Sydney
NICHOLAS: Prime Minister Julia Gillard, nice to have you with us.
PM: It's lovely to be here.
NICHOLAS: Spectacular day in more ways than one this, isn't it?
PM: It is a spectacular day. I think you've very much enjoying the cricket. I've been enjoying the Jane McGrath events today. Obviously the crown is emblazoned in pink, celebrating the celebrating the life and work of Jane McGrath and fundraising for breast care nurses and I've just had the absolute delight of going to the high tea, where there are women everywhere, wearing pink, fundraising for such a special cause.
NICHOLAS: Now I'm one of the select few who saw you here earlier posing for photographs and helping to promote the cause that does such a good job for nurses and carers, that's the great thing about it, isn't it?
PM: It is a great thing. I was able to come this morning, very early that was right, to meet Jenny who's a breast care nurse and that is what Jane wanted to see. She wanted to see Australian women having access to breast care nurses. I met Fiona who is battling breast cancer herself and understands what it's like to have that support from a breast care nurse. I'm pleased we were able to contribute $12 million to support breast care nurses, but so much is raised just from this day, from people coming to the cricket, from Australians who think that's a great cause and I'm sure Jane would be very proud to see it.
NICHOLAS: We're going to have a chance, I think, to meet both of those ladies at tea time. It's a very difficult period for you in many ways, today is a joy but there's no joy in Queensland right now.
PM: No, another tough day in Queensland and we've got communities that are in recovery mode, we've got communities that are still bracing for the peak of floodwaters. I know that cricket's going to make its contribution to fundraising to support the people of Queensland with the one dayer at the Gabba on the 30th, so that's a fantastic way of making a contribution. Cricket did such a great job raising money to support victims of the Victorian bush fires and I know that cricketing crowds are now going to dig deep and help people in the Queensland floods.
We're helping too, with payments for people. We've got to remember the floods are in Queensland but they're beyond Queensland, so we announced relief for people in New South Wales today, with grants to help small businesses and primary producers and we are helping small businesses and primary producers and ordinary people in Queensland who are battling these floodwaters. But it's a tough time, I've asked one of my Ministers, Joe Ludwig, a great Queenslander, to lead our efforts there and to make sure that he can have the special job of assisting our Attorney-General with the Queensland flood recovery. We want to get this done right for the people of Queensland.
NICHOLAS: That's terrific. We're coming together with you too with Channel Nine and Cricket Australia and that begins on Sunday evening with a telethon to raise money for what's happening up in Queensland and then we go one stage further with that game that you just talked about, at the Gabba. Yeah, I mean these are hard days, extreme weather that's given the country a very difficult couple of years and obviously you're involvement in that is massive, as it is generally with children and sport. I mean the government continued to support, and you're very conscious of the need for kids to be active and not to be stuck on the couch in this multimedia age.
PM: Absolutely, I mean we love coming and watching our sport, but we obviously want our young kids playing sport and for many kids the thing that holds them interested in school is actually sport. So sport's good in its own right, getting kids active, but it's also a great way of keeping kids engaged in school so they get on with those skills that they need to have for life - reading, writing, doing maths. So we are working with our great sporting codes, including cricket, to use sport, to develop sport, get kids playing sport and use it as a tool for getting involved more in school and more engaged in their school work. Great way to learn maths. doing cricket scores.
NICHOLAS: It's the culture of the country, outdoor life, isn't it? And that's what you're pursuing, which is great.
PM: We want to make sure that that culture of the outdoor life is a part of the future of this country, in the way it's a part of the country today and yesterday. And that means we do want kids and families, certainly watching the cricket, but also making sure they're still playing some in the backyard.
NICHOLAS: Now I know you're a great football fan.
PM: I am a big football fan. Yes, Aussie Rules football with my beloved Western Bulldogs.
NICHOLAS: What about cricket, I mean it's in the household isn't it? I mean Tim your partner loves the game.
PM: It's certainly is in my household and I've been joking with people today that I've been doing work in the study, but I can monitor what's happening with the cricket without even having the radio on, I can just listen for the shouts from the lounge room, with Tim there watching it. So I'm getting up to the minute reports through the calling down the hallway.
NICHOLAS: And you're enjoying a day here, I know you're a guest of Cricket Australia, but the Sydney Cricket Ground with 40,000 people in, albeit today specifically because they're all here on Jane McGrath day, it's still a great sporting spectacle isn't it?
PM: It's a great sporting spectacle, it's a wonderful ground and I've been looking at the people here today and when you can see, you know, big young men, 17, 18, 19 year olds, really young men bearing their pink t-shirt, wearing it very proudly, I think that says that a cause has really been taken to the hearts of the Australian people and I believe supporting the Jane McGrath foundation has been taken to people's hearts and it's so much on display today.
NICHOLAS: Lovely, isn't it?
PM: It's great.
NICHOLAS: Just a final thought, you've got your big day on Monday, the PM's XI match down at Canberra against England.
PM: That's right; we'll have the traditional Prime Minister's match in Canberra on Monday.
NICHOLAS: Lovely. Tim Paine is captaining that PM XI side, Brett Lee's making an appearance, he's here today, he's decked out in pink. He's got a pink suit, he's had it specially made for him, so he's feeling very good about it.
PM: I'm not sure that we can make him play cricket on Monday wearing that same pink suit, but perhaps we can do a pink something.
NICHOLAS: You've got your bandana on.
PM: I've got my bandana on and a pink shirt.
NICHOLAS: Great, lovely to see you. Thank you very much for all the support you're giving, not just for today, but more specifically I think to everybody who so needs it in Queensland.
PM: Thank you very much.