Sunrise
31 May 2012
Transcipt SUBJECT: The day in Parliament
E&OE……
David Koch: You’re all as bad as each other. You all look like gooses. On a day that retail sales figures were terrible, construction figures terrible. Both sides of politics are playing games in parliament.
Christopher Pyne: Well, David, it’s a very serious point and that is the Government thought rather than worrying about things like retail figures, jobs, the cost of living and the carbon tax they would pull a stupid stunt and get Craig Thomson to vote with the Opposition and it’s a very important principle on our part and that is we believe Craig Thomson’s vote is a tainted vote and we won’t accept it. So the only way to make that not count is for one of us to leave. As soon as I realised Craig Thomson was voting with us I bolted so my vote wouldn’t count.
Koch: But you all looked like gooses. Why does it matter? It was just a minor vote to gag Joe Hockey or something like that. Who cares? Just get on with running the country.
Pyne: Well, we are in the Opposition David. The Government should be getting on with running the country. It’s our job to hold them to account and we think it’s a very important principle that Craig Thomson’s vote should not be counted by the Government.
Koch: You’ve said that. The Government has taken a different decision. Why don’t you just accept that and say, “ok, let’s move on to more important issues” rather than just keep playing the games? As I said, it’s not just your side, it’s the other side as well and you wonder why we lose faith in our politicians.
Pyne: Yesterday David, we asked 11 questions. None of them were about Craig Thomson. All of them were about the carbon tax, the cost of living and the enterprise migration agreement for the Roy Hill project so that was a very minor incident that occurred in the morning, it was unedifying that the Government did that. We will not accept Craig Thomson’s vote.
Koch: You’ll do the same stunt again? You’ll just keep doing a runner?
Pyne: If he votes with us, I will sit or somebody will sit in the advisors box or leave the chamber so his vote doesn’t count and I call on Julia Gillard to make sure the same thing happens for the Labor Party. Otherwise she’s pushed him out of the caucus to try and get some credit for taking action while she still continues to accept his vote on the floor of the Parliament. She can’t have it both ways.
Koch: Alright, Christopher Pyne in Canberra. Thanks for your time.
Pyne: Thank you David.
ENDS.