The Project
E & O E - PROOF ONLY
HOST: And from Canberra we're joined now by Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Prime Minister, some of the best poll news in six months for you, and you just got back from a week off. You must be feeling pretty good.
PM: Well I am back from leave and I'm raring to go, lots of hard work in front of me but a week off in tropical North Queensland does you a lot of good.
HOST: Now in the news today power prices. They've been skyrocketing for years now, why all of a sudden are you guys jumping up and down about it? You've had the chance for the last four years. Why now?
PM: Well we've been doing a lot of work on power prices and now's the time to get all of that work at the COAG table before me and all of the state premiers and chief ministers and to get the job done.
We want to take all of the work that's been done, put it before state premiers and make a difference for power price rises in the future.
WILL FERRELL: Ms...Mrs...Prime Minister?
PM: Oh whatever!
WILL FERRELL: Can I just call you Jules?
PM: That'll do too.
WILL FERRELL: Julia, I have a question for you. I understand your partner is a hairdresser, is that correct?
PM: Yes he is.
WILL FERRELL: I suffer from horrible split ends. Would you have any advice for me or any way that I could - because this hair's terrible, it's like horse hair, and I'm at my wit's end.
PM: Well I can give you some very clear advice and I'm sure Tim would endorse it. You need to get yourself to a hairdresser straight away.
You need to spend buckets and buckets of money on in-salon treatment, and you need to buy everything that they recommend for you to take home!
WILL FERRELL: That's what I thought.
HOST: Now Prime Minister, the other big news this week is of course the Olympics. Everyone's got an opinion. How do you think we're going?
PM: I think people can be a little bit tough.
Our athletes are over there amongst the world's best, trying their guts out, doing everything that they possibly can and I think we're really at the stage where we should just be cheering for them and right behind them rather than starting to criticise or question.
WILL FERRELL: Julia, it's Will again. I'm wondering, do you have an opinion on the power prices? Did you - did someone already ask you about that? Never mind.
PM: Someone did ask me about that and I'm concerned that with all of these treatments in the hairdressers, you know there's a lot of power being used, blow-dryers and the like, so those power price rise issues are important for you too!
WILL FERRELL: Absolutely.
HOST: Fair enough Julia, I want to get back to the Olympics though. Because there's some real pain happening there for Australians, there is, and I mean we've got a lot of silver medals but they're not good enough. You don't want silver at the next election, do you, it's not going to work for you is it?
PM: Well Hughesy, the election is a two-horse race. When we're talking about the Olympics you've got people who have trained a lifetime and we're somehow full of criticism instead of saying that is a fantastic result.
HOST: Now Prime Minister, from my understanding you're saying that these are people that physically put themselves through the wringer, years and years of training, they push their bodies to the absolute limit. Given that seems to be what Tony Abbott has done to prepare for prime minister, would you say that we should be proud of his efforts as well?
PM: No I think that we should send him to the next Olympics.
HOST: Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it, we'll chat again soon.
PM: Thank you.