MARK SODERSTROM:
The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull joins us. Prime Minister thank you so much for coming on this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Hey, great to be with you both.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Hey, obviously we had to hold you on for a couple of minutes of ads - you know we’ve got to get paid. So we do apologise for that.
PRIME MINISTER:
You’ve got to pay the bills, it’s a very good idea.
[Laughter]
JODI ODDY:
Certainly do.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Prime Minister, on the news the other night we were doing the sport and then you popped up just shooting a little bit of basketball there. You’ve copped a fair bit-
PRIME MINISTER:
Or not shooting.
[Laughter]
MARK SODERSTROM:
You’ve copped some flack!
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah I know.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Did you get a phone call from obviously Johnny Howard saying thank you?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
You know it’s good to have a go, but I’ve had lots of great tips.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
Gazey sent me through some tips.
[Laughter]
And Joe Ingles, who you know-
MARK SODERSTROM:
Yes!
JODI ODDY:
Yes!
PRIME MINISTER:
From Adelaide, he’s tweeted some support. So I’ve got to bed the knees-
MARK SODERSTROM:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
Lots of arch and follow through. So I’m going to do better.
But you know what I think I should just practice quietly without anyone filming me, don’t you?
JODI ODDY:
Yeah. I love that, and then the next time that they film you doing it you just come out and nail a couple of three pointers and everyone goes wow!
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, well it was interesting, actually it was a great thing to go to that Willeton basketball arena there. I went there with – it’s in Perth obviously - and I went with the local member Ben Morton. And Ben I might say, actually had a shot after me and put it right through the hoop. You know one attempt. He did very well.
But it was just wonderful to see so many kids, so much enthusiasm. It is a great family sport basketball isn’t it?
JODI ODDY:
Yeah it is.
Prime Minister, I want to ask you about Donald Trump. You spoke to him on the phone yesterday. When Donald first comes on the line, do you soften him up with a joke like a North Korean walks into a bar with a bad haircut, that sort of thing?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no.
JODI ODDY:
Or do you just get straight down to business?
PRIME MINISTER:
No he, you know we, look, it was a very warm discussion. We get on very well and you know we saw a lot of each other actually in Hamburg at the G20.
JODI ODDY:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
Both formally and informally, indeed including with Lucy and Melania so we get on very well.
But we had very serious business to discuss. The situation in North Korea and on the Korean Peninsula is the most dangerous it’s been since the end of the Korean War and clearly we have to increase the economic pressure and sanctions on North Korea to bring it to its senses without – so that there isn’t a war.
JODI ODDY:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
I mean they keep on threatening conflict and of course they’re building up their missile and nuclear arsenal too as they make these threats. Its very, very dangerous reckless conduct and the global community is united in condemning it and now we need even stronger economic sanctions.
MARK SODERSTROM:
PM, she’s quite a striking woman Melania, isn’t she?
JODI ODDY:
Melania, she is yeah.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah she is, she’s great company. We’ve had some good discussions, the four of us in New York at the Intrepid earlier in the year and of course just recently in Hamburg.
JODI ODDY:
Now Prime Minister I want to ask you about Game of Thrones. You’re a big fan, yes?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yep, yep.
MARK SODERSTROM:
What!?
[Laughter]
JODI ODDY:
What?
MARK SODERSTROM:
You’re going to ask about Game of Thrones?
JODI ODDY:
Well I’m not going to ask him political questions because I don’t know anything about it.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Well he’s the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Game of Thrones is pretty political.
[Laughter]
MARK SODERSTROM:
Exactly.
JODI ODDY:
Ed Sheeran came out this morning and said he won’t be making another cameo. Are you disappointed in that Prime Minister?
MARK SODERSTROM:
What!?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I guess so. I’m more interested in what happens to that ice dragon in the next series. I hope I’m not doing any spoilers here.
[Laughter]
I mean if you haven’t, look, there comes a point where you must be able to talk about the latest episode, surely, without being accused of doing a spoiler?
[Laughter]
MARK SODERSTROM:
The ice dragon?
