PICKERING: And an even bigger hello to our good mate Dave Hughes, who is in Western Sydney with the Prime Minister, welcome.
PM: Hello.
HUGHES: We are just hanging in the hood, aren't we Julia?
PM: That's exactly what we are doing.
HUGHES: Hanging in the hood.
BICKMORE: Well, Prime Minister, you held a press conference right by the M4 Motorway - a busy motorway in Sydney today.
Hughesy, you were there for us, asking the hard-hitting questions. But it seemed like Julia you were having a couple of problems. Let's take a look.
[CUT TO PRESS CONFERENCE INTERRUPTED BY TRAFFIC NOISE]
HUGHES GRAB: Prime Minister, Prime Minister, what are you going to do about truck noise, it makes press conferences a nightmare?
PM GRAB: Hughsey, I knew you would get a question in. What we are going to do is we are going to make sure The Project is actually getting you a better microphone with a clearer directional sound so you don't have to worry about it.
HUGHES GRAB: So it's our fault!
HUGHES: Now, Prime Minister, is that a clear promise?
PM: That's a very clear promise, Hughesy, I just can't believe the way that Hughesy gets sent out on locations like that without the right equipment.
I mean, I knew it was a serious press conference when I saw Hughesy there, and there he is, he's struggling with a mic that can't even pick up the sound.
BICKMORE: It has been a busy day for you. Let's see how your first big day in Sydney's west played out.
PICKERING: Back in January when the PM announced the election eight months out she said-
PM GRAB: I do so, not to start the nation's longest election campaign.
PICKERING: But today, with 194 days still to go until the 2013 poll, Canberra has come to western Sydney for a Gillard versus Abbott throwdown.
In their sights the crucial votes of Sydney's heartland - who are we kidding, it's an election campaign.
The PM's first big move - flash some cash - a funding commitment to extend two of Sydney's motorways.
PM GRAB: I am prepared to fund a proposal that sees the M4 extended so it gets people to the city, and the M5 extended so it gets people to the port.
PICKERING: Somewhere close by Tony Abbott was trying to convince everyone that he'd always planned to be in western Sydney today, and is not copying the PM.
TONY ABBOTT: The last thing I would want to do is imitate a Prime Minister who is incompetent and untrustworthy!
PICKERING: Then he accused the PM of copying him.
TONY ABBOTT: She does seem to be playing catch-up politics, it's some six months since the Coalition said that we'd put $1.5 billion towards the WestConnex project.
PICKERING: But the PM had more than cash in her arsenal. She also had new figures that show families in western Sydney will pay more tax than lose payments of up to $2,500 if Tony Abbott gets the chance to kill the carbon tax and scrap the School Kids Bonus.
She's probably going to need a lot more than that though. Weekend polling suggests that Labor is facing annihilation in Sydney's west, with seats previously considered ultra-safe in real danger of being lost unless the party switches back to you-know-who.
So, with four sleeps to go in Rooty Hill, can the PM turn things around out west and prevent an election catastrophe for the Labor Party?
BICKMORE: PM, as we just heard, a western Sydney wipeout was predicted for Labor in one of the polls over the weekend.
You've had a day there, have you convinced a few more people to stay on board?
PM: Well I've had a great day here, I've had the opportunity to meet with local council reps. I have been out with the Wanderers; local sporting team.
I've met with people who are providing disability services and doing just some amazing things by their fellow Australians.
So, it's been a big day and we have made a big announcement about infrastructure in western Sydney too.
So I very much enjoyed it and I have got a few more days to go. I have been to western Sydney in the past and enjoyed it.
I'll be here in the future, but today was a particularly good day.
PICKERING: In what must have been one of the great scheduling coincidences of all time Tony Abbott was also in western Sydney this morning.
Is he technically stalking you, and what are you going to do about stalking?
PM: Look, I don't think that there's anything that I could take up in a legal way or anything like that.
Not worrying about it. He can knock himself out and do whatever he wants to do, and I'll get on with my job.
HUGHES: It was also a coincidence that I'm here as well, you've got to remember that Julia.
PM: So, are you stalking me or you're stalking Tony Abbott?
HUGHES: Well, no, I'm focusing on you.
PM: Right, okay.
HUGHES: What about Kevin, do you think he may turn up ‘Where's Wally' style?
PM: Will you be stalking him as well? Hughesy, I actually think you are the common denominator here.
HUGHES: I love you all, alright?
PRICE: Prime Minister, as you said you have been in the western suburbs before. Indeed when you were there at Rooty Hill during the 2010 election campaign you made a whole range of promises that you have not been able to keep.
Why should anyone believe any of the promises you are making this time around?
PM: You are always a bundle of joy, aren't you? Just such a positive outlook on the world.
PRICE: The odd question that we might get an answer to perhaps?
PM: I don't know what happened in your household this morning, but I got out of bed feeling very energetic and ready to get out in western Sydney.
And ready to get out honouring the policies and plans that we promised for the people of western Sydney.
Things like cost of living relief with the School Kids Bonus, helping them with the traffic that's out here and that's extending the M4 and the M5; people into the city, freight to the port.
We have got a lot of work to do out here improving schools and to keep investing in the hospitals. And we're going to build that National Disability Insurance Scheme.
So things promised, things being delivered.
PRICE: But you did promise the Epping to Parramatta rail line and never delivered. I mean, so why should people believe you?
PM: I'd happily build the Parramatta to Epping rail line. We have got the money available.
Premier O'Farrell says he doesn't want to build it, and given it's a state rail line, if he doesn't want to build it, then I can't get it built.
But inevitably at some point in Sydney that rail line is going to have to be built, but it's not going to be built while Premier O'Farrell is here.
PICKERING: Prime Minister, can I ask you about a more important promise than any of that. We are 194 days out from the election.
Can you promise the poor people of western Sydney that you and Tony Abbott aren't going to spend all of those days out there? Cos they will be over it, I swear.
PM: I can promise the people of western Sydney I will be doing what I do as Prime Minister, which means that I'm here some of the time talking to the people in western Sydney, around the country, doing the job, governing, long hours of paperwork at the desk where Tony Abbott is nowhere nearby, so everybody can just relax a bit.
HUGHES: Can I tell you though the people of western Sydney are enjoying the show. And Tony may not be at the desk but Tony is delivering the laughs on television.
This morning he was on Sunrise with Kochie. We only showed a little bit of his gag. We didn't show the reaction from Kochie, from Tony's great gag. Watch this.
[GRAB FROM CHANNEL SEVEN SUNRISE]
DAVID KOCH: So you reject Bill Shorten's allegations that you are just imitating the Prime Minister, you are just following her lead.
TONY ABBOTT: The last thing I'd want to do is imitate a Prime Minister who is incompetent and untrustworthy!
DAVID KOCH: Okay.
HUGHES: Okay. Kochie gave it an okay. What do you give that?
PM: Umm, okay.
HUGHES: Two okays!
BICKMORE: Prime Minister, thank you for your time tonight and enjoy your week in Rooty Hill.
PM: Thank you very much.