9 March 2011
TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR
INTERVIEW WITH KEWY AND KARIS
SOUTH COAST FM, WESTERN VICTORIA
Subjects: Julia Gillard’s carbon tax; fuel prices.
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………
TONY ABBOTT:
G’day, it’s Tony Abbott looking for Kewy and Karis.
PRESENTER:
Tony!
PRESENTER:
Here we are, Tony.
TONY ABBOTT:
Hey, wow, I’ve got straight through to you.
PRESENTER:
Mate, that’s brilliant. How’s it going, mate?
TONY ABBOTT:
Oh look, you know mate, it’s a busy, busy, busy life, but nevertheless, it’s a good life and I’m lucky to have it mate.
PRESENTER:
Absolutely, buddy, we’re going to throw a couple of curly questions at you.
TONY ABBOTT:
Yep, oh God, more curly ones.
PRESENTER:
Yep. Buddy, in the paper today, Julia Gillard kicking the footy around the Oval Office with Obama. What have you been up to mate?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, I’ve just been thinking it should’ve been a rugby union ball.
PRESENTER:
Oh! Don’t!
TONY ABBOTT:
Sorry. I know I’m in Victoria; I shouldn’t have that thought, should I?
PRESENTER:
I was going to say that mate. Yeah!
TONY ABBOTT:
Yeah, I know, you can take the boy out of the state but you can’t take the state out of the boy, in some respects.
PRESENTER:
Oh, mate, I understand completely. Now, speaking of boy, let me just flip that over to girl. In Canterbury yesterday, you were swamped by school girls.
TONY ABBOTT:
Oh, mate, I think it’s the celebrity thing, you know, they see you on television and they think, ah, celebrity. But look it was a pleasure. They were good girls. They were enthusiastic. They were obviously nice kids at a good school and I was thrilled to be with them.
PRESENTER:
Bit of a tour around the country at the moment mate. What are you actually doing?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, it’s all a bit of a carbon tax tour at the moment because as you know the Prime Minister who said before the election “there’ll be no carbon tax under the government I lead” has changed her position and the trouble with this carbon tax is that it’s bad policy based on a lie and it’ll put $300 on the price of power each year, it’ll put six and a half cents a litre on the price of petrol just for starters. So I’m trying to alert people to the fact that this is a big problem. It is a way of life changing tax, it’s an economy changing tax and we shouldn’t get it without the Prime Minister going to the people again and seeking a mandate.
PRESENTER:
Now, mate, of course, fuel prices going through the roof at the moment. Swan came out and said, ‘oh no, it’s not a tax’. What would you, like, mate, if you were in power, what would your plan be for this?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, we just wouldn’t have a tax like this. We don’t need this tax. There are better ways of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and at the last election I took a plan to the people, a plan which was a good plan and which I support and believe in and my plan meant more trees, better soil, smarter technology and it would be paid for out of the budget from savings so that there would be no additional taxing and there would be no additional cost on the price of goods.
PRESENTER:
It’s being a very contentious issue at the moment, like you’ve mentioned the fuel prices there. Mate, the ACCC, what’s going on with the fuel prices? Can the Government do anything about this?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, it can avoid making a bad situation worse. I mean, you know, the price of oil goes up and down and obviously the state of competition in the market goes up and down so I mean, there’s no magic wand to take the prices way down but let’s avoid a situation where the prices go way up because of an unnecessary impost from government.
PRESENTER:
Obviously, the carbon tax is a heavily negative thing Tony. Can we possibly say another negative thing is Pauline Hanson coming back into politics?
TONY ABBOTT:
Yeah, well I don’t think anyone should assume she’s going to win. I mean, she’s put her hand up and, fair enough, every citizen is entitled to run for parliament, but I hope the people of New South Wales will vote for the Coalition, not for anyone else, and I hope the people of New South Wales will listen to Barry O’Farrell, not to anyone else. I just think that some people’s time comes and goes and I think that time has gone.
PRESENTER:
Absolutely. I think she probably had too much time in the first place. Hey buddy, we’ve got to ask you this question, we’re dying to ask you. Mate, it became a massive issue and you got scammed, in my belief anyway, with bloody Mark Riley. Now, in that time when you were standing there looking at him mate, tell us really, what was going through your head? Did you want to whack him?
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, a lot of people have asked me that question and I have steadfastly refused to answer.
PRESENTER:
Can you do it for us down here?
TONY ABBOTT:
Oh, look, you know, a lot of thoughts go through your head. I mean I just figured that maintaining as dignified a silence as was possible under the circumstances was the best way to go.
PRESENTER:
I think your silence was more powerful than anything because I was trying to read your mind and I could sort of see what was going on there Tony.
TONY ABBOTT:
Yeah, well, as I said, a lot of thoughts go through your head in a situation like that but I suppose, you know, the most obvious one is the height of impertinence.
PRESENTER:
You kept your dignity and you proved that you’re a big gentlemen there in front of Mark Riley. He proved to be the dick. Mate, any plans in the future of popping back down into the south-west and maybe whacking on some Port Fairy budgie smugglers again?
TONY ABBOTT:
Hey, what a great idea. Look, Dan Tehan is constantly telling me I need to get back down to the west as quickly as possible and Dan is a very persistent man – in fact some people look at my ears and say that happened from too many scrums, but I say it’s because Dan Tehan has been chewing my ear, making sure that the voice of regional Victoria is heard loud in Canberra.
PRESENTER:
You’ve got to come and see our new hospital Tony. We’ve got our new multi-million dollar hospital up and going.
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, isn’t that fantastic. Now, that’s a very, very good thought but I suspect that Ted Baillieu is probably pretty eager to come and visit that hospital.
PRESENTER:
Mate, last time you were down here of course we played radio scattergories, we won’t put you through that again and we know you are under the pump. You did donate that money to Peter’s project which did go to the hospital so mate, we know your heart is in it. If we can get you back down here at some stage that would be brilliant but thanks a lot for your time, Tone.
TONY ABBOTT:
Kewy and Karis, I really appreciate the chance to say g’day.
[ends]
