Sydney
HOST: I'm delighted to say that we have the Prime Minister on the telephone. Prime Minister, good morning.
PM: Hello John.
HOST: Thank you very much for giving us some of your time.
How's things in the western Sydney area gone or you?
PM: I've very much enjoyed it John and I'm sure I'm going to enjoy today as well.
I've had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people about issues that matter to them in western Sydney.
For example we had a great community safety forum yesterday and I've met with some amazing school kids who are determined to achieve and to build a great life for themselves, so it's been a good time and I'm looking forward to today.
HOST: Okay, well you've had, after your fourth stay in western Sydney, you've done all sorts of things.
You've done media conferences, fundraisers, party events, private meetings, but a lot of people are saying you're yet to meet a voter who wasn't part of some sort of scripted event.
PM: Well that's all nonsense John.
The media when they're following you around, press packs, they've got to talk about something.
When I'm here I wander around and talk to people.
I've had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people and they are able to say whatever they want to say.
HOST: What are ‘mummy bloggers'?
PM: ‘Mummy bloggers' is a term used to describe women who run internet sites, so they're blogging and talking about their lives and what they do, raising kids and work and family life and all that kind of thing.
HOST: Okay, you had a meeting with the mummy bloggers, I think it was a private dining room at Rooty Hill RSL.
But again people are saying almost none of those people live in Sydney's west.
PM: John, I've been here for a few days and in all sorts of circumstances.
I've had the opportunity to talk to people.
So I know there's always a bit of media carry-on around these things, I don't let any of that worry me.
When I'm talking to people I have a real conversation with them and they're able to raise anything that's on their mind.
HOST: Tell me, what are the problems western Sydney voters are most concerned about?
PM: I think concerns vary across different parts of western Sydney, and everybody's story is unique.
So you've always got to be careful of generalising.
But if I was going to try and pick the key issues that I think matter to people out here, people are concerned about jobs and how they will make their future, how they will continue to provide for themselves and their family, and how our nation will go through in the days beyond the mining boom - what the source of Australian jobs will be.
So I've been able to talk to people about our plan for Australian jobs and I'm going to a jobs expo today to get jobseekers and job opportunities together.
People are very focussed on cost of living pressures, understandably, and I've been talking to people about benefits like our Schoolkids Bonus - help with the cost of getting the kids back to school at the start of the year when you've got to get the new shoes and everything else, and of course that's in contest - I support it, Mr Abbott does not.
People are very focussed on the quality of their child's school and on local healthcare services, whether they're going to get the education they need for the kids for the future, whether the hospitals will be able to offer the service you need if you're in a crisis situation and you really need to get to the hospital for something.
So we've been talking about improving schools and improving hospitals. And infrastructure - traffic is a big issue out here-
HOST: Big, big, yeah.
PM: Very big issue.
As is community safety, and I've had the opportunity of talking to local people about that and their perspectives on some of the things that have disrupted a sense of community safety including firearms being discharged in suburban streets.
HOST: Tell me, no matter which way you look at it, it's hard to deny that you're not on the campaign trail.
PM: This is what I do, John.
As Prime Minister, for all of the time I've been Prime Minister, when I was Deputy Prime Minister and indeed in Opposition before that, I always took myself out and around to talk to people and I'll continue to do so.
I've done that in western Sydney in the past. I'll do it again in the future. It helps to collect views, to talk about what's on people's minds-
HOST: Sure.
PM: And have the opportunity to explain what the Government's doing. You always learn something and that, to me, is part of governing.
HOST: So you're not on the campaign trail?
PM: We'll have the election, and I've already announced the date so there's no mystery John, no guessing games, we'll have the election on 14 September.
HOST: I see. You want to avoid that campaign trail phrase, don't you?
PM: Well, John, I last year, for example, took myself to south-eastern Queensland and central Queensland for a comparable amount of time, out and about talking to people.
People weren't then saying to me, ‘are you on a campaign trail', they just accepted there was the Prime Minister doing what she does, governing the country, talking to local communities.
That's what I'm doing now.
HOST: Okay. You claimed somewhere that gun crime has soared, but in reality non-fatal shootings in Sydney have fallen.
PM: My point was the number of weapons, shootings in streets, so weapons being discharged in public places, that has gone up.
The phenomenon of shooting at premises, you know, shots being fired into houses, that has gone up, and it's that that I think has particularly shattered people's sense of confidence in their safety in western Sydney.
But not just western Sydney, John, in Melbourne, in my own electorate over the weekend there was a bikie-inspired shooting in an industrial estate - a man who actually makes his home in my electorate.
