PRESENTER: We’ve got a call coming in, hello, this Hot 91?
PRIME MINISTER: Hello there, it’s Malcolm Turnbull.
PRESENTER: Hello!
PRESENTER: Good morning sir, I was expecting your call.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: How are you going?
PRESENTER: Very well and you?
PRESENTER: It’s that time of the week, yes thank you, for my call with the Prime Minister. Mate, welcome to the Sunshine Coast.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, it’s fantastic. I’ve been for a great Politics in the Pub in the RSL last night here in Caloundra, then beautiful walk along the beach this morning. Saw lots of locals and visitors.
PRESENTER: Beautiful stuff. Now Malcolm, obviously you speak at the highest level, you are the leader of our nation, you speak to the UN, the G20 and now you’re speaking to Dave, Sam and Ash. You must really feel as if you’ve finally made it.
PRIME MINISTER: I do, this is absolutely the high point. I’m honoured. I’m trembling actually.
PRESENTER: So are we! Little nervous.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m trembling, in the words of the Rocky Horror Show, with anticipation.
[Laughter].
PRESENTER: You should be, we’ve been waiting for this. To get on a bit of a serous note, I’m sure everyone wants to talk to you about the plebiscite because that’s a talking point in everyone’s life at the moment.
PRESENTER: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: Right.
PRESENTER: We’ve all been very interested in what your thoughts are and you’ve come out and said that you are voting ‘yes’. But what do you think about big companies like the AFL having a say in this? Putting that ‘yes’ in front of their sign?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, it’s a matter for them. I mean ultimately I’m not going to tell the AFL how to run their business. They’ve always been very forward-leaning on a lot of social issues in the past. I think that’s part of their ethos. They’re entitled to do that and people are entitled to disagree with them. I mean the most important thing is – and we saw this at the RSL last night, we were mostly talking about energy to be frank for most of the evening, but there were a couple of remarks about the same-sex marriage postal survey and the issue itself –
PRESENTER: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: The people speaking for ‘yes’ were listened to respectfully by the people who supported ‘no’ and then when the people supporting ‘no’ spoke, the people supporting ‘yes’ listened to them respectfully.
PRESENTER: That’s good to hear
PRIME MINISTER: That is what we should do. Now Lucy and I are voting ‘yes’. I’ve been a supporter of same-sex marriage or legalizing same sex marriage for a very long time. You know, I think it’s a question of fairness, it’s a question of equality, it’s a question of respect. So we’ll be voting yes, we encourage others to do so. But I absolutely respect the views of those who differ and will not support that change.
PRESENTER: Prime Minister one of those ‘yes’ campaigners head-butted Tony Abbott in Hobart overnight. What do you think about that?
PRIME MINISTER: I condemn it.
PRESENTER: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s utterly un-Australian. It’s wrong. It’s an assault too, by the way and I’ve been in touch with Tony and indeed the Federal Police Commissioner because we need to make sure the police get all the information they need to identify the assailant and bring him before the courts. So we absolutely condemn that and I just want to say that while one incident like that is one too many and it is to be deplored and condemned, nonetheless overwhelmingly, Australians, while they do have different views on this, are expressing those different views and discussing them in a very respectful way.
PRESENTER: Of course.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s the way we should continue.
PRESENTER: Now Prime Minister just to come locally for a second, it’s great to have you here on the Sunshine Coast and one of the big issues for us here is the Bruce Highway.
PRIME MINISTER: It is indeed.
PRESENTER: Getting up and down to and from Brisbane, can you tell us what you’ve been speaking about and what sort of plans there are to fixing the car park known as the Bruce Highway?
PRIME MINISTER: Well as you know, we’re spending an enormous amount of money on upgrading The Bruce and I’ll be going out to the construction site of the upgrade between Caloundra and the Sunshine Motorway, it’s seven kilometers that’s going to go from four lanes to six. I’ll be out there with Andrew Wallace, who I’m sure you talk to a lot.
