Sky News First Edition

E&OE................................ Kieran Gilbert: As I said the Parliamentary returns this week, the Coalition begins where they concluded 2012.  You must be pleased?   Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Well I think the truth is that the Australian public have well and truly woken up to this Government and Julia Gillard in particular, and the Prime Minister has had a horror start to the year.  Trying to shoehorn Nova Peris into the Senate over Trish Crossin; calling an election and that going badly; Craig Thomson being charged with 149 offences on Thursday; Peter Slipper appearing in Court in mid-February; two Ministers resigning on Saturday; Eddie Obeid and his family being in the ICAC hearings.  I mean, you couldn’t really get much worse.  This is a dysfunctional, divided and chaotic government.  The Rudd forces are circling the Prime Minister.  And on the other side of the ledger the Coalition is ready for stable, prosperous, strong, safe and secure government. Gilbert: You make reference to the Ministerial resignations as evidence of a Government in chaos.  But isn’t that just par for the course essentially?  You see resignations in politics.  A number of your Coalition colleagues won’t be recontesting at the election. Pyne: There’s a couple of aspects to that.  Firstly, if the Prime Minister hadn’t announced a seven month election campaign then the resignations wouldn’t be seen through the prism of an election campaign.  So the Prime Minister’s judgement has yet again been called into question not just by the Coalition, Kieran, but by many members of the Labor Caucus who are all singing like canaries to the newspapers every day about how much they think Gillard’s judgement is skew-if. Gilbert: That’s not really chaos is it though?  People resign.  They can’t stay in politics forever. Pyne: Well you don’t think this has been a chaotic start to Julia Gillard’s election campaign?  Basically she’s been on the back foot ever since she came back to work and every single reason has been of her own making.  I mean, no one forced her to stand by Craig Thomson eight times in the Parliament and in spite of Graham Richardson warning Labor about Craig Thomson, no one forced Labor and Julia Gillard to keep preselecting him and keeping him in the Caucus.  No one forced her to jettison Harry Jenkins and bring Peter Slipper in as the Speaker.  That was her decision.  She thought it was a masterstroke.  Well it hasn’t turned out that way. Gilbert: You said the Government is starting to resemble a scene from Downfall.  It’s a movie about the collapse of Hitler’s Third Reich.  The incoming Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says it’s deeply hurtful to holocaust survivors; it should be offensive to any right thinking Australian.  He’s called for you to apologise. Pyne: Well look Mark Dreyfus is the man who called Tony Abbott ‘Joseph Goebbels’ two years ago, and Mark Dreyfus is yet to apologise and Mark Dreyfus is Jewish.  So, to call Tony Abbott Joseph Goebbels two years ago and not to apologise was an outrageous and sick thing to do and he should apologise for that.  Now, Downfall is a fictitious movie and what I said was that not Julia Gillard and Adolf Hitler bore any resemblance but I said the chaos that was engulfing this Government bore resemblance to scenes from Downfall. Gilbert: So you have no intention to apologise? Pyne: If anyone has taken offence at that, and I’m not necessarily apologising to Mark Dreyfus because his is confected outrage designed to get a headline, but if anybody else has taken offence at that well of course I retract the statement because I am bigger than Mark Dreyfus.  He can’t apologise.  Two years later he’s still clinging to the idea that he was right and I’m quite happy to retract that statement if it clears the air.  Mark Dreyfus should do the same. Gilbert: Finally, I want to ask you about the ongoing criticism by yourself and Tony Abbott of the Government for accepting the vote of Craig Thomson, as you mentioned arrested last week on fraud charges.  Every electorate has the right to have their MP’s vote count.  You are a student of the way that the House operates.. Pyne: Sure. Gilbert: ..the standing orders; you know that is the reality.  Isn’t that confected outrage from the Coalition to say the Government shouldn’t be accepting his vote? Pyne: Well Craig Thomson can vote but the Government doesn’t have to make it count.  So when he votes with us we absent a member.  So it’s very easy, when Craig Thomson votes with the Coalition one of our members sits in the advisor’s box. Gilbert: But doesn’t that undermine the way the House is meant to operate? Pyne: No.  What it says is that we think Craig Thomson’s behaviour has been unacceptable.  We think that he shouldn’t be accepted in the political world if you like at the moment because of the terrible cloud that is hanging over him.  The Coalition has removed, removes a member if he votes with us.  The Government should do the same. Gilbert: Mr Pyne, thanks for your time. ENDS