Today Show

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – Today Show with Karl Stefanovic and Anthony Albanese
27 February 2015

SUBJECTS: Coalition Party Room; Human Rights Commission; the Economy.

KARL STEFANOVIC: We are joined by Anthony Albanese and Christopher Pyne. Good morning to you both. Nice to see you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Morning Karl.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Morning Anthony.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Again, it just goes on and on and on.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, they are just rumours. You know, rumours circulating out of the Canberra press gallery, no basis in fact whatsoever. We are getting on with the job this week and there's no suggestion there will be any kind of motion or leadership change next week.

KARL STEFANOVIC: News Limited says a senior minister tells them. So is News Limited making it up?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I don't know who is talking to the press. But whoever it is, they should stop it.

KARL STEFANOVIC: So you do admit there's a leak from inside your own party then?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You just read something from News Limited. I haven't seen that. But if people are talking to the press, they should stop it. The Australian public expect us to get on with the job of governing - that is why this week we are talking about welfare reform, foreign investment rules, doing the things that governments need to do, preparing for the budget. That is the aspiration of the Australian public to make their lives easier and not talk about ourselves.

KARL STEFANOVIC: I agree. I think everyone is sick of it, probably including Anthony Albanese.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I am sure the Labor Party are sick of it; they have been doing it for years.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: They are just talking about themselves. Two weeks ago, Christopher Pyne announced the challenge was coming on the Today Show.

KARL STEFANOVIC: That's true.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: And now...

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That is true actually.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: He can make the announcement again.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That was a different time. I'm absolutely certain that is not happening now.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Because as sure as the sun will come up, there is a challenge coming, Tony Abbott's leadership is over. It's a matter of when it happens and how it happens and who replaces him.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Anthony is no stranger to leadership changes of course because he was involved in the Rudd to Gillard and Gillard to Rudd and has been a fighter and knuckleduster in the Labor Party for decades.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: That's true and when we talked about ourselves, when we talked about ourselves, the public punished us

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You’re right.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: …and they will punish you because this week you haven't talked about anything except for yourselves.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That is not quite true.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: In the corridors, in the corridors, there were little groups of Liberals talking to each other, plotting people on the mobile phones...

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Not really. The truth is you are right, we have to get on with the job of governing for Australians. And I couldn't agree with you more. If we talk about ourselves, the Australian public will turn off us. So my advice to all my colleagues is get on with your job, go back to your electorates, spend the weekend talking to people at home, come back on Monday and let's keep on doing the things that need to be done.

KARL STEFANOVIC: The problem is, the problem here is that not only is the Australian public stop listening to you, your own party has stopped listening to you, the leadership group there, they’re not listening…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Really?

KARL STEFANOVIC: That is why they are talking to the press every day.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I don't feel that. I'm the Leader of the House. My colleagues talk to me all the time.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You need to get out more.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Maybe.

KARL STEFANOVIC: They are trying to get rid of the Prime Minister.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: My colleagues talk to me all the time and my sense is that the spill motion was decided two weeks ago. There is a bit of static on the television news last night, there is not a leadership challenge. There will not be a spill motion move next week. Two weeks ago, it was a different story and I was quite honest about it on the Today Show on the Friday morning. And that's been dealt with. I'm absolutely as certain today that there will be nothing changed next week.

KARL STEFANOVIC: What about the week after?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No Karl.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Not so certain?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I'm not going to get into that sort of speculation.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You're only giving it a week.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You asked about next week. I'm saying there is not going to be any leadership changes or spills at all. We are getting on with the yob. We have got a budget in May. We have got the foreign...

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You haven't passed the last budget yet and that is the problem. That is the problem.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We have got higher education reform. We have got higher education reform. We are doing all the things that need to get our economy moving and there are actually lots of positive stories in the economy. Jobs ads up, retail trade is up.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Unemployment is up…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Growth is up. Well, you’re focusing on one thing…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Highest in 12 years…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: 600 jobs a day…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: An extra 100,000 people...

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: 600 new jobs a day.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: An extra 100,000 unemployed since you came to office and the problem you’ve got Christopher is you have produced a budget already, and it is a dog of a budget.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, it is not. 300 out of 400 programs in the budget have been passed.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Australia has rejected it and your own caucus is rejecting it.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Rubbish. You can't just assert things - we had 300 out of 400 measures of the budget passed the Senate. So it is not true...

KARL STEFANOVIC: Couple of quick things to get through. The evidence of Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs, it might have been a little bit all over the shop at various times during testimony. But did Tony Abbott go too far, do you think?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, the truth is that we have got the people, the children out of detention that Labor put in detention that Labor put in detention.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Let's talk about her though. Julie Bishop has admitted that there may have been some sort of offer. Do you concede that an offer was made to her?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, it's a bit of a he said/she said kind of story between the Secretary of the Department and the Human Rights Commissioner.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Was she offered a job or not?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No is the answer. No. It appears in the papers this morning that she apparently asked for a new job. So I don't know. I wasn't part of those conversations. The gravamen of the story, though, is that we got the kids out of detention that Labor put into detention.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You did have an appalling record with kids in detention. There was 2,000 there, it was a debacle...

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Both sides in politics have a poor record.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We stopped the boats. You didn't.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: In terms of kids in detention, you kept kids in detention unnecessarily, stopped processing people.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We stopped the boats.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You didn't make it any better. To be fair, you didn't make it any better.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I accept that both sides of politics need to do better. That this report doesn't shine a good light on either side of politics and what they have done instead of accepting that and saying this is about the forgotten children, the name of the report gives you a bit of a hint as to what it is about, it is about the kids, instead, Tony Abbott couldn't resist attacking a strong woman in Gillian Triggs and going after her in a way in which statutory office holders should never be attacked.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: But the policy side of this, Karl is that when we left office -- Karl, when we left office in 2007 there were no children in detention and the boats had been stopped. Labor brought 50,000 illegal arrivals in on 800 boats an when we took over in 2013, there were 2,000 kids in detention. 2,000 kids in detention. And we have got 1,800 out of them out of detention. So rather than being criticised, we should actually be thanked for the fact that we have stopped the boats and got the kids out of it.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Both sides are moving towards having no kids in detention is a fine attribute.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: They will start the boats again.

KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay. Are you conceding that Labor will be in power again?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: If Labor gets into power. I didn't concede that. I said if Labor gets into power again, the boats will start again. If Labor gets into power again, they will bring the carbon tax back.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Here we go. They are back to the three word slogans which is why they are in trouble as a government. It is all about - you're the government.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: But you said you will bring the carbon tax.

KARL STEFANOVIC: You two, please. Award of the week goes to Anthony Albanese and his press department. He issued a press release yesterday. This is - can we have a look at the press release. Here we are. This is in relation to a media statement on the news that Sydney Airport Corporation Chairman Max Moore-Wilton, who is a very good friend of Anthony’s, plans to retire. That is what was on the press release, the entirety of it – ‘good’.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Sometimes one word can say a lot, Karl.

KARL STEFANOVIC: What are you doing to save the trees?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Sometimes one word can say more than a thousand words.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It is the first time Anthony has ever been able to answer a question with one word.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: How are you going with that, Chris?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good.

KARL STEFANOVIC: That's clever. All right. That will do guys. Thank you very much. Nice to see you all.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Thank you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good to see you.

[ends]

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