Darwin City Deal;
Prime Minister
SARAH PASSALICK: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, good morning!
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Sarah, g’day Taz, it’s nice to be here in Darwin.
SARAH: Thank you for coming on our show.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, you’re my first appointment today that’s how, you know, serious it is. Here it is.
TAZ ERIKSEN: It can only go better from here, that’s what I’m thinking.
[Laughter]
SARAH: Is that what’s going to happen? Now, you are in Darwin today for some very exciting things that are going to be released and that is to do with the Darwin CBD?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah that’s right. We’ve already put in around $100 million into roads and congestion-busting around the Darwin CBD. But today we’re announcing with the Northern Territory Government a further $100 million, which is going to go into create an education and civic precinct in Darwin. That’s particularly to expand and have a campus here for the University here in the middle of Darwin.
SARAH: This has been spoken about quite a bit in the last couple of months and it’s finally sort of, starting to come together and people can see it. It’s exciting.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah it’s part of a big plan and it’s going to mean more students here in Darwin, which means that supports the local businesses, it makes the city more vibrant. We’re really supportive of the plans to actually grow the population, not just for the Territory but Darwin in particular. But to do that you’ve got to have, you know, more infrastructure in the city.
SARAH: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: There needs to be more amenities and that’s what this is doing. The other thing I think that’s really quite interesting, is they’re doing this “urban living lab”. Now that all sounds all very kitschy, but what it means is, Darwin is a unique city because it’s in a tropical environment and so what they’ll be doing up here is trialling new ways to keep and mitigate the temperatures, where they plant trees -
SARAH: Oh, yes please.
PRIME MINISTER: All these sorts of things. Now, I’ve just been up in Singapore and right across the region, what they’re doing is looking to Australian companies more and more, as to how they can better manage their cities. They have the same challenges that Darwin has. So Darwin is basically going to be a bit of a test case, I think, for cities all around -
SARAH: Everyone will be following us?
PRIME MINISTER: They will. Darwin will be leading the way on being the most liveable tropical city in this part of the world. I think that’s really quite exciting. So, we are backing that in and we are putting several million dollars into that, together working with the Council and Territory Government. So this is all about making Darwin the place Territorians want it to be.
SARAH: I like the idea of it sounding cooler. We will let you know how our sweat factor is going.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, cooler in two ways.
SARAH: Yes, exactly.
PRIME MINISTER: The coolest city in more ways than one.
TAZ: Now while we have got you here Prime Minister, we want to chat because last week I said something on Facebook and it angered a few people. I upset almost half of -
PRIME MINISTER: What, on social media, angry people?
TAZ: Yes, no surprise.
PRIME MINISTER: Knock me over.
[Laughter]
SARAH: He went for the vegans.
TAZ: I didn’t mean to go for the vegans.
SARAH: But you did.
TAZ: I ended up offending half a million vegans on a Facebook page.
[Laughter]
Okay and I wanted to ask you is how you deal with people that may not agree with you? Because you’ll always be trying your best, but –
SARAH: You did.
PRIME MINISTER: It happens.
TAZ: Because there will be people that just won’t be a fan.
PRIME MINISTER: It happens from time to time, like everyday in this job, as it does I think with any political leader. But look what I do is, you’ve got to front up, you got to take it on the chin.
SARAH: He did that, he did do that.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s number one. Two is, everyone has got a view and you listen. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with everybody, just because people give you negative feedback doesn’t mean you have got to change everything you do, but you have got to listen. You’ve got to be exposed to it and I’ve always tried to do that in my political career and otherwise. You’ve have got to listen what people say, the good stuff, the bad stuff, it keeps you grounded.
SARAH: He does choose some of his meals to be vegan now.
PRIME MINISTER: There you go.
SARAH: So I feel like he listens a little bit more.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: What’s your favourite vegan dish?
TAZ: They have got these fish things … but it’s not fish, I don’t know what it is.
SARAH: It’s fake.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah?
TAZ: But it tastes like fish
PRIME MINISTER: But it works for you?
TAZ: Apparently, well it does now because otherwise the vegans will be coming for me.
PRIME MINISTER: So Claytons Fish. You guys probably don’t know what Claytons is, that’s well before your time.
SARAH: One more thing we want to take you to before you go is, look, most of Australia know you by your nickname?
PRIME MINISTER: They do.
SARAH: Like it’s become extremely popular, how did you get that nickname?
PRIME MINISTER: It was some years ago - I can’t recall whether it was in opposition or in government - it was actually a journalist who once called me that and it just stuck. I can’t even remember which journalist it was, it might have even been a journalist from the ABC from the best I can recall. But when I was a kid, when I was at primary school, my best mate was a guy called Scotty Merriman - and Scotty Morrison –
SARAH: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: So we used to go by the nicknames of ScottyMe and ScottyMo to tell us apart.
TAZ: What?
PRIME MINISTER: So it was just a bizarre link that one day people started calling me it and then it just sort of stuck.
SARAH: So you don’t mind that you have been given that nickname?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don’t mind at all. I mean as people around the country know, I’m a bit of fan of my local NRL team the Sharks. When I go down to Shark Park, they have been calling me ScoMo down there for years and years and years and years. So the rest of the country have sort of got to know.
Look, if that makes things easier for people to chat to me, I don’t mind at all. So if you see me in the street today, as I am sure you will around Darwin, by all means refer to me that way.
SARAH: Yell it out!
PRIME MINISTER: I have no problems with it at all.
SARAH: We have got one little game to play with you before we say goodbye.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah?
SARAH: We play this every morning, it’s called “Yeah, Nah”.
PRIME MINISTER: What is it?
SARAH: "Yeah Nah”, that’s how Aussies answer things –
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah okay.
SARAH: We give you three topics and we want your instant reaction.
TAZ: Just a “yeah” or a “nah,” depending on how you feel about the topic.
SARAH: Do you think you can play along?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah sure.
TAZ: Topic number one is kale.
PRIME MINISTER: Nah.
[Laughter]
SARAH: You’re not a fan of kale?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, I don’t spend much time in Glebe.
[Laughter]
SARAH: Topic number two?
TAZ: Topic number two, petrol prices.
PRIME MINISTER: Nah at the moment, but they have come down a bit. We’ve seen the oil price come down a bit over the last couple of weeks and that’s welcome. That’s what is driving prices so hopefully we’ll see a bit more of that.
SARAH: And lastly, onion on sausages?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
SARAH: Yeah?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m all for it, I don’t care if –
SARAH: On the bottom or the top?
PRIME MINISTER: I couldn’t care less.
[Laughter]
As long as - you know, I don’t prescribe, I just eat it.
SARAH: Thank you.
TAZ: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, thank you for joining us this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Great to be here, lots of fun.
TAZ: Enjoy Darwin.
PRIME MINISTER: I will, cheers.