PRESENTER:
Good morning to the Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Hello Tony.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah Blackers, Carmen and Fitzi it’s great to be with you. It’s lovely to be in beautiful Perth.
PRESENTER:
This is Anthony Ackroyd or somebody isn’t it. It’s April Fool’s Day.
PRIME MINISTER:
It is the Prime Minister. I’m here in Perth, you shouldn’t be surprised that I’m here in Perth because there’s a big event on the weekend and I’m here to encourage people to do the right thing by Western Australia and vote for record roads spending, record schools spending and to finally get rid of the carbon tax and the mining tax.
PRESENTER:
It is the Prime Minister.
PRESENTER:
You were there at the telethon event yesterday Blackers, you saw the Prime Minister then.
PRESENTER:
Yes, I know I was at the telethon event and I saw the Prime Minister speak.
PRESENTER:
Prime Minister, I’m so sorry, it’s April Fool’s Day and he thinks that we’re playing a joke on him and we’re not.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, look, I would never play a joke on Blackers, just never. It would be cruel!
PRESENTER:
What’s your middle name?
PRIME MINISTER:
Anthony John Abbott. So John is my middle name.
PRESENTER:
Anybody could look that up.
You used to work at a couple of magazines – you were a journalist, where did you work?
PRIME MINISTER:
I did. I worked for the Bulletin magazine and for The Australian newspaper.
PRESENTER:
Anthony’s done his research! Prime Minister we apologise for this. Look, you do have a few messages to send and you’ve just got a few out there at the moment. This is a pretty important Senate election, isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s incredibly important because we were elected back in September with a clear mandate to do certain things. Unfortunately since then the Labor Party and the Greens have been saying no to everything and it’s important that we get a Senate that respects the election result, that wants to do the right thing by Western Australia and that’s why I think it’s important to vote for a Liberal-National Coalition candidate and if you want to get rid of the carbon tax and the mining tax you need the Senate to help and at the moment whatever the Labor Party and the Greens are saying in Perth, they’re doing to opposite in Canberra and they’re voting to keep the carbon tax and the mining tax.
PRESENTER:
Mr Abbott, is it fair to say the carbon tax in reality isn’t quite as terrifying as the idea of it was before it came in?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well obviously the world hasn’t ended when the carbon tax came in, but it is still costing families something like $550 a year. It’s still a $650 million a year hit on the West Australian economy and then of course there’s the general handbrake on economic activity that all of the red and green tape associated with the carbon tax provides.
This is a great country, we have a fundamentally strong economy but we don’t want gratuitous damage and that’s what the carbon tax does. It’s an act of economic self-harm. It’s an act of economic vandalism and the sooner we’re rid of it the better.
PRESENTER:
Where were you born?
PRIME MINISTER:
Where was I born? I was born in London – London, England.
PRESENTER:
Carmen, you continue the serious questions and while Blackers still doesn’t believe.
PRESENTER:
Well Prime Minister if you had of had a Senate election that was on your side, would you of perhaps run the decision on Dames and Sirs by them then?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think Quentin Bryce certainly deserves the honour that she was given last week. I think Peter Cosgrove deserves the honour that he was given last week and look, I know people have got excited about it, but I think it’s perfectly fitting for the Governor-General to be a Knight or a Dame and people will keep talking about it I’m sure, but they’ll also get used to it and Dame Quentin Bryce has a nice ring to it, Sir Peter Cosgrove has a nice ring to it and I’m very happy that it’s happened.
PRESENTER:
Do you think most Australians are concerned that this has come in because there’s an opportunity there in the future for someone like Warney to become knighted?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, Warney is the spin-king, I don’t think he needs to be the spin-knight.
PRESENTER:
Very nice.
PRESENTER:
Tony Ackroyd I think you’re the spin-king and must I say you’ve got Tony Abbott’s laugh down pack. You have absolutely nailed it.
PRESENTER:
I think Mr Abbott doesn’t find it funny anymore.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, that’s ok, I appreciate that we all have our little quirks and idiosyncrasies and this is one of mine.
PRESENTER:
One final question for you, we can’t have you on and not bring it up since it’s in everybody’s face today, the teachers are striking, there’s figures being bandied as $200 million ripped out of our education system. Would you like to comment on that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we’re putting money back in that the Labor Party ripped off, Bill Shorten ripped out, before the election. Before the election the Labor Party – Mr Shorten was the education minister at the time – took $1.2 billion out of the forward estimates, including about $100 million for Western Australia. We’ve put that money back in. Now, I think the best place for the teachers today is in the classroom looking after the kids and giving the kids a good education, but as for Bill Shorten, he’s never seen a strike he didn’t support and frankly he’s a hypocrite when he talks about school funding because that’s what he ripped out just before polling day.
PRESENTER:
Well technically he never ripped it out because it was a forward estimate, it hadn’t happened yet.
PRIME MINISTER:
But the money was taken out to try to mask Labor’s fiscal budgetary black hole and we’ve had to put it back in because the Labor Party didn’t provide for it.
PRESENTER:
Right. So who is this really?
PRESENTER:
Convinced yet, Blackers? Thank you very much for your time – the real Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister of Australia. Enjoy the rest of your stay in Perth.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you Carmen, it’s lovely to be with you.
Thank you.
[ends]