BRAD BLISSETT:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Brad, good morning Annabelle.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
We’ve definitely turned the weather on for you today on the Far South Coast Mr Turnbull.
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s fantastic, well I’ll be there with Ann Sudmalis, as you know, the Member for Gilmore and we’re going to be getting out and about and meeting lots of people and learning what the big issues are in Moruya. We’ll be going to Yumaro Industries which is an NDIS service provider so it’s going to be very important to see what they’re doing, the great work they’re doing.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Do you get down to the Far South Coast very often Prime Minister? I mean, not just in your capacity as the PM, but do you sometime holiday in our neck of the woods?
PRIME MINISTER:
You know, I used to have holidays at Kiama actually.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Oh, right.
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ve done, I remember bushwalking like a plateau back in the bills behind Kiama, some interesting bush walks there as a kid. Because it’s a beautiful part of the country, I’m only sorry I’m flying down today, normally I like to get the train. It’s a phenomenal train ride.
BRAD BLISSETT:
We were talking about that earlier, I was wondering if you were going to be on the bus or the train this morning, just rubbing shoulders with the voters.
PRIME MINISTER:
Today I’m not but I often enjoy getting the train down to Bomaderry and general take a few pictures of the views from the cliffs on the way down.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Very nice.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Fabulous. Yeah we can imagine you’ve got a little bit on your plate, I’ve heard you’re a busy man so yeah.
[Laughter]
Now we’ve got a really important question for you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah?
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Who do you think is the rightful king of Westeros? Game of Thrones!
BRAD BLISSETT:
What?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I have got a very strong feeling it’s Jon Snow.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Yes!
PRIME MINISTER:
I think it’s Jon Snow, I think that’s where it’s heading. But we’ll see. That last episode, you know, where the dragon was hauled out of the lake was amazing wasn’t it? The Night King touched the dead dragon and the eyelid flicked open and you saw the blue eye! And you think: “Oh my heavens.” There’s going to be a, sort of, White Walker dragon obliterating everything.
BRAD BLISSETT:
We do have to say though, you may have just spoiled it for people who haven’t seen it yet.
[Laughter]
You might be in trouble Prime Minister.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
It’s been a week!
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, it’s been a week, come on. I mean you’ve got to be able to talk about it.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
I think so too.
PRIME MINISTER:
I think if you haven’t seen it within 48 hours, you can’t complain.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
No, it’s on yourself. I really do think you’re going to have to set up some kind of fund or centre where Game of Thrones addicts can go once this season is finished. Would you possibly put that on the agenda for me?
PRIME MINISTER:
[Laughter]
I think you’ve just got to wait, this is series seven, I think isn’t it?
BRAD BLISSETT:
Yeah it is, there’s one more. That’s right.
PRIME MINISTER:
They’ve got one more series after this. So then we’ll all be forlorn.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Everybody loves Game of Thrones Mr Turnbull, but do you have a guilty pleasure when it comes to television? Do you have a sneaky watch of The Bachelor on Wednesday nights?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
No not really, I don’t watch a lot of television, as much television perhaps as I would if I wasn’t so busy. But I enjoy plenty of other dramas, there’s no shortage of choice.
BRAD BLISSETT:
There’s a lot of drama in Question Time as well, I mean –
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Yeah, you’re probably overloaded with drama.
PRIME MINISTER:
It tends to be the same drama every day I think.
BRAD BLISSETT:
You’re tune into ‘who is going to die this week?’ in Parliament.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
I think I’ve already seen this episode.
[Laughter]
If you’re a bit like me you love the drama - or the tragedy more like - of Australian Rugby Union, you’re probably going to be tuning in on Saturday night. I know you’re a bit of a Wallabies fan?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah well you need to be a very devoted supporter – which we all are – of the Wallabies.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Yeah it’s a tough one and you’re also a Roosters fan aren’t you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah absolutely. The Roosters are playing the Sharks this weekend and Scott Morrison is a big Sharks fan. So we have Cabinet solidarity on everything but that doesn’t extend to football.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Yes, no and it shouldn’t. As a Broncos fan I’m having a hard time talking to you at the moment because I know you’re creeping up behind me and I’m not okay with it.
PRIME MINISTER:
You know, I was in Perth recently when the West Coast Eagles had just played the Brisbane Lions the night before and absolutely thrashed them, as you can expect. I was catching a train, actually down to Mandurah and I saw a young guy on the platform who had a Brisbane Lions beanie on. I said: “Oh, you must be very disappointed today.” He turned to me with a wry smile and he said: “Mate, I’ve been disappointed for ten years.”
[Laughter]
I thought, that shows real commitment. He was backing his team despite feeling disappointed for a long time.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Yeah that’s like how Brad feels when he backs the Hound in Game of Thrones.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, the Hound? Who is your favourite character on Game of Thrones, surely not the Hound?
BRAD BLISSETT:
I love the Hound. Yeah, he’s so ruthless, he’d be a good politician I recon.
PRIME MINISTER:
Who is yours AB, who is your favourite?
