HOST:
It’s AJ, Bridge and Spida, Prime Minister, how are you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, it’s great to be with you.
HOST:
Yeah, we saw all the pictures in the Instagram shots Prime Minister, it's great to see that the atmosphere was electric at the pool, the Commonwealth Games. Have you really enjoyed it? You seem to have really embraced it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I loved it. It was just great being there. Eight medals out of nine events, eight gold medals out of nine events.
HOST:
Yeah!
PRIME MINISTER:
So,it was wonderful being there, I was so honoured to be there with our young swimmers, to see Bronte Campbell in the women's relay and Kyle Chalmers in the men’s, bring the teams home. I mean, that last lap was just so phenomenal, you know.
Anyway, they are such champions and we're so proud of them and it was just a magical evening.
No one will ever forget that, the athletes, the spectators and the millions of people that have watched it at home.
HOST:
Yeah you could feel it through the television, the vibe it was just rousing and beautiful.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah.
HOST:
But you will be at the Closing Ceremony Prime Minister, is there any band in particular you would love, any Aussie band you’d love to see?
HOST:
Johnny Farnham live.
HOST:
Any awesome band you’d love to see, stand up there and be live and actually do a performance. Who would you like?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think ‘You're The Voice’, Johnny Farnham because that was the anthem last night. But look, I'll leave the music to the directors.
I have to say the Opening Ceremony was fantastic. I just want to give full marks, the highest praise to the organisers of the games and above all to the athletes and of course to the volunteers. I know many of them will be listening to us now because you know they have in large part come from the Gold Coast. Thank you so much.
The commitment the hospitality and the friendliness, I mean “the friendly games” have been the friendliest games, because of the volunteers from this community and around Queensland and indeed from interstate.
HOST:
They are an incredible team here. Can I ask you very quickly, when it came to the Opening Ceremony. Everyone wants to know, what we showing Prince Charles on your mobile phone?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'll tell you what I was doing. I was showing him, as one grandfather to another, I was showing him a picture of our latest grandchild, who had been born that day.
HOST:
Oh, wow congratulations.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah little Ronan, a little boy, who is the son of our son Alex and his wife Yvonne. They live in Singapore. They've got a little girl called Isla who is nearly three. So now she's got a little brother.
HOST:
Oh beautiful.
HOST:
That’s so cute.
PRIME MINISTER:
So we’ve got four grandchildren. We have two grandsons and two granddaughters, so that's very exciting.
HOST:
Prime Minister, just on -
PRIME MINISTER:
At one stage Prince Charles said he was very handsome.
HOST:
Oh, there you go. You’ve got the seal of approval.
HOST:
That’s always good. What we’ve been able to see over the last couple of weeks with the Commonwealth Games. The Commonwealth Games can bring a community and a country together, but something we do need here and you’ve pledged 50 per cent into the M1?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yep.
HOST:
Pretty much from Gold Coast to Brisbane. Now the state government need to bring up 50 per cent. We think it’s a fair deal, what we can we do to make sure this goes through?
HOST:
It’s just gotta happen PM.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the state government has got to put up their half of it, and I expect they will. I saw Mr Bailey, the Minister yesterday was making some comments about it.
But look there are two big projects underway at the moment, from Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes and of course the Gateway Merge project – which have been funded 50:50. That’s always been the way in which it’s done on the M1.
What we've now done, is put one billion congestion-busting dollars on the table to widen the M1 from Tugun up to Varsity Lakes, so that it’s three lanes each way rather than two. And from Daisy Hill right up to the Gateway Merge up to Eight Mile Planes, to widen it from three lanes to four.
Bert Van Manen and Karen Andrews and Steven Ciobo and Stu Robert and all of our federal members from the Gold Coast and south east Queensland, Ross Vasta, they’ve all been in there advocating for this. It’s a great credit to them And to the “fixtheM1” campaign that Bert has been so involved in.
You know they’re really campaigned for this, I think the people want it.
HOST:
What can we do? We’ve got to get it over the line. Annastacia Palaszczuk needs the 50 per cent?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that’s right. Look it’s her road. I mean it’s a Queensland state government road. So we are offering to fund 50 per cent of it, which is what we’ve done in the past.
But the most important thing, because it is a huge amount of money, this is a billion congestion-busting dollars we’re putting on the table. What that will mean is that when the two projects that are about to start construction - both at the Gateway and from Mudgeeraba down to Varsity Lakes - once they’re completed by 2020 is the estimate, then these next projects can go underway.
So what we want to see, what I'm urging Queensland to do, is to complete the business case and the analysis, the planning, so that then the next two big projects will then follow on in 2020.
Then we call see within a reasonable time, the M1 being fixed and that billion congestion-busting dollars being put to work.
HOST:
Well Prime Minister you did say last night that we do pay state taxes and so let's just get on with the job.
HOST:
Get it done!
HOST:
Let's just get it done, you’ve pledged your side. Let's get it done.
HOST:
There’s votes here PM, there’s lots of votes in this area.
HOST:
Oh yes don’t you worry about that!
PRIME MINISTER:
Okay, well the main thing is to get it built.
HOST:
Thank you Prime Minister.
[ENDS]