Interview with Gold FM
8 October 2018
BRIDGE DALEY: Good morning Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, how are you?
ADRIAN JOHNSTON: Good morning Mr Prime Minister. AJ, Bridge and Spida.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, ScoMo.
BRIDGE DALEY: ScoMo, so you’re happy to be called ScoMo?
PRIME MINISTER: Happy to, always happy to.
ADRIAN JOHNSTON: Spida’s got a question for you straight up.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: Yeah it must be pretty exciting for you, about to raise the bat, 50 days ad Prime Minister. Very, very exciting surely.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Well look, every day is a privilege. Every day is a privilege in this job and it’s a great responsibility. But look, you know, to lead the best country in the world – how good is that?
ADRIAN JOHNSTON: How has the gig been so far, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, it’s been very rewarding, but at the same time I’ve just been really overwhelmed by the really generous response people have given me since taking on the role, particularly in the circumstances I think they’ve been very generous and given me a good go. I was out at Bathurst yesterday for the 1000 and just meeting families and everybody around the pits and all those sorts of things. You know, they were very encouraging and very supportive and it was great to spend some time with them. It was a really great day, I mean it was a fairy tale for Craig Lowndes and Steve Richards, that was quite a finish.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: Yeah yeah it was awesome, we sent the metre maids to put the twenty cents in the parking metre down there for you, but why on the Gold Coast, what are you…?
PRIME MINISTER: In the last Budget I announced a fund of about $140 million to invest in providing a tax offset for big films to come to the Gold Coast. Not just the Gold Coast but you know, all the big studios around Australia and what we’re doing today is we’ve got two big films which we’ve been able to secure. One is “Godzilla vs Kong” and that will be filmed here.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: That sounds like Parliament.
[Laughter]
BRIDGE DALEY: You v Bill Shorten?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: It sounds a bit like that, was it the UFC fight.
ADRIAN JOHNSTON: I know, shocker.
PRIME MINISTER: That was a bit ugly, but putting that to one side. Then there is “Reef Break”, which one of those sort of big long series. So this is about $16 million of support we’re putting in through the tax offset, but it’s thousands and thousands and thousands of jobs.
BRIDGE DALEY: Local jobs?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah absolutely, on the Gold Coast. And so it’s crew, it’s extras, it’s the actors themselves. It’s like 5,500 accommodation nights, which is all here on the Gold Coast. So the film industry here on the Gold Coast is as big as the tourism industry - bigger - and so when we say we’re supporting small businesses, this is how we’re supporting small businesses. I mean, you go and ensure a film industry has a schedule of work that just doesn’t go film to film. You know, we backed in “Aquaman”, we backed in a range of these big productions that have come and that was done on a one-off basis, but in the last Budget what I did was made it one an ongoing basis. So all these films sort of bid, so they’re coming to us know saying we want to come to Australia, and we’d like to get access to this tax offset fund you’ve put together. And they’re getting it, and so I think “Kong” starts pre-production this month.
BRIDGE DALEY: That’s awesome Scott, and we do want to know – I saw you, I saw Skaife tearing you around the track yesterday, you looked very, very terrified, more than in Question Time. But I do want to know what other privileges you are actually enjoying, being the Prime Minister? For example, you’ve made our show go over time, that’s a privilege, no one else can do that.
PRIME MINISTER: I think I… my daughter didn’t look that terrified, she was having a ball. She didn’t know there was a camera on, the pigtails were flying. It was like, you know, being on a roller coaster. So she had a great time. Look, none of us really think of it in that way when we serve in politics. Of course, the great privilege I have is about what I was telling you about before. I mean, as Prime Minister, people will chat to you. You stop in the street and want to have a chat to them and they’ll tell you what’s going on, and some of them give you good feedback, others give you some helpful advice or contribution. Some people are really nice, others just want to take a selfie. Now, you’re a Treasurer, only accountants want to talk to. Nothing wrong with accountants, particularly our accounts team out there sitting out here in Gold FM. But when the Prime Minister… what’s great about Australia is people feel they can just come up and have a chat to you about everything.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: And having a beer with Bob Katter, it’d be perfect.
BRIDGE DALEY: He doesn’t need a beer.
[Laughter]
BRIDGE DALEY: I do want to ask you, we are in the middle of “Oztober”, Aussie bands we’re celebrating.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh yeah.
BRIDGE DALEY: So the question I want to ask you, if you could go and see any line up of any concert, they’re all Aussie, could be dead or alive, bands of disbanded.
PRIME MINISTER: Does it have to be a band?
BRIDGE DALEY: Or singers, yeah, yeah, yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh Tina Arena I always go to, every single time.
BRIDGE DALEY: Oh?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah I’m a huge Tina fan, as some people know. But oh look, you can’t go past INXS, and if you could ever get…
BRIDGE DALEY: I know.
