BOB GALLAGHER:
97.3, good morning – it’s 8.09am with Robin, Terry and Bob and a very very special guest in the studio.
ROBIN BAILEY:
It is our Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull – hello – welcome.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, hey, it’s great to be here.
TERRY HANSEN:
Do you think Pharrell Williams’ Happy should be the song that’s played when you walk into Parliament every time? That was pretty cool I thought.
PRIME MINISTER:
I think we should always aim to be happy every day.
[Laughter]
Be positive, be positive.
ROBIN BAILEY:
And it’s kind of more fun because I’ve seen Question Time in Federal Parliament and sometimes it’s not fun.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well sometimes it can be very repetitive. It has flashes of amusement.
ROBIN BAILEY:
OK - do you ever get offended?
PRIME MINISTER:
Not, no. I’ve got a - in my line of work you’ve got to develop a very thick hide.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Can you hold onto that? Because we are just about to unleash.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
You’re just about to? You’re just loosening up the bow & arrow, are you?
[Laughter]
A shaft of rudeness or whatever - offensiveness.
[Laughter]
TERRY HANSEN:
So in the studio Robin and I have you in a crossfire, Prime Minister – I am to your left, and I am to your left quite frankly, [Laughter] and she’s too your right – but not in the Clive Palmer kind of way and we are each going to ask you questions in rotation. And, these will be questions without notice and mine will be the stupid ones – would that be fair to say, Robin?
ROBIN BAILEY:
I think that is fair to say. Mine might be slightly more personal but that’s what we do on 97.3 – so are you ready?
TERRY HANSEN:
What are the rules Bobby?
BOB GALLAGHER:
We have got a couple of very simple ground rules here. Robin, Terry & Bob’s question time – 5 rapid questions, 30 seconds or thereabouts to answer each question. No overtly political answers please and try and be honest, which I am sure you will be?
TERRY HANSEN:
Is that alright, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yep – all of the above.
TERRY HANSEN:
Alright my first question for the Member for Wentworth, the Right Honourable the Prime Minister of Australia. We had the go ahead for 12 submarines to be built in Adelaide. Other than under water, where can they go and what do they do?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they cruise on top of the water as well.
TERRY HANSEN:
Oh, rightio. Anywhere in particular?
PRIME MINISTER:
All over the world.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Ok.
TERRY HANSEN:
And they stop things, they stop people?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they, submarines are the most potent weapon the Navy has because they have all of the lethal power of a warship but they have the ability to travel unseen.
TERRY HANSEN:
Sneakability, we call that one.
PRIME MINISTER:
Sneakability, that’s right. It’s a good term.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Ok, why did the French have to build them? Why can’t we? Like, we are, but why can’t we have them all totally?
PRIME MINISTER:
Right. We needed a design partner and what we have is - we had three great bids from the Japanese, the Germans and the French - but the French offer had the, it presented the best capabilities for our needs, we do have unique needs with respect to submarines and their design and their proposal is based on their latest submarine which is actually a nuclear submarine but we’re not going to be building a nuclear submarine, but it’s based on a nuclear submarine, the Barracuda, and it is the most modern, the most silent submarine being built today. So, this will be a, as we say, the regionally superior submarine – this will be the best submarine in our region and we will have 12 of them. And we need that – we are an island nation and we need to be sure that we have a strong Navy to keep us safe.
TERRY HANSEN:
Now we are surrounded by crocs, sharks and barracudas, Robin. [Laughter] Your first question?
ROBIN BAILEY:
Ok, my first question. Your wife Lucy had a birthday a month ago, what did you buy her?
PRIME MINISTER:
Ah, right, I bought her a beautiful watch.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Oh did you – what kind of watch?
PRIME MINISTER:
It was just a new watch – a new Cartier watch actually.
TERRY HANSEN:
Ah the French again?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, yeah.
[Laughter]
ROBIN BAILEY:
So she can look at it and say you’re late for dinner?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, that’s right.
[Laughter]
TERRY HANSEN:
Ok, silly question coming back here but here is one that only you could answer, Prime Minister. If I give you a choice of three – who would you prefer to negotiate a trade deal with - Kerry Packer, Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’ve negotiated quite a few deals for and with Kerry Packer, so yeah I think Kerry Packer – I’d pick Kerry.
TERRY HANSEN:
Over shirts off with Vladimir?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, he spends more time on the weights than I do. So, I’ll keep my shirt on.
[Laughter]
TERRY HANSEN:
And do you see yourself lining up with Donald Trump sometime soon?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, who knows! Donald Trump – he’s in the race right? But that is a matter for the American people.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Very well and politically answered. [Laughter] And finally, you were raised by your dad from quite an early age? What is the one mum thing that your dad had to teach you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Right, he taught me how to iron and I’m a pretty good ironer.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Did you iron your shirt this morning?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
You know, I didn’t iron it this morning – I didn’t iron this one this morning – but when I travel but that is only because when I took it out of my suit pack, it wasn’t creased. But I do iron my shirts when I travel normally if they are creased because they often get creased. And Dad also taught me basic cooking, so I am a, not a great cook.
[Laughter]
TERRY HANSEN:
What’s your best?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, spaghetti bolognese. That’s a pretty good regular. I can, you know I can do, obviously steak and fish [Laughter] – all of those basic things. But I am pretty good, I make, I love making passata. Dad taught me how to roast tomatoes.
ROBIN BAILEY:
I don’t even know what passata is.
TERRY HANSEN:
Tomato sauce.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well passata is when you get a big tray of nice red, they can even be a bit squishy, tomatoes. So it’s actually a good, you go to the fruit shop and you can get the tomatoes that are probably getting a bit squishy for people to put into a salad.
