Today Show - In The House

Subjects: Peter Beattie; GST; Anthony Albanese and Craig Thomson EO&E....................... Georgie Gardner:  Deputy Prime Minister Anthon Albanese who joins us from Townsville and the Shadow Education Minister Christopher Pyne here in the studio.  Good morning to you both. Christopher Pyne:  Good morning. Anthony Albanese: G’day. Karl Stefanovic: We could not keep you two together. We had to separate the two of you with the vast amount of this great country of ours.  Albo has been banging on all week about debating Malcolm Turnbull not you, have you got something to say to Albo? Pyne: He’s running from me, he has run to Townsville. Stefanovic: Yeah. Pyne: And you caught up with him.  So he is drinking with Thommo, he is sleeping in and missing his alarm clock and he is running to Townsville to get away from me. He has had a shocking week. Gardner:  There you go. Pyne: He’s had a really bad week. Albanese: He’s - he’s a nasty man, that Christopher Pyne. Pyne: It’s true! Now you’re trying to get rid of me all together. Albanese: I wanted to debate Malcolm Turnbull.  He asked me to debate and I said come on - the Today Show, lot of people watch it.  Come and debate. Pyne: Anthony will do anything not to debate me. Albanese: National Broadband Network vs Fraudband and he wouldn’t be in it. Stefanovic: I can understand why Christopher is a little bit upset with it. Pyne: I am not upset. I am delighted. I have just shown I have beaten this guy. He has gone to Townsville to get away from me. Tried to pretend he couldn’t get a connection in the car park in Townsville this morning.  He’s having a shocker. Gardner: Well he’s in Peter Beattie’s home state. Albanese: You think I am in the Channel 9 studio? Pyne: You don’t look like you are. Gardner: You are in Peter Beattie’s home state, tell us how you are feeling about him being back in the fold? Albanese: Look it’s terrific that someone with the quality of Peter Beattie who helped transform Queensland.  His scene was the smart state, he understood that Queensland had to go forward, now he will make that contribution to the nation and isn’t it good that someone of his quality is prepared to put their hand up and re-enter public life to make a contribution.  I was in Townsville, Gladstone and Mackay yesterday and the reception was extraordinary, people were very, very happy that Peter Beattie was joining Kevin Rudd’s team. Stefanovic: You know when he left office he had an approval rating of about 43%, it wasn’t flash for him on the way out.  Also, Labor’s debt in Queensland they left it with $80 billion in debt. Pyne: Sure. Stefanovic: That’s got to be hard for them to overcome but your thoughts on Peter Beaettie and the impact he will have, nonetheless, in Queensland? Pyne: Well I don’t think he will have much of an impact at all.  I mean we already have one narcissistic egomaniac from Queensland in Canberra in Kevin Rudd. And now we are going to have two. Gardner: You’re not messing. Albanese: Nastiness from Christopher. Pyne: Now we are going to have two. I mean how many do you need? Stefanovic: That’s very negative, that’s very negative. Pyne: The truth is I think Peter Beattie is a dud.  I think the truth is that he will not make any impact in Queensland at all.  He left the state with a massive debt, a massive deficit, he had a massive scandal plagued government with ministers resigning, some of his ministers ended up in jail.  Now Kevin Rudd had to apparently pretend that he’d gone out to get Peter Beattie when the truth is that the AWU wanted to get Peter Beattie in so that if they lose the next election Peter Beattie can be the leader. So the chaos and dysfunction just continues in Canberra with the Labor Party. Stefanovic: Albo, what ever way you look at it I guess it worked for you - he certainly sucked a lot of the oxygen out of the media yesterday. Albanese: Oh well look Christopher Pyne just throws sledges around. Peter Beattie is not a member of the AWU, Peter Beattie if you knew anything about Labor in Queensland you would know that he was very separate from any of the factions in Queensland.  Peter Beattie brings to the national Parliament quality, he brings experience, he brings someone who is a great communicator.  What Christopher would have been concerned about is that yesterday I think one got put in our column, Peer Beattie has enormous support here in Queensland. Pyne: Already carrying the wind. Albanese: And he is a great performer. Gardner: Change of topic.  