Canberra
HOST: They say that if you can remember being at COAG, then you weren't really there.
Someone who definitely was though was the Prime Minister Julia Gillard. She joins us now. Julia, are smart meters really going to save us all money?
PM: We are looking to make a difference to power bills and I'm glad the first ministers - that's what we like to call them - the Premiers and Chief Ministers agreed to my plan today. It is about using new technology to help people manage their demand.
HOST: Can you understand people's concerns though? There's been a report that one caught fire, reports of illness as a result, and some people are concerned that the devices will really just allow the power companies to charge us more, not less.
PM: Well the devices won't be compulsory; we're not going to put that on anyone. People will have choices. But there are smart meters and there are other forms of technology that are emerging to help people with their power demand.
To take an example, we talked about in COAG today; you can get a device that changes a little bit the way your air conditioner works.
It doesn't really make any difference to the temperature of your home, it's a half a degree difference, but it saves you a lot of power.
HOST: To something lighter and yesterday you filmed a sketch with Tom and Alex from Triple J acknowledging that the Mayans were right and the world was going to end. Let's take another look at that.
PM VIDEO: Whether the final blow comes from flesh-eating zombies, demonic hellbeasts or the triumph of K-Pop...I will always fight for you till the very end.
HOST: Hilarious stuff, we all loved it around the office. But isn't there a problem if, say, sometime in the future you actually have to inform the Australian people of an upcoming apocalypse they will not believe you, in essence, you are the PM who cried apocalypse?
PM: We've certainly had the Opposition Leader who's cried apocalypse, that happened consistently for the last two years with Whyalla wiped off the map and all the rest of it.
But you'll be able to tell when I'm calling the end of the world because I will start that community service announcement by saying “I'm really serious this time.”
HOST: Just one other thing I wanted to ask you about. Obviously a number of issues you faced this year, one was marriage equality and I wanted to share a photo. This is my favourite photo from the news this week.
This is from Washington State where they've legalised gay marriage, these are two of the first men to have availed themselves of equal marriage.
And I just want to say, is there any good reason why here in Australia guys like this, members of ZZ Top cover bands, shouldn't have the same rights as everyone else?
PM: They look like two very fine fellows but my view on this is well-known, and we've have had a parliamentary vote on it too. But I'm sure there's going to be a lot of continuing community debate, and we'll all look at photos like that and think about the issues.
HOST: Well, if we don't speak to you before, have a good Christmas, and we appreciate your time tonight.
PM: I'm looking forward to Christmas and spending some time with family but thank you very much, Carrie.