Prime Minister
FITZY: Well, this man’s life has changed, he’s become the 30th Prime Minister of Australia, the Prime Minister Scotty Morrison. Welcome to the studio.
WIPPA: Welcome to the studio.
PRIME MINISTER: Great to be here fellas.
WIPPA: I can hardly hear Scott, what’s happened there? Have we got Scott’s microphone working? We need you closer to it Scotty.
PRIME MINISTER: How we doing?
FITZY: That’s better.
PRIME MINISTER: I had one job, one job.
[Laughter]
WIPPA: I know you’re nervous mate, because tonight is the night. The Sharks - Storm. Let’s cut straight to that. Gal’s out, how you feeling?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. Well I know these guys step up when guys like Gal go out of the play. So guys like Jayson Bukuya and these guys, I mean Bukuya had this amazing run which actually set up Chad Townsend’s field goal last Friday night.
FITZY: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: So Flanno always, you know, he sets the same standard every week regardless of who’s playing and they know that. So I’m very confident they’re going to step up tonight, they like playing in Melbourne.
WIPPA: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: They like the challenge. They’ve beaten them in Melbourne, they know they’ve got the psychological edge on them –
WIPPA: Geez, you’re into it aren’t you mate? Number one ticket holder. That’s why he’s got it.
PRIME MINISTER: Try and stop me. I wish I was going to be there tonight, but I’ll be down in the Shire tonight watching it with some locals at the local pub.
FITZY: Well, that’s not what you said off air, you said Gal was soft and he should be playing with his shoulder tonight.
[Laughter]
WIPPA: You weren’t meant to mention that mate.
FIZTY: Can I ask you about your tie, you’ve got your Sharkies ties on now.
PRIME MINISTER: I do.
FITZY: Is it a complete urban myth about powerful people wearing certain coloured ties? Like we talk about Barack Obama, he wore the light blue quite a bit as well. Does it always have to be a blue tie? You’re in Nova at the moment, could you ever wear a red tie Scott?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don’t really care what tie I wear.
[Laughter]
FITZY: Yeah, alright.
WIPPA: It’s not tactical?
PRIME MINISTER: I put my pants on first, shoes on second, that’s my sort of dress rule of a morning. I find that helpful. That’s my wardrobe hint to everybody this morning.
FITZY: You like a trucker hat as well, you like your hats. You’re not going with an Akubra, you’ve gone with the sort of a trucker hat and a Cronulla hat every now and then?
PRIME MINISTER: I look like a pretty weird bit of gear when I wear an Abukra. I have got my Haines hat and that sort of thing and that’s what I wear. I look like a bit of a dag but that’s alright.
WIPPA: That’s okay.
PRIME MINISTER: How else would my girls recognise me?
WIPPA: Prime Minister, can we talk about the moment you got the top job? I’ve got a couple of questions for you. Firstly, what world leaders contacted you? How did that roll out?
PRIME MINISTER: Well first of all, happy anniversary mate.
WIPPA: Oh for last Friday? Thank you!
PRIME MINISTER: Last Friday five years ago, I remember we caught you just, it was on election day actually.
WIPPA: That’s right.
PRIME MINISTER: We were down there at Gymea North and that was a lot of fun, I gave you guys your visas to visit the Shire at the time.
[Laughter]
FITZY: That’s right!
PRIME MINISTER: They’re due up for renewal by the way.
WIPPA: Are they?
PRIME MINISTER: Come and get them stamped. But no look, I spoke to the President, Donald Trump, on that weekend.
WIPPA: How was that call?
PRIME MINISTER: It was good. It’s funny because, look, I speak very - as people know, I have a lot of colloquial expressions. So I think we’re going to need a different type of interpreter when I’m talking to others.
WIPPA: Sure, sure.
PRIME MINISTER: No one knows what a “numpty” is, for example, no one knows what a “big unit” is.
[Laughter]
FITZY: You didn’t call him a numpty did you?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: No, I didn’t call him a numpty, I said I was a “rubbish golfer” and he thought that meant I was a good golfer.
WIPPA: Oh, come on!
PRIME MINISTER: So I had to explain that no, Joe Hockey is a good golfer. I am a rubbish golfer and that means not very good. There’s a few things like that, so I’ve just got to be a bit careful. I called one of the foreign finance ministers when I was chatting to the leaders and I said; “Yeah he’s a really big unit.”
FITZY: Big unit!
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: So he’s now known as the “Big Unit” over there.
WIPPA: Isn’t that awesome? Was there a moment, like you know with LBJ, you have that moment where Kennedy gets killed, right? Everything happened in a strange way for you right? The rollout for you to end up in this position. It’s like hang on a minute, there’s Dutton, there’s Turnbull, he’s gone now and we’ve got Morrison. Was there a moment when someone referred to you as the Prime Minister and it sunk in?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, it sort of creeps up on you. For the first few weeks I kept looking around to see who they were talking to. In Question Time when they put questions to the Treasurer, I almost stand up every time.
WIPPA: Yeah I bet.
PRIME MINISTER: Then Josh reminds me that it’s him. But apart from that, no. Look, you feel the responsibility, I’ve got to say, very quickly.
WIPPA: You wouldn’t have time to stop.
PRIME MINISTER: No you don’t and you’ve got to step up. That’s what you have to do. It was a very, I know, it was a pretty confusing, bewildering, strange set of things that happened several weeks ago. It was to me too.
