The Project
14 Sep 2016
Transcipt SUBJECTS: Turnbull Government Anniversary
CARRIE BICKMORE: We’re joined now by the Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne.
Christopher look, there’s been a lot of columns today on Malcolm Turnbull’s first year as PM, not all of them glowing, what do you believe you guys as a government could have done better?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I think we’ve done a lot right actually in the last 12 months, we’ve got economic growth at 3.3%, business confidence is up, consumer confidence is up, we created 200,000 jobs, we released that National Innovation and Science Agenda, we’ve got the NBN really humming along now in a way that it wasn’t under the previous government. So we’ve got a lot right, we’ve also got to get to do a lot more into the future obviously because you can’t rest on your laurels, but out in the public domain they’re happy for us to be getting on with the job.
JOURNALIST: Minister you’ve been very quick tonight to rattle off a list of the government’s achievements, Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff made the point last week that that list of achievements was not available anywhere, and yet today is mysteriously available on the Liberal Party’s website, any thoughts there?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well you wouldn’t release the list of achievements on the first anniversary of the Turnbull government any other day than the first anniversary of the Turnbull government, so it’s why that’s been released today because today is the first year anniversary, kind of follows logically.
CARRIE BICKMORE: But if you had lots to celebrate that you were achieving wouldn’t you just have it plastered everywhere all year around so everyone could always see it?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well the most important thing we do is the next big thing, the next job, the next day. Talking about our achievements, resting on our laurels is not what the public elected us to do, they want us to keep getting on with the job and today we passed the omnibus savings bill, that’s $6.3 billion worth of savings, so a lot of people said we wouldn’t be able to get anything past, that we wouldn’t be able to govern, well we’ve put the lie to that already on only day 5 of sittings of the new Parliament.
PETER HELIAR: Mr Pyne I just have a question about…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You’re encourageable!
PETER HELIAR: As a last resort it’s a government that’s not, well they’re not all together friendly with each other, as a last resort do you think there’ll ever come a time where you can all get together and support the Prime Minister?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well we all are doing just that…
PETER HELIAR: I know you are, but I’m talking the team…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We’re a very happy family.
PETER HELIAR: No you’re not.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We are a happy family, all families have some days when they’re happier than others but we are a happy family, we are a good team, we’re getting on with the job and it’s starting to dawn on Labor Pete that they are on the wrong side of the House, because they were incredibly flat today, the government has its tail up and we’re getting on with it.
WALEED ALY: I can’t let it go that you want to tell us that you want to tell us that you’re all unified.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I feel like I’m in a happy family, I come from a large family.
WALEED ALY: I’m not talking about the Pyne’s.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We don’t have to disagree with each other about everything.
WALEED ALY: I’m sure the Pyne’s are very tight but I just – c’mon, your Liberal Party is clearly divided; you have to accept that, I mean do you need me to cite examples.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Look Walled people have different opinions, in the Pyne family, we don’t all have the same opinions, sometimes we argue about things, but we’re actually a united family.
WALEED ALY: Okay, I know where you’re going with this.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: And same with the Liberal Party, we don’t all have to have the same opinion…
WALEED ALY: No, no, this isn’t about different opinions.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We’re perfectly entitled to have different opinions.
WALEED ALY: C’mon let’s be real this isn’t about different opinions this is about white anting so when Tony Abbott gets on national broadcast media and says the government is in government but not in power, or last year when he comments on a leak of classified documents which you shouldn’t even be commenting on and says that a decision about submarines that was delayed he’s flabbergasted at and that Malcolm Turnbull is compromising our national self respect, this is not a difference of opinion, this is white-anting. Has Malcolm Turnbull done enough to stand up to that faction of your party?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I’m not a commentator on what other people say to the press either off the record or on the record, I’m an advocate and an activist for good government policies, and I’m just going to keep getting on with my job because that’s what I get paid to do, I’m not going to worry about what other people have to say.
WALEED ALY: So you’re happy to commentate when it was happy families but when they’re examples of not happy families you’re not a commentator?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I don’t want to be drawn into this particular discussion, so I’m not going to.
CARRIE BICKMORE: He’s gone to his bedroom, shut the door.
WALEED ALY: Alright, that’s what happens every Christmas Day….
CARRIE BICKMORE: Christopher thanks for your time tonight.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’s a great pleasure, thank you.