Sky News PM Agenda

SUBJECTS:  Greens; Mining Tax Inquiry; Inquiry into Australian Education Bill

E&OE................................

David Speers: Christopher Pyne thanks for your time, can I start with the Greens declaring an end to their agreement with Labor but they will still continue to support Labor as far as supply and confidence in Parliament. Does it make it any difference from the Coalition prospective?

Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Look it makes zero difference David and it’s not really a break up. We know the Greens and Labor are still living together, it’s more choreographed than a Jesse Ventura Hulk Hogan World Wrestling Federation fight. We also know that if there is another hung Parliament Labor will be supported by the Greens to form a Government. This is all just being done as a breach of convenience in a lead up to a Federal election so they can fly under different colours. The truth is that Labor and the Greens are synonymous. The only way to change the Government is to vote Coalition at the next election.

Speers: Let me ask you about the proposal from the Greens to have a Senate inquiry into the Mining Tax. We know the Coalition opposes the Mining Tax altogether, will you support a Senate Inquiry?

Pyne: Well we haven’t seen the proposal from the Greens for a Senate Inquiry into the Mining Tax but we don’t really need an Inquiry, David because we don’t want to review the Mining Tax we are going to abolish the Mining Tax. We’re going to get rid of it lock stock and barrel. So, if the Greens come up with a sensible suggestion for an Inquiry well we’ll look at their suggestion, but my instinct is that we don’t want to review the Mining Tax we want to abolish the Mining Tax.

Speers: Can I ask you about another policy issue that the Prime Minister this week in her jobs plan has axed a $1 billion R & D tax concession for the biggest companies in Australia. What’s the Coalition’s view on that, I know you, there’s been criticism but would you in Government restore this $1 billion tax concession?

Pyne: Well the Government is making a budget saving and dressing it up as a jobs package or a manufacturing package. They’ve re-heated an old idea to have ten hubs for manufacturing around Australia and of course they’ve fooled some people but in the media wrap-up it appears that most people can see through the Governments re-heated announcement which was actually a savings measure. The Coalition will look at all the Governments proposals in the light of the Budget situation we find ourselves in , should we be fortunate enough to win the election. But nobody should assume that we will un- do the things the Government is doing right now especially ones that might cost the budget money and putting this R & D concession back of course would now cost the budget money as it was a savings measure all along from the Labor Party which cares little about research and development and a lot about window dressing.

Speers: Yeah, because it would cost you an extra $1 billion to put it back now wouldn’t it?

Pyne: Potentially, but we’ll look at the figures close to the election when we get the Budget and then we get the PEFO and we can make final decisions then. But my instinct tells me that Labor is trying to get away with another pea and thimble trick and they’ve been caught out yet again by the experts in the field.

Speers:  Let’s turn to your portfolio – education. Today the Independent Schools body has been giving evidence before a Parliamentary Inquiry into the Gonski education reforms the Government is going to be detailing in the coming months. They’re worried about independent schools being worse off overtime. But the Government has said and the Minister has said many times that no school will lose a dollar, so what do you think they are worried about?

Pyne: Well, Peter Garrett and Julia Gillard have been very sneaky with their words. They said that no school will lose a dollar but they haven’t included whether there will be indexed for the increase in costs of education. So of course no school might lose a dollar in today’s terms but in real terms over the next four or five years, schools could be billions of dollars worse off. So in fact they haven’t guaranteed that no school will be worse off. They have only that no school will lose a dollar. But even then, The Independent Schools Council of Australia in their evidence today through the House of Representatives Inquiry have indicated that 30% of all independent schools will be worse off under the current government modelling based on the 2011 data and 40% of Western and South Western Sydney would actually lose money under the governments model. That would lead schools to close in Western and South Western Sydney, schools that charge fees between $1000 and $2000 a year could see losses of up to $1000 per student and they wouldn’t be able to be sustainable under the Governments model.

Speers: But what about the principle of the model to actually fund schools based on student need. There is pretty strong support, perhaps not with this particular body, but amongst parents, teacher groups, amongst public schools obviously and some catholic schools as well. What’s wrong with that principle?

Pyne: Well David there’s nothing wrong with that principle and that’s the model we have now. The SES funding model is a model based on need. The income that is generated by schools, the occupations of parents, there education etc. is pumped into a system and out comes a score per school which is needs based.  So we’re not actually arguing about a new needs based system, we have a needs based system, but there is a great deal of ignorance in the community about what the current model is. That’s not a reason for pretending that we don’t have a need based model now. The Government doesn’t have a model to respond to the Gonski report. They are yet to give any indication of where they are heading and apparently this new system has to be in place by the first of January next year; so it is another Garrett education bungle which is starting to be being exposed today in the House of Representatives Inquiry.

Speers:  Well, what if Peter Garrett in the coming months when they do produce their response to the Gonski reform does reach a deal with at least some States to have a new funding arrangement in place for next year? If you do win the election will you honour those agreements?

Pyne: Well, we will see what they come up with. I mean they have had the Gonski report since November 2011 David. It’s now 14 months and they are yet to come up with a model. They can’t come up with a model because every time they try and change the current system there are losers, whether they’re Catholic schools, we saw today that Independent schools expect one in three of their schools to be worse off under what the g=Government is offering. There is no plan on how to deal with disadvantaged students, low SES students, Indigenous students, disabled students. I mean it really is a mess and the Coalition has offered to extend the current model for two years to give a government, whether it is us or Labor, a chance to properly implement a new funding model if in fact that needs to be done.

Presenter: Christopher Pyne we’ll have the leave it there. Thank you for joining us.

Pyne: It’s a pleasure.

ENDS.