Transcript: Julia Gillard, Interview, Heart FM Hobart
Julia Gillard
posted Thursday, 12 August 2010
E & O E – PROOF ONLY
Subjects: National Broadband Network; Infrastructure; Education; Industrial Relations.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister Julia Gillard what’s your favourite 80s song?
PM: I’m so old that I get the 70s and the 80s confused in music. Is that a really bad thing to admit?
JOURNALIST: Not as a Prime Minister.
JOURNALIST: No.
PM: But I’m a kind of daggy old time person, so I go for my Bruce Springsteen, my Cold Chisel, you know, Deborah Conway.
JOURNALIST: I can just picture you in the 80s dancing to Cold Chisel.
PM: Look I’m from South Australia, that’s what we did.
JOURNALIST: Well exactly, they’re a South Australian band.
PM: They are indeed.
JOURNALIST: It’s great to have you finally in the south of the State after much criticism Julia. Dave this has been your opportunity, go hard.
JOURNALIST: Well there has been and it’s not just you Prime Minister, but it’s been for a number of years, the south of Tasmania has felt like it’s been abandoned by Canberra and that there’s been a lot of need for infrastructure spending and so on. So it’s great to have you down here announcing the National Broadband Network and opening it at Sorell. Do you think there has been a little bit of marginal seat politics go on in Tasmania?
PM: Look, I’ve always really enjoyed coming to Hobart and I’ve had the opportunity as Minister for Education to come here, to go to schools, to make sure that the investments that we’re making in schools are making a difference. So I feel like I’ve been, you know, in touch with some of the issues on people’s minds. And amongst them kids getting to go to a great school, people having jobs, making sure that economic stimulus protected jobs during the Global Financial Crisis. But I’m also really pleased and excited to be here today talking about the National Broadband Network. You are leading Australia with the roll out of the National Broadband Network. You’re showing how it’s done to the rest of the country and I think that’s something to be really celebrated.
JOURNALIST: What difference will it make to Tasmania?
PM: Well the broadband is going to make a difference right around the country, including here. Of course this is the technology we need for the future. It’s going to make sure our businesses can compete with businesses overseas. We can’t afford this country to slip behind and see places like Singapore and Korea and Japan have better technology than us. That’s like just saying you’re happy to export jobs to those countries. Of course, as well, it’s going to transform the way we can teach kids in schools. It’s going to transform the way we go about health care. So having the National Broadband Network is vital to jobs now, 25,000 jobs directly in its construction, but it’s vital to our economic strength and the future of education and health care.
JOURNALIST: Well one of the issues in the south of the state, in particular, is in terms of infrastructure and our roads. Now the state Liberal Party made a commitment that if they were to win Government, that there’d be some funding there for a four lane highway. Now I’m presuming that you’ll to got the north of state travelling that highway. We just want you to look out, when you get to about halfway, how the condition of the road changes and is there a federal commitment to do something about that?
PM: Well look, I will look out and I’ll also speak to the Minister for Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese. We are a Government that has focused on investing in infrastructure, in roads, in rail, in port as well as in our local schools and now building, importantly, the National Broadband Network for the future. Now I understand people always want us to be talking to local communities about local needs and I’m more than happy as Prime Minister to do that. One of the good things I think we’ve done as a Government is we’ve heard from our local representatives, including our local representatives in Tasmania, and we’ve also forged some good links with local government so we can get their views as well.
JOURNALIST: Now we’ve had lots of people asking lots of questions because it’s not often they get to ask the Prime Minister these questions in Hobart, unlike Rooty Hill last night. So here’s one of the questions. What are you going to do about extra dollars for people who’ve got school students with special needs because Brian’s got a child whose got, he’s autistic and he’s finding it very difficult to make ends meet.
PM: It is difficult to, you know, to make ends meet. I understand people have got a lot of cost of living pressures on them and one of the issues there, and of course it did come up at Rooty Hill last night is I’m very opposed to Mr Abbott’s plan to put a tax on groceries.
As Education Minister, we did provide more resources for kids with special needs and we did also invest in the buildings in special schools because many of them didn’t have the kind of buildings and facilities they needed for the future. In this election campaign I’ve announced that we will make more money available for early intervention services for kids that do have special needs. A lot of the evidence is showing us if you can get in really early with speech therapy and those kinds of services then you can make a long term difference.
I want to do more in education. I’m proud of the fact we’ve almost doubled the amount of funding going into school education but my view for the future is we’ve got to keep focusing on the quality for every child in every school including kids with special needs.
JOURNALIST: OK and one from Janette in terms of funding for aged care. Are you going to include a carer’s increase because apparently carers Australia wide, particularly in Tasmania where we’re the worst. We’re completely under the award rate which doesn’t seem right.
PM: Well if anybody thinks they’re being paid under the award rate then they should certainly contact our industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia. I mean one of the things we’ve achieved as a Government is we chucked out WorkChoices. We introduced the Fair Work system. People now have a safety net that they can rely on at work and if anybody’s not getting the right pay then they can get it sorted out. This is a pretty big contrast to where Mr Abbott wants to go and, of course, Tasmania is home of Senator Eric Abetz. He’s Workplace Relations spokesperson who’s made it very, very clear that they are still big supporters of Workchoices and the real risk is that the worst aspects would be back.
Then there’s the question of funding for aged care. We have made some investments in aged care and we’re working with the representatives of the aged care sector, particularly the nurses, on a major look at the future of aged care as our society ages and our needs are going to differ as we age.
JOURNALIST: Now, one final question, of course apart from your partner, Tim, who would you rather have dinner with? Mark Latham, Tony Abbott or Kevin Rudd?
PM: Definitely Kevin.
JOURNALIST: So you and Kevin are still getting on well?
PM: Kevin’s out campaigning hard for the re-election of the Government and I think it’s to his great credit, given he’s been recently in hospital but he’s literally got up out of his hospital bed to go campaigning because, like me, he is very determined to make sure that we don’t have Tony Abbott sneak into office and take this country back by returning to WorkChoices, putting a tax on groceries and not delivering the National Broadband Network.
JOURNALIST: Well it’s taken 26 days since the announcement of the Federal election – 49 days since you were sworn in as Australia’s first female Prime Minister, you’re finally in the capital of Tasmania and thanks for having a chat to us on HEART 107.3.
PM: And very happy to be here. Thanks very much.
Tags: Broadband, Gillard, Hobart, infrastructure, internet, NBN