Transcript - Two Chrisses ABC 891 - 2 March 2009
04 Mar 2009
Transcipt (Greetings omitted)
Journalist:
Christopher Pyne, early election in Queensland, is this smart politics?
Pyne:
No it's not smart politics. People think, Premiers think, and I think sometimes Prime Ministers think that if they go early they'll avoid potential pitfalls down the track. I heard the 'spin cycle' I think on Friday morning where they were talking about potential unemployment doubling in Queensland, losing the triple A credit rating, and so Anna Bligh is trying to avoid the worst of that by going now rather than in September. Unfortunately for State Premiers, but fortunately for democracy over the last 10 or 20 years, Australians have become even more sophisticated and attuned to politics because they have so many sources of information. The internet age has changed where people get their information from and they don't like been treated like mugs, they don't like being taken for fools, and early elections in the Northern Territory and Western Australia have proved catastrophic for both of those two Labor Governments. And I think Anna Bligh has made a bungle and she will pay for it on March 21st. Even just going back in history, when Bob Hawke called an early election in 1984 the public reacted very negatively and Andrew Peacock achieved a substantial swing and won a number of seats back from Labor that we'd lost in '83; and in '98 John Howard called an early election and a similar thing happened. We lost 17 or 18 seats and came close to losing the election. The public mark people down for trying to get a political advantage, being seen to be cynical.
Journalist/Schacht:
(Discuss an early election and Des Corcoran's Premiership.)
Journalist/Caller:
(Caller raises the emissions trading scheme.)
Pyne:
...The difficulty here is that the new Government took over an emissions trading scheme proposal from the Howard Government, which if they had continued with the Opposition would have had little difficulty with because it wasn't intensely bureaucratic. It wasn't extremely expensive, and it would have been effective. Unfortunately in their desire to complicate things they have constructed an emissions trading scheme, which of course we haven't seen the legislation for yet, but the proposal they're talking about, which is very complicated, very bureaucratic, handing out exemptions to a whole lot of industries, which means the lobbyists have been brought into play again, and the Opposition is very sceptical that this emissions trading scheme is going to work. There is nothing wrong with an emissions trading scheme per se. We had one of our own that we were going to implement if we won the election. But the way that Penny Wong handled this, there are Labor MPs and Labor Ministers saying it is a dog of a policy...
Journalist:
Well they're not saying that publicly.
Pyne:
No no they're saying that privately and my sense is that it is in real trouble and the problem is that they have made it far far too complicated.
Journalist:
Didn't Malcolm Turnbull support an emission trading scheme when you were in Government? And as Opposition Leader?
Pyne:
We've all supported an emissions trading scheme in Government and since the election we're quite open to an emissions trading scheme, but it is one of the tools in the tool box for fighting greenhouse gas emissions. That doesn't mean you have to supports a 'bung' emissions trading scheme policy, and ETS by itself is not the holy grail for fighting greenhouse gas emissions. If the proposal put forward by Labor is no good, it's not compulsory for the Opposition or in fact anyone else to support it, and as James (caller) points out, Get Up, the Australia Institute, even the Greens are saying this emissions trading scheme proposal from Labor is not any good. Now just because it says ETS doesn't mean it has to be purchased. There are a whole range of policies Malcolm Turnbull has enunciated to do with reducing greenhouse gas emissions that will work, and the emissions trading scheme is one of those, but Labor needs to get it right, otherwise we'll put our whole economy at risk.
(Schacht responds)
Caller:
(Raises Christopher Pyne saying he is unembarrassable and asks whether he is embarrassed for saying there is a difference in alcohol price between black and white people, and not taking a stand on children in detention.)
Pyne:
Well Jim (caller) your facts are wrong in both regards. I've never advocated a differential price for alcohol in the Northern Territory between blacks and whites. What I've proposed is that the floor price for alcoholic products in Alice Springs and other parts of the Northern Territory should be increased for both blacks and whites. It certainly had nothing to do with the colour of people's skin, in order to stop publicans and people who own drive-through alcohol outlets from taking a loss on alcoholic products, as in charging a price below cost on an alcoholic product in order to get customers in the door. Now that had been happening. I don't know whether it continues to happen but when I was Parliamentary Secretary for Health, I was responsible for alcohol policy and I think we all agree that the alcohol situation in the Northern Territory has been out of control for some time. My suggestions helped to lead to the Northern Territory Intervention because that was beginning to put pressure on the Federal Government to take action where the Northern Territory Government wouldn't. The idea was that a floor price would be introduced below which publicans could not go so that they couldn't loss-lead, which is the way it is described when you charge below a price in order to get people through the door, which I thought was outrageous, and that alcohol should not be used as a loss-lead product. So it was a perfectly justifiable policy suggestion and the idea that it was differential between blacks and whites is palpably untrue. In terms of kids in detention, well I don't think anybody ever supported or wanted children to be in detention. It was a lot more complicated that the way you (caller) have described it. Unfortunately many of the children in detention were there because their parents didn't want the families to be split, and that made it very difficult. I was delighted that the Howard Government changed that policy eventually to put all the families in the community and I'm glad to say that the policies of the Howard Government were such that we now don't have the same issues in terms of unauthorised arrivals that we were having in the early 2000s. That problem was dealt with. But, you know, I was a member of the Executive of the government, you (caller) have described Cabinet colleagues as taking a different view - that's false. The people who took a different view publicly were all backbenchers, and I'm glad that they did and the policy was changed.
Journalist/Schacht:
(Discuss the proposed improvements to Adelaide oval)
Pyne:
I like that expression 'penny-wise and pound foolish' because of course it does entirely apply to the mirage in the desert which is the Marj Hospital which they've now belatedly changed the name for in terms of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. I agree that we need a proper stadium in the city. I think that Martin Hamilton-Smith's proposal that the hospital remain where it is and be upgraded and a stadium be built on the rail yards is the correct proposal. If the State Government decided they should pour money into the Adelaide Oval that's a secondary debate. Maybe that money would be better spent on the new stadium in the city. We can't have a situation where our biggest stadium continues to be at West Lakes. We don't have the transport to get there, the public know that ...
Journalist:
Chris Pyne is that the biggest issue facing South Australia the stadium debate? I mean you'd be forgiven for thinking it is...
Pyne:
Look, it's not the biggest issue facing South Australia. The biggest issue facing South Australia right now is what's going to happen to our enormous investments in the north of the State at Roxby Downs, Prominent Hill et cetera where we now face a situation where they may be delayed or significantly pared back because of the global financial crisis and the effect that'll have on South Australia in terms of jobs and revenue to the State.
Journalist/Schacht:
(Discussion continues about Stadium)
ENDS