FIFI BOX:
Prime Minister, welcome to the show.
PRIME MINISTER:
Hey, it’s great to be with you. How are you going?
FIFI BOX:
We’re great and Malcolm we must say, we’ve been so keen to get you on our show for so long. I hope you don’t mind that we used your name as somewhat of a pun, because we had the official line out there; Mal-come-on-our-show.
[Laughter].
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m here. I’m here on your show and I’ll be back. I’ll be back.
FIFI BOX:
Yes!
PRIME MINISTER:
To quote Mathias Cormann. Or was it Arnold Schwarzenegger? I can’t remember.
FIFI BOX:
One of them.
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
It goes a little bit like; “I’ll be back”.
FIFI BOX:
That’s actually Brendan Fevola. Now Mr Turnbull before we go on, can we just talk for a second? You are aware – and I love this – that over a million households are paying too much for power. You are getting to the bottom of this. Is this right? You’re going to reduce energy prices for Australians?
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s exactly right. We met with the retailers a little while ago, I’m meeting with them again this week. What we are securing is their commitment to make sure that their customers know whether they’re on the right plan or not.
Now, we think there is at least 1 million, possibly more – a lot more in fact – who are paying more for their electricity than they need. Because they’re either not on the right plan or they were on a plan and it’s expired and then they flipped over to the standard offer and nobody has told them. Obviously people have got busy lives, they’re running around, looking after the kids, going to work, doing a million things and some of that paperwork slips their minds.
But I want to make sure that as far as we can manage it, no Australian is paying more than they need to for electricity. That is why we want the retailers – they’ve given a commitment to do this and we will be reinforcing that this week – to be getting in touch with people and making sure they get the right deal.
Now we’ve already seen reports of people being offered 25-27 per cent discounts, but you know, on an electricity bill, average house, family bill for a family in Victoria, it would be over $2,000. Maybe $2,300 – $2,400, $2,500 a year. You know, that’s big, that’s a lot of money. So a 25 per cent discount on that -
FIFI BOX:
Huge.
PRIME MINISTER:
Even a ten per cent discount on that, it makes a difference, yeah.
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
That’s great. Now onto more pressing things Malcolm, Mr Prime Minister. Cricket, beer, day off, beach, sun, eskies, barbies, Australian flag. I’m talking Australia Day.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yep.
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
Can you please put your foot down to all these councils around Australia and make Australia Day, Australia Day? It’s a day we all celebrate, it’s a day we get together and we just -
DAVE THORNTON:
Fev is on an editorial rampage here.
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
Well -
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, Fev you’re absolutely right. I completely agree with you and I gave a speech about that in the Parliament just the other day. I had a bit to say about the issue of trying to deny our history on the weekend too.
Look, Australia Day ceremonies as we all know, we all go to them, they begin with an Acknowledgment of Country. They begin with a recognition of our First Australians - the oldest continuous human culture on earth, 65,000 years – and they end up with a citizenship ceremony where you get a young couple with a baby becoming our newest Australian citizens.
So it embraces everything about Australia, from our First Australians to our newest Australians and all of that extraordinary achievement that has made up the most successful multicultural society in the world.
Look, the government is absolutely committed to sticking with Australia Day, on Australia Day.
FIFI BOX:
I love that Malcolm, and the key there, that inclusiveness. It’s about including everybody.
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
And then we include everybody then we go down the beach in our flip flops and we get our stumps out, we play cricket and we frothies and we have a Barbie and we celebrate it.
[Laughter]
DAVE THORNTON:
I think we all agree councils should stay out of it but the debate will rage on.
FIFI BOX:
Yes. Now we before we let you go Mr Prime Minister, this would be very important to us, if you could join in in something that we are doing which will mark, it’ll be a moment in history, we are hoping this will be a celebration that will be marked for the future to come.
We have a little segment on this show called ‘Are you smarter than…?’ and it’s essentially a trivia contest Mr Turnbull.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh.
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
“Oh.”
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh dear. ‘Things look grim for our young hero’.
[Laughter].
FIFI BOX:
Look, it’s a tiny segment we do at usually 6.20 in the morning, it’s hidden and we’re hoping to make it an arena spectacular. We’re going to take it to Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne or HiSense and we’re going to have a massive trivia night.
Now if we could get you to somehow endorse it, we just think we’ll get those big -
PRIME MINISTER:
A massive trivia night? You reckon you can fill up the Rod Laver Arena?
FIFI BOX:
That’s the aim.
DAVE THORNTON:
It’s a ridiculous aim. I don’t think we can Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Trivia nights are fun. I mean, I think they’re good. I mean at the very least you always end up learning something you didn’t know, typically something fairly useless -
DAVE THORNTON:
Brilliant.
PRIME MINISTER:
But yeah, you know, it gets back to what Fev was saying about Australia Day; anything that gets people together having a good time, meeting people they haven’t met before or catching up with old friends, all of that social interaction is very important. It’s very easy for us to get lost in our own little world on our smartphones nowadays.
FIFI BOX:
It is.
PRIME MINISTER:
So you know, the more socialising the better.
FIFI BOX:
A wonderful endorsement there Mr Turnbull and before we let you go, Fev is very competitive in this segment and he usually cracks it when someone beats him. We thought, could we find out whether the Prime Minister of Australia is smarter than Fev? Would you be happy to just take on a quick quiz? It will take literally 60 seconds.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yep, sure. Let’s do it.
DAVE THORNTON:
Here we go – it even has its own jingle Prime Minister. It is Fev versus the Prime Minister.
FIFI BOX:
It is the best out of three. Question one, jump in when you know the answer: What is the capital of Hungary?
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
Me, right now.
PRIME MINISTER:
Budapest.
DAVE THORNTON:
Budapest is correct.
FIFI BOX:
Yes, Budapest is correct Prime Minister.
DAVE THORNTON:
Prime Minister one, Fev zero.
FIFI BOX:
Question two – it’s a popular culture question here – name the school Harry Potter attended?
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
Hogwarts.
DAVE THORNTON:
Fev! Hang on, he’s done it!
PRIME MINISTER:
Yep, good on you. We both knew it but Fev got in first.
DAVE THORNTON:
Brings out the worst in people this segment doesn’t it?
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
This is a tie-break, this is it.
FIFI BOX:
That’s one all. The tie-breaker, the Prime Minister versus Brendan Fevola.
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
Please be sport.
FIFI BOX:
It’s science.
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
Oh no!
FIFI BOX:
Here we go. On the periodic table what does ‘He’ represent?
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
Gas!
PRIME MINISTER:
Helium.
FIFI BOX:
Correct!
DAVE THORNTON:
The Prime Minister has done it! He is smarter than Fev and that is a relief for the whole country!
BRENDAN FEVOLA:
I was so close!
PRIME MINISTER:
Well done.
DAVE THORNTON:
Thank you so much Prime Minister Turnbull for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks everyone, great fun. See ya.
FIFI BOX:
Bye!
[ENDS]