Gold 104.3 FM Melbourne
BRIG: Good morning Prime Minister.
PM: Good morning Brig, good morning Lehmo, I don't feel any hands on me, so that's just as well.
LEHMO: Probably just as well. Julia, we should start by asking you how Tim is because we know he was on a bike ride yesterday for the charity Hagar and he bumped into a kerb or came undone at some point?
PM: Yes I heard the story when I got home last night, so coming round one of the Canberra roundabouts he almost ran out of road and hit the kerb, but he is fine and he was full of tales about the ride and then of course full of teasing about Tigers versus Dogs yesterday.
I just don't want to go into it!
LEHMO: Tough weekend for the Bulldogs. Have you ever jumped on the back of the bike with Tim in charge?
PM: No I haven't, and just as well really by the sound of it.
BRIG: Keep well away from that I think, Prime Minister. Now do tell, you've had a very busy couple of weeks in China doing some great stuff, no doubt about that, and now of course it's the education.
Quite a few of these state ministers - ours included - aren't so happy with the plan which you've got for state schools.
PM: We will have discussions with the states but the thing here that really matters, for everyone in Victoria and around the country is this is a plan to make sure every school has got the resources it needs to offer kids a great education and we don't have that ta the moment.
Over years and years and years what we've seen is schools and school systems having to fight for resources.
We've often seen school systems pitted against each other - Catholics and independents versus government schools.
I want to end all of that, I want to get this right for all time.
Any school you send your kids to will have the right resources to give them a great education and that money will be used to genuinely improve their education.
More support for kids' learning, more improvement plans in schools, more things like librarians and literacy coaches, things that really make a difference to the quality of education.
BRIG: I think everybody is behind that, getting the greatest education, but what worries me is it has to come, sadly, at the expense of universities.
PM: Our universities are very precious to us, which is why since we came to government we've increased funding to them by more than 50 per cent.
That's a lot of money, and funding for universities is going to continue to grow.
Every university will get more money next year and the year after and the year after than they have this year.
What we are asking them to do is to have a lower growth rate to help us fund these important changes for kids around the country.
So more money in universities, so each year they'll get more money, a lower rate of growth is what we're asking for.
LEHMO: And what you've promised here is $14.5 billion and you're asking the states to chuck in $1 for every $2 that the federal government is chucking in.
I know the states are all catching up this week - can you force their hand, or do you just need to convince them that it's a good idea?
PM: I have to convince them. I have to convince them to put the kids in their state first.
And so we'll have those discussions around the table on Friday, and I do want to walk out of that Council of Australian Governments meeting with states signing on, hopefully understanding how important this agenda is.
If I can't get everybody there on Friday, then I'm going to keep fighting for it.
I've said that the offer will remain on the table until 30 June, and the reason for saying 30 June is schools need to know what funding position they're going to be in for next school year.
This is a big change for our nation, it's about properly resourcing the things our schools do to help our children for generations and generations to come.
So let's work together and get it right.
BRIG: Now Prime Minister, another bad poll today for you and your government.
What do you think you need to do to turn these polls around, because the people don't seem to be getting behind you.
PM: We have polls at least weekly, sometimes we have them every second day.
I don't comment on opinion polls, and what I'm focussed on today are all of the important numbers that go to making up our new school funding system and our plan to improve schools.
So feel free to ask me any number about how $14.5 billion works, that's what I'm focussing on.
LEHMO: And we absolutely want our school system in the - well top five in the world is the aim.
PM: It is the aim and you mentioned when I first came on the line I was in China last week, I do get to travel around our region, because of the international meetings I need to go to and I do make it a habit when I'm there to go and look at their schools and I can tell you from my first-hand experience that countries in our region are working to improve their schools.
So if we do nothing, we just quietly lapse behind the standards of the world. I don't want that to happen, I want us to be in the top five.
It's important for our kids, but it's important for our economy's future.
The jobs of the future are high-skill jobs. If you didn't get a great school education then there's no way in the world you're going to have the skills to do them, and that means we will be a weaker country in the future than we can be.
LEHMO: Absolutely Prime Minister. Very quickly, election is on 14 September.
If the Bulldogs are playing in a preliminary final on that day, will you be in attendance at the football?
PM: I did some due diligence on all of this before announcing the election date, and I checked past fixtures and I noted that in the finals generally, what's been played, that stage of the finals is a Friday night match and then a Sunday match, so we're in the clear. Relax, relax.
BRIG: We have to let you go Prime Minister, we'd love to know that you'd come to visit us in the studio because we'd like to know your favourite classic hit songs.
We know you're a fan of Gold music.
PM: I am, and I would love to do that and I can then reveal my incredibly daggy music.
BRIG: We'll look forward to that, Prime Minister Gillard, thank you for joining us this morning.