THE HON CHRISTOPHER PYNE MP

Minister for Education

Leader of the House
TRANSCRIPT
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Press Conference Doorstop Adelaide
1 Ma! "#1$
S%&'ECTS( St)dent protesters* "#1$ &)d+et* ed)cation f)ndin+,
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
I called this press conference because I do want to comment on the extraordinary,
disgraceful behaviour of the students yesterday at Sydney University directed at the
ustralian !oreign Minister" #o one complains about the expression of opinion in ustralia,
we are a democracy, everyone is entitled to have a view, whether they li$e the %overnment,
whether they don&t li$e the %overnment" 'hether they li$e or disli$e particular policy" (ut the
behaviour of the students yesterday at Sydney University was assault, they assaulted the
!oreign Minister, they )ostled her, they abused her, they touched her person" *hey behaved
in the most unacceptable fashion" It is incomprehensible that in ustralia today students
would thin$ that that would be a reasonable way to behave, especially when the %overnment
is introducing measures that expands e+uity so that more students will have the capacity to
go to university" *he %overnment, through me, thoroughly condemns the behaviour of the
students yesterday at Sydney University" 'e condemn it, it has no place in ustralia today,
and those students should learn from this behaviour and allow members of the %overnment
to put our view in the same way as we would allow them to put their views" ,esterday they
tried to drown me out at delaide University, they failed, they tried to close down the -.
programme on the (/ and they failed" *hey tried to stop the !oreign Minister yesterday
from giving her speech on the #ew /olombo plan, and they failed" nd (ill Shorten as
Leader of the 0pposition has to be very clearly today, )oin in the %overnment from
condemning the students& behaviour" *here is no room for (ill Shorten to have a muted
response to this unacceptable, un1ustralian and anti1democratic behaviour" I call on (ill
Shorten2
-UES*I0#3
4inaudible5
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
I might be allowed to finish my line, actually, if you don&t mind"
-%ESTION(
,ou said something about (ill Shorten, regardless of2
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
I will finish my comment, if you don&t mind" So I am calling on (ill Shorten today to come out
and ma$e it very clear that he does not endorse in any way the students& behaviour and that
he condemns it in the exact same terms that I have condemned it on behalf of the
%overnment"
-%ESTION(
#ow regardless of whether they were appropriate actions to ta$e2 4inaudible5 2 does it not
show the passion that these students have because of the fact that they believe that their
ability to have an education will be threatened by these changes6
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
I thin$ you&ll find that a lot of these students have been waiting to protest against a /oalition
%overnment for six years" nd let&s tal$ about the reforms that the %overnment is
introducing" 'e are extending the demand1driven system, through extending the
/ommonwealth %rants Scheme to non1university higher education providers" So the biggest
/ommonwealth %rants Scheme in ustralian history, the ustralian %overnment is going to
give at least 78,888 more ustralians from low socio1economic status bac$grounds the
capacity and opportunity to get a university education that will allow them to earn 9: per cent
more than ustralians without a university +ualification" t the moment, the taxpayers of
ustralia pay ;8 per cent of the tuition fees of a student and yet less than <8 per cent of
ustralians have a higher education +ualification" *hese students will be able to borrow
every single dollar from those self1same taxpayers and pay it bac$ at the lowest rates of
interest for a loan that they will ever have in their lives" It is a great deal" 'hat these
students are saying is that they want less students li$e them to have the opportunity to go to
university" So we are the party that is actually expanding e+uity and opportunity for students
and those students saying no we want to shut the door behind us and not let more students
to come and get the +ualifications we are getting"
-%ESTION(
Minister, having loo$ed at the tape with =ulie (ishop at the University, she seemed to ta$e it
very much in her stride and she wasn&t particularly phased by it" nd of course you $now uni
demonstrations are sort of rite of passage for )ust about anybody at university, is it really
more than you are ma$ing it out to be6
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
Loo$, no politician would want to allow those students to get to them" 0f course they
wouldn&t" *hat would mean that the students who were protesting would be winning" So of
course a politician would shrug off that $ind of unacceptable behaviour" *hat doesn&t ma$e it
right" *he threshold of good behaviour is not what we are prepared to put up with, /hris" It
is what is acceptable behaviour" nd assaulting and )ostling the ustralian !oreign Minister
by a group of students who are getting ;8 per cent of their tuition fees paid for them by less
than ;8 per cent of the population that go to university is unacceptable behaviour, in
whatever way you loo$ at it" nd (ill Shorten needs to come out and condemn it" #ow if it
was a Labor female politician, if it was a Labor female !oreign Minister, who was being
)ostled by far1right students at a university, we would expect that the Leader of the
0pposition if it was a conservative or Liberal would apologise or not apologise for their
behaviour but certainly support the condemnation of that behaviour by those students" nd
what&s good for the goose is good for the gander" (ill Shorten has been tal$ing about wic$ed
budgets and unconscionable behaviour and trying to whip up a storm in the community, if he
thin$s this is an outcome of his behaviour, what he has said, then he needs to come out and
condemn it and put that beyond doubt otherwise the +uestion is, does (ill Shorten condone
this $ind of behaviour from the students6
-%ESTION(
/an you detail perhaps then what you mean by assault6 *his is a new element of what has
been raised2
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
#o, the legal definition of assault is if you feel that you are under threat" ,ou are not
re+uired to be punched to be assaulted, you don&t even have to re+uire to be touched to be
assaulted" ,ou can be abused, verbally abused and be assaulted" #ow the behaviour of
the students yesterday wasn&t )ust verbal abuse> they pushed, )ostled and hit the !oreign
Minister, and that&s unacceptable" *hat is assault"
-%ESTION(
