ANDREW BOLT:
Prime Minister, thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Andrew.
ANDREW BOLT:
The attacks on you are astonishing. Have they forced you to change your media strategy, which until a week or two ago was to say little and let your deeds speak for themselves?
PRIME MINISTER:
Andrew, our approach is always the same. When we've got something to say, we say it. When we don't have anything to say, well, a dignified silence is best. In the end, this Government will be judged not on tomorrow's headline, but on whether we have competently implemented our commitments and intelligently responded to the developments of the day and I'm happy to be judged on that basis.
ANDREW BOLT:
The ABC in particular seems out of control. It's not just the attacks on you of course, it's also vilified conservative critics, even showing a doctored photo of Chris Kenny, to make it seem like he's having sex with a dog. Every one of its main current affair shows, headed by someone from the left – does the ABC need a new Charter so that we can get some balance?
PRIME MINISTER:
Andrew, I'm not in the business of making unnecessary enemies and I'm not in the business of further inflaming critics.
ANDREW BOLT:
They hate you already. I don't know why you think you are going to inflame them.
PRIME MINISTER:
I sometimes question judgements that individual journalists and individual programmes make and I certainly would sometimes question the judgement that individual news organisations make. But I'm not in the business of putting anyone into particular camps because my job is to try to be as appealing as I can at all times and I accept that some people are harder to please than others.
ANDREW BOLT:
Well talking about judgements made by the ABC – they've now published of course the stolen intelligence material on how we spied on Indonesia and that has hurt Australia, arguably put people in danger. It has censored some of that material, but obviously not most of it. Has it made the right call in this case?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think it's fair enough for people to question the judgement of the ABC, not in failing to cover the story, as it were, because plainly it was a story, but in choosing to act as, if you like, an advertising amplifier for The Guardian. It was The Guardian's story which the ABC seemed to want to advertise, even though there's not normally advertising on the ABC.
ANDREW BOLT:
But would you have liked some of those, more of those details censored than the ABC did?
PRIME MINISTER:
In the end, it is up to news organisations to make their judgements about what is fit to print, fit to publish, fit to broadcast and they have to make their own judgements, but I think people are entitled sometimes to question the judgements that news organisations make.
ANDREW BOLT:
Now, you were very rightly critical of Julia Gillard's broken promises. I'd like to play for you a promise made before the election about giving schools exactly what they would have got under Labor's Gonski reforms.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
You can vote Liberal or Labor and you will get exactly the same amount of funding for your school.
ANDREW BOLT:
Your team made that promise. Why won’t you repeat it now? Is that because you are going to break it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Andrew, I'm happy to say that under the Coalition schools will get the same quantum of funding over the four years that they would have under Labor had it been re-elected. In fact, they will get a little bit more.
ANDREW BOLT:
You just heard me play that promise. That wasn't about the quantum – I accept your argument there – it was about each school getting the same money for the next four years. Will you repeat that promise? I don't know why you made it then and can't repeat it now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think Christopher said schools would get the same amount of money and schools - plural - will get the same amount of money. The quantum will be the same. In fact, we are going to put a little bit more in, because let's not forget Andrew, as Chris Bowen admitted during the week – Labor ripped $1.2 billion out of the promised schools funding quantum just a few weeks before the election.
ANDREW BOLT:
I hear all that.
PRIME MINISTER:
We’ll put a little bit of that back in.
ANDREW BOLT:
I hear that schools, plural – people just saw the grab. They heard "school," your "school" singular and I don't understand why that promise was made. I would go a billion dollars into debt just to keep your promise. I don't know why you don't commit to it.
PRIME MINISTER:
But Andrew, we are going to keep our promise. We are going to keep the promise that we actually made, not the promise that some people thought that we made or the promise that some people might have liked us to make. We’re going to keep the promise that we actually made and what you will have as a result of us keeping our commitment, we will clean up Labor's mess in schools, as we will clean up their mess on budgets, on borders and everywhere else. We will clean up Labor's mess and we will have a system of funding for schools which is fair and national.
ANDREW BOLT:
Tony Abbott sent the Indonesian President a letter this week to settle the crisis caused when the ABC revealed that Australia has spied on President Yudhoyono's phone. Yudhoyono tweeted a picture of himself reading the letter and reports had him either positive or angry. Prime Minister, what reaction have you got from President Yudhoyono?
PRIME MINISTER:
We saw a very warm and friendly response from President Yudhoyono. President Yudhoyono wants the relationship with Australia to be as strong as possible, as I want the relationship with Indonesia to be as strong as possible. This is all in all our most important single relationship and we need to keep addressing the issues and making sure that it gets stronger and stronger as the months and years go by.
ANDREW BOLT:
Critics have said – why didn't you give the President a private call to sort this out – did that occur to you?
PRIME MINISTER:
I was always happy to speak with the President, but I thought it was important for him to digest all the various news reports and do what he thought was best, take what action he thought appropriate and then of course we responded. As I said, Andrew, this is a very, very important relationship. President Yudhoyono has been a very good friend of Australia, a really good friend of Australia. That's why as part of our two-way street Colombo plan, the best and brightest Australian students studying in Indonesia every year will be known as the Yudhoyono Fellow, because of the respect we have for President Yudhoyono. But everyone needs to understand that just as Indonesia will do what is in its best interests, so will Australia and what is in our best interests is to have the best possible relationship with Indonesia.
ANDREW BOLT:
Indonesia's spy chief Marciano Norman said our spying on the Indonesian President occurred under Labor, which is true and our intelligence officials have now told him and I quote, "In the future it will not happen again". Is Norman wrong – did he not get those assurances?
PRIME MINISTER:
There have been all sorts of conversations at all sorts of levels between Australia and Indonesia over the last week or so and the point that all of us have made - from me down - is that we won't do things to hurt Indonesia, we will do things to help Indonesia. There's already a very high level of intelligence sharing between Australia and Indonesia. That's been very helpful.
ANDREW BOLT:
But did he get that guarantee that in the future it will not happen again?
PRIME MINISTER:
I wasn't party to the conversation in question. What I want to stress Andrew, is that there is a very high level of intelligence sharing already between Indonesia and Australia and I want to see that level of sharing increase in the months and years ahead. I want to see, perhaps, a security round table. That means that if and when issues arise between us there is a mechanism for dealing with them because we have got to build the strongest possible relationship. It is, as I say, just about the most important relationship we've got.
ANDREW BOLT:
Now earlier you said that you didn't want to pick a fight with the ABC. You also didn't pick a fight with the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce. A lot of conservatives, me included, thought she last week got far too political, backing same-sex marriage and a republic. You said it was entirely appropriate. I'm just wondering – can we get it straight – Quentin Bryce breached the convention that Governor-Generals stay out of politics, didn't she?
PRIME MINISTER:
As Governors-General approach the end of their term, it’s not uncommon for them to start speaking in a more personal and a more candid, way. My recollection is that Bill Hayden gave a couple of very candid addresses in the last few months of his Governor-Generalship. Bill Hayden was a very good Governor-General – a very good Governor General, a very good Queen’s man if you like and I think that Quentin Bryce has been an adornment to the office. She’s been gracious. She’s been charming. I like her very much…
ANDREW BOLT:
And she breached the convention – she interfered in politics. I don’t know why you can’t say so.
PRIME MINISTER:
And there’s another convention too, Andrew, which I’m not going to breach. And that is that politicians don’t attack the Crown’s representative.
ANDREW BOLT:
Even when they deserve it. You’re too generous. I’ve often said you’re too kind. Prime Minister, thank you much for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Andrew.
[ends]