Transcript of television interview – The Today Show

Subjects; Energy, New Zealand, Holden, Kim Jong-un

KARL STEFANOVIC: Anthony Albanese and Christopher Pyne join me now. Good morning guys.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good morning.

CHIRSTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Karl.

STEFANOVIC: Christopher, first of all to you, how’s your carbon tax sitting this morning?

PYNE: Well we’re the people who abolished the carbon tax, Karl, of course. So what we’ve done this week is announced a policy, an energy guarantee that means we can have affordable and reliable power, something that hasn’t been able to be achieved for a very long time.

STEFANOVIC: It’s cap and trade though isn’t it? You set a level of emissions that retailers need to meet, that’s setting a carbon price isn’t it?

PYNE: Well look people can argue as much as they like about the technical details of what the energy guarantee means. Quite frankly all mums and dads, families and businesses care about is – will this deliver affordable and reliable power? And all the experts, the energy security board, tell us that it will, and that’s why we want Labor to get on board, end the climate wars no one cares about them, and do some practical things for the Australian public.

STEFANOVIC: Albo a carbon tax worked for you.

ALBANESE: This is of course a price on carbon. Because whatever system you come up with, you need a price signal. That’s what the Government is now acknowledging with this plan. They haven’t done the modelling. It will save something like, according to best case, 50 cents a week in three years’ time. We want to see the modelling; we want to see the detail.

STEFANOVIC: But you’re on board in principle?

ALBANESE: We want to see the modelling and the detail. We want to see what the impact will be. But what’s clear from this week, is that the Government has acknowledged that you do need that price signal when it comes to carbon.

PYNE: Labor can call it whatever they like quite frankly.

STEFANOVIC: If you’re saying you’re looking at modelling that means you actually in principle like it.

ALBANESE: Well we want to see the detail. What we know is that the Government has to come up with something. They talk about the need for certainty, it’s them who have created the uncertainty.

STEFANOVIC: Let’s talk about New Zealand this morning, wow. A new leader. Labor candidate Jacinda Ardern has won with the help of Winston Peters, gee he keeps kicking on doesn’t he, Winston? Didn’t she come from nowhere.

PYNE: And the Greens.

STEFANOVIC: Christopher, you declared war on the country, well Julie Bishop did at least. We fought in the trenches with these people and during the campaign you declared war on them. How are you going to mend that fence?

PYNE: Yeah, well not quite Karl, that’s something of an exaggeration. But we do have a new government- amazing on breakfast television that there would be an exaggeration of any kind.

STEFANOVIC: Oh come now.

ALBANESE: That’s your job.

PYNE: But we do have a new government across the ditch. A Greens-New Zealand First-Labor Government. Of course our relationship with New Zealand transcends politics, it’s a very very long standing one. The Prime Minister has already spoken to Prime Minister Ardern, Julie Bishop has welcomed the resolution of their election, and we’ll all get on with our relationship.

STEFANOVIC: Has she picked up the phone yet? Or are we going to send Trevor Chappell over there to sort things out?

PYNE: That’s a blast from the past Karl, I haven’t heard of Trevor Chappell for a long time. I think our relationship even survived Trevor Chappell, so I’m sure we’ll get back on track pretty quickly.

STEFANOVIC: All right, Anthony?

ALBANESE: Big congratulations for Jacinda. She’s an awesome person. I met her a while ago …

PYNE: Name dropper.

ALBANESE: Well I’ve met her, you’ve just sledged her. That’s the difference. That’s the difference here. And Julie Bishop is humiliated by this outcome, and she should say, she’s said congratulations, she needs to say another word; Sorry.

STEFANOVIC: She used to be a DJ too, are you going to take any inspiration from her?

ALBANESE: She’s a very amazing personality.

STEFANOVIC: Answer the question, are you going to lay your own track down?

ALBANESE: I’ll be DJing this Sunday at the Inner West Beer Festival!

STEFANOVIC: Oh nice, there you go.

PYNE: Here we go again, you see he makes more money out of DJing than he does out of being an MP these days.

STEFANOVIC: It’s all for a good cause.

ALBANESE: All free.

STEFANOVIC: Okay, we’re going to finish with this one today, end of an era with the closing down of Holden. It’s a tough day actually in Adelaide, isn’t it? Christopher?

PYNE: Yeah look, it’s very disappointing about Holden making the decision to close the factory there. They did some things that made it almost impossible to stay open. They didn’t invest, in the equipment or the factory, and they wouldn’t allow them to compete with General Motors in the United States or even in the Middle East, which made it really hard for the company.

What we’re doing, what I’m doing through defence industry is creating new jobs. Six-hundred at Osborne South a couple of weeks ago; 150 here at Saab, so that’s 750 jobs in the last fortnight. What we need is new jobs we’ve got to find things for those people to do and we’re largely being successful, a lot of people have found work, but obviously it is a sad day for Australia.

STEFANOVIC: Okay.

ALBANESE: Our thoughts are with the Holden workers today. Holden has been an iconic brand here in Australia. It’s a pity that the Government, through Joe Hockey, told them to go.

PYNE: That’s not right of course.

STEFANOVIC: Thank you guys, thank you very much for all of that and good luck with the letters from Kim Jong-un, Christopher, over the weekend.

PYNE: I’ll be studying them closely.

STEFANOVIC: It’s good to see that he’s writing again