HOST: Prime Minister, good morning to you. Thanks for coming on the program.
PM: Good morning.
HOST: Prime Minister, tell me first of all who made the approach to hold the G20 here in Brisbane?
Was it your office, the Premier of Queensland, the previous Premier or who was it do you know?
PM: Look I certainly do. I went to the G20 in France and secured the G20 for Australia in 2014, then I came back and spoke to state premiers and chief ministers in territories and said we've got this event, I'm interested in people putting forward whether they want to host it and if so, how they would host it.
We then had a number of states respond including Queensland that was under the former government, Anna Bligh's government. Then we got an expert team that assesses, you know, the ability of the city to do the hosting of an event of this size and scale.
When Premier Newman was elected I spoke to him and asked him whether he wanted to keep the Bligh Government bid in, and he did and we worked through and selected Brisbane as the best bid and the greatest place to host the G20.
HOST: The representative of the New South Wales state government, Planning Minister Brad Hazzard has accused you of, what's the word, using Brisbane to try and claw back votes across Queensland. He's indicated, he says it's insulting to the 20 leaders and it should be held in Sydney.
PM: Look I can understand that Sydney's disappointed and that New South Wales is disappointed, but there were a couple of bids big reasons why Brisbane was selected.
First, the convention centre here is, you know, ready to go, full operation, it's available for the period of time we need it.
In Sydney, the major convention centre will be undergoing repairs and renovations at that time - they've been long scheduled and can't be moved. So Sydney was going to have to try and fit people into alternate venues with its major convention facility out of action.
And then secondly, we needed to be reassured about airport capacity. We're talking about leaders from around the world bringing in their planes, you know, President Obama comes with Air Force One and then a spare Air Force One just in case he needs it.
And we're talking about the President of China, the Prime Minister of India, the Chancellor of Germany, the President of France, the President of Brazil - so lots of planes, lots of pressure on the airport all in quite a confined period of time.
And, you know, Sydney airport does have restrictions and a lot of pressure on it already, whereas Brisbane's airport can cater for all of that and the new Airport Link obviously helps with moving people from the airport to where they need to go.
HOST: So the problems at Sydney airport simply means it couldn't handle the air traffic that would be resulting from the number of world leaders flying into Australia.
PM: Sydney airport's under pressure every day from domestic travel, you know, anybody who routinely flies for business from Brisbane to Sydney would be able to tell you any number of tales about concerns at Sydney airport and getting held up. So that's its day-to-day reality and then putting all of this pressure on top obviously would have meant that there were difficulties catering for it. There's also a curfew in Sydney and different questions like that.
HOST: How many people are expected to be here as a result of the summit overall, not just the leaders of the nations but the entire, sort of support staff and more? Do you have a figure or a number?
PM: I certainly do and it is big. You can expect around 4,000 people to come associated with the leaders' meeting, or what's called the B20 which is the associated business event. So that will be global CEOs, some of the biggest businesses in the world gathering here in Brisbane.
And then there are other events associated with the G20. There's a thing called the L20 which brings together international labour movement representatives and the like.
So, 4,000 people coming in because of the G20 and then you can add on top of that 3,000 media from around the world.
HOST: So 7,000 people all up?
PM: It's of that size and scale, it's a big, big thing. You know, when you've got leaders of the major economies in the world meeting then yes, it's a very big event.
I mean right at the centre of it is obviously leaders in a room; the leaders of the top 20 economies, the G20, five additional leaders are given invites to join so it ends up 25 leaders around the table and then you have the major international organisations like the IMF and the World Bank represented.
HOST: The Treasurer Wayne Swan on the AM program this morning indicated that he was putting aside $370 million over four years in the budget for the G20 event.
I'm trying to work out the mathematics of that, does that mean we'll be paying for that a couple of years after it takes place, or just explain how it works. It's in two years time; he said he's putting aside $370 over four years for it. Just unwrap that for me if you would please.
PM: He would be using the terminology four years because four years is a standard budget period. Obviously some money is already being expended on preparations, I mean we've got a team that's being stood up that will do the logistics and arrangements but of course, the bulk of the money will be spent in the time period that the meeting is actually in progress and all of the security arrangements swing into action.
HOST: What will Queensland be required to commit or provide in terms of funding and resources for this? The Premier has indicated that the cupboard is bear financially in Queensland. What do we need to stump up for the G20?
PM: We'll be looking to Queensland to work with us and particularly to work with us on Queensland police resources so we, you know, Federal Government obviously has security personnel, our Australian Federal Police and associated security agencies and we'll work with the Queensland Police on making sure all the security arrangements are right.
We'll also be looking to the people of Brisbane because so many end up here at one period of time, there is a big role for volunteers helping with arrangements and greeting people and making them feel at home and Brisbane, Queenslanders have shown with international events in the past that they do like to get involved and really showcase their stuff for international visitors.
HOST: So Brisbane was selected because a) the airport can handle the massive in-flight of planes and jets that would fly in from leaders around the world. The convention centre is huge and available and the Airport Link tunnel means it's easy to get dignitaries from the airport to the heart of Brisbane.
PM: And of course we've done assessments of things like hotel stock and the like that you can, you know, physically cater for the number of people who will want hotel rooms all at the same time.
HOST: Seven thousand people's a lot of beds, do we have that many beds?
PM: We've done all of those assessments and we obviously wouldn't have said yes it's going to be Brisbane unless the team working on it was absolutely certain that appropriate arrangements could be made.
You know, because this is such a big event it usually has to be in one of our biggest cities and, you know, Brisbane came up trumps. It's a great place to be holding an international meeting like this. It means that the eyes of the world will be on Brisbane and I do think that's a good thing for Australia.
We want to be showcasing our nation to the world and one thing I'd like people to certainly get into their minds is that Australia is nation of a number of working class cities and Brisbane is certainly one of them.
HOST: A number of people have sent me messages saying that the G20 is incredibly disruptive. Will they be fencing off the area in which it's held?
That's the Southbank area of Brisbane here, the convention centre and a new ABC building and the Performing Arts Complex and more. When it's around the world it normally gets fenced off entirely, will that happen here in Brisbane?
PM: Look, all of that's going to have to be worked on and I can sit here today and take you through the details of the security arrangements that will need to be made but common sense will tell us, Steve, and you and I can certainly make this assessment now, when you are talking about the leaders of the world's biggest 20 economies, when we're talking about the President of the United States, the President of Russia, you know, the President of China and the list goes on; that there will be very intense security arrangements.
Yes, that does have implications for how the city works over those few days but this has got tremendous benefits too. All of the international exposure, world leaders being able to say for the rest of their lives, yep Brisbane I've been there, I remember my time there.
Having that sense of connection and familiarity with Queensland, direct economic benefits, all of those hotel rooms we've just talked about. That's $20 million of hotel accommodation being snaffled up; $30 million into the economy because local services will be needed to make the meeting happen and that's before you get to all of the associated tourism and retail benefits.
The people who come here, the 4,000, the media, they're going to need to eat drink, they'll go out and buy things. They might well stay for longer than the meeting itself and enjoy some of Queensland's great tourism experiences.
And in the lead up to the G20 Finance Ministers meet, so that's Wayne Swan and his counterparts.
HOST: What regional town are they meeting in, do you know?
PM: Well we haven't done that selection yet but that lead-up Finance Ministers' meeting will be in Queensland in a regional location.
HOST: Well hopefully it'll give the local tourism industry a boost. It's pretty depressed here so hopefully the Gold Coast will get some good spin off from it.
Prime Minister, thank you very much for phoning in this morning.
PM: My pleasure, thanks Steve.