KYLE:
It can only be one man that can stop the show.
PRIME MINISTER:
A show stopper – how are you, Kyle? How are you, Jackie?
KYLE:
Good morning, sir, how are you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I’m well and I’m just ringing to say Happy Christmas, Happy New Year, it’s been a great year for you and thanks for keeping hundreds of thousands of your listeners entertained, amused and informed.
JACKIE O:
Lovely, what will you being doing for Christmas? What are your plans?
KYLE:
Are you staying in town or are you going to LA or what are you doing?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, look, it’s basically a pretty quiet family Christmas, hanging around in Sydney for most of it, a week down the coast which is the standard Abbott family holiday. But you know the nice thing about Christmas is catching up with the people who you love and it’s a great time for kids, isn’t it? And I was just thinking to myself Kitty would just be getting to the age where she would be really, really, really excited about Christmas.
JACKIE O:
She is actually. We just put up the Christmas tree yesterday.
KYLE:
I haven’t done mine yet.
JACKIE O:
Well, it took forever; let me tell you, so many balls on that tree.
KYLE:
Mr Abbott, do you have federal agents around the Terry Hills/Ingleside area? I’ve got a loose bull at the moment. My bull’s gone next door and causing a commotion. I’ve got one gay kid that works for me out there and he’s having the time of his life. Can you send some army or something out there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, this sounds to me like the job for the Rural Fire Brigade. One of things that we do is chase bulls all round paddocks. So, they’d be happy to help I’m sure.
KYLE:
By the way, how’s things with you? You did a pretty good job up at the G20 thing up in Brisbane. Why Brisbane?
PRIME MINISTER
It was a decision of the former government to do it in Brisbane.
KYLE:
Typical.
PRIME MINISTER:
But, look, Brisbane really put on a great show. The people of Brisbane, the government of Queensland, put on a great show and it was a tremendous opportunity to showcase our country and I think just for once we had a glimpse of ourselves the way the world sees up. And the world sees us as a very blessed country. A free, fair, prosperous country with hardly any of the social problems that bedevil so many other places and it was a great time for Australia – it really was.
JACKIE O:
They ran an article online about where everyone stayed and what rooms they were in and like Obama was in the presidential suite, $3,000 a night. All of them were in their presidential suites and then they said you were in I think the Radisson $300 a night normal hotel room. Is that a beat up or was that true?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no, I can’t say where other people were but I was at I think you’d call it a midmarket hotel, but they looked after me very well.
JACKIE O:
Right, so you don’t splash out on hotel rooms?
KYLE:
It was just a standard room?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, it was just a little bit bigger than a standard room. They had a kind of a sitting room and a bedroom. But no, it was a good hotel.
JACKIE O:
No grand piano?
PRIME MINISTER:
No grand piano, no harps.
KYLE:
And did you freak out when Putin brought all the warships over or were you cool, calm and collected there?
PRIME MINISTER:
We knew about the warships about a fortnight before they arrived off the coast of northern Queensland because…
KYLE:
What was that for? What did he bring them for?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s not unusual for Russian warships to appear when a Russian leader is attending a major international event. Russia is very keen to let the world know that it still sees itself as a significant power with some global reach. So, it wasn’t surprising that they came. The interesting thing was that there was four of them and one of them was a tug. I guess that was a precaution in case one of the other boats broke down. But we were shadowing them from the air for about a fortnight and for about a week we were shadowing them on the water as well. So, it was actually quite a good opportunity for the Royal Australian Navy to demonstrate that it could respond to these sorts of things.
KYLE:
Totally. Did you feel a bit like I’ve got to get a new plane when you had the smallest plane? Because I know what it’s like down at Westfield, I like to be the one with the biggest car down at the Westfield valet and I thought I felt for you. I thought like just get one of them Qantas planes and rebadge it, just for a couple of weeks.
PRIME MINISTER:
I don’t normally suffer from plane envy, so I was ok. I mean, to have a relatively modest aircraft in the livery of the Australian Air Force was pretty good. I still felt pretty proud I’ve got to say.
JACKIE O:
But recently you had a bit of a grilling from Karl Stefanovic. He went pretty hard on, right?
KYLE:
I sent him a text and said how dare you.
JACKIE O:
What did you make of that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, Karl was just doing his job and it’s right and proper that politicians should be subjected to some pretty tough questioning and that’s what he was doing. But I think it’s been a pretty good year. We’ve got three Free Trade Agreements – it’ll be good for jobs and good for consumers. We’ve got rid of the carbon tax – that’s going to be good for households, it’ll be $550 a year better off. The boats have stopped and that means that people aren’t dying at sea in an attempt to make a new life in Australia. So, I think it’s been a year of achievement and a year of delivery, but nothing’s ever perfect, Kyle, and we’ve got to build on what we’ve done and make next year better.
KYLE:
I didn’t like Karl’s way. I didn’t like his aggressive questioning. Me and John Ibrahim, we’re going to take care of that for you. Go down to Channel Nine there.
JACKIE O:
Do you give the order?
KYLE:
I think he doesn’t give the order. Wink, wink, I understand.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, look, Karl’s a mate of mine and so it’s ok – it’s ok.
KYLE:
I know, I’m only joking. Wink, wink.
JACKIE O:
So, what do you make of the guy that predicted the big tech bubble and the global financial crisis and he’s saying that it’ll happen worse than we’ve seen in a very long time in 2016.
KYLE:
He can’t run the Government based off what some guy at the school fete physic tent thinks.
JACKIE O:
Yeah, but that guy he kind of gets it right. So, are you concerned that that could be on the cards?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s important to try to make our country as resilient as possible and that’s why we’re trying to get government spending under better control. Because it’s like if your credit card is maxed out and something goes wrong in your life you’re in a difficult position and at the moment the government credit card is pretty closed to being maxed out and that’s why we’ve got to get our spending under control. Put less on the credit card than we’ve been doing. That means if there are any problems in the international economy, we’re better placed to deal with them.
KYLE:
No good going into Christmas with a maxed out credit card.
PRIME MINISTER:
No way – exactly right.
KYLE:
Can you get another credit card and pay that one off with the credit card? No, I think someone stopped that scam.
PRIME MINISTER:
Kyle, this sounds like the counsel that the former Labor government [inaudible]. I mean, were you their economic adviser?
KYLE:
I think I might have been. Look, I appreciate your call. I wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas. Are you doing the fireworks for New Year’s or what’s the plan there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, that’s quite likely this year I think.
KYLE:
Can we come around to your joint because you’ve got the best spot there? I can never get a spot.
PRIME MINISTER:
Kyle, the parking is terrible. The parking is awful there.
JACKIE O:
You’ve got a driveway. We can park in that driveway. I’ve been in there before.
KYLE:
Yeah, when Julia was running the show she had us round. Not for fireworks night mind you.
PRIME MINISTER:
That was for Bear Cottage, wasn’t it?
KYLE:
That was for Bear Cottage. They’re great.
PRIME MINISTER:
A tremendous cause. A really outstanding cause Bear Cottage.
KYLE:
Ok, we’ll see you New Year’s Eve then?
PRIME MINISTER:
Kyle and Jackie O, I look forward to catching up. That would be fantastic.
KYLE:
Lovely.
JACKIE O:
Alright, so it’s a date.
KYLE:
Even if you’re not there. We’ll play the song, go to the diary and Mr Abbott thanks for calling in. Appreciate it, buddy.
PRIME MINISTER:
Kyle and Jackie O, lovely to talk to you.
KYLE:
Lovely to talk to you too.
[ends]