MEL: The Prime Minister joins us now from Canberra. Good morning to you, Mr Rudd.
PM: Good morning Kochie, good morning Mel. Happy New Year and to your viewers.
MEL: To you too
PM: Did you have a good break?
MEL:Yeah we had a lovely break, it was really good, came back refreshed. As have you I am sure. Tell us about the apology. Will you be making it when Parliament resumes on February 12?
PM: What we're trying to do is do it as early as possible in the parliamentary term. We haven't finally set dates yet. We are in the process of talking to as many indigenous groups across the country as possible. We want to get this right.
The objective is to just build this bridge of respect between indigenous and non-indigenous Australia so that we can get on with the business of closing the gap in terms of life expectancy, education levels and health levels between indigenous and non-indigenous communities.
MEL: Kevin it's such an emotional issue for a lot of people, not only for indigenous Australians but for a lot of white Australians as well. What do you say to people out there saying "Mate, we have got nothing to apologise for, it happened a long time ago, why do we need to say it?"
PM: Well look this apology will be delivered on behalf of the Government, ok and therefore we will be making it clear that we will be speaking in the Government's name.
The views of individual Australians, of course they are entitled to hold because we have got a wonderful democracy.
Why have we been long term committed to this - and I was very up front about this prior to the election, there are no surprises here, I have said this beforehand was what we'd be doing, is because as I travel around the country this is unfinished business.
It's very hard to get to the point of then engaging with every indigenous community on the practical future challenges of closing, for example, the infant mortality gap - aboriginal kids, three times more likely to die under the age of 5 than a non-indigenous kid. And the same on literacy, numeracy, all those basic tests.
So the judgment I have made and we as the Government made is, let's get this symbolic act of apology right and then let's move on together. If I have got a vision for the country, is that aboriginal Australia, non-aboriginal Australia moving forward to fix the practical challenges on the ground in those communities.
KOCHIE: So what you're saying is, you're finding out in Aboriginal communities, when you want to help on literacy, help on health, they've - it's the wrong description - but they sort of have got a bit of a bee in their bonnet about the apology thing. So, we need to need to get that out of the way before all sides start working through these bigger issues which I think we all think we all agree, that we have got to resolve?
PM: Yeah. Both symbols and substance are important. That's just the truth of it. Not every indigenous community raises this with me, but a lot of them do. And what I am trying to do - and it's very tough because so many indigenous groups across the country have different views - but we will try and get this language right, we'll try and do it as early as possible so that we can all cross that bridge of respect, mutual respect and get on with these massive practical challenges in communities.
MEL: Kevin, one last one on this issue because I want to cover a few things with you. The other word is compensation. So many emails are coming in from our viewers saying they fear that this is going to open up a floodgate of compensation claims. Is that a misguided fear?
PM: We will not be establishing any compensation fund. I said that before the election, I say it again. And since the Stolen Generation report came out years and years ago, it has been open for any individual, Aboriginal person affected by that to engage their own legal actions through the courts of their State or Territory. That's fine. But at the level of national Government, we will not be establishing any compensation fund.
This is about getting the symbolic covenant, if you like, between indigenous and non-indigenous Australia right and then moving on. When it comes to future funding commitments from the Government that I lead, it will be about fixing health, fixing schools and fixing communities in a very practical way on the ground, in partnership with local aboriginal leadership.
KOCHIE: Ok, terrific. Let's turn to another issue another issue that you are passionate about, and we are glad you are passionate about it - is this issue of homelessness. One hundred thousand people homeless every night in this country is just staggering. You promised a 10-year plan to tackle the problem. What are you going to do to make this happen? We talked to the bloke you put in charge, Tony from the Brotherhood of St Laurence yesterday - terrific bloke. What do you expect from it?
PM: Well, you're right in terms of the problem being there. I spoke about this quite often last year and we know how complex it is. I just take a basic view, you can't fix all these problems straight away and you can't fix them totally. But I think we can do as a nation much better on this.
When we speak with people who are dealing with homeless communities right now like St Vincent de Paul - and I was attending their fundraising launch here in Canberra the other night - the Salvation Army and others in front line services, what we find is, there is an immediate lack of crisis accommodation, that's one thing.
The turn away rate right now across Australia in many of the crisis centres in Sydney and Melbourne and elsewhere, is huge. So people present with nowhere to go. The majority of them are still being turned away. That's a real problem. That's one thing we have got to fix straight up.
The other thing is this. The big problem is repeat homelessness. You find someone crisis accommodation and then before you know it, after they have been there for a bit, they go out and they come back.
That's because we haven't dealt with problems of mental health, problems of mental health, dental health - a lot of the folk that I have run into have real dental health challenges which is why we are re-establishing the Commonwealth dental health scheme - and on top of that basic skills training to try and get people back into work.
So we're trying to look at this at both levels, producing a Government white paper by August, September this year and that's when we will announce our long-term strategy for dealing with it.
MEL: We'll look forward to when that comes out. Next issue Kevin, citizenship. The new citizenship test starts today. There is talk you are going to remove the question about Sir Donald Bradman. Any other bits that you might take out? What are you unhappy with in the test?
KOCHIE: Why don't you give them a handbook to explain who Sir Don is before they do the test? You can't drop him.
PM: Look, I am unaware of any plans on our part to give the Don the axe. I'm not lining up in that camp. What Chris Evans the Migration Minister has quite rightly said - and remember we backed this in opposition - that having a test with appropriate questions was the right way to go. We think it is right to test people's knowledge and their sense of commitment to the country, in a basic way. The Americans do it, the British do it, I think the Canadians do it.
We want to try and make sure after having been through it the first time and 90% of people having passed, we want to make sure we've just got it all right. So, three months time or so, we will come back in terms of any future changes to the test. But the concept and direction is right and we supported that in the past. We just want to make sure all the detail are right for the future. I think the Don is safe.
MEL: Fantastic. I've got to ask you before we let you go, how is the new house going? Is all your furniture fit and everything works OK, the Lodge?
PM: Yeah, we've restrained Abby the wonder dog from digging up the garden, which was a big challenge for the last two weeks. She is a golden retriever who seems to be retrieving a lot of things from the yard at the moment.
MEL: You'll never know what she'll find. Do you get to move most of your own furniture in or is it sort of, pretty much full?
PM: Well when Mr and Mrs Howard showed us around the Lodge, it's quite plain, there is a lot of stuff which just stays there from one Prime Minister to the next, and that's good. But you want to actually make it feel like home so we have brought some stuff from Brissie as well. And things that remind you of where you have come from. We are all settling in pretty well. The little bloke Marcus starts school next week. So that will be the next big challenge and supervising his homework.
MEL: Good luck with that.
PM: We have all been there.
KOCHIE: Exactly right, exactly. Alright Kevin. Thanks for joining us.
PM: Thank you for having us on the program.
ends