,our parliamentary secretary was less strident about what happened today" In fact he was a
bit more casual to be honest, Scott ?yan" How do you balance of those two views6
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
'ell I haven&t seen his comments and the reality is politicians don&t want to let the students
thin$ that they are winning but that doesn&t ma$e their behaviour acceptable" nd (ill
Shorten needs to )oin me in condemning it"
-%ESTION(
If you&re facing much higher fees, it is going to be an ordinary response to protest as loudly
as soon as you see a politician, especially on campus6
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
'ell this is where the media are trying to now excuse the assaulting of the !oreign Minister
by student protesters" @ossibly because a lot of the media li$e me went to university and
thin$ that a rite of passage demonstrations are all a bit of fun" (ut the reality is that the
students are getting the best deal of any university student in the 0E/A" *hey can borrow
all of their tuition fees from the taxpayer, pay them bac$ when they are earning over B:8,888
a year, pay them bac$ at the lowest interest rates imaginable" *hey would not get those as
a commercial interest rate" nd they only have to pay two per cent of their income bac$ to
start with in the lowest threshold" *hey get a university education over their lifetime, they&ll
earn 9: per cent more than people who don&t go to university, more than a million dollars
more than people who don&t go to university and they are protesting against that" nd the
%overnment&s policy is that we are going to expand university education to more low SES
young people to give them the opportunity to have the same thing" So those students at
Sydney University, which of course is one of the premier universities in ustralia, are really
being extraordinarily self1indulgent"
-%ESTION(
4inaudible5
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
I thin$ (ill Shorten has been trying to whip up, this wee$ since the budget, by tal$ing about
things li$e the wic$edness of the budget, the unconscionableness of the budget, trying to
whip up a storm" #ow if this is the outcome that he wanted to achieve, then he stands
condemned for that" #ow if he wants to ma$e sure that nobody has that interpretation, then
he will come out today and slam the students& behaviour in the same terms as I have"
-%ESTION(
4inaudible5
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
'ell in education their funding is not being cut" In C8D9, which is the fourth year of the
forward estimates, we are spending more money on schools and higher education than
Labor would have if they had been re1elected" In C8D9, BD7"D billion dollars, which if Labor
had been re1elected it would have been BD7 billion" I would also say that because of our
expanding the demand1driven system, across sub1bachelor courses li$e diplomas and so on,
and because of the /ommonwealth %rant Scheme expanding to non1university higher
education providers li$e *!E, we will actually be giving +uite a lot more to States" 'hat the
State %overnments are going to do was try and blame the /ommonwealth for every decision
that they are otherwise going to ma$e" nd I thin$ the public will see through that, we are
giving the states more money" (eyond the forward estimates, there will be more money
spent on schools and higher education" So the States will have to ma$e their own decisions
on priorities but they won&t be able to blame the /ommonwealth for everything that they
would li$e to"
-%ESTION(
Have you considered changing the %S*6
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
*he %S* can&t be changed by the /ommonwealth" *he State and *erritories have to
re+uest the /ommonwealth to do that" nd I don&t see any re+uests coming from States"
-%ESTION(
re you not 4inaudible5 the states into that proposition6
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
#o, I don&t believe so" 'e are ma$ing sure we are cutting our costs to suit our
circumstances" 'e have to end this delusion that can exist in ustralia that somehow we
can $eep borrowing from overseas forever and that the chic$ens will never come home to
roost" *he reality is that (ill shorten wants to be the champion of the status +uo" (ill Shorten
wants to be the champion of ustralian complacency" He wants to be the champion of
borrowing money to pay for a standard of living beyond which we can no longer afford" He is
li$e a dad that ta$es his children to Aisneyland and puts every expense on the credit card
and then comes home to ustralia and says goodness how on earth am I going to pay for
that and then goes bac$ to borrow money to pay for his credit card" #ow we as a
%overnment were elected in September to get this spending under control and that&s exactly
what we are going to do"
-%ESTION(
'hat is your reaction to /ate (lanchett&s comments about budget cuts to the arts6
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
I haven&t seen /ate (lanchett&s comments"
-%ESTION(
She has called it short sighted"
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
'ell nobody in ustralia wants to tighten their belts and obviously /ate (lanchett doesn&t
want to either" (ut the reality is that the ustralian public elected our %overnment to hand
down our budget that showed that we got it" *hat you can&t )ust $eep spending money that
you don&t have" *hat you can&t )ust $eep borrowing money" #ow Labor had got our debt
going to B;;9 billion" nd BDCE billion worth of deficits that were in the next four years
pro)ected" nd we were elected to fix that problem, to fix it we will" I&m sorry that /ate
(lanchett thin$s that the arts shouldn&t be carved up from those spending measures, but I
don&t thin$ the general public would thin$ that the arts should be treated as a special
circumstances"
-%ESTION(
/an I )ust clarify about your %S* comments2 4inaudible5
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
'ell the %S* is a State and *erritory tax" If the States and *erritories want the %S* to
change, they would need to re+uest the /ommonwealth to do that" 'e have absolutely no
intention in changing the %S* and I haven&t heard one State or *erritory treasurer as$"
-%ESTION(
4inaudible5
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
I haven&t heard of that being proposed as a potential measure"
-%ESTION(
=ust one more if you wouldn&t mind"
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
0nly because we went to the same school"
-%ESTION(
*he 'orld Heritage /ommittee has ta$en advice not to delist 9<,888 hectares of forests in
*asmania, will the ustralian %overnment persist with that measure6
CHRISTOPHER PYNE(
I thin$ you will need to as$ %reg Hunt that as Minister for the Environment" I am not aware
of that brea$ing news"
.ends/