ANNA DARE:
101.7 7HO FM it’s Nick and Anna for breakfast and we have with us Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. I’ve got a little bit of a heart palpitation going on I have to say. It’s either too much coffee or it’s just that I’m really, really nervous. Thank you for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it’s great to be with you and happy birthday.
ANNA DARE:
Thank you so much. What a treat for me really to have this happen I never would have expected it. Thank you.
MICK NEWELL:
Now Prime Minister you’ve come down for Port Arthur today I presume.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, that’s right.
MICK NEWELL:
Maybe you’d like to send a message out through our radio station to our listeners.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well this was a shocking day and it was a national tragedy and one that all of us will remember. It was a reminder of how fragile life is. How vulnerable we are. And it was a reminder of how precious life is and that’s what we’ll be remembering today. It’s also a time of great solidarity. Tragedies like this bring the nation together. They bring us together in grief. But they bring us together and they brought us together led by Prime Minister John Howard in a great resolution to act and the National Firearms Agreement which followed after the Port Arthur tragedy was one of John Howard’s greatest achievements. It has kept Australians safer ever since. So it’ll be a very sad day but a very sad day bound up with a sense of national solidarity and resolution and commitment always to work together to ensure the security of each and every one of us.
ANNA DARE:
Do you want to comment at all about the conversation that has come out recently about the possible repeal of some of these gun laws that John Howard put in place after the Port Arthur atrocities?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there is a – the National Firearms Agreement has been in place for 20 years. It is in - there is a process of consultation going on, but there has been no change to it and it’s certainly something that I expect to be discussing with Will Hodgman today. But I can assure you that while agreements like this, arrangement like this have always got to be reviewed, there is one absolutely non-negotiable factor. That is that we must continue to maintain our strong and responsible stance with respect to guns. That is enshrined in the National Firearms Agreement and which has kept Australia safe. We only have to look at some other countries to see what happens if you don’t have strong gun laws.
MICK NEWELL:
I think those gun laws that we did introduce have actually saved – we were talking about this earlier on – I think they’ve saved lots and lots lives. We will never know the true figures but as a shooter myself, or someone that does a bit of shooting and has done as a primary producer in the past, I think the gun laws are great. I think that you should have to have hoops and boundaries to cross before you can own a firearm. It’s common sense to me.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah I agree. Similarly to you, I’m a primary producer and have a firearms license and I know exactly what you’re talking about. Responsible gun use and gun ownership is a critical element. It’s a critical part of our safety.
ANNA DARE:
And semi-automatic weapons I mean, nobody needs them do they? It’s just ridiculous that anybody would be suggesting that these would be allowed back in our community again.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you only have to look at the example, or the tragic examples, almost I was going to say daily but certainly weekly in the United Sates, of what happens when you have very little if any restrictions on the purchase of weapons like that.
ANNA DARE:
For sure. Look I know Mick and I both have another topic that we’d like to bring up with you, something that is very close to both of our hearts. The marriage equality debate and the possible plebiscite. Why do we need this do you think? Why can’t you as our and you know the rest of the people in government that we have elected, why can’t you just vote? We’ve given you that. That’s your job. We voted you in, we have faith in your decisions. Why do we need to have this plebiscite do you think?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it was the decision of our Party, our parties, the Liberal and National Party, that our Party room came to the view and it was a collective view that this was an issue that was one which the Australian people should be able to express a view on. I have to say that - not that we place too much of notice on opinion polls of course as you know - but all the opinion polls I’ve seen on the question of whether Parliament should decide on the issue of same sex marriage or the people via a plebiscite, show a very big majority in favour of a plebiscite. There is no question, it is not the traditional way of resolving matters like this in Australia. But that was the view that was taken by the Coalition Party room, it was before I was Prime Minister, but nonetheless it’s a view that we’re committed to and it is thoroughly democratic. I can understand it is frustrating for those people who want to get on with it and obviously it has a cost associated with it that a parliamentary vote would not have. But it is, it will be, a thoroughly democratic process.
MICK NEWELL:
I think on that Mr Turnbull, I think maybe just a conscience vote in Parliament would get the same result and maybe say if it’s $180 million which I’ve been estimated is the cost of a plebiscite, don’t you think though going into a fresh election now you could say, listen I’m going to let youse have a conscience vote. We can do it democratically.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we are a democracy and one of the elements in our democracy is our Party room and this was the very much the strong view of the members of the Coalition Party room including all of the Tasmanian Members I might say. So this is a, this was a strong view and one that will enable the Australian people to make their decision. I think it will be a perfectly civil debate. I think the, I will be voting yes. I’ll be voting to legalise same sex marriage.
MICK NEWELL:
Good on you.
