DAVID:
Ten past eight is the time and we don’t often get the chance to sing do we?
TANYA:
We don’t. The Federal Cabinet is sitting in town today. Kevin Rudd’s bringing everybody to Newcastle. In fact, they’re probably mostly here now, including of course the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and she’s with us. Morning, Julia.
JULIA GILLARD:
Good morning.
TANYA:
We’ve got one thing to say to you.
JULIA GILLARD:
What’s that?
DAVID & TANYA:
(Both singing) Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Julia, happy birthday to you!
DAVID:
Hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray!
TANYA:
Happy birthday!
JULIA GILLARD:
[Laughs] Thank you very much! And you two, I think, need to go on stage as a cabaret act.
[Laugh]
DAVID:
If we were on Idol, Julia, and you were the judge, what would you give us?
JULIA GILLARD:
Oh, I think I’d say touchdown wouldn’t I?
[Laugh]
TANYA:
Well, that just gives us the clue as to what you do on a Sunday night.
[Laugh]
DAVID:
Welcome to Newcastle. Have you spent much time in our city since becoming a … since going into Government?
JULIA GILLARD:
I’ve spent a bit of time here over the period I’ve been in Parliament. I’d have to say Sharon Grierson, your local member, is such as an active local member that she’s always inviting you and making sure that there are things to do and people to see in Newcastle, people to learn from. So I spent a fair bit of time here when I was Shadow Minister for Health, because you’ve just got some great health professionals here at the cutting edge of what’s happening in Australia in health. Not cutting edge in the sense of cutting people up, but at the forefront …
DAVID:
They do that too, you know.
JULIA GILLARD:
Yeah, they do that too. And so Newcastle is a great place to bring our whole Cabinet to so that we can talk to the community and see what people are thinking and feeling.
TANYA:
Well, that the um … that’s the question. What are you guys going to do? I mean, there are lots we could suggest—a little trip down to Susan Gilmore Beach for the PM wouldn’t go astray—that’s our local nudist beach, by the way. But really, what will you be doing in town today and what is that public forum at Lambton all about?
JULIA GILLARD:
I think I can guarantee that the Prime Minister won’t be on that beach.
[Laugh]
DAVID:
He needs some colour. He’s looking a bit pale, you know!
JULIA GILLARD:
I think I can also guarantee that he will be at Lambton at the school today. What we do is we invite members of the public to come and sit in the community forum. I understand the invites here were snapped up pretty quickly—so more than 500 people coming. And it’s an open forum—people can raise whatever is on their mind, from the biggest global issue to something that is troubling them or a member of their family, or a neighbour or a very individual problem. And we do that—take questions, Prime Minister answers or he refers to the right Cabinet Minister for a specific answer for a very specific question. And then we break up and people have asked to see individual Cabinet Ministers, then we sit down and have meetings one on one.
DAVID:
Julia, do you find that um … it’s sometimes unnerving when you’re out in the public and you’re just thrown a question by someone that you really aren’t expecting and you’re expected to come up with an instant answer