’t it? Pyne: Well, I always believed the next election would be a real contest whether Julia Gillard was the Prime Minister or Kevin Rudd or anyone else because Federal polls are always much closer than State polls when there’s a big swing, one way or the other, they usually occur at State level, not Federal level. So we’ve always believed the contest at the election would be a real contest but as I said, if Labor believes that they can win the election why don‘t they call the election. The truth is that they won’t, call the election because Kevin Rudd is running scared from Tony Abbott. Tony Abbott’s beaten him once before and Kevin Rudd is frightened to call the election because he doesn’t want to be beaten by Tony Abbott again. But on the fundamental issues, Labor is failing Australians. They haven’t got rid of the carbon tax, they’ve simply changed it from a fixed price to a floating price. That’s not abolishing the Carbon Tax. The Carbon Tax remains in place. All they’ve done of course is politically vindicated everything that Tony Abbott has been saying for the last five years about the carbon tax. It’s swept away all the lies they made up about the Coalition’s position in the last five years. They haven’t stopped the boats. The boats are keeping coming. There are three over the last weekend and indeed, we had a tragedy at sea with at least eight lives lost, including a baby boy. The Government doesn’t have a plan for stopping the boats because Kevin Rudd’s given up on that. He says we can’t stop the boats, we simply have to get used to the boats coming. Gilbert: But when you look at the Leadership attributes there must be some worry for the Coalition on things like competence on economic management on vision for Australia’s future. Kevin Rudd’s got a ten point lead at the least over Tony Abbott on each of those areas. There must be some concern that each of those vital areas where people make their decisions based upon issues like economic management that Kevin Rudd individually has got such an advantage over your Leader? Pyne: Well, Kevin Rudd is a phoney. What he’s good at doing is talking. He’s not very good at doing. Kevin Rudd’s record is one of failed border protection policies with 45,000 asylum seekers arriving since he changed the laws. It’s one of debt and deficit; the five biggest deficits in Australia’s history. $254 billion of debt, it’s one of rising cost of living pressures like electricity prices because of the Emissions Trading Scheme that became the carbon tax and remains the carbon tax. That’s Kevin Rudd’s record. If Kevin Rudd believes that he can win an election he should call it and let the Australian people decide because the current flimflam policy changes, the phony election campaign that we have now. Kevin Rudd tripping over electrical cords in supermarkets and high-fiving primary school kids at schools means that he is not governing he is just campaigning. So if the Government believes they can win let’s have the election. Gilbert: Now Mr Pyne on the Better Schools program, the Education Minister, Bill Shorten is focussing now on the Catholic School system. If they do support the initiative, the reforms, it is going to be very tough for an incoming Coalition Government to unwind when you look at that in conjunction with the states that have already signed up. Pyne: Not really Kieran. The truth is that only South Australia, Tasmania the ACT, three Labor States and Territories and New South Wales have signed up to the new school funding model. Each one has got a secret deal or a special arrangement with the Commonwealth Government, which has blown the whole concept that it is a national school funding model. Independent Schools Council of Australia indicated they believed that they would sign up to this model and at the same time South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria came out and repudiated their national body. The truth is the Government doesn’t have a national school funding plan. It has an election policy and not an education policy and if we are elected we will return some stability and some sense to the school funding system and keep the current model for at least twelve months while we sort out the chaos that Labor has created around school funding. Gilbert: But if Victoria does sign on as well, which is still a possibility; the Government’s given them another two week extension. That would see the states representing three quarters of the nation’s population having agreed to this. How do you revoke that? Pyne: Well Kieran the Government’s policy is in disarray. They’ve given Tasmania a discount on indexation, they’ve given New South Wales a discount on how many students need to reach the Student Resource Standard, they’ve given more money to South Australia, more money to the ACT, but all of this starts in five years’ time. Five and six years from now these rivers of gold are supposed to flow. Over the next four years there is a $325 million cut to school funding in the federal budget. Bill Shorten needs to explain that to the Australian public because they need to know that in fact in 2014, 15 and 16 they’ll be facing real cuts. But they still have to pay their bills in schools. They can’t just put them off for five years. Gilbert: Mr Pyne, appreciate your time today. Thanks very much. Pyne: It’s always a pleasure, Kieran. Thank you. ENDS