PRIME MINISTER:
I think that the plebiscite will be carried. I think there will be a positive vote. So it’s important that we’re able to have national conversations and debates on issues like that.
ANNA DARE:
So I could potentially start shopping for all the weddings that I may have coming up? In the next, let’s hope six months?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that’s up to you. I think you’re unlikely to be disappointed but it will be, ultimately, the three of us will have one vote each.
ANNA DARE:
Yep.
PRIME MINISTER:
And so the Australian people will decide.
MICK NEWELL:
Good stuff. Good stuff. Look lets go international for a second. Donald Trump. It’s like an avalanche, he’s gaining momentum, it’s scary to me. It’s scary to a lot of people. Yet he seems to be just getting bigger and bigger. What are the implications if we end up with a Trump-led, or a cowboy-led United States of America? Let’s face – do you find it a little bit scary?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well firstly let me say I’m not going to, as Prime Minister of Australia, buy into American politics.
MICK NEWELL:
Okay.
PRIME MINISTER:
Only for this reason, that it’s a matter for the American people. But you know, the Australian and American relationship is one that is very, very strong. It’s very deep. It’s grounded in thousands and thousands and thousands of individual commitments and relationships. History, economic interests, strategic interests. So really I think whether it’s Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton or somebody else who is President of the United States, the one thing that I know will be in very good shape, during and after the next presidency will be the Australian and American alliance.
MICK NEWELL:
Fair enough.
ANNA DARE:
Now just personally, I believe it was your lovely wife’s birthday recently.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah.
ANNA DARE:
I heard that you bought here a very nice watch. I thought well you are here for my birthday and you just spent a bit of money on some submarines. Perhaps –
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, would you like a submarine?
ANNA DARE:
Well no I’d just like one named after me. My surname is Dare I though you know that would be a great name for a submarine. Don’t you think? Can we talk about that perhaps?
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s a good suggestion. Historically we have named our submarines after former naval commanders, so are there any sea captains in your family that you could find?
ANNA DARE:
Let me think, no. We’ll put it up for popular vote and hopefully it doesn’t become Suby McSubFace.
MICK NEWELL:
Great news for Australia, Mr Turnbull that is a great get to be able to do it in our own shipyard. Admittedly the French are coming in to oversee it all. But we need that expertise you know, we can’t just go in to this blind and build submarines.
PRIME MINISTER:
What we are doing is entering in to a partnership, a design partnership with the French and the new Australian submarine, our future submarine, which will be the most technologically advanced vessel being built at that time, this is right at the cutting edge of technology. That’s why it is going to deliver so many jobs, so many high skilled jobs, and of course the shipyard is in Adelaide, so that’s where the bulk of the construction jobs will be. But there will be jobs for contractors to the naval shipbuilding effort right around Australia. There will be a big Australian supply chain as well. It is very exciting, the design is based on the, on France’s latest submarine which is the Barracuda, which is actually a nuclear submarine. The Australian submarine will be conventionally powered of course, but it will be based on that design.
MICK NEWELL:
Beautiful.
ANNA DARE:
What do you say to naysayers who have mentioned it’s all about drones and by the time these will be built they will be almost obsolete?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ve heard people talk about drones in the context of unmanned aerial vehicles, aeroplanes, but the, there is no substitute for the strategic power, the potency, the stealth of a submarine. These are the most, these are the highest impact warships and they become more and more so because of course of their ability to operate sight unseen.
ANNA DARE:
I love the word stealth, it’s such a good word.
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s what, that’s the big, that is the big KPI with submarines- is stealth.
MICK NEWELL:
Now Prime Minister, the popularity has come back a little bit. It was probably to be expected, I wondered if you had ever thought of maybe about adopting a bit more of a Putin-istic approach. You know, my mum thinks you’ve got a lovely rugged look, a beautiful sound, but maybe flip the shirt off, throw yourself in to a…
PRIME MINISTER:
Your mum is so kind. You love your mum don’t you.
MICK NEWELL:
I do mate.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well she is very generous.
MICK NEWELL:
I dunno, I think you know, the look of you riding down the street with your shirt off would get a few female voters, don’t you worry.
PRIME MINISTER:
It would send everyone rushing inside and closing the windows I think.
ANNA DARE:
Well Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull it has been an absolute pleasure having you here today, obviously we’ve had a bit of fun with you, but you are here for a very important and serious moment for Hobart and the rest of Australia by joining various other dignitaries at Port Arthur.
PRIME MINISTER:
Lucy and I are here today and this is an important day in the history of Tasmania, it is an important day in the history of Australia. These are momentous events, as I said at the outset, these tragedies with so much loss, bring us together- it is as though we see the best of ourselves in the worst of times.
MICK NEWELL:
Exactly right, thank you very much for your time Prime Minister.