So there have been problems in various parts of the country but it's obviously terrifying for people who are in and around when a gun is fired.
HOST: You bet.
PM: And more broadly than that, if a gun's been fired somewhere in your community, it impinges on everybody's sense of safety.
HOST: Okay, tell me, do we really need a national anti-gang taskforce? Why can't the states look after that themselves?
They've got their own police forces, why can't they handle it?
PM: Because these gangs are national and tremendously sophisticated.
Indeed, they have international links.
We are talking about gangs that can count their earnings in the tens of millions; indeed, some of them are worth more than $100 million.
So these are very sophisticated gangs doing business around Australia, able to move people, weapons, wealth, money around Australia and unless you've got a national response, then they're obviously going to move from one state to another to try and avoid local law enforcement.
So state police do a tremendously good job tracking down gangs and dealing with gang violence, but there's a limit to what they do.
New South Wales police can't run over the border to Victoria, they don't have jurisdiction there, which is why we are getting our federal police to work in strike teams with local police to deal with gangs and the violence they bring, and also to crack down on the unexplained wealth they earn.
Lots of people have got a story about a person who's apparently got no job, but seems to be driving around in a very expensive sports car.
Well if that is happening, and if that is the proceeds of crime, then we want to seize that wealth.
HOST: Okay, I've got some questions that have been sent in by listeners. There's one here from Jan Kerr, who says, ‘why the glasses?' It seems like a stupid question, I suppose you wear the glasses because you need them, do you?
PM: That's right, that's right because they help me see better.
HOST: Pretty simple. A fella called Rich Salt asks, ‘what do you think your legacy will be?'
PM: I'm not thinking about any of that. I'll leave that all for the long distant future.
My focus is on getting done what I need to do every day, so that I'm making a difference for families today, supporting them, as they face all of the pressures of modern life.
And I'm building a future for our country that will have jobs and prosperity and opportunity in it for all Australians. And better services to support people including a National Disability Insurance Scheme.
HOST: Okay, so you intend to hang around, in other words, you're not going anywhere?
PM: No, of course not.
HOST: Do you think people would like you to go somewhere?
PM: John, you're going to get onto that tired old conversation that we resolved in the Federal Labor Party last February.
HOST: Prime Minister, I never get onto tired old conversations.
PM: Well we won't bother having that one then.
HOST: Alright, so you haven't got any concerns, put it that way?
PM: No, I don't.
HOST: Okay, do you think you've been - a woman called Tracey Denholm asks, ‘do you think you have been judged harshly because you're a woman?'
PM: I think that there are some things that are different about being the first woman to do this job.
Some of them are incredibly delightful things, like I get young women rushing up to me, or mums or dads bringing something to me to sign for their young daughter because they want young girls, their daughter to look and to see me doing this job and for it to be a message that women can do anything in our society.
So there are some great things about being the first woman.
There are some different things about being the first woman to do this job - the endless fascination with shoes and hair and clothes and all of that kind of carry-on has come with it too.
HOST: Do you have advisers in regard to clothes and shoes and stuff?
PM: You've got to take - just like male politicians do - some advice about what works on TV, you know, things that make lights strobe and fuzz and all of that kind of stuff, but male politicians get that kind of advice as well.
HOST: They all seem to be wearing pale blue ties.
PM: I think Mr Abbott has taken to that, that's true.
HOST: What do you do to relax, I mean, the job you've got is awful. I wouldn't like it, what do you do to relax?
PM: Well I think the job I have is a fantastic one, a tremendous privilege, and the thing I like about it the best is it gives you the opportunity to do things that you can see making a difference.
You know, I can go to a school and I can see the difference the programs we've brought have made for those kids' lives.
I can go to a hospital and see patients being treated because of the decisions we've made.
I can go to a manufacturing business and see people in work because of the decisions we've made. So it's a great job.
Everybody needs to relax sometimes and I can read book, do a bit of knitting, watch a bit of TV, all of those sorts of very ordinary things.
HOST: Knitting's very ordinary. I didn't know people still knitted. My mother used to knit all the time.
PM: Heavens, there's a whole tribe of knitters out there John, who are still clicking away with the needles and also finding each other on all sorts of internet sites so that they can swap patterns and tips.
There are some cafes that are for knitters, where people go and knit and have a cup of coffee and chat.
HOST: You're kidding?
PM: No I'm not!
HOST: Really?
PM: You'll get people ringing in now John, telling you all about where to go if you're a mad knitter.
HOST: Yeah, purl one, plain one, drop one. I remember.
PM: No dropping.
HOST: You don't - maybe you could give me a knitting lesson one day. They tell me blokes-
PM: I would happily do that!
