HOST:
We saw him yesterday at the swimming, thanks for joining us Mr Turnbull.
PRIME MINISTER:
Hey how are you? Wasn’t it a great night?
HOST:
Oh yeah.
HOST:
It was. Now, Prime Minister, we’re going to be honest. We were talking this morning and I’m sure that you’re aware of the speculation that is surrounding your performance at the swimming last night. It appeared that everybody in the arena knew the words to You’re The Voice, except for yourself! You weren’t singing along with the whole of the stadium. The question is, do you know the words to You’re The Voice?
PRIME MINISTER:
[Laughter]
Well I do but I can tell you, there are very good reasons for me not to be singing and it’s got nothing to do with not knowing the words. Now, I have to say…
HOST:
Well we all have a crack at singing here and most of us are hopeless, but…
PRIME MINISTER:
Those beautiful and talented young people, inflicting my singing on them would be probably the worst thing I could do. No, it was great and I have to say that the most important singing was singing the Australian national anthem, eight times! Eight out of nine gold medals.
HOST:
Absolutely. Well last night if you weren’t singing, if you weren’t singing to John Farnham last night because you were surrounded by beautiful young talented people, you’re now in the company of untalented, ugly, middle aged people.
[Laughter]
HOST:
Yes. So sing along with us PM, because here he is, Johnny Farnham. Tell us you know the words PM?
[Music plays]
Come on, who cares? You live once. Sing it out loud.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, I won’t sing but I’ll do…
HOST:
Come on PM.
HOST:
Come on, please PM.
HOST:
Here he comes, here we go. Sing it along, you’re one of us PM. Sing this bit along, we’ll let you take the solo.
PRIME MINISTER:
You’re the voice try and understand it, make a noise and make it clear.
HOST:
You can sing it.
PRIME MINISTER:
You can see why I’m not a singer.
[Laughter]
HOST:
In fairness, he was saying the words.
HOST:
He did though, he said them.
PRIME MINISTER:
I always sing, whether it’s in church or singing Advance Australia Fair, I generally sing fairly quietly because I’m not a great singer. But you know I think the focus for us all has got to be on those extraordinary performances in the pool. You know, Bronte Campbell, bringing her team home and Kyle Chalmers bringing his team home.
HOST:
Oh yeah.
HOST:
The relays were awesome.
PRIME MINISTER:
It was just, I think…
HOST:
Is swimming your jam Prime Minister? Is that where you go as far as, is that your game?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I am, I do swim, a lot of the young swimmers they asked me whether I was a swimmer. The answer is yes, I do swim but very slowly. No, in summer I swim a couple of k’s, probably three or four times a week. You know, at least three times a week, but it just depends on where I am and the circumstances. But no, I swim, kayak, do a bunch of things, mostly water sports.
HOST:
You picked a bad week to promote the M1 because it’s the quietest it’s been in about 20 years.
[Laughter]
Peter Beattie came out and said: “No one come to the Games! Stay off the M1!” So you…
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, can I tell you, the M1, can I tell you there were so many of the young swimmers I was with talking about the M1. I couldn’t believe it. They were, there was one young guy, Josh, one of the swimmers I was sitting next to, was saying to me he’d seen the announcement – he doesn’t even come from Queensland, he comes from Melbourne – and he was saying, you know, you’ve been stuck in the traffic and what a great thing we were put money into it.
HOST:
So what are you doing, are you widening it? Are you widening the M1? What are you actually doing to it?
HOST:
Yeah they are.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah. Well, there are two stretches, there’s the stretch from Tugun up to Varsity Lakes and that’s going to go from two lanes each way to three lanes. Then there’s the stretch from Daisy Hill up to Eight Mile Plains which is basically where it merges, where the Gateway Merge project is being built. That’s going to go from three lanes to four lanes each way.
HOST:
What’s the timeline, what’s the timeline?
PRIME MINISTER:
The aim is to start the work in 2020. There are two other projects that we’re also funding 50:50 with the state government. One is the Gateway Merge and the other one is the widening between Mudgeeraba and Varsity Lakes. They should be completed, it’s expected, in 2020 and this will enable that workforce to just keep rolling along and keep upgrading the road.
We put one billion congestion-busting dollars on the table. What we’re looking forward to now – I know there will be a bit of argy-bargy – but we’re looking forward to, now, the state government putting up their share and getting on with it.
HOST:
Absolutely.
PRIME MINISTER:
Queenslanders want to get home sooner and safer.
HOST:
Did you see Mr Turnbull that President Trump’s lawyer, his offices got raided by the FBI, I think it was overnight, trying to find some information about Stormy Daniels? Do you sit there and go: “Oh come on, I’ve had some down opinion polls but give me a break?”
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I’ll just…
HOST:
Name one porn star! Mr Prime Minister name one porn star!
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well can I tell you, I’ll tell you what I’ll do; I’ll focus on doing everything I can to make sure Queenslanders get home sooner and safer and that we bust the congestion on the M1. That’s why we’re putting $1 billion on the table and I’ll leave all the other stuff to you blokes to talk about.
HOST:
Did you just say “Busty Congestion”? That’s my favourite porn star, that’s actually her name.
[Laughter]
HOST:
Thanks for joining us Mr Turnbull.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, great to be with you.
HOST:
Thank you, Prime Minister.
[ENDS]