KOCHIE: Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd joins us this morning from Canberra. Must be feeling a bit tired after the 2020 Summit, Prime Minister?
PM: It's been a big weekend, Kochie and Mel, good morning.
KOCHIE: Good morning to you. Now, of all the new ideas that you heard over the weekend, is there one that is your favourite that you were sitting there thinking, ‘that's a ripper, I reckon we can introduce that pretty quickly'?
PM: Actually Kochie, there's a whole lot of ideas. I don't want to just go picking and choosing. But from, if you like, the whole question of the economy, a very clear cut call for a single national seamless economy, a national market, breaking down state regulation effecting business at that end.
A community corps of youth volunteers. And if you participate, a proposal to bring down your HECS debt by virtue of your participation as a volunteer.
Through to some of the ones you just talked about just now. Look, there's some really good stuff there.
And to go to your other question, we've said and said beforehand we'll now spend between now and the end of the year sifting through each of them and by then produce a clear cut statement of what we will accept, and why, and how we'll go about implementing it. And what we can't accept and the reasons why as well.
MEL: A lot of them were, sort of, I guess, ideas that we had heard in one form or another but maybe slightly differently. The Australian is saying, ‘something familiar' about these big ideas this morning. Was there anything that you hadn't heard at all before?
PM: Well take for example, the one about the development in Australia of a bionic eye. Our technologists in recent years have come up with the bionic ear that is basically a way of overcoming huge problems of deafness in the community - obviously not all problems are resolved. What are we doing on the question of sight?
And there was discussion about, if we've got the technology platform to head in that direction of dealing with the huge problem of blindness, let's set ourselves a target by 2020 of investing what's necessary to develop a bionic eye. Or more modestly, let's set ourselves a realistic target of eliminating trachoma from indigenous communities by 2020.
So, those two, frankly, hadn't been put to me before. I'd never really heard of them before.
KOCH: You had a lot of things put to you over the weekend. Commentator Dennis Shanahan says you're now stuck with a political agenda that's crammed with all these big ideas. Some of them you may not agree with or don't see as a priority. Now, how are you going to sort that out? Are you disappointed that there are so many? And how do you prioritise? And will you disappoint people when you say, ‘oh, well, the Republic, for example, not high on the agenda, we'll have to put it back and back'?
PM: Well look, that's just the task of political leadership and that's what we're elected to do, to lead. But you shouldn't assume that political leadership for Australia, for the long term, and that's what we're on about here - how do we craft a vision for Australia beyond the three year electoral cycle out to the long term. You shouldn't be frightened in doing that to say to the country from time to time, ‘hey look, what's your contribution, what are your ideas on the economy, on health, on education, on climate change and water' and throw the doors open. If you do that, of course you take a risk, that people are going to come in the door and ask for things that either can't be delivered or can't be acted on quickly. I accept that. But I'd much rather do that and hear what people have to say than say, ‘nup, we in politics have got all the ideas, go and jump in the lake'. I just think it's a better way of doing it.
DOYLE: Alright. Look, I want to ask you so much, as you can imagine. But we want to run through a few specific ideas, some of the ones. We mentioned the Healthbook. Kind of a bit like a facebook website. Secure designed for doctors to access your medical records. What do you think of that idea?
PM: Well, it all goes to a discussion about basically the patients or the individuals control of their own medical records. And, I gather this was a subject of some pretty intense discussion in the hundred or so people who attended the health working group. I was in that group for a while yesterday listening to some of their other ideas.
The whole idea is to make sure that you the patient are in control of your records, and also, I presume, if you're moving around the country, you can quickly by secure means, access all those records online so that if you're holidaying in, you know, Perth, and you're from Brissie, you can quickly go ‘bing, here they are, and here is the record' without saying, you know, without relying upon a doctor being pulled out of bed in Brisbane at 4 o'clock in the morning.
It's a very practical idea.
KOCH: But you've got privacy issues and things like that you've got to get over and, I suppose, initially -
PM: It's not easy. But, if the technology can be done so it's completely fool proof, that is, secure, then this is obviously something to consider.
KOCH: Ok. Another idea from the health topic, a preventative health agency paid for by the things which cause bad health. Let's take a quick look at some of the comments.
[grab from the 2020 Summit] “This would be funded from taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, and junk food.“
KOCH: Ok. Do we need a user pay approach like that for the health system do you reckon?
PM: Oh maybe, I mean that's one of the things that we'll sort out in the months ahead. But, the underlying principle is we need a better approach to preventative healthcare. Right now we're spending about 1.7 per cent of the nation's budget on preventative healthcare. Whereas, if you look at the explosion in type two diabetes, cardiovascular, and other categories of chronic diseases, they're pushing our health costs through the roof. So, we need a better balance there. And this idea for an agency responsible for that and it's funding proposal, look we'll be putting a lot of effort into working our way through that one as well.
DOYLE: Alright. Another one is to make all new buildings carbon neutral by 2020. I think most people probably would think that's a great idea. But is it possible?
PM: Oh, tough. But we've got to be serious about climate change. If you look around the discussion yesterday, climate change and water and its impact on sustainability, effected the discussions on the economy, ran into the discussions on health because of the movement, for example, in what are currently tropical diseases like Dengue and Malaria into less tropical parts of the country. Then on top of that you've got the impact on security, on immigration, on foreign policy. Therefore, we've got to act on climate change.