But in that situation, people called on you and you step up and that’s what you’ve got to do. Just like Jayson Bukuya is going to do tonight for Paul Gallen.
[Laughter]
SARAH MCGILVRAY: How are the family holding up? Do you get to see much of them anymore?
PRIME MINISTER: It has been a bit tougher over the last four weeks. I did get home last night which was good. Abbey had been at dancing that night and she got picked up by a friend. So we’ve had a lot of support from friends in the meantime. We’re starting to get into a bit of a routine, the girls will keep going to their own school, they’ll keep hanging out with their own friends and we’ll do all of that, because you’ve got to keep your kids life as normal as possible.
WIPPA: You do.
MCGILVRAY: So they don’t have like now their own PAs that they can send out to get things for them?
WIPPA: Oh yeah, if you want a pie –
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Nah that’s me and mum.
MCGILVRAY: Middle of the night, yep.
PRIME MINISTER: Or its Nanna or its Aunty Linny or it’s whoever. We’ve got a lot of family support.
You know look, families out there have far more strains on their family life than I do and Jen do. We get a lot of help and I know there are a lot of families listening right now and they go; “Yeah, yeah, good on you ScoMo. If you want to go and spend a week in my house, you’ll know all about it.” I think they’re right about that, so I agree with them.
FITZY: You were talking about stepping up before. We’ve got something for you that we would like you to step up to now. Wippa, do you want to start this?
WIPPA: Yeah look, this has been a big one, because we know the farmers and the drought has been a bit of a challenge and now our fruit industry is under attack. It’s been unbelievable what’s been going on and we need some leadership here. What we thought we’d do today, we’ve got a platter here and we need faith brought back to the industry.
PRIME MINISTER: Excellent, excellent.
WIPPA: Now Prime Minister, there is a tray of strawberries right here. It would be - just be very careful, there could be a needle in any one of them, it would be highly unlikely - but what we wanted to do also, Tommy, if you could pick up your first aid kit. Sarah you take this one, we’ve got some metal detectors here as well.
TOM IVEY: I’m the nurse on call today ScoMo.
PRIME MINISTER: All you need is a butter knife.
WIPPA: Just step back from the strawberries, they’re going off.
[Beeping]
FITZY: Well, they are, why is that going off mate?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: There’s a ten year jail term for putting ridiculous stories up on YouTube.
WIPPA: We’re just, what we’ve got here, it’s hard to say what’s in there. The slogan getting around at the moment is: “Cut them up, don’t cut them out”. Do you want to just?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.
WIPPA: Will you try one of our strawberries here, just with confidence.
MCGILVRAY: They look good.
WIPPA: Show us how it works.
PRIME MINISTER: Just like this. Cut them up, don’t cut them out. Make a pav this weekend, Jen’s making one. I’m making curry.
MCGILVRAY: Yum!
WIPPA: Make a pav!
PRIME MINISTER: Not a strawberry curry by the way. Some numpty thought I was making a strawberry curry this week. I mean who does that?
[Laughter]
FITZY: Or, Mr Morrison, you could have the courage of Gal and actually just pick up a whole one and have a crack.
MCGILVRAY: No, he’s done it!
WIPPA: He’s done it! He’s just put one in.
FITZY: You going to go a whole one? Oh no, he’s –
PRIME MINISTER: I’m cutting them up.
FITZY: Yep cutting them up. Smash a strawb.
PRIME MINISTER: Where’d you get these from?
WIPPA: They’re beautiful, they’re from Rose and Tony, just my corner store.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, mate they’re great.
WIPPA: Yeah, they’re good aren’t they?
PRIME MINISTER: Go to Rose and Tony’s, get yourself some strawberries.
[Laughter]
MCGILVRAY: Is that their official business name Wippa?
WIPPA: Yeah Rose and Tony, centennial park.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s it.
WIPPA: Oh hang on a minute, careful.
[Beeping]
[Laughter]
FITZY: Oh look you’ve got something sticking out of your lip there, I think it’s a needle.
[Laughter]
WIPPA: It’s not a lip piercing.
PRIME MINISTER: Safe as, safe as, guys.
WIPPA: So what you should do, I mean maybe at the moment we should declare a national pav day?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m up for that.
WIPPA: Everyone is encouraged to cut up their strawberries and make pavlova.
PRIME MINISTER: Why don’t your listeners do this; everyone making a pav this weekend, go and get bananas on it, get strawberries on it, you might even get some kiwi fruit on it and do all that. Share it on social media.
WIPPA: Hashtag ScoMo’s pav.
PRIME MINISTER: There you go, if you like.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: The funny thing was, I said “make a pav” and I just pulled up a pavlova recipe off the internet, there was a lot of them on there. But I think people thought it was actually Jenny’s pavolva recipe. No no, hers is a secret.
WIPPA: Oh okay.
FITZY: You can’t reveal that.
PRIME MINISTER: I can’t reveal that. But I can tell you, it is the best you’ve ever tasted.
FITZY: Well we know how busy you are.
WIPPA: Hang on, careful mate –
[Beeping]
[Laughter]
FITZY: We know how busy you are, we appreciate your time. Go the Sharks, make sure you knock of the Storm and we appreciate you coming into the studio. Scott, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: My pleasure, a lot of fun guys. Go the Sharks.
WIPPA: Thanks Prime Minister.