HOST: They tell me blokes do knit.
PM: Absolutely right.
HOST: Really, well I haven't quite taken to it yet and I don't know that I will. So what's happening today, what are you doing today?
PM: I'll be at a Jobs Expo today.
This is in fact the 71st Jobs Expo that we've had around the country, and it's where we create an event for businesses that are looking for workers, and workers who are looking for jobs to come together.
We get people in their thousands turning up and it always works to put the right people with the right employers so we see new jobs.
HOST: Okay. Prime Minister, do you feel comfortable, do you feel threatened?
PM: In what way?
HOST: By people around you?
PM: No, of course not.
HOST: Why of course not? It's a tough business and there are a lot of tough people involved, and a lot of people would like to be leader.
PM: No, I don't worry about any of that John.
HOST: You're very strong.
PM: I don't worry about any of that. A lot of media carry-on from time to time, but I never let any of that worry me.
HOST: Okay, well you've certainly got to have a tough hide to be in the job that you're in and I suppose a lot of - well not too many women - Margaret Thatcher probably experienced it, she was terrific, she did a good job.
PM: Well, you wouldn't expect me as a Labor politician to endorse Margaret Thatcher's policies and plans, but of course as the first woman to do that job in the UK, to be Prime Minister there, she faced a lot of stresses and strains that came with being the first woman to do it.
I absolutely acknowledge that.
HOST: Okay, who do you admire?
PM: A range of people. I'm a Hillary Clinton fan - I think she's changed perceptions of women around the world.
HOST: Yes she has.
PM: Yeah, tremendously personable, lovely woman.
I've enjoyed the times that I've met her and I think her example kind of shines around the world, so she's a very impressive figure.
HOST: What about the Queen? Do you admire the Queen? I know you're not a monarchist.
PM: No, I'm not a monarchist, but personally, looking at her as a woman fulfilling a role and doing it day after day, year after year, I do think she's a very impressive person.
I got to see her up close when we had the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting here, and she came on tour, and she's not young John, let's put it like that, she's not young, and she's tremendously focussed, tremendously strong and a very impressive person.
HOST: Very.
PM: A great person to talk to about world events because she's got this encyclopedia in her head, not from having read it but from having been there.
HOST: Yeah, well she would have I imagine.
Are you going to stand by what you said when you announced the date of the election, that you will clearly define when you go from governing mode to campaigning mode?
PM: Yes John, there's doing the business of Government and then there will be the election campaign as people have known them in the past.
HOST: Okay, so you're not in campaign mode now. Not even for a minute or two?
PM: Well I'm chatting to you now John.
I don't know what label you want to put on that, but I'd put the same label on it as to when we've had conversations last year or the year before or a long, long time back.
You and I have talked regularly, so there's nothing different about this conversation.
HOST: Okay, it's been good to talk to you; it's always good to talk to you. I enjoy very much you giving us time.
You've dismissed suggestions that the 457 visa stance is xenophobic and a move to the far right, saying that you were simply putting Australian jobs first.
Following your comments on Sunday night that foreign workers should not be put at the front of the jobs queue at the expense of Australian workers, you've come under fire from the Coalition and you've come under fire, believe it or not, from the Greens.
PM: Well others can say what they want. My view is Australian workers should come first for opportunities in our nation.
HOST: Of course they should.
PM: Now there are times when businesses have legitimate skills shortages, but we want to put Australians first and get them into jobs first.
It does concern me if I ever hear a story about someone missing out on a job opportunity because the employer got instead someone on a 457 visa, so a temporary foreign worker to do the job, and it does upset me that there are jobs being filled by 457 visa holders now because a few years back our training system let people down.
So under the Howard Government, Mr Abbott was Minister for Health, we weren't training enough doctors, we didn't train enough nurses, and now our hospitals are reliant a lot of the time on temporary foreign workers holding 457 visas.
Well there's nothing about that program that should ever be an excuse for not giving people training opportunities, creating apprenticeships, delivering university places, and Australians should always be the ones who get first go and first benefit from the job opportunities in our country.
Now this is a big difference between the political parties. Mr Abbott says he wants 457 visas - temporary foreign workers - to be a mainstay of the Australian immigration program, and I think we don't agree.
HOST: Okay. We're losing you on that telephone. Are you in a car or something?
PM: No I'm not, so maybe the telephone gods are letting us down but no I'm not moving.
HOST: Okay, Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time, and it's been enjoyable to talk to you.
It always is, though we may not agree politically on a lot of things but nonetheless I enjoy the fact that you give us time so generously.
PM: Thanks John.
HOST: Good to talk to you. Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and she is generous with her time.