This is a practical proposal about the built environment, and let's face it, energy efficiency measures effecting our buildings is one huge way in which we can start to bring about a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions now. So again, that is worth considering.
Hey, can I ad footnote on health by the way. The campaign which you guys on Sunrise have run for so long on organ donation. I think that has really had an effect on the way in which this conference, this Summit, has looked at that question. And you will see some quite radical proposals from the Summit about bringing this forward and trying to fix it. I mean, so thank you to all your Sunrise people on that -
KOCHIE: Yeah the opt our system isn't the answer though. Which was put up at the Summit. Because the issue is not about the number of donors registered, it is that bit in the middle isn't it, we don't need any more registered donors, we just need to sort out the system.
PM: No, exactly right. And there was a meeting, I think, chaired by the Chief Medical Officer of the Commonwealth tomorrow on this. My point was not the particular proposal put forward by the Summit, but, the fact that this is now clearly moving towards the top of the national agenda in health, and I think the fact that you guys have banged on about it for so long, is having a real effect.
KOCHIE: That's good to hear.
MEL: Alright, well we'll keep on it. Another one, the creative Australia topic argued that being creative is quite central to who we are and it should be compulsory at school. Just a little clip, have a look at this.
CLIP: “We can see the creative visual and performing arts, mandated as part of the national curriculum so that the centrality of that was both there in the national curriculum and it was something that was measured along with the other areas which are measured in the national curriculum proposals.”
MEL: So what do you think? Should arts be part of school for all kids?
PM: Well, you know the big discussion yesterday in that creative Australia working group, and the day before, and I spent a bit of time with them, was how do you break down the barrier between what is called creativity over here, usually associated with the arts, and innovation over here, normally associated with science and technology and the new economy.
In fact, you are often talking about the same part of the human brain. So how do you actually bring that together and make it central into the curriculum of the future, because we are talking about planning for the future economy in the long term.
So, this actually goes to curriculum design and can we do it better. One of the practical proposals there were for these creativity slash innovation summer schools, that is, kids who want to participate and their parents want to support them participating.
How do we do that? Midsummer for a couple of weeks, so that you can go off and do all these sorts of new things that encourage a new culture of imagination which is necessary for the future digital economy in the 21st century.
KOCHIE: We have been doing a couple of segments on Sunrise about this global food crisis, the food shortage that is appearing at the moment.
Any solutions come out of the Summit on how to keep food prices down and grocery prices stable?
PM: On the impact at home and abroad of the, let's call it, the food shortage, food crisis, this actually was discussed in the future of rural Australia and the future directions for rural industries, headed by Tim Fisher. And they did a great job.
On the food crisis globally, I mean, I think in the last 12 months when I was overseas recently, I was told there had been ten sets of major food riots around the world over acute food shortage. We have got a global problem, and nationally, as you can see our food prices are going up.
So, on a practical level, one of the things that has come forward is in terms of the better use and cultivation of north and north western Australia. Obviously there is less of problem with rainfall and water supply, but we don't have adequate, up to date surveys of soil quality and hydrology to work out where we could cultivate more extensively into the future. That work would now be considered actively by the CSIRO, but again we will work our way through that in the period ahead. But you have got to get the soil right and the water right and make sure the land is available.
KOCHIE: Oh that's good.
MEL: It's on the table up for discussion. Hey 2020 is going to be a big year, isn't it? Now to ask you one last question before you go Kevin. The Olympic torch is coming through Canberra on Thursday, there has been quite a lot of talk about the role of these Chinese security personnel. You have said that they are going to stay in the bus behind the flame, but the relay organisers are saying that three attendants are actually running with the flame. Can you clear this up for us?
PM: Yeah look, all security for this Olympic torch relay will be provided by the Australian security officers, that is the Australian Federal Police. Let's be very blunt about that.
One of the problems and the controversies which has arisen elsewhere around the world is a confusion of these roles. So let's be very clear about that. The security is provided by the Australian Federal Police.
The role of the flame attendants from the Chinese Olympic Committee is, where necessary, to assist in physically lighting and relighting the flame.
There is a difference between those two functions, so lets be very clear for the benefit of your viewers - all security provided by the Australian Federal Police. Lighting and relighting a flame, obviously, people from the Chinese Olympic Committee will be doing that.
MEL: So are they on the bus unless required to hop off and light or relight, otherwise they are back on the bus?
PM: Look on the practical logistics of on-off the bus for lighting and relighting the flame, pardon me if I don't actually have all of the answers of that.
MEL: Okay, fair enough.
PM: But can I just say, you know, obviously if you are lighting and relighting the flame you have got to be sort of somewhere in proximity to where the flame is and the fact that the flame is obviously being, or the torch is being handed and relit as I understand it, every 100 metres or so . So, there is a logistical problem there for the actual representatives of the Chinese Olympic Committee who do the lighting and relighting of flame. That is right and in previous Olympics that is what, you know, various representatives of international Olympic Committee countries have done.
But the clear separation is between the lighting and relighting of flame on the one hand, and the physical provision of security around the torch bearer. That task will be done by Australian officials only.
KOCHIE: Okay. That's pretty clear. Kevin Rudd, thanks for joining us this morning. Appreciate it.
PM: Thanks very much and thanks for all the input of your Sunrise viewers to ideas for the Summit as well, much appreciated.