Prime Minister
BASIL ZEMPILAS: Lovely to have you in the West and lovely to have you at Telethon for the very first time. I'm sure, Prime Minister, you've heard a lot about it.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, we have and we were with you, Basil, when we were handing out all the proceeds of Telethon last time and so look, how good's the West? How good’s Telethon? How good is this?
[Applause]
That's how good it is and the work, how good the work it does is the important thing. And so we're looking forward to a great next 26 hours, I think it is, and thanks to all the sponsors who are getting behind it, but thank you to the people of Western Australia. This is such a Western Australian thing.
[Applause]
The big hearts of Western Australia on display. And tonight, of course, I think it's important that the Australian government does its bit and we want to get this off to a big start.
ZEMPILAS: Before you do that, before you do that, because it would be remiss of us not to speak to your beautiful wife tonight, the lovely Jenny Morrison, everybody make her welcome again.
[Applause]
MRS MORRISON: Thank you everybody.
ZEMPILAS: Wonderful that you could come over and, if it's okay, I might say that you've come over as a family this weekend.
MRS MORRISON: We absolutely have. We have brought our beautiful daughters with us, Abbey and Lily, and we're having a great time in the West.
ZEMPILAS: Oh, it's great to have you here and you've got not just Telethon tonight. You're here with us. You're going to the Lexus Ball but tomorrow, a very special family event all together.
PRIME MINISTER: We'll be out there barracking for the Diamonds in the morning against the Silver Ferns. They're playing here in Perth, so go the Diamond girls, and look, I won't be running the water for them tomorrow, I can tell you. It's too important a game for me to get in the way. So I wish the girls all the best and we'll be cheering them on.
ZEMPILAS: Prime Minister, you've had such an amazing year, is there - other than the election victory - is there something that stands out especially for you?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, it's a great privilege to do this job on behalf of all Australians and it's just the number of people you get to meet, Basil, and tonight's no exception to that. Meeting young Eva and Callum before we came out here and their parents, which is a great reminder about what this is all about. But it's such an amazing country. But when you see it celebrated in the way that you're doing here through Telethon and to Kerry Stokes and all the team and who had been involved with this for so long, it is such a great institution and we want to see it keep going and want to see it top $38 million this year.
ZEMPILAS: Well said. Jenny, you mentioned that the girls are here and I think something like this as parents, it makes us all realize how lucky we are. And not everybody has been necessarily as fortunate with their children's health as we have. So it's a special time in that way, isn't it?
MRS MORRISON: Absolutely. It's such a... it's a privilege to come over here today and really get behind the Telethon. It's really important. All our children are really important to us. Mine are. I'd be devastated if something was happening to my children. So we really, really feel for kids that are having such a hard time. So we all need to get behind the Telethon over here.
ZEMPILAS: And that's why we asked them to donate. Can I ask, beautiful in red. We’re painting the town red, that's the theme of Telethon this year. Is there an Aussie designer that you'd like to give a shout out to?
MRS MORRISON: Well, I'd love to thank Alex and Genevieve from Ginger and Smart. They're my little, favourite people and they do beautiful, beautiful Australian design and we like to support Australians.
ZEMPILAS: Let's hear it for Alex and Genevieve, haven't they done an amazing job. Prime Minister, as always, you scrub up magnificently as well.
PRIME MINISTER: Not as well as Jenny, she always looks good. That's why it's great to come to events like this, she gets to dress up. She looks awesome.
MRS MORRISON: Yeah, but guys can just like, you know, pull on a suit and a shirt and a tie and they can go out the door. They don't have to do any of the...
ZEMPILAS: It's not that easy, Jenny. Well, you're probably right. It is pretty easy for us. Prime Minister, it is our great privilege to have you here. We're so delighted that you could make the trip over and bring the family for what's going to be a special weekend, which makes it even more special for us. Jenny, thank you for being here and now, Prime Minister, on behalf of the Australian Government, we'd loved to get our Bankwest Telethon tally just kicking on a little higher than it is at the moment.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Australian Government, has every year, has supported Telethon, going back to many years ago when John Howard started that process. Earlier this year, we actually put $13 million into the Telethon Kids Institute earlier this year, as a wholly separate exercise for the wonderful work they do. Tonight, though, for Telethon, last year we put in $2 million. Tonight we're putting in $2.5 million.
ZEMPILAS: Wow. Wow. $2.5 million from the Australian Government. Ladies and gentlemen, let's have a look at the Bankwest tally and say what that does and there we go. Boom. $2.7 million. Prime Minister, Mrs Morrison, thank you so much for being here. It means a lot to us and it means a lot to Telethon. And thank you on behalf of the Australian people for your generosity.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Basil. Have a great Telethon, mate, thanks for everything you and all the great seven talent teams. I'll come and run some water for [inaudible] a little later, and have a great Telethon.
ZEMPILAS: You too. Lovely to see you. The Prime Minister, and Mrs Morrison.