Topics: Monday party room meeting

E&OE…

NEIL MITCHELL

Now we will have both sides in a moment. I will be talking to one of those supporting a spill of leadership positions this morning, but first one opposing the spill, Parliamentary Secretary for Education and an astute political observer, Victorian Senator Scott Ryan, good morning.

SENATOR RYAN

Good morning Neil.

MITCHELL

Well it is not long to go, who has got the numbers?

RYAN

Look, I honestly would just be guessing. The best thing I can say Neil is that I think we are going to know in about 45 minutes, maybe a touch longer.

MITCHELL

So it’s that close is it?

RYAN

Look I’ve learnt in this, and I’ve actually had a little bit too much practice at this sort of thing in my six and a half years here, that it’s not wise to get wound up second guessing what’s going to happen. Let’s just let the party room gather, let the MPs meet, we’ll make our decision collectively and that will be announced very shortly.

MITCHELL

I will be talking to one of your colleagues who supports the spill in a moment, why do you oppose the spill?

RYAN

Look I am a member of Tony Abbott’s ministry, he gave me the opportunity to serve as Parliamentary Secretary for Education, that’s an enormous privilege. I think we have done a lot of good work. I made the comment last week that I think the people feel a degree of ownership over the people that they elect, but also I think that Tony outlined last week how he does say that Government needs to change, and he wants to change his approach on some matters. I think we give him some time to do that, and give the Government time to work hard to pull ourselves out of a situation where it is pretty clear we haven’t yet convinced Australian people of some of the changes that we believe need to be made to make the budget sustainable.

MITCHELL

Cory Bernardi, South Australia, told Malcolm Turnbull to pull his head in, said that he has been deliberately destabilising, is that right?

RYAN

I haven’t seen that. Cory is a friend of mine. I am not going to make any comment about what Cory has said, I just caught it earlier today.

MITCHELL

Well, what is your view? Has there been deliberate destabilisation?

RYAN

I don’t think there has. I think the best way to describe the events of the last couple of weeks is a very serious level of concern on the backbench and amongst some of my colleagues about the direction. The Prime Minister made the point last week at the press club that he had taken that on board. I think last night he described himself on ABC News as ‘chastened’, so I wouldn’t describe it the way Cory has.

MITCHELL

Ok. What is the process when you get in there, there will be a vote on the spill pretty quickly I imagine and secret ballot right?

RYAN

Yes. So we will assemble at 9am, the motion will be moved, I understand there is no debate on the motion and ballot papers will be distributed and people will vote yes or no. The effect of the motion, if it is passed, is that the leadership positions are declared vacant and we will then have to have an election. If the motion is defeated we carry on as we are, there might be some discussion afterwards but I imagine it will be fairly quick.

MITCHELL

Ok, if there is an election that has to happen this morning does it?

RYAN

Phillip Ruddock who has been in Parliament, he is the Father of the House, he has been in Parliament since 1973, said yesterday we would move straight to an election and Phillip has been here through several of these and I think that is the best advice we are going to get. With the Senate assembling at 10am and the House of Representative assembling at midday and Question Time not long after, I think the party would probably move down that direction given Phillip’s advice.

MITCHELL

If the vote is against the spill, it was explained to me that it was still possible that there could be a challenge in the party room tomorrow, is that right?

RYAN

Technically this could happen on any given day in any meeting of the Liberal party room, which happens every fortnight when Parliament sits. If the motion is defeated I doubt that will happen because I think the party and the Government will understand that the issue has been dealt with. There may be a longer discussion about some of our challenges so that people can talk at length with the PM in the meeting, and there would obviously be, I imagine, private meetings about it, so I don’t imagine that will happen tomorrow.

MITCHELL

Is it really possible for Tony Abbott to continue long term or is he mortally wounded as some are suggesting?

RYAN

Well I am not going to kid you Neil, I don’t think anyone would believe me if I said we weren’t facing pretty dire political circumstances. We didn’t have a successful year in convincing people of the need for serious change in the budget in some welfare measures. We did have a successful year in implementing some key promises in the carbon tax and stopping the boats in immigration policy. Tony Abbott has confounded people previously. I don’t think anyone expected him to be so successful in 2010, and I’ve learnt over the last six and a half years that a lot of the old rules in politics have been broken.

MITCHELL

I was going to ask you about that, just quickly I know you have to go, the rules are all broken, how can you possibly govern and make tough decisions if you become unpopular and you can lose your leadership?

RYAN

Well I think leadership is a matter of the consent of those you govern both in the community and in the party, and there is a longer discussion here that you will appreciate is hard to have in a couple of minutes. It’s the way we go about things, which the Prime Minister alluded to last week and a number of my colleagues have, and I think I’ve spoken to you about before, so it is the way we go about engaging with the community, as well as the policies. For example, the Senate has been quite difficult and our approach with the Senate has to change. We can’t keep banging our head on the wall and say ‘pass this, pass this, pass this’. We need to actually sit down and negotiate. And we did that successfully with the reintroduction of temporary protection visas late last year.  It took many months of conversing and discussing things, talking about consequences and options with the cross-bench. But I would say that only matters because the Labor Party and the Greens are just belligerently opposing everything we put up, including when we put up policies that they had before the election. But it is our duty as a Government to negotiate through a difficult Senate, it has been the duty of government for most of my lifetime and that is what we are going to turn to this year.

MITCHELL

Thank you for your time.

RYAN

Thanks Neil.

 

**ENDS**