HOST:
Malcolm Turnbull is on the air. Good morning, buddy.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning. Great to be with you. A beautiful day in Brisbane.
HOST:
Are we in trouble?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no you’re not in trouble. You are in Queensland, which is the state where we are going to build the new Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles.
HOST:
The super tank.
PRIME MINISTER:
This is a massive investment in the Australian Defence industry. Lots of jobs, lots of technology. These are the advanced manufacturing jobs of the future and there are going to be hundreds of them here, 1,450 of them across the whole country, but hundreds of them here in Queensland.
HOST:
That’s great!
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s a great announcement.
HOST:
Yeah, it’s great when you’ve got more jobs.
PRIME MINISTER:
Keeping our soldiers safe, giving them the capabilities to protect us in the 21st century and the best technology to keep them safe so they can complete their mission, do their job and then get home safely.
HOST:
That is big news. Did you hear what we built recently?
PRIME MINISTER:
What did you build?
HOST:
We built a goon raft and we travelled across the Brisbane River in it. Made entirely from cask wine, you know, those sacks.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh yeah, cask wine and you didn’t sink?
[Laughter]
HOST:
No, we didn’t.
HOST:
We didn’t sink but you just made me think about it, because we had a…
PRIME MINISTER:
You weren’t worried about the sharks?
HOST:
We were.
HOST:
We were, but I’m just saying, we weren’t safe and we could have really used some of your…
HOST:
A tank.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
Okay now if a shark had come - this is what I want to know - if a shark had come, which one of you would have been thrown overboard to distract the shark while the other two got back safely?
HOST:
Yeah, we did make that decision. It was me because I was the slowest rower.
HOST:
We did a race to decide it and Abby was going to be…
HOST:
The sacrificial lamb.
HOST:
The “chum” as we called her.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s really mean. Abby how do you feel about that?
HOST:
Yeah well, I didn’t row the fastest, it’s a fair game here.
HOST:
She agreed to it. We set the rules out before we had the race, so she knew what she was in for.
PRIME MINISTER:
It sounds like you need a Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle to protect you from your workmates.
[Laughter]
HOST:
Prime Minister, are you offering us one of those as our station car? Is that what you’re saying we could do?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I think a Abby needs one, you know, to sort of arrive as a taxi to protect her from you guys. You were going to feed her to the sharks? That’s really rough.
HOST:
Imagine that though. Because I used to drive Black Thunders and hand out ice cold cans of Coca Cola. I could do that out the back of a tank.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, that’s essentially what we’re talking about.
[Laughter]
Look seriously though, it is a great step forward, developing here in Australia, so it becomes Australian technology and building up a big defence industry base in Australia. Whether it’s building ships or building vehicles – armoured vehicles like the Boxer, the Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle we’re announcing today – the more work you do in Australia, the more jobs you create in Australia and the more skills you develop.
HOST:
Can I ask you this: our forces, do you know anything, were you across these Irish scammers that were here in Queensland?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah I read about it, the Queensland Police are investigating it. I mean, it sounds like, if they’ve been committing these crimes as alleged, then they will be…
HOST:
Apparently we let them leave! The Border Forces apparently thought it was going to be too hard to convict so they just let them leave. Do you know anything about that?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ll certainly ask Peter Dutton about that, but as I understand it the offences are being investigated by Queensland Police. Certainly, we don’t want scammers of any kind operating in Australia and if people are committing offences here the police should investigate it and they should be hauled before the courts.
HOST:
Are we going to call the tank “Tanky McTankface”?
HOST:
Oh, that’s a good one.
PRIME MINISTER:
Geez, I hope not.
[Laughter]
HOST:
I think it’s tradition now, you kind of have to.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, it’s called the Boxer, it’s the name of the type. But no, you’re thinking about that rather embarrassing choice of a name for…
HOST:
A ferry.
PRIME MINISTER:
A ferry in Sydney.
HOST:
Boaty McBoatface?
HOST:
Ferry McFerryface.
PRIME MINISTER:
That was not a great move, no. Look, it’s a serious business keeping our soldiers safe and we have some great armoured vehicles in Australia. We’ve got lighter ones, the armoured personnel carrier the Bushmaster, which has saved hundreds of lives in Afghanistan and Iraq because it’s mine-resistant. There’s a variant of that, the Hawkei, which is also built in Australia, these are build down in Victoria. This is a heavier vehicle, closer to a tank, Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle. The greatest capability or the greatest lethality, with the greatest protection for our soldiers.
HOST:
Hey, we were just talking about you with Joel Creasey who was on the show, about the selfie that you got with Cher. Did it hurt you that she apologised for the selfie?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think she was a bit baffled by some of the criticism which was very mean, I thought, to her. Because we had, Cher was so impressed by the big ‘yes’ vote on same-sex marriage and she congratulated me on it and we talked about it. We talked about the high participation rate and she thought it was a great win and a great victory and a great statement about the goodwill and the affection and the love in Australia. So I think some of that social media commentary that she had on Twitter was – as usual – pretty nasty.
HOST:
Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER:
Some of it can be very nasty, which is why, if you want to be sane and happy, don’t read Twitter too much.
HOST:
Yeah, good point!
HOST:
That’s it!
PRIME MINISTER:
Listen to the radio instead.
HOST:
Oh, we like that.
PRIME MINISTER:
Which is so loving, I mean you guys are so fond of each other, you were talking about feeding Abby to the sharks.
[Laughter]
HOST:
I’m glad you’re concerned about my welfare.
PRIME MINISTER:
I am, absolutely.
HOST:
We’ll have to leave it there Prime Minister, thank you so much for coming on this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Alright, great to be with you, see ya.
[ENDS]