Transcript - MTR 1377 - 17 June 2011

SUBJECTS: Vote of no confidence in the Government; Malaysian people swap

Steve Vizard: ...Well on the line is Shadow Minister for Education Christopher Pyne joins me, Christopher thanks for your time.

Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Thank you Steve.

Vizard: It's unprecedented isn't it?

Pyne: Yes the Parliament has never condemned a government policy where both houses have voted together to condemn it and more unprecedented is the fact that the government is prepared to ignore that. We moved yesterday to censure the Prime Minster for ignoring the Parliament, the will of the Parliament, which of course is the will of the people expressed through the Parliament and she not only walked out and refused to debate it, she lost the vote and closed down Question Time in a fit of peak. So yesterday was an absolute shambles in Question Time, the Parliament was chaotic, the Government lost control of the Parliament, it lost three votes yesterday and you'd have to say that the public is getting thoroughly sick of the uncertainty that this hung parliament and this Government have created.

Vizard: On that question of the hung parliament and the principle, the Prime Minster yesterday as she has used in the past, used the excuse of a minority government, unusual circumstances, which gives rise to this particular outcome and is very transience on the issue. She said it's just a product of a minority government and the things that I need to do in order to run a government in unique circumstances, what's your comment to her response?

Pyne: Well there have been minority governments before in Australia's history - In the early part of the last century, as recently as the 1960s and the 1940s and at no time have both Houses of Parliament passed a motion condemning a government policy, in this case the Malaysian people swap deal, so the Prime Minister can say that, but you have to really hold it up to the light to see if it is absolutely true and in this case it is not true. The Prime Minster should respond to the will of the Parliament, because the Parliament is the elected representatives of the people and a majority of the Houses have rejected the Malaysian people swap deal. She can say that this is a difficult Parliament and expect to lose votes but in 1961-63 the Menzies Government lost four votes and called an election because they said the public was thoroughly sick of the ambiguous nature of the Parliament and this government has already lost sixteen votes in ten months.

Vizard: At what point does this equal a no confidence motion in the government.

Pyne: It's a very interesting question; you could say that cumulatively there has already been a vote of no confidence in this government. Obviously, technically the opposition has to say that we regard a particular vote as a vote of no-confidence and it can be any vote at all from the most minor thing to the most serious thing - if the government lost it and we'd allocated it as a motion of no-confidence. But the Menzies Government never lost a no-confidence motion. Their view was that having lost four votes the public had a right to expect a government that could govern and so Robert Menzies took his government to the people in '63 and won. And Julia Gillard of course is too terrified to take her carbon tax to the people because she lied about it before the election and is now introducing one.

Vizard: I want to ask about the message that this effectively no-confidence vote from the entire parliament, not just one House, but both Houses uniquely seems to the rest of the world a time that Australia seems to be negotiating with the rest of the world. We're negotiating with Malaysia at the moment to try and get up this Malaysian deal, but equally important as an Australian delegation we understand with Geneva we are negotiating with the United Nation HCR to try and get their approval which is required, at least tacitly to the Malaysian solution. What message do you think this sends to the rest of the world in respect to the Malaysian solution and the nature of the Australian political process?

Pyne: Well effectively the parliament has said we do not support the Malaysian people swap deal and the message to Malaysia is the parliament does not support it and the executive is acting on its own, freewheeling if you like, in its own policy, whereas the parliament is moving in a different direction. If you were the Malaysian Government you would want to be very careful about proceeding when you know the parliament of Australia doesn't support this Government's policy. And you have to wonder how long it would last and it sends a message to the rest of the world that the Government is prepared to operate without the support of the Australian Parliament.

Quite frankly Steve, that to me is a motion of no confidence in the Australian Government and if the Government had any integrity it would call an election and let the people cast their judgement on both border protection and a carbon tax.

Vizard: And finally there's been a mooted High Court challenge to this so-called "Malaysia Solution". It's happening on all fronts. Christopher, can I get your response on that as well?

Pyne: Well, the "Malaysian Solution" is unpopular with all sides of the debate. Those people who believe that asylum seekers should be welcomed to Australia are furious obviously that the Government is choosing to send 800 asylum seekers back to a very uncertain fate in Malaysia where they could face being caned and goodness knows what else. And those people that believe we should support our borders strongly and reject those asylum seekers coming here are angry because they believe this solution won't make any difference to outcome of people smuggling. So the Government is losing in all directions.

And this unfortunately is tantamount to all this Government's policies. Firstly they underdid their response to the live cattle exports. And then they overdid it by banning all cattle exports. And now they're doing nothing while potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of exports going up in smoke and this could have really important social impacts on Northern Australia who relies so much on cattle exports. So whatever this Government touches it has the Midas touch in reverse.

Vizard: Finally Christopher, we're coming up to news, how can this play out? We can't keep seeing policies rejected, the parliament giving no-confidence motions, the Prime Minister saying "I'm acting in unusual circumstances." It's destabilising Australia and our perception internationally. How should this play out?

Pyne: Well, Steve, the Westpac Melbourne Institute Report this week said that confidence had dropped to its lowest level in two years. The reason confidence is dropping is because people are uncertain about how the country is being governed. The only way to resolve this is to accept that yesterday's vote was effectively a vote of no-confidence in the Government and for the Prime Minister to go and see the Governor General and call an election. It's the only way to return certainty to Australia. We're too good a country to be governed in this uncertain, chaotic and shambolic fashion.

ENDS