STAV:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, thank you so much for your time this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, great to be with you.
ABBY:
What would you like to have a deep and meaningful about this morning?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, my message is that only Trevor Ruthenberg can deliver for the people of Longman. So this by-election on the weekend, I know you've probably heard a lot about it and maybe are wishing you weren't hearing so much about it, but it’s really important. Trevor Ruthenberg is the only one that can deliver.
STAV:
I’m having a by-election barbecue on the weekend.
PRIME MINISTER:
Right, good a barbecue, that’s good.
ABBY:
No you’re not, what area is it?
STAV:
Longman! C’mon didn’t you hear the man?
ABBY:
Yeah but you don't have to be involved.
STAV:
Yeah I do.
ABBY:
Oxley gets involved with everything, don’t they?
STAV:
Everything.
ABBY:
Malcolm Turnbull, I was talking about you recently and I have to say that I really admired that you – well we were talking about how it was a direct, I guess attack, on you saying that you're a wealthy man, you know so maybe you are out of touch with the everyday person. But you created your own wealth and there was a lot of information saying that you even donate to charity by even how much your salary is. Is that quite weird for you and your wife to have your personal finances exposed?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look I mean everyone knows what the Prime Ministers paid. As it happens we do – Lucy and I've always been, I suppose generous, you know philanthropic - we've always believed that we have been successful financially, that's true. Yes, we've worked hard, but we've had plenty of good luck too and there's plenty of people who've worked harder than us that haven't been as financially successful. So we have always given back. And yes we do, we have always, you know forever, for a long time, made a substantial contribution to good causes. Mostly medical research, children's medicine, cancer research, but other things as well.
ABBY:
Do you have a credit card?
PRIME MINISTER:
Do I? Yes, I do.
[Laughter]
ABBY:
I just cut mine up, that was all. The Barefoot Investor told me to cut it up. I didn’t know if you took his advice as well. Yeah, right.
PRIME MINISTER:
I do have a credit card, I have a couple actually.
STAV:
You’d have the prime ministerial credit card wouldn’t you?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don't. I don't actually, I don't have a government credit card.
ABBY:
Yeah but if people went for lunch with you they wouldn't be whipping out their credit card would they?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's a matter for them. Sometimes when I have lunch with people we split the bill.
But you know, that's entirely a personal choice.
ABBY:
Okay, good.
STAV:
Don’t you hate it though?
MATT:
I’d buy you lunch though, you could say: “I brought the Prime Minister lunch yesterday”.
ABBY:
What would you buy him?
MATT:
Whatever he wanted off the menu, whatever he wants. Go to Macca’s.
ABBY:
You don’t do that to me.
MATT:
No I know, you're not the Prime Minister of Australia.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER:
I think they're being mean to you Abby. I think they should buy you lunch.
ABBY:
Yes, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
But what's happened, is the age of chivalry is over?
ABBY:
It’s just I eat a lot. So that's their issue, I understand that, that’s true.
STAV:
Hey, we had Bill Shorten in here last week and we asked him if he had your mobile phone number and this was his response:
Do you have each other's mobile phone numbers?
BILL SHORTEN:
I do have his number. We don’t text a lot.
STAV:
If you sent him one emoji now, what emoji would you pick?
BILL SHORTEN:
I don’t know, the cheer up emoji, is there one like that?
ABBY:
You could that. Yeah, laughing emoji.
BILL SHORTEN:
I like using GIFs. There's a minion giphy for every event.
STAV:
Do you guys text often?
PRIME MINISTER:
Occasionally. We do talk from time to time. Yeah, we have to have a sort of practical relationship. There's sometimes issues which we have to discuss. But I don't think Bill's ever sent me an emoji actually or a GIF, for that matter.
STAV:
Are you into emojis when you text people? Do you do like the ‘thumbs up’ or the ‘rock on’?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, ‘thumbs up’ I use a bit. But I’m not – the great doyen of emojis of course in politics is
Julie Bishop. She can practically do a whole message in emojis. She’s an expert at it.
ABBY:
Right.
STAV:
There is an art to it of getting people to understand what you're saying isn’t it?
ABBY:
Just the helicopter one.
PRIME MINISTER:
I concentrate on communicating in English, as far as I can.
ABBY:
How do you finish a text message if you're going to send one to Bill Shorten then? Do you just remind him? “Love, Prime Minister”
[Laughter]
Like, what do you sign it off with?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don’t know, just regards.
[Laughter]
ABBY:
Regards!
[Laughter]
STAV:
What about like other leaders around the world? Do you have Donald Trump saved in your phone, or..?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don't text to Donald Trump. But we do talk regularly and there's always no problems with organising that.
You know conversations with foreign leaders are generally over secure phones.
MATT:
Yeah.
STAV:
Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER:
So they tend to be set up in advance.
STAV:
It's like when you know, when you're younger and you're on the phone to your girlfriend and you knew your sister your brother had picked it up “click, click”.
PRIME MINISTER:
She picked up the other extension.
STAV:
Yeah listening in.
PRIME MINISTER:
This is in the days before mobile phone – showing your age!
[Laughter]
Or did an old person tell you about that?
STAV:
Yeah.
Well, Malcolm Turnbull the by-election is on this weekend, so it's very important if you're in that area that you do vote because we're a lucky country that we do get to.
So, Malcolm Turnbull, thank you so much for calling through this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Trevor Ruthenberg, he’s the only one that can deliver.
[ENDS]