LISA WILKINSON:
As the Prime Minister continues his tour of Indigenous communities this week he has been forced to deal with a number of other pressing matters. Not least a renewed push for Australia to become a republic led, by one of his top ministers. Tony Abbott joins me now, live from Injinoo in Cape York. Good morning to you Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, Lisa.
LISA WILKINSON:
We’ll talk more about your trip in just a moment but first Treasurer Joe Hockey announced yesterday he is going to chair a parliamentary push for a republic. Did he check with you before announcing his position?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Joe and I talk about many things but mostly it is the economy and what the Government can do to improve the economy by cutting taxes, cutting regulation, getting productivity up. As you know this is a Government which is focused on jobs, growth and community safety. So, no, we didn’t talk about this because we have got, I suppose, bigger things on our minds most of the time. There are lots of parliamentary friendship groups and this is just another one of them.
LISA WILKINSON:
Well, Mr Hockey joins a number of your colleagues, including Christopher Pyne, Malcolm Turnbull, Wyatt Roy, Marise Payne among others who want a republic and are going to push for it. As Prime Minister when do you think Australia will be mature enough to have its own head of state?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we have the Governor-General who is effectively our head of state.
LISA WILKINSON:
Although, ultimately, the power does rest with the Queen.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we are a mature country, Lisa. A very, very mature country and I think one of the problems with the republican push is that it seems to feel compelled, in the way that you just have, to suggest that there is some lack of maturity, some lack of independence in our system. I just don’t believe that most Australians think that is the case.
LISA WILKINSON:
So, if you are saying that we are very, very mature when do you think we will be big enough to stand on our own two feet and become a republic?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I don’t think there is anything small about us now. I don’t think that there is any lack of standing on our own two feet now, Lisa.
LISA WILKINSON:
Ok, turning to those proposed airstrikes in Syria, can you confirm that neither you nor anyone from your office asked President Obama or anyone from his administration to send a request for Australia to contribute to air strikes over Syria?
PRIME MINISTER:
Lisa, I can confirm that I've been dreadfully concerned about this death cult ever since it swept out of Syria into Northern Iraq executing thousands, beheading, crucifying, enslaving people and, of course, as you know, it's been reaching out to us and we've seen terrorist incidents, actual and imminent, which have been inspired by this death cult. So, from the very beginning, I've been concerned to do everything we can as part of an international Coalition to disrupt, degrade and ultimately destroy this death cult because the consolidation of a terrorist state in a very volatile part of the world will be a catastrophe for everyone, as Bob Carr has said on a number occasions, most recently yesterday, where he said that it made both humanitarian and strategic sense for Australia to join the air strikes into Syria.
LISA WILKINSON:
So you aren't denying that you have been pushing for the US to make this request?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I'm saying that it was raised with me by President Obama in a call that the President set up to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
LISA WILKINSON:
If these strikes go ahead, what's to say they aren't the start of our eventual creep into another broad scale conflict in the Middle East?
PRIME MINISTER:
What we want to do is to disrupt, degrade and destroy this death cult. That's what we want to do and we're working in close cooperation with our allies and partners led by the United States and in all these things, American leadership is absolutely necessary, but Australia is a strong ally of the United States and will work with the US and with other allies like Britain, other European partners such as the Dutch and, of course, Middle Eastern partners such as the Jordanians, the Emiratis and the Saudis.
LISA WILKINSON:
Prime Minister, you are there in Cape York this morning. This is something like your 20th trip to the top end. What do you hope to achieve this week that you haven't been able to do in your previous visits?
PRIME MINISTER:
What I'm hoping to do, Lisa, is get our government and our nation, just for one week, that's all, just for one week in a whole year, focused on remote Australia and focused on Indigenous Australia. Indigenous people are about 3 per cent of our population. I don't think it hurts for the Prime Minister, various other senior ministers and senior officials, to be focused for just two per cent of the year on Indigenous issues.
So you see behind me the Injinoo Community Hall. I will be joining a community working bee in a few moments time to help finish off the upgrading of the hall. We're doing a bit of painting. We're doing a bit of landscaping and I'm looking forward to working with community members to help in this important task.
LISA WILKINSON:
As I said, your commitment to the Indigenous community with these trips has been happening for a long time and we appreciate your time this morning, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much, Lisa. Nice to talk.
LISA WILKINSON:
You as well.
[ends]