Topics: Prime Minister’s National Press Club address, Queensland election, higher education reforms

E&OE…

Helen Dalley

Senator Scott Ryan joins me now from our Melbourne studio. Senator Ryan, thanks very much for joining us.

 

Scott Ryan

Thanks for having me.

 

Dalley

Now did Tony Abbott save his leadership today or at least buy himself some time?

 

Ryan

Well today was a long-planned address to the National Press Club to kick off the Government’s second year in office. The Prime Minister was honest in that the last couple of months haven’t been the neatest for the Government, and last year was difficult because we did have a number of difficult budget measures and we got a very difficult Senate. So, the address was the Prime Minister laying out the agenda for the Government this year.

 

Dalley

Yes, but you sound as if that’s all very normal; that it may have been planned. But you don’t get headlines like this every day: ‘PM fights for his life’ on the front page of The Australian. Or ‘D Day’ on the front cover of The Daily Telegraph. Why did it get to fever pitch yesterday? Was it just the Queensland election result, and perhaps many of your colleagues on the back bench becoming very worried that Tony Abbott might lead them down the same path as Queensland next year?

 

Ryan

Well firstly, I’m not going to comment on the commentary. I think even the Prime Minister made the point today that in the room, there were plenty of people paid plenty of good money to write commentary about politicians. I’ll leave that for journalists. But when it comes to the Queensland election, I mean the Queensland election was a significant event. I don’t think anyone would try and say otherwise. I remember 1999 when Jeff Kennett had a surprise loss [in Victoria], and the weekend was definitely a surprise loss for the LNP…

 

Dalley

But has that worried federal Liberals and federal Coalition members?

 

Ryan

Well I think the challenge provided by the Queensland election is that one thing that I think the Victorian election proved, and the one thing I think every politician will say openly, that is that no one takes the electorate for granted. One of the old rules of politics that I never quite believe – that’s what people say – ‘governments would get second terms’. I remember Bob Hawke’s scare in 1984 from Andrew Peacock and John Howard having a very close shave with Kim Beasley in 1998, so I’ve never quite believed those rules anyway. But the electorate has high expectations about politicians, they want us to solve the problems that we were elected to do.

 

Dalley

So you, your side of politics, has a very large majority. But are you saying that you have got the message that the voters will throw governments out after just one term if they’re not satisfied with them? If they are led by unpopular people like Campbell Newman supposedly was?

 

Ryan

Well without going into the reasons for the Queensland election, being a Victorian senator and not having been up there for the last four weeks, I don’t think there’s any politician, and I can definitely say this for the Coalition Government in Canberra, I don’t think there’s any politician that takes the electorate for granted. The electorate has high expectations of the people they elect, that’s why they turfed out the Labor government that was so obsessed with itself over the previous five or six years and had performed so badly.

 

Dalley

All right, so you are in the federal Coalition. Have you heeded some lessons from the weekend in Queensland?

 

Ryan

Well look, let’s wait and actually see the result and these things take time to analyse. The point I’m making is that Queensland was a reminder. I don’t think that people on my side of politics had to learn a lesson. I think every politician, and particularly every Liberal and National politician…

 

Dalley

Sorry, Senator Ryan you don’t think there’re any lessons that your side of politics can learn out of the weekend result?

 

Ryan

Not at all, not at all.

 

Dalley

So Labor went from single digit seats to probably 41, 42, 43, maybe 44 seats, is not a lesson for you?

 

Ryan

I know, it’s an incredible result. It’s one that not many people I know predicted. The point I’m making is that the inference from your question, Helen, is that politicians didn’t actually take the electorate seriously enough …

 

Dalley

No, my question was whether there’re any lessons for you, and you’ve just said there were no lessons from the weekend.

 

Ryan

Queensland is a very good reminder for every politician that you need to deliver on the solutions and problems that your are elected to do and that is something that’s always been at the heart for the Coalition Government in Canberra.

 

Dalley

The chatter that we’ve heard about, that’s been reported ad nauseam in all the media, is it just backbench worries is it some of the frontbench worried about Tony Abbott’s leadership? About some own-goals, particularly the decision in recent days to award a knighthood, an Australian knighthood, on Australia Day to a British royal?

