HOST: Prime Minister, good morning.
PM: Good morning.
HOST: How are you this morning Kevin?
PM: Fantastic, particularly after a walk along The Strand earlier this morning. I've got to say, you have a beautiful part of the country.
HOST: We certainly do.
PM: That sun shining on Castle Hill is just beautiful that time of day. Said hello to a lot of the locals, caught up on the gossip, including what you blokes are up to as well, so off you go.
HOST: Alright, let's have a look. First up this morning of course, a major announcement- now the PET scanner and the cancer ward at the hospital, what can you tell us about that? You're announcing that today.
PM: It's a big announcement, because we got the message loud and clear that people don't want to travel to Brisbane for all their cancer services. And therefore, this announcement's going to include the following: Funding for three radiotherapy bunkers, two new linear accelerators, the PET/CT scanner, and 26 additional chemotherapy treatment chairs, 23 for adults and 3 for paediatric patients. So, what we're trying to do is to make it possible for local people, hundreds and hundreds of them each year that have to travel to Brisbane, to get these services locally.
HOST: Alright, the current Member for Herbert, Peter Lindsay, says this is something that he put up some time ago. He wants to know why it didn't happen earlier, and also, there was an idea of a partnership with Queensland X-Ray which would've seen the machine here sooner, and would be able to perform more scans than the hospital. How do you react to that comment from Peter?
PM: You know, sometimes a few things take your breath away. The Liberals were in office for twelve years federally, with Mr Lindsay as the Member. We've been in office for two years only, and within those two years we've delivered this. In twelve years, they delivered nothing. I think it's just a very stark comparison between, frankly, people who just talk politics, as opposed to people who get on with the business of delivering. And with Tony Mooney, our candidate here for the federal seat of Herbert, we're delivering.
HOST: Alright, health is going to be a major issue. You've got the COAG summit not too far away. I've heard from sources that that's going to go on as long as it takes to get the Premiers to agree. Do you think you're in for a big fight to get this one across the line?
PM: I don't think it's going to be easy, because with the new National Health and Hospitals Network, funded nationally, run locally to deliver better health and hospital services to working families, pensioners, carers right across the country- this would be the biggest reform to the health system since Medicare. So there's going to be a lot of blowback, a lot of pushback, but we're determined to get this done, because what we hear from working families everywhere, North Queensland, Western Australia, you name it, is that they want more hospital beds, more doctors, more nurses so that people in the community can get better healthcare.
HOST: Prime Minister, boats have been causing you some problems of late. Of course, with the immigrants coming in via boats on one side, and of course now, on the Great Barrier Reef, a boat has parked itself on our Reef. What are we going to do to try and avoid this sort of thing which could potentially cause the loss of our Great Barrier Reef? If it was to lose all its oil, it could be a major problem.
PM: This is absolutely outrageous how this could've happened. Here you have this massive boat, this massive ship, 12 kilometres off course, broad daylight, in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. So we'll be demanding some answers on this one. Key thing though right now, the practical tasks- one, how do you deal with the amount of oil which has already been released from the boat, and that is why the Government has had despatched the Pacific Recorder which arrives at the scene I believe today-
HOST: Yep.
PM: To put a float around it. Secondly, then, too, with bunkering ships, to take off the other oil which remains within the vessel. Thirdly to conclude the salvage operation itself, and then at the same time a full investigation by the relevant authorities into how the hell this happened, because there are penalties which apply for breaches, and if we need to also look at other measures for the future including a wider use of pilotage and the wider use of the vessel tracking system that applies in the northern parts of the Reef, then we will.
HOST: Alright, I had a question from a listener this morning Prime Minister. This lady lives two minutes away from the Townsville Hospital, in the suburb of Annandale, yet she has to vote for a Member who could be living in Mackay and based around Mackay. What do you say about the distribution of seats, I mean, obviously it's not directly in your control, but that seems a bit weird, doesn't it?
PM: Yeah, I'd sympathise with your listener and the person who's called in because sometimes we scratch our heads too with the decisions made by the independent Electoral Commission. But the great virtue of this country is it's beyond political interference.
HOST: Sure.
PM: The Electoral Commission makes its decision about where lines are and, look, I understand people scratching their heads if you've got a Mackay-based Member who's servicing part of the suburbs of Townsville, but frankly, these are just beyond our control. They're the rules set by an independent authority. Better we live in a country like this than one where, frankly, the electoral boundaries are corruptly drawn, as they used to be in Queensland some time ago.
HOST: Yeah, absolutely, let's not go there. Prime Minister, I also have another question. As one of probably the only people in the country who sit and watch Question Time- although I'm sure there are probably others- I watch it on a regular basis.
PM: You need to get a life.
HOST: I do need to get a life, thank you very much. Do you often get embarrassed? Because sometimes I sit there and just cringe with the behaviour of grown adults who are hopefully representing us in the best possible way, but the behaviour is sometimes atrocious. Are you embarrassed sometimes, because it's truly awful on the odd occasion?
PM: Well I think part of the problem with the Parliament is it just becomes this completely negative exchange. It's too much negativity, sometimes there's too much nastiness, frankly. I think people would much prefer the Parliament got on with the business of debating positive ideas for the future.
HOST: Is it not possible that that could happen, though?
PM: Well-
HOST: Surely we've got to be able to find a way.
PM: I'm not going to be in the business of, you know, pointing fingers at anybody in any particular political party-
HOST: No.
PM: I actually think the mood of the country more broadly is where are the positive ideas for our communities, for our cities, for our country's future? If you want to know one reason, one reason why I'm out there, frankly, it's happening right across Queensland on health and hospitals reform, is to say here is a positive plan for the future. Here are our ideas, this is how we're going to do it, how we're going to fund it, how we're going to run it, how we're going to improve it, give me the alternatives in terms of your alternative point of view, and let's get on with it.
I think we actually need to have that sort of culture in our national debate, rather than someone just, you know, picking, you know, clever one liners to score a headline the next day.
HOST: Alright, well I've just had a text from your office, it says we need the PM off now, he's got something else to do. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, thank you for your time today.
PM: Thanks for having us on the program.