Transcript - ABC 891 - 2 July 2010

SUBJECTS: Black Hill Pony Club; Julia Gillard's New Great Big Tax on Mining

David Bevan: Good morning Christopher Pyne

Christopher Pyne: Good morning David

Bevan: Now the future of the pony club, it's fair to say, hangs by a thread. How many petitioners have you signed up?

Pyne: Well John Gardner, the Member for Morialta and I, together, have signed up about 3,200 signatories to the petition and John Gardner tabled those in the House of Assembly this week and spoke to that. That is an enormous number of people when you consider that there are about 200 members in the Black Hill Pony Club. 3,200 signatories means they have a much greater reach and what it tells me is that there are a lot of people in the community here in the eastern and north eastern suburbs who want to protect open space and also can't see any logic to raising to the ground the Black Hill Pony Club when they are going to need to have open space at the Magill Youth Training Centre redevelopment site. Why wouldn't they turn the Black Hill Pony Club into the signature piece of that open space because what they'll do is knock it down, they'll disperse the club and then they'll come along and say ""oh hang on we need to have some parks and recreation areas"" after they've already destroyed the Black Hill Pony club it makes no common sense.

Bevan: The Magill Training Centre, is that being sold off entirely?

Pyne: Yes, that very large piece of land is being sold off and the money is being used to build a new youth training centre for difficult youths, as you describe them, north of Adelaide.

Bevan: So the Magill Training Centre will become a new housing development

Pyne: Yes.

Bevan: But under the regulations for housing developments you've got to have a certain amount of open space which brings us back to the Pony Club.

Pyne: Precisely, so my argument has been, John Gardner's argument has been, why wouldn't you make the Black Hill Pony Club where they run their horses and do their riding part of the open space.

Bevan: Maybe because the pony club has got the best of the real estate, the best views, and so you could sell that land off and get the best price for it.

Pyne: Well, there are other difficulties with that as well. The Black Hill Pony Club certainly is in the high side of the site, but there is an argument as to whether the hills faith zone requirements mean that they won't be able to use that land for housing anyway. Where they currently ride their ponies..

Bevan: That'll end up staying open space

Pyne: That'll end up staying open space but in the mean time the arrogant state Labor government led by Foley and Rann will have gotten rid of the Black Hill Pony Club for no good outcome.

Bevan: Before you leave us Christopher Pyne, Liberal MP for Sturt, has Julia Gillard made your day a little harder by coming out and reaching an agreement with the mining companies?

Pyne: Well, David, as Jason Cukall pointed out there is a great deal of detail that needs to be gone through about this so called deal but I think the headline issue is that it was a bad tax when it was collecting $12 billion dollars and it's a bad tax when it's collecting $10.5 billion dollars. The government hasn't solved the problem of being addicted to spending and needing to raise new taxes. The Liberal Party will continue to oppose a bad tax because we are the party of low tax and labor is the party of high tax so we don't want to be fooled by this new smoke and mirrors trick of the new Prime Minister. I know that people will breathe a sigh of relief and say well that must be all over by now but in fact it's just continuing, small and medium size miners are still badly treated and it is still a bad tax for our state.

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