Today
HOST: The Prime Minister joins us now from Blacktown, good morning to you PM.
PM: Good morning Karl.
HOST: Nice to see you and front pages of the dailies in Sydney - the Daily Telegraph and also the Sydney Morning Herald - some positive PR for you this morning, you must be pleased?
PM: I spoke yesterday about WestConnex which is an important infrastructure project for the people of western Sydney. But I want to see a plan that actually gets people to the city, gets freight to the port, and make sure people don't pay tolls on roads they currently get to use for free.
So that's what the newspaper is about. It's a big need out here to move people around. Too many times people are just stuck in traffic, not going to get home to see their kids while their kids are still up, losing too much of their day in the transit to and from work.
So I want to see that made easier, but that does require a plan that actually moves people to where they need to go, and moves freight to where it needs to get to.
HOST: Critics have called your trip out here over the next five days a stunt. You'd have to think looking at the papers this morning that it's a good stunt?
PM: People will say whatever they want to say, Karl. I'm not worried about any of that. I've been a frequent visitor here in western Sydney and what I'm doing here this week is what I've done when I've travelled in the past.
And what I'll do when I travel in the future here, which is immerse myself, talk to people in the community, work out what's on their mind, as well as talking to them about the Government's programs and plans and the difference we're trying to make for peoples' future.
So it's good to be here. I talked last night about our plan for western Sydney and the nation, and it's all about jobs, all about rolling out broadband, getting kids a great education, making sure we not only improve health but we build that National Disability Insurance Scheme.
And we're working with families as they face all of the pressures of modern life.
HOST: Graham Richardson was on our program this morning and he told me why would you bother, you're going to lose. Your response?
PM: Such a sunny optimist, Graham, isn't he? I'll leave all of that to the political commentators, none of that ever worries me.
HOST: What about the fact that he also says that Kevin Rudd will have a crack in as little as four weeks' time. You worried about that?
PM: Something tells me, Karl, that you could have played that story or got a political commentator to tip that any time over the last few years. I don't worry about any of that. The Party resolved that last February.
What motivates me, what gets me up in the morning whether I'm here in western Sydney or anywhere else in the nation, is doing what we can today to help Australians with their busy lives and doing what we need to do to build a prosperous future for the country.
That is more than a full-time job so that's what I keep my eyes on.
HOST: You have, you must concede, your work cut out for you out here in the western suburbs of Sydney though?
PM: People will decide come election time. What I am doing here now is talking to people and listening to them about the things that matter to them.
When I've come out here in the past, people have talked to me about cost of living pressures: ‘I've got get stuff for the kids to get them to school, the childcare bills are really pressing on me.'
So we've worked as a Government on those sorts of pressures - Schoolkids Bonus, giving you some money to help with the costs of getting the kids to school. That's in contest at the election, whether you keep it or whether you don't.
Taking some of the tax burden off people, making sure you get to keep the first $18,200 that you earn, makes a big difference, takes a bit of pressure off - that's in contest at the next election.
So people will decide those things come election day. In the meantime, I'll be here talking to people, talking about the Government's policies and listening to what's on peoples' minds right here, right now.
HOST: There are some people, plenty out here that think, that a very cynical about you being out here, they say where have you been? You've been the PM for the last two years and you aren't tracking that well in the polls. You're not going to talk about the polls of course. But they say why all of a sudden - we're in election campaign - are you here?
PM: Well Karl, it's not all of a sudden. I've been a very regular traveller to western Sydney. Sometimes I've come out for one meeting. Sometimes I've come for half a day; sometimes I've come for a whole day.
A bit like what I did in Queensland last year, in south-east Queensland and central Queensland. I've set up for a while because it enables me to spend some more dedicated time.
So travelling around the country, talking to people, it's a routine part of what I do. In fact there would hardly be a day goes by that I don't have a conversation with someone in Australia about what's on their mind, even those days when I'm most intensively in Parliament or in Cabinet, you're always meeting people who are saying look, this is what matters to me, what are you doing about that, have you thought about the other?
And they're all in enriching conversations that give us great feedback.
HOST: I suppose the concern is from some folks out here that you may not make it to the next election. Do you think you will make it to the next election.
PM: Well look, we dealt with all of that last February, and done and dusted.
HOST: You're confident that you'll be the PM come the next election?
PM: Absolutely. And I don't spend any time wondering about it. We dealt with it last February.
I'm a person with a lot to do. I've got a lot of work to do from very early in the morning to very late at night.
Doing all of the things necessary to keep our nation safe, to keep our economy creating jobs, to keep working with families on the pressures that they face day-to-day and also to take the right decisions now to build our future.
Nothing about our future's assured. If you make the wrong decisions now then you won't get to that strong prosperous future I want for Australians. So that's my focus and all the rest of it I leave to the political commentators like Graham Richardson.
HOST: In terms of looking ahead, I guess the concern must be - and I'm going to ask you this - do you worry about, I know you don't worry about specific opinion polls, but do you worry about polls that constantly say for example the last one over the weekend that 60 per cent don't agree with what you've been doing, that are dissatisfied with what you've been doing out here.
Does that weigh on your mind that you're not connecting to people and that people aren't receiving your message - they're not getting what you are putting out there?
PM: I worry about the nation. I worry about making the right decisions for the nation. And I know many of the biggest decisions, the toughest decisions aren't popular ones.
You don't step up with a plan for the nation's future because you say to yourself I want to do the easy things. Building a nation's future requires you to do hard things. And that's true for our country.
So I've done some big, tough, hard things; not always popular, right for the nation's future. And so, that's good enough for me. If I can look people in the eye and say we will be a stronger country, a fairer country, a smarter country because of the things that I have done as Prime Minister - and I want to keep doing as Prime Minister - then, that's me.
I'm not going to go the easy route and just tell people what they want to hear. I'm going to tell them the truth. Building the nation's future isn't about making five or ten easy decisions that are all popular.
Sometimes it requires you to make some very tough ones.
HOST: We've already spoken to Tony Abbott this morning. He's been out here next to me at the Rooty Hill RSL carpark. Are you worried that he might be stalking you?
PM: No, I'm not, no I'm not. And good luck to him. I think he's probably got some explaining to do today when he's talking to people in western Sydney I think he's going to meet a lot of people who say to him actually, that Schoolkids Bonus money does help me, Tony, it helps me put shoes on the kids' feet and pay for their uniform.
And that tax cut did help me Tony, and why do you want to take those things away from me and my family?
HOST: You are out at the Wanderers' today, who are performing very well in terms of the soccer. We appreciate your time today as well PM.
PM: Thank you and I'm very much enjoying it out here. Thanks a lot. I've got to say hello to the team and I've even got one that says Gillard now, to wear myself!
HOST: Righto Prime Minister, thanks for your time today. We appreciate it.
PM: Thank you.
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