HOST: Kevin, welcome to the show.
PM: Good morning guys. I was a big fan of the Addams Family....in the Addams Family, which roles would you play?
HOST: I would be Lurch.
HOST: Yeah, he'd be Uncle Fester I think.
HOST: I would be Thing, probably.
HOST: So, our first question was, do you have a sense of humour? What did you think of 'The Rudds'?
PM: It was pretty good actually. I can't actually comment on anyone doing my voice, because I'm sure it doesn't sound quite that bad.
HOST: Now come on, he does the RACQ commercials as well.
PM: In the Addams Family, I was always a big fan of Lurch, by the way.
HOST: Yeah, well see yeah there, that's me. Welcome to the show. How'd you go on Sunrise this morning with Ask the PM? How'd you handle that?
PM: It was okay. The first question, the lady delivered something rising outside the off stump. I think I decided to let it go through to the keeper because I didn't know the answer.
HOST: Well that's honest.
HOST: Well we've got some tough ones.
PM: So I said 'I'll take that one on notice and come back next week'.
HOST: Well, we opened the lines this morning and got a few questions in as well. One of them from Iris was, 'why do you spend so much time in Australia, and less in Australia?' That's Iris speaking, not me.
PM: Well the first thing is my job is to get out there and defend the Australian national interest. Secondly, when Mr Howard was required to travel, he did so. In any given year, he would probably travel sometimes a little more than me, sometimes a little less-
HOST: Yeah, but he always went to George Bush's ranch.
PM: I'm just saying that's part and parcel of the job. The other thing though is that in the last twelve months we've had this thing called the global economic crisis. And there have been three major meetings of the Group of 20 Heads of Government which have been responsible for coordinating the response to the global recession. This is really fundamental stuff, otherwise the whole global economy goes down the chute. We've been into this big time, and putting our own proposals on the table.
So my job is to go out there and argue and defend Australia's national interests, whether it's there or other meetings where you've got other Heads of Government all representing their countries, whether that's the Commonwealth Heads of Government, whether it's the United Nations, whether that's the APEC economies, whether it's the East Asian Summit, all the other countries are represented by their Heads of Government. It'd be pretty odd if you weren't there yourself.
HOST: Can I ask you a personal sort of question?
PM: It depends on the question.
HOST: Now come on, I'm soft as. I'm so easy, it's amazing. I'm just going to ask you, you know, being Eumundi educated, Nambour educated- being Prime Minister, is it what you thought it would be? I mean, like, okay, you're the top man in the country, you've got there, you're the Leader. I would think, well, you tell me- is it what you thought it would be, or is it just such a massive demand on what you do? Like this morning, you've done Sunrise, you're with us, I'm assuming you're doing a whole wad of media - what's it like?
PM: To be honest, you're flat out all day, every day. That's why it was actually good to get away for ten days with the family over Christmas, just to recharge the batteries.
HOST: Ten days? We had six weeks. See what I mean?
PM: Half your luck mate. But the other thing is, it never stops. You know, it goes back to the question from Iris before. Half of what we're dealing with are challenges, let's call them onshore, you know, fixing up the health and hospital system; as Julia Gillard's been doing, I think brilliantly, with you know this MySchool webpage and reforms to education and to schools; all those things are challenges on the home front. But globally what we're dealing with, as I said in the last twelve months, is this massive challenge to whether or not we're going to continue to generate jobs in the Australian economy.
So in many respects, you're dealing with always two jobs at the same time. What's happening within the country, wrestling with the challenges offshore, because if you don't wrestle with those challenges offshore, they come careering onshore. So, you know-
HOST: Are you happy though, in your job? Are you happy in your job, do you think this is just massive, I can't deal with this today?
PM: It's a fantastic opportunity, and I really enjoy what I'm doing. And the reason I enjoy what I'm doing is that you can think about it for years and years and years about what you'd like to do to change the country. But to be given by the Australian people the opportunity to actually do something about it, like to do something about improving our schools, do something about fixing our hospitals, do something about investing in infrastructure, laying out a high-speed broadband network, that sort of stuff, it's great to be in a position to do something.
And as we were talking about last year and the huge challenges to the economy, to intervene through a national economic stimulus strategy and to be able to deliver a result where Australia was the only economy of all the major advanced economies not to go into recession. That's what's good about the position, not just being able to dream about it, not just to criticise stuff, but to be in a position to do something to make a real difference. You won't get it right all the time, but to make a practical difference, that's what I -
HOST: Well let me hand you over to a climate change sceptic to ask a couple- this is my partner Ian, and friend, might I add.
HOST: Were you disappointed in Copenhagen, that there was no agreement, and do you think that the tide is turning against the science about man-made global warming? Do you think now that the public has a right to be sceptical about the science given what's happened over the last few days and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? Do you think we're right now to be questioning whether, you know, whether the science is right? Should there be more debate, whether we should even have this carbon pollution scheme introduced?
PM: Let me take both your questions in sequence. One was about Copenhagen, and two was about the science. On Copenhagen, look, any reasonable minded person would've wanted a better result out of Copenhagen. We didn't get a ten out of ten result. Maybe we got a five or six out of ten result. But it's better than a zero out of ten result. As for the five or six out of ten, we got three things done. For the first time we got the global community to agree that we shouldn't have temperature increases in the future beyond two degrees centigrade. We didn't have that agreement before.
The second thing, for the first time, we agreed that both developed and developing countries - that's the big countries like China and India - all have to put forward their own targets and commitments to contribute to the global outcome. Prior to that, it's just been the developed countries or the richer countries. And the third thing is, for the first time we agreed that there should be global monitoring of what everyone is doing to bring down greenhouse gas emissions. A whole lot more things to do, but they're three things which changed as a result of Copenhagen, that's why I give it five or six out of ten.
Now on the other question you ask about the science. Look, I think we need to put all this into context. The International Panel of climate change scientists is made up of four thousand scientists around the world, humourless guys and girls in white coats, okay. These are not politicians. These are scientists. They've concluded in their most recent report that climate change a) is happening, and b) it is ninety per cent certain that it is caused by human factors.
And when they say ninety per cent certain, that is of the highest probabilities that they can give based on the evidence available. Therefore, what they conclude is we'd be mad to countenance the risk of not acting, absolutely mad. And in Australia, you have the Chief Scientists, the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology saying it's happening, and we must act. And because Australia is among the hottest and driest continents on earth, where the impacts of climate change are being felt first and hardest, we've got to therefore, act at home, and act internationally, and that's what the Government's doing.
HOST: Alright now, finally, have we gone a little nuts with the whole Abbott virginity issue, do you think?
PM: Mate, he can answer for himself on all that stuff. My view is pretty, in a nutshell, these are personal matters, and people should make their personal choices. But you ask him what his views are on that, a matter for him.
HOST: Well unfortunately, Ian and I both voted for the Opposition, and we regret that now. And also apologise for it, okay. Thank you very much for being on the show.
HOST: You didn't want to ask him his favourite colour?
PM: You can get me into the next edition of the Rudd family if you want to.
HOST: Alright, we have to ask you your favourite colour, because that was one of Jamie's questions, just before you go.
PM: My favourite colour? Whatever tie my wife puts out for me of a morning, Therese, that's my favourite colour.
HOST: Good, thank you.
HOST: Very diplomatic. And you are in the draw for the digital radio that we have every caller on for, so if you win it, I'll call you back. If you just leave your mobile with our producer.
HOST: Okay, shall do. Be good guys. Or in your case, just be better.
HOST: Thank you very much Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.