PRIME MINISTER:
I predict that Jon Snow will end up on the Iron Throne.
JODI ODDY:
Okay.
PRIME MINISTER:
But I’m not sure how, I’ve got a feeling, I’m not sure what’s going to happen to that ice dragon. He’s gonna do some bad stuff I think.
[Laughter]
Melting the Wall was pretty serious in the last scenes.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Prime Minister, who would have thought you had the time?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, well, you know you’ve got to find a little bit of time.
I tell you, one of the key things in this job is making sure you get plenty of sleep, plenty of exercise and staying calm at all times.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Yep, beautiful.
PRIME MINISTER:
And in good humour.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Absolutely. Now Jay Weatherill, we got him to record-
PRIME MINISTER:
Speaking of someone who is not often in good humour.
[Laughter]
Certainly not with me.
MARK SODERSTROM:
No, well we got him to record a little question for you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, good.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Because of course, well, we’re only a couple, well, I think we’re only a few weeks away from it being the anniversary of us being caught in the dark ages. I got locked in a bar on a Wednesday night.
PRIME MINISTER:
I can guess the question. It’ll be: “Please send more money.”
MARK SODERSTROM:
Yes, hang on let’s have a quick listen. Jay recorded this, take a listen Prime Minister
JAY WEATHERILL, PREMIER OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA – RECORDING:
Prime Minister, now you’re in South Australia, it’s a year after our major blackout. Your own agencies says it had nothing to do with our renewable energy. Would you now like to apologise to the people of South Australia for blaming renewable energy for our blackout.
JODI ODDY:
Yeah, there’s not a lot of warmth in his voice to be honest.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I noticed. Look, okay, let me be thoroughly factual and objective here.
JODI ODDY:
Okay.
PRIME MINISTER:
The big mistake that Jay made, frankly, in common with all the other governments, they overlooked the fact that the wind doesn’t blow all the time and the sun doesn’t shine all the time.
And while renewable power is fantastic - I’m a great fan of it and the cost of it is coming down all the time, it is very very, exciting - nonetheless it doesn’t provide continuous generation and so if you’ve got, the more renewables you put into your energy mix, and South Australia, as you know, has got a huge amount of wind, you need to have something to back it up when the wind isn’t blowing.
Now, that is what Jay overlooked.
And what he allowed was a number of power stations, coal fired power stations to close down and he became, the state became, you became very dependent on a big extension cord all the way to the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, and of course, when you have network failures then you get the blackouts.
For Weatherill to say it is not because of renewables, it is actually, the cause is actually poor planning. That is why I say the problem with Labor on energy, and again, look, I don’t want to spoil the morning by sounding partisan but the bottom line is it is a combination of not just left wing ideology and politics, it is also idiocy.
I mean, clearly, if you’ve got a wind farm and you want to be, you want that to generate your electricity, you’ve got to ask the question – what happens when the wind doesn’t blow?
You need a battery, you need storage, you need pumped hydro.
Now before I started talking about storage at the beginning of the year and got started on the big Snowy Hydro pumped storage which is going to be the biggest – that’s the biggest renewable energy project in our history since the first Snowy Scheme was built – now before I started talking about that in February, I had never heard Jay talk about storage.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Prime Minister, I’m sorry to interrupt but the Today Show apparently need you and if we don’t wrap this up –
JODI ODDY:
We’re going to get in trouble.
PRIME MINISTER:
Okay.
JODI ODDY:
And to be honest I don’t profess to understand anything of that but I did like it when you talked about your ice dragon.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah.
[Laughter]
JODI ODDY:
But thank you so much for coming on this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Alright, well listen, look it’s been great to talk to you and look forward doing so again.
MARK SODERSTROM:
Good on you.
PRIME MINISTER:
I can just assure you that we are being very methodical and business like about the energy challenge and my goal is to ensure that we have affordable and reliable energy.
JODI ODDY:
Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
And I don’t want to get, I’d rather stay out of the politics and focus on the engineering and economics.
JODI ODDY:
Thank you so much.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ENDS]