 

Ryan

Well I think the Prime Minister admitted today, quite explicitly, that he’d gone too far on honours, I think was the phrase he used, and that was reference to the award to Phillip announced on Australia Day. And he also made it clear that from this point forward, all the honours will be the province of the Council of the Order of Australia. So I think the Prime Minister listened, he acted in accordance with what he heard from people and his colleagues on that issue.

 

Dalley

Do you still fully support Tony Abbott as your leader?

 

Ryan

Absolutely.

 

Dalley

So you’re comfortable with his poor opinion polling, his own-goals, his captain’s call on the knighthood and on various other issues and now today dumping his signature paid parental leave scheme?

 

Ryan

Well Helen, when I look in the mirror I don’t see perfection either. I make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes. We judge people on how we listen and on how we respond when we do make mistakes. And I know I make them, I’m sure you make them and Tony Abbott was frank today that he has listened to some feedback on the paid parental leave scheme that he did announce five years ago, and on the honours that became such an issue in the last week. We’ve even done it on Medicare where there has been a development in iteration. We’re listening when it comes to the real pressures that families face. I know that issues like childcare are a priority that the Prime Minister has highlighted for 2015.

 

Dalley

All right, well in that speech today he did finally listen, the signature paid parental leave scheme, some might say that that’s too little too late. You’ve named a couple of things, but he’s not shifting ground, according to that speech today, on key measures from last year’s budget, for instance the higher education package. How long are you intending to stick with that?

 

Ryan

Well Christopher Pyne, the minister handling this and handling the negotiations with the crossbench, last week wrote to Bill Shorten asking him to engage in this important national issue. And we’ve indicated as a Government that we’d like that dealt with in the first few months of this year. We think that it’s an important priority because the university system, with the growth that was undertaken over the last few years, it’s not sustainable in its current form. So we would like the Senate to deal with that package and hopefully support it before we come back for the Budget.

 

Dalley

Where are you up to with this policy, though? Several of the crossbenchers, and you’ve said that Christopher Pyne is now approaching Labor, but several of the crossbenchers still don’t seem too happy with the higher education package and Minister Pyne has also indicated that it could be junked if you can’t get it through in the next month or so.

 

Ryan

Well firstly, I’m not going to comment on the negotiations, that’s best conducted through the media. Christopher Pyne is speaking to the crossbenchers. We’re going to continue speaking to the crossbenchers, but if it can’t get through the Senate, it can’t get through the Senate. So, if the Senate votes it down again then that will be a sign that the Senate doesn’t want to support the package. We think that puts Australia’s quality higher education at risk, and that’s why Minister Pyne wrote to Bill Shorten. I mean Bill Shorten has refused to even engage in the discussion despite the fact that every university sector in Australia, despite their differences – regional or city, large or small, old sandstone universities or the newer universities – every sector thinks that the core elements of this package need to go through. Yet, Kim Carr and Bill Shorten are stuck in the past fighting a battle that will only see our universities degrade.

 

Dalley

All right Senator Ryan, it does seem that the universities do want their fees deregulated but they weren’t counting on getting a cut in their funding for some courses. That was not taken to the election. So that was a surprise when the Prime Minister promised that there would be no surprises from him.

 

Ryan

Well as the Prime Minister said today we have kept faith with the key commitments, he described them as acts of faith, that we have kept to the Australian people. In an ideal world you would be able to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’, but the mess we inherited simply was much larger, tens of billions of dollars larger, and in that way we’ve asked for sacrifice from everyone in the community.

Now the great thing about HECS, and the Liberal Party’s always conceded this – invented under the Labor Party by John Dawkins – the great thing about HECS being a deferred loan scheme is that it has been proven to not limit participation by people no matter what their background. In fact it has financed a massive expansion. We want to continue that expansion, not just for universities, but for 80,000 people who don’t do a degree, but because they do a diploma they don’t get the taxpayer support. And that is particularly helpful for those who don’t have a family history of going to university.

 

Dalley

So what do you say tonight to your colleagues on the leadership issue?

 

Ryan

Our job is to fix the problems left by Labor and to address the problems that the Australian community wants us to address: that’s creating economic growth, that’s addressing pressures like childcare…

 

Dalley

That wasn’t particularly answering the question, but Scott Ryan thanks for your time.

 

Ryan

Thanks Helen.

*Ends*