If you come into power, will you consider a rise in the GST? Pyne: No we won’t. Gardner: Rule that out. Pyne: Absolutely. Tony Abbott’s ruled it out all week, this is just another Labor lie trying to distract people from all the woes besetting the Labor Party’s campaign this week because they are relentlessly talking about themselves, whether it is new candidates, whether it is who is donating to the Labor Party or not, we have ruled out any change to the GST. Of course the Federal Government can’t change the GST by the way, unless all the Chief Ministers and all the Premiers get together and agree to it, there is no change to the GST so the GST will remain at 10%. The only party that hasn’t released a report on the GST, which they have been sitting on for the last two years is the Labor Party. Stefanovic: Doesn’t it make more sense though; doesn’t it make more sense to have a look at it? Doesn’t it make practical sense if we’ve got revenue issues, there’s not enough money coming in and surely we have to do something about that that is beyond what we are already doing? Pyne: Karl, Labor doesn’t have a revenue issue, it has a spending issue. This year their spending is increasing by 1%, their revenue is increasing by 0.4%, so they are continuing to massively increase their spending but of course they are not matching it on the revenue side. So, with cost of living pressures being as they are in Australia at the moment, having been caused by the carbon tax being introduced and electricity prices going through the roof, the last thing that people need is to increase the GST. Stefanovic: Let me ask you this question before we get onto the Craig Thomson issue, which Albo is very keen to have his say on I know at the end of…. Pyne: He is going to clear a few things up. Stefanovic: You need to tell us at the end of this week of campaigning, who won and why? Pyne: Well I think Labor has spent the week talking about themselves, whereas the Coalition has been talking about how to get the economy moving with our 1.5% cut to company tax. I think the take out of this week is the Coalition is on the front foot with a plan for the future about building the economy and increasing revenue, whereas Labor is mired in all these discussions about who is winning and who is losing on the Labor side. Gardner: Albo, what’s your take on the week? Albanese: That is complete nonsense, what we’ve engaged in this week, what we’ve seen this week and we’ve seen more of it today, more of the negativity from Christopher, that we began the week with the announcement with out of school hours care, extending hours, extending the number of places, extending the number of activities to take pressure off families, that was an announcement that we made at the beginning of the campaign. We’ve also been talking about the economy, I’ve been out there talking about the National Broadband Network and infrastructure announcements in Sydney, in Queensland, in Newcastle yesterday, we’ve been out there talking about our positive agenda for the future. Kevin Rudd has been engaging in debates across the board including 7.30 and programs such as that, opening himself up to scrutiny. What Tony Abbott has been doing is running from any serious debate and we know that they have also not put any costings out. If you’ve got a $70 billion cuts you’ve got to make, you’ve got to consider doing things like increasing the GST and putting it on food and that’s what the Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey said and that’s what Julie Bishop said. Pyne: Anthony is taking the salad approach, just throwing it all in.  You can’t throw all these issue in all at once. Stefanovic: Alright, just one, one final, because, there’s very important stuff happening on the show next, the ‘Buzz’ is happening next. But just before we go, one of the great front pages of all time, no one is disputing this yesterday, was “I know nothing” on the front of the Daily Telegraph yesterday, Albo what did you make of that?  And would you, if you had your time again still have a drink with Craig Thomson? Albanese: Look you’ve got to have a sense of humour, I’ve even had a few drinks with Christopher Pyne. Pyne: Yeah, but I’m not facing 172 criminal charges. Not that I’m aware of anyway. Albanese: Craig Thomson’s career…but you’ve had drinks with James Ashby mate and you tried to hide it. Pyne: Yeah, but I’m not facing 172 criminal charges my friend. Albanese: And you tried to hide it. And you tried to hide it. Pyne: You did too when you saw the camera, you ran, you did a runner. Stefanovic: Alright, alright. Albanese: And you tried to hide it. Stefanovic: Next week, I’d have a beer… I’d have a beer…. Pyne: Goodness gracious. You move like the movie ‘Go Flash’ when you saw the camera. Stefnaovic: I’d have a beer with both of you guys but next week, definitely Albo, you’ve got to be in the studio to take him on. We’ll talk to you next week, but have a great week, we appreciate you coming on. ENDS