Today Show

KARL STEFANOVIC: Between past and present Prime Ministers has plummeted to a new low with Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott publicly clashing in Parliament over gun laws. Christopher Pyne and Anthony Albanese join us now, good morning guys.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good morning.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Karl.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay, forget about Clinton-Trump, we had Clinton and Trump yesterday, Abbott and Turnbull, that was the biggest show in town, how was it for you to sit ringside with that show yesterday Christopher?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well no one’s at odds in the government about gun laws at all Karl, it’s a complete distraction from the Labor Party…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Nothing to see here.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: The fact that they will not support the Australian Building and Construction Commission coming back…

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott are both saying that we never supported the watering down of the Howard gun laws, in fact because of the actions of both governments the guns laws have been strengthened by putting a temporary ban on bringing in lever action shotguns so it’s quite the opposite to the way the Labor Party’s been trying to portray it, this is another run of the ‘mediscare’ campaign.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Well you did a pretty decent job of portraying it your own way yesterday, Tony Abbott says there was no deal, the PM says there was, who’s lying?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: There wasn’t a deal of any kind and everyone knows that’s the case to water down John Howard’s gun laws, in fact John Howard’s gun laws where strengthened by the actions that the Abbott government took then re-supported by the Turnbull government. If neither of those governments had taken action under John Howard’s gun laws the lever action shotgun would’ve come into Australia, so Labor’s trying to do here what they did with the ‘mediscare’ campaign, which is to say black is white and make people believe it.

KARL STEFANOVIC: So just to clarify there was no deal done right?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, there was no deal to water down John Howard’s gun laws.

KARL STEFANOVIC: So what was the deal then?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: There was certainly a deal to put a sunset clause on the temporary ban because we wanted to make sure that the states and territories visited this subject and classified this particular….

KARL STEFANOVIC: And Tony Abbott didn’t know about it?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well it’s quite clear that the government knew about it because Michael Keenan and Peter Dutton made the arrangement to ensure that this matter didn’t just sit there forever on the books, but that the states and territories had to return to the subject of the classification of the lever action shotgun.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Do you accept that Tony Abbott didn’t know about it?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Look I don’t know what was in his mind a lot of the time, I wasn’t in the Prime Minister’s office but I can tell you on thing, there is no fissure between Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott over the fact that we will not water down John Howard’s gun laws. In fact what we are doing is strengthening those and want the states and territories to take the action they need to take to classify this particular weapon, that’s why the temporary ban was put in place. The sunset clause was put in place to make sure the subject was re-visited as and sensible government would do rather than just allow it to go on into the future.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Christopher Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull despise each other.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Not true.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Are you serious?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Absolutely serious, they are very old friends, of course they have a difference of opinion about who the Prime Minister should be, that’s been played out in public, we know that and Malcolm Turnbull is the Prime Minister.

KARL STEFANOVIC: He effectively called Tony Abbott a liar in Parliament yesterday.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Rubbish, and Tony Abbott said on the 7:30 Report on Wednesday night that he wanted the Turnbull government to have an emphatic win at the next election so he’s 100% behind the Turnbull government.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Malcolm Turnbull effectively called Tony Abbott a liar in Parliament yesterday.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Not true.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Alright, so he says I’m satisfied that the Minister for Justice acted in full knowledge of the PM’s office at the time, at best that’s a contradiction, at worst it’s a lie.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: And Tony Abbott at the end of question time stood up and made it perfectly clear…

KARL STEFANOVIC: That he didn’t like him.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, that there was never any intent to water down the Howard government’s gun laws, in fact we strengthened them and Malcolm Turnbull has said exactly the same thing, both Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott are on the same page on this issue and no attempt by the Labor Party to create a distraction will deny the fact that they don’t want to bring the CFMEU to heel, they are still running a protection racket for the CFMEU.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: When you’re in a hole stop digging Christopher.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I’m being asked the questions, no one’s interested in your views this morning Anthony.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: That’s because the whole show is about the government, I mean if they had entrepreneurs in the modern Liberal Party they’d be selling popcorn outside the House of Reps chamber because what we’ve seen is that this mob are so divided they can’t even agree on how to re-write history. Yesterday you had Malcolm Turnbull essentially call Tony Abbott a liar in Parliament and then you had Tony Abbott return serve and stand up in an extraordinary contribution and essentially call Malcolm Turnbull out. I mean this was a cage fight on national television on the floor of the House of Representatives, this is a divided government without an agenda, without a sense of purpose, it’s just about whether Malcolm Turnbull can survive or not. And Tony Abbott now it’s on, it’s on out there for all to see and it is all of Malcolm Turnbull’s own making because he was incapable of giving an answer to a pretty clear question on Tuesday about the guns for votes deal.

KARL STEFANOVIC: That’s all you’ve got time for.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: There’s never been any such deal, and everyone agrees that there’s never been any such deal

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You just said there was with Michael Keenan.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Rubbish, how can there be a guns for votes deal when in fact the guns were stopped from coming into the country?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You have confirmed that there was and Malcolm Turnbull this week…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Stop running your ‘mediscare’ campaigns.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Left it open as well over industrial relations

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: The guns were stopped, the guns were blocked from coming into the country.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Christopher Pyne, can you just cool your jets for a second, you’re getting very animated and I don’t like it.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’s just not true, what Anthony’s saying is not true.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Christopher, just say less, less is more.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You guys, can you leave it?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: When are you going to challenge Bill Shorten? We all know you want Bill Shorten’s job.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay see you next week you two.