BRIG:
Lehmo, there’s a man who’s been in Melbourne for a couple of days and we’ve managed to find him on the phone. It is our Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Good morning, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Brig, it’s lovely to be with you and Lehmo this morning, and yes it is a beautiful Melbourne morning.
BRIG:
Well, it’s lovely to have you here Prime Minister and I think it’s been about five months you’ve been in the top job now – how are you settling in?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, it’s a great honour to have it; it’s exhilarating, at time a bit scary, but at all times it is an absolute honour to be the Prime Minister of this country and I am doing my damndest to deliver on the commitments we made because I want the people of Australia to know that they’ve got a Government which is competent and trustworthy.
LEHMO:
And, well, you’ve certainly got a lot of work ahead of you and one of the big jobs is dealing with the manufacturing – particularly here in Victoria – our manufacturing industry, specifically the car industry, we’ve found out about Telstra overnight. Massive jobs losses everywhere; what can the State of Victoria expect from the Federal Government as far as reenergising the manufacturing industry and helping out the job situation.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, steady and purposeful Government that’s what people can expect from us Lehmo and what we’re not going to do is panic at the first sign of bad news or even in the face of a series of tragic announcements which is what we’ve had from Holden, from Toyota, from Alcoa. Now, these are kicks in the guts, there’s no doubt about that, but the best thing to do when you get a kick in the guts is pick yourself up, dust yourself down, work out what to do and the last thing that the Commonwealth Government should be doing is throwing money at businesses in trouble.
The former government threw $40 million at Alcoa, it didn’t work, it kept them open through the election, but it didn’t secure the long term future of the business. The only way to secure the long term future of businesses in Victoria and around Australia is to put in place policies that get taxes down, that get costs down, that get red tape down, that get productivity up. Because Lehmo and Brig, Victorians are very capable people, there is a lot of natural strength in the Victorian economy and we’ve got to enable those capable people to play to their strengths – that’s what this Federal Government’s going to do.
BRIG:
Absolutely, now I believe you are considering some federal funding to help build stage two of the East West Link. That’s good for jobs obviously?
PRIME MINISTER:
Absolutely, look, the first stage of the East West Link which we’ve committed $1.5 billion to will create about 3500 jobs in the construction phase. Over time, it will be a massive shot in the arm for the Victorian economy. Now I had a meeting with Denis Napthine yesterday, as you know Denis Napthine is utterly committed to the East West Link, to accelerating the East West Link if it’s possible, I don’t think that can be said of his opponent down here. Anyway, Denis said to me that they would like to build the two effectively simultaneously; work is going ahead very, very fast on stage one of the East West Link. If they can get a significant commitment from the Federal Government towards the stage two to complete East West Link they can virtually build the whole lot together and bring the completion date forward by several years. Now, I think that’s a very worthwhile project, I need to study it obviously because it would be an additional substantial commitment of federal funds and we’ve got to be very respectful towards the taxpayer’s funds. But it would be a great project for Victoria and for our country and that’s why I was very pleased to discuss it with Premier Napthine yesterday.
LEHMO:
It’s just a couple of billion, don’t sweat it too much there Prime Minister. Now, no doubt…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the former government – now look, Lehmo, the former government might have put a couple of million here, a couple of million there, but we’ve got to be a little careful about these things.
LEHMO:
Speaking about smaller numbers, but a debate that has started today, no doubt you’ve been soaking up a bit of the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Our snowboard cross superstar Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin was favourite for the gold medal and he crashed out unfortunately and the story today that he’s estimates are that he’s received about $500,000 in funding to assist his cause and people are saying is it worth it or not?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, we’ve got the Australian Institute of Sport to help our elite athletes and that’s good. If they get private sponsorship over and above, well, that’s good too. I mean, I think it’s sad, it’s sad for Chumpy that he had the stack, but look, you know, this is what happens.
BRIG:
Poor old Chumps. Wasn’t ideal was it Mr Abbott?
PRIME MINISTER:
You get occasionally these things happen in sport; things don’t go as well as they should, and look skiing, snowboarding if you can stay on your feet – I mean, there was that legendary snowboard race wasn’t there a few years ago when the guy that got the gold medal, you know, sort of was the last man standing so to speak.
BRIG:
Yeah that was beautiful wasn’t it? Will never forget that one, that’s for sure! Well thank you very much for talking to us today, Prime Minister. Enjoy Melbourne. What are you up to today?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I regret to say that I’m on my way to Sydney!
LEHMO:
Oh no!
PRIME MINISTER:
The saddest thing about Melbourne is leaving it. You know that don’t you?
BRIG:
Do come back again soon.
PRIME MINISTER:
The worst thing about Melbourne is the Hume Highway ok?
BRIG:
Alright, well thank you very much for joining us this morning, Prime Minister. That is Tony Abbott in Melbourne, on his way to Sydney.
[ends]