Mr Pyne had said on Sunday that continued funding for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) was "inextricably linked" to the passage of the government's bill to deregulate the funding of universities, a position he abandoned on Monday, pledging to continue to fund the organisation even if fee deregulation did not occur.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne during Monday afternoon's interview. Credit:Sky News

"Politics is a fast moving business," Mr Pyne said with a smile at the beginning of the interview. "What I've said consistently... is that the deregulation of universities is the central core of this reform, and that everything else is up for negotiation."

Mr Pyne said he had found the $150 million needed to fund the NCRIS another way. When Mr Speers pushed him how he had done that, Mr Pyne first kept repeating that he'd "fixed it."

"I've fixed it. I'm a fixer... I've fixed it by funding it in another way which you'll find out in the budget," he said.