TERRY HANSEN:
Bargain.
PRIME MINISTER:
Exactly – bargain. [Laughter] You put them in a tray, olive oil, some salt, garlic – as much garlic as you’d like – and then you just roast them slowly and you run them through a mouli.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Look at you go! Look at you go!
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
And you produce a beautiful, a beautiful sauce. And, so that’s something I like doing and that is a good – and you know, just put in the fridge and you can make many many, you know, spaghetti dishes, pasta dishes.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Ok, final question. Apart from being the Prime Minister, you’ve been a journalist, a barrister, a banker, a shopping centre builder and a Rhodes Scholar. What was your favourite job and why?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, this one. This is the best job.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Really?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ve never had as much fun as I am having now as Prime Minister.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Is it what you thought it would be?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s so much better. It is great fun. It is stimulating, it’s exciting, and it’s a great honour. I am very happy Prime Minister.
ROBIN BAILEY:
And do you think you’re doing a good job?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that is for others to judge.
ROBIN BAILEY:
No – but we all know, no one can be harsher than ourselves. Do you think you’re doing a good job?
PRIME MINISTER:
[Laughter] I think I am doing a good job but every day I try to do a better one.
ROBIN BAILEY:
I think I made you blush, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
I know, you did. You did! I’m almost – I’m not quite as red as your hair.
[Laughter]
ROBIN BAILEY:
You’re getting there.
PRIME MINISTER:
Getting there.
TERRY HANSEN:
Passata red, I think I’d call it probably.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, passata red, well done.
TERRY HANSEN:
I’m looking forward to a sausage sizzle with passata sauce on July the 2nd.
[Laughter]
ROBIN BAILEY:
So what are you doing for the rest of the day? Are you hanging around in Brisbane?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I am. I am here this morning and I we’re doing an event with Michaelia Cash, who is Senator Cash from Western Australia, who is our Employment Minister. And we are doing a great event here with the Master Builders and with a Brisbane construction firm and what we are doing is promoting women in construction. You know, very, most people that work in the construction sector are guys as you know and one of our big agendas is respecting women and gender equality, and so we want to see more women feeling that they can work in construction and of course the industry supports that so the Master Builders are there and a big construction firm is there too so this is going to be very good. You know women hold up half the sky, they should hold up half the construction sector too.
[Laughter]
TERRY HANSEN:
I reckon they could build across with a tunnel, rail tunnel. On budget and running on time as well. So we get them on both.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well as you know Robin, I mean women are fantastic multitaskers.
ROBIN BAILEY:
He has just avoided your question Terry.
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s true.
ROBIN BAILEY:
So does that mean that behind every great man is a great women so Lucy is potentially the Prime Minister’s best asset?
PRIME MINISTER:
She is. There is no question. She doesn’t belong to me so she is not my asset but she is my, that was the best call I ever made bar none. I’m the luckiest guy.
ROBIN BAILEY:
Really?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Lucy and I got married so young. I mean arguably neither of us knew what we were doing but we were, she was 21 and I was 25. We’d been together for two years before that. So when I met her she was a teenager and I wasn’t much older than that. In fact when I first asked Lucy to marry me which was very shortly after I met her she said ‘we’ll wait till we grow up.’
ROBIN BAILEY:
How long did that take?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it took nearly two years. We were reasonably grown up but when looking back on it, you know the funny thing about when we got married was that Lucy, we got married on the 22nd of March, right, 1980 and Luce turned 22 on the, her birthday is the 30th. So she always said, ‘if I just waited nine days I could have said I got married at 22.’ Which sounds more grown up than getting married at 21.
ROBIN BAILEY:
[Laughter]
But you’re still married so it must have been….
PRIME MINISTER:
We are. We are still married and we had a great – can I tell you the story about how we got married? Can we tell you this? It’s a good story.
ROBIN BAILEY:
You’re the Prime Minister you go for it!
PRIME MINISTER:
Can I tell you it is a good romantic story and it is absolutely true. So Luce and I were living in England in Oxford. We were living in a little village just outside of Oxford, as I was studying there. And we wanted to get married in the beautiful old Church in this little village in Cumnor. It was an Anglican Church and we went along to the Vicar and we said we want to get married. He said ok what religion are you? Lucy said ‘well I’m Catholic’ and I said ‘I’m a Presbyterian’. He said get out of here, what are you talking about, you’re not part of my flock go to the registry office. We said we really want to get married here. So I said to him you’re a Minister in the Church of England right? And he said yes. I said and the Church of England is an established Church in the United Kingdom. Yes he said. So I said you are kind of like a public servant.
[Laughter]
He said yes. I said well one of your jobs is to prevent fornication in this Parish. And he said yeah. I said well look, Ms Hughes and I are not making any admissions but we are young and in excellent health and sorely tempted.
[Laughter]
If you marry us you will eliminate the risk of fornication in the cottage where we are living down the road. And he thought that was so funny that he said done. And we got married. That’s exactly how the Vicar in Cumnor married us.
BOB, TERRY, ROBIN:
[Laughter]
TERRY HANSEN:
No wonder Kerry Packer signed you up mate.
[Laughter]
ROBIN BAILEY:
I cannot believe I’ve just had a conversation with the Prime Minister about his sex life. Thank you Sir. That will go down as one of my greatest interviews.
TERRY HANSEN:
The sound of politics proposals with a little bit of porn at the end. That was good Prime Minister thank you.
BOB GALLAGHER:
The Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, thank you very, very much and good luck with the budget and the election.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much indeed.
[Ends]