ANNABELLE BRETT:
I’m team Arya. Probably Arya.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah me too.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Because I just love the rock-star little chick. She’s just vicious, she just has no back down. She inspires me because I’m the total opposite.
PRIME MINISTER:
I think she’s the – and I mean Jon Snow is so easy to admire, he’s the ‘capital H Hero’ isn’t he? But I think Arya’s a more complex character, she’s very interesting, they’ve done a very good job with it.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Who do you think you are in Game of Thrones, if you were a character?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don’t think I’m in it, thank heavens.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
[Laughter]
They haven’t nailed it yet.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I haven’t made an appearance.
BRAD BLISSETT:
At the moment, Mr Turnbull, we are doing a promotion called ‘jocks or the rock’. We are for this Father’s Day giving someone the chance to win their dad a fresh pair of underpants, which all dads love, or tickets to see Midnight Oil in Woollongong. You’ve got two kids – they’re grown up now – but back in the day when you used to get presents from the kids, do you remember what the best and worst present was that you got from Alex and Daisy?
PRIME MINISTER:
I never got a bad present. They generally used to outsource it to Lucy so I’d get a combined present. I could always see Lucy’s hand in that. Often, you know - I know this sounds very blokey - but often it involved pieces of hardware. I’ve always been keen on a new drill and saws and stuff. I don’t have time to do it nowadays, but I’ve always like a weekend visit to Bunnings.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Oh right, so you’d just get a pile of Bunnings gift cards?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah and you know, things to do with sailing or kayaking. I remember I got a new paddle one year, so that was good.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Nice.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
An interesting side of you that we didn’t know about. Nice.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the kayaking is fantastic. It’s a great exercise but unless you are super fit, which I’m not - I don’t think its great cardio wise - because you’re not using your legs. But it is very beautiful, very cosmic if you get out early on the water, when it is still, particularly if you get out as the sun is coming up. It is very hard to beat that.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Definitely.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Interesting. So maybe your transport of choice next time you’re on the Far South Coast, we’ll hook you up with a little kayak so that you can head from Batemans Bay all the way down to Bega.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, that would be quite a haul.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
I’ll make the arrangements for you.
BRAD BLISSETT:
We’ll get you into one of the Dragon Boats, that’d be cool.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, they’re interesting aren’t they?
BRAD BLISSETT:
We better let you go Mr Turnbull, but before you do, you’re going to be celebrating two years as Prime Minister mid-September. Do you celebrate it in anyway? Do they get you a special PM cake? Like, what happens in Canberra when you rack up two years?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think we’ve got a lot done in two years, you know. We have achieved through the Parliament, just since the election which was a little over a year ago, an enormous amount. You know, we’ve got these industrial law reforms, restored the Building and Construction Commission.
Just passed a law in the last sitting to stop businesses paying secret, corrupt payments to unions. You’d think that would’ve been illegal always, but anyway, we’ve banned that despite the opposition of the Labor Party.
We’ve reformed schools funding. I mean, we’ll be going today to Batemans Bay High School with Ann Sudmalis. Now this is a state high school; under our new schools funding policy which is law, which has been passed by the Parliament, Batemans Bay High School will receive $7.8 million in additional funding over the next 10 years.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Great.
PRIME MINISTER:
And the average per-student growth in funding will be 5.9 per cent over the next three years and 5 per cent thereafter to 2027. So these are big reforms.
We’ve had opposition from Labor, but we now have, right across Australia, national, transparent consistent, needs-based funding. Now that is a massive reform.
So when people say: “oh the Parliament is chaotic” or “It’s not working”, it is absolutely wrong. We’ve got much more through this Parliament, despite only having 29 seats out of 76 in the Senate, much more through in the last year than we got through in the previous three years of the previous Parliament.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Oh right.
PRIME MINISTER:
So it has been a lot of progress, a lot of reform, a lot of good policy we’ve bene able to secure the passage of. You know, big child care reforms. As you know, we are now seeking to get the additional 0.5 per cent increase to the Medicare Levy to fully fund the NDIS, National Disability Insurance Scheme which is so important. So we’re getting on with the job. We’re governing. We’re delivering and the Parliament is working.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Very nice.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Absolutely. Well we are very happy for you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much.
BRAD BLISSETT:
And this week is book week at the schools, are you going to be dressing up as your favourite Game of Thrones character when you go to Batemans Bay High School today?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
BRAD BLISSETT:
No, okay.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well my favourite book actually, the book I loved reading to my kids and I love reading to Daisy’s little boy Jack, is that Roald Dahl book, The Great Green Enormous Crocodile.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Oh right, yeah, yeah.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
But there are so many great books, book week is fantastic. I look forward to reading some more books with my grandchildren. In fact our granddaughter Alice turns one tomorrow.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
That’s great. What a great weekend you’ve got in store.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, a one year old’s birthday party.
ANNABELLE BRETT:
Oh fabulous.
BRAD BLISSETT:
Mr Turnbull, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Okay.
BRAD BLISSETT:
We’ll let you get back to it. Enjoy your short time here on the Far South Coast and all the best.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good on you, thanks. Great to talk to you.
[ENDS]