PRIME MINISTER: INXS you know, I saw them in a number of places and that was fantastic. I was always a fan of The Church.
BRIDGE DALEY: Oh The Church.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s on my playlist.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: Al after 9, that’s his favourite band as well.
PRIME MINISTER: I wouldn’t… look, and we’re going to have to sort of give me the ANZAC leave pass, but always a big fan of Split Enz. I lived in New Zealand for a period of time and I actually got to meet Neil and Tim when I was over there.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: Nah, they’re Aussie owned.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we claim them.
BRIDGE DALEY: Ooh, contro.
PRIME MINISTER: But you know, you back to Brisbane bands like The Smiths, things like that… The Saints I should say, not The Smiths. And Ed Cooper I was a big fan of. He probably doesn’t share my politics, but that’s alright, I only have to like this music.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: We’ve gone well over nine, but Rod McLeod has got a question for you, because we are taking into his news break. So he gets upset, Rod.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh sorry Rod, Ok.
ROD MCLEOD: Good morning, Prime Minister. They say Australia is a land of contrast. Yesterday you hooned around Mt Panorama. Today I imagine you would have travelled up the M1. There’s a bit of a contrast in speed between the M1 at approximately zero to twenty in peak hour. Can we get a commitment from the Federal Government? There was so much argy bargy just getting a little section completed between Mudgeeraba and Varsity Lakes between the Queensland Government and the Federal Government. Can we have an assurance for Gold Coast motorists that we will get the whole thing done all the way down…
ADRIAN JOHNSTON: That’s a news question, here we go Rodney.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: Straight off the tea, the one-wood.
PRIME MINISTER: Well you know, in the last Budget I put a billion dollars into the M1. A billion.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: Where did it go?
PRIME MINISTER: Mate it’s going in there to build to road and to do the roadworks. I mean, we put a billion into the M1 and you know, we’re not finished I reckon. We’ll continue to look at what the road burdens are here on the Gold Coast and the same reason that’s why we invested also in the light rail as well. We put big dollars into that as well and we’re looking at what else can be done there. But the infrastructure congestion-busting package of our Government – a billion dollars into the M1, and people like Bert van Manen, they were the ones who really argued heavily for that and got that delivered. And look, I’m pleased that the State Government came on board and so they should, it’s a state responsibility. But we’ve already stumped up a billion dollars for the M1.
BRIDGE DALEY: Alright well let’s end on a high and…
PRIME MINISTER: I thought that was a high.
[Laughter]
BRIDGE DALEY: No no, that was grown up conversation. Let’s have fun now, ScoMo. I’ve got a competition here called “great Scott”. So it’s about famous Aussie Scotts, so let’s see how you go now that you’re in the…
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: Aussie Scotts.
BRIDGE DALEY: Question number one, what was the full name of the character that dated Charlene on Neighbours?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, Scott… I got that bit right. Pass.
[Laughter]
BRIDGE DALEY: Robinson. Scott Robinson. Question number two, name the famous Aussie golfer with Scott in his name?
PRIME MINISTER: Adam Scott.
BRIDGE DALEY: Easy.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: Yeah. Who hosts the TV show The Block?
PRIME MINISTER: Ah Scotty Cam.
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: And who was the lead singer of ACDC who died?
PRIME MINISTER: Bon Scott.
BRIDGE DALEY: He’s done alright, well done, ScoMo, well done.
PRIME MINISTER: And a shout out to Scotty Buchholz.
BRIDGE DALEY: Who’s that?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: The Member for Wright, here on the Gold Coast.
[Laughter]
BRIDGE DALEY: Sorry, well done.
PRIME MINISTER: The Assistant Minister for Transport.
BRIDGE DALEY: Good on you Scotty. Is he outside the door?
PRIME MINISTER: Scotty Sorenson at the Sharks.
ADRIAN JOHNSTON: Before you go, I’m sure you might have heard this already, but here’s Mathias Cormann, he joins us each week.
IMPERSONATOR: I also go to the gymnasium, my favourite exercise is the burpee. I find that very energising, doing burpees. Do you do burpees?
[Laughter]
PETER “SPIDA” EVERITT: AJ does Crossfit.
IMPERSONATOR: Crossfitting and wall balls. Where do you put the balls?
ADRIAN JOHNSTON: Against the wall, Mathias. You throw them against the wall. Ah wall ball, I understand.
[Laughter]
IMPERSONATOR: Ah wall ball, I understand.
ADRIAN JOHNSTON: He hasn’t got your voice yet, Scott, but we are working on it. We’re working on it, PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Ah that is priceless.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: I’m going to talk to him about the burpees if I see him tomorrow.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Great to be with you guys.
ADRIAN JOHNSTON: Thank you very much, thanks a lot.