PRESENTER: Yes, indeed.
PRIME MINISTER: He’s the Member for Fisher and Ted O’Brien, the Member for Fairfax. It’s a $900 million project, $929 million project, the seven kilometers. We’re funding 80 per cent of it.
PRESENTER: Wow.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s going to be, the work started last year and it’s scheduled to be completed in 2020 so it’s a very big project.
PRESENTER: That’s great.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s part of $6.7 billion that we are going to spend over ten years to upgrade The Bruce.
PRESENTER: That’s fantastic news, thank you.
PRESENTER: That’s really cool. Thank you so much for caring about our local community as well. Just, we’ve got a regular special guest that comes in to the studio and you might know here. Her name is Julia Gillard. We’ve actually got her in the studio right now with us. She wanted to have some things to say to you as well, so if you could just say hello to Julia?
PRIME MINISTER: Right. Hello Julia.
PRESENTER: Hello Mr Turnbull how are you this morning?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m very well thank you. You’re sounding in fine fettle… you’re living Adelaide nowadays aren’t you? You’re up here for the sunshine? Bit cold down there?
PRESENTER: I am, it’s a little bit chilly down there Mr Turnbull. I can tell you right now, it’s so nice to be here on the Coast with Dave, Sam and Ash and you Mr Turnbull. Now Mr Turnbull I do need to ask you this question.
PRIME MINISTER: You’ve never called me Mr Turnbull before.
[Laughter]
PRESENTER: You’re kind of dropping your guard there.
PRESENTER: Don’t be like –
PRESENTER: Mr Prime Minister, if you could please listen to me for one second.
PRIME MINISTER: I will, I will.
PRESENTER: I think you need to take a leaf out of my book and when putting together that ‘parasite’ you’ve got going on, you should have had a ‘maybe’ instead of just a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay.
[Laughter]
PRESENTER: What do you have to say about that?
PRIME MINISTER: I think we want a rally clear result ‘Julia’. You know it’s interesting, I remember when you were in Parliament and when you were Prime Minister, you were against legalizing same-sex marriage. What made you change you mind?
PRESENTER: Well what happened was, I decided that, you know, I needed to get my hair a little more red, moved down to Adelaide and I’ll tell you, my mind just changed overnight. You know?
[Laughter]
PRESENTER: Julia, thanks so much for coming in today. We appreciate it.
PRESENTER: Thank you.
PRESENTER: Back to the Prime Minister, I think we should finish off this interview because you’re forcing the country to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and make a decision on this as Julia said the ‘parasite’ –
PRESENTER: The plebiscite.
PRESENTER: Right, plebiscite.
PRESENTER: What a crazy cat.
PRESENTER: We find it very, very important and it’s an important issue for the country to talk about, we actually agree with that. However we’re going to play the ‘yes or no’ game right now. We’re going to ask you some questions and you’re not allowed to say ‘yes or no’, okay?
PRIME MINISTER: Right, I’m only allowed to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’?
PRESENTER: No, you can’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, you can’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’?
PRESENTER: You’re forcing us to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ –
PRESENTER: So we’re not letting you say it.
[Laughter]
PRESENTER: Alright here we go, the clock starts now. 30 seconds and I’ll ask the first question. Are you ready to start?
PRIME MINISTER: Yep.
PRESENTER: Oh no! Straight away! [Laughter]
Alright, let’s keep going with the questions. Alright, are you prepared to the world ending on Saturday.
PRIME MINISTER: Negative.
PRESENTER: Do you like Bill Shorten?
PRIME MINISTER: Positive.
PRESENTER: Is North Korea going to become a problem?
PRIME MINISTER: It is a very big problem right now.
PRESENTER:Do you brush your teeth?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
PRESENTER: Again! [Laughter]
That’s alright we’ll finish that up there, thank you so much Mr Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot. Okay, thanks a lot bye.
PRESENTER: Thank you so much for having us.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, it’s been a pleasure.
[ENDS]