GRIMSHAW:
The first episode of the Today Show aired on the 28th of June 1982, and one of the guests who joined Steve was John Howard who was at the Federal Treasurer at the time. To refresh your memory here is a look.
LIEBMANN:
I've read your report and it seems to me that what you're saying is this: that there's little new in it, that criticism of the Taxation Department is unfair, that avoidance and evasion schemes didn't become widespread until after 1978, and now, with new laws, everything's okay. Do you think the Australian public is going to buy that?
JOHN HOWARD:
They probably won't completely buy the last part of it and that is that everything's okay. I think there's probably a good deal of scepticism around still.
GRIMSHAW:
Well 22 years later, the Prime Minister joins us again, 23 years later actually, making him one of Steve's first and last interviews on this programme. Prime Minister, good morning. Neither you have changed a bit, by the way.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning. I think we have, haven't we?
LIEBMANN:
We wish Prime Minister don't we?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah. Steve's done better in the hair department, much better. But it's great to be on the show.
GRIMSHAW:
Do you remember the first show Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I do, I remember it very clearly and I think it's fair to say that there's probably nobody over the intervening 23 years who's interviewed me on television more frequently, more consistently and on such a complete range of subjects that Steve has. I was thinking about this this morning and sure I've had a lot of interviews with Laurie Oakes but perhaps because that's a weekly programme, a bit less frequently, I've had a few interviews with Kerry O'Brien at the ABC but over a 23-year period Steve has been a consistent interrogator and I really will miss him a great deal and I thank him for the professional association that you inevitably develop with people who are respected media performers and commentators and I've always found Steve to play it fair, he's given me a hard time when it's his job to give me a hard time but on other occasions when really it's perhaps the job of the interviewer to let the person being interviewed say something to the viewers, that the viewers want to hear he's allowed me to do that and he's been able to strike that balance, not everybody does that but he's been able to do it and it's a mark of his professionalism.
LIEBMANN:
Prime Minister, I suppose I've been reflecting these last couple of days about the past 20 years and all the water that has run under the bridge and the things I've seen, the pivotal moments in history and you've seen a lot too.
PRIME MINISTER:
I have indeed and you and I have shared interviews about it, I think we interviewed each other, well you interviewed me in Washington just after the terrorist attack in September of 2001. You certainly interviewed me a lot when we were going through some of the travails of the Coalition experience in 1987. And certainly at the various high and low points of my political career you've interviewed me but more importantly it's a period of time when Australia has changed, I believe for the better, I think Australia now is a stronger, more confident, more assertive, more respected country. It was a good country 23 years ago, it's always been a good country but I think we've come a long way as a nation in that 23 year period and your programme and you yourself have been an interpreter of that change to your viewers.
GRIMSHAW:
Prime Minister, Steve has obviously decided to walk away from the brutal hours and smell the roses, it hasn't given you any ideas has it?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no I quite enjoy, there are a few roses around here in the garden of the Lodge and I don't want to walk away from them at all, they smell terrific in fact, it's a beautiful late summer morning in Canberra and I look forward to having many more.
LIEBMANN:
Prime Minister, I was thinking after Monday you and I could go walking together, we could both don our tracksuits and go pacing it out.
PRIME MINISTER:
We could, you'd be very welcome, you'd be very welcome to and because exercise, and I know you're a very keen tennis player and I'm sure that regular exercise has kept you fit as my regular exercise does me. But I would on a personal note like to catch up with you, I mean that, and have a beer, I'd like to do that. I think you've made a massive contribution to the programme and you've kept consistency and a dignity which has been always very impressive to me and I think it's been a credit to your profession.
LIEBMANN:
Thank you.
GRIMSHAW:
PM, just before we let you go and I hope this won't seem incongruous because it is obviously Steve's farewell but we do have to keep an eye on the news story of the day and there are a couple of critical ones, can I ask you about North Korea's announcement that it has nukes and will pull out of talks?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well disconcerting, a reminder of the kind of country we're dealing with, there could be an element of bluff, I'm not absolutely certain that the six-power talks have collapsed and we will renew our effort particularly with the Chinese and the Americans and the Japanese to see if we can't re-establish those six-power talks. But it's a reminder that we are not dealing with a typical democratic regime, or even a regime which is although authoritarian keen to be a good world citizen and it's a quite dangerous situation. Now there's an element of bluff I'm sure, there's an element of exaggeration, even if she does have some nuclear capacities, it has probably been exaggerated. But nobody should imagine that this is anything other than a real problem and one that has to be handled with a great deal of skill and balance.
GRIMSHAW:
Alright, and on the issue of Prince Charles' announcement that he will marry Camilla Parker Bowles, republicans are saying that it should renew the debate on the future of the constitutional monarchy, what's your response to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't think it's got anything to do with the debate about the constitutional monarchy, it's about the lives of two people, I congratulate them, I wish them well, I think it's sensible and a good thing that they have decided to marry, I think most people expect it and I think it will be widely supported but it has no relevance at all to whether or not Australia should become a republic, that is about the style of government we want, it's not a judgement on the behaviour and the lives of individual people, I think that's really a fairly silly kind of argument.
GRIMSHAW:
Okay, thank you for your time this morning, obviously the focus of our chat today has been Steve's farewell but we certainly hope that you'll continue to be a presence on our programme.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I certainly will and good luck Steve and thanks for the experience.
LIEBMANN:
Thank you Prime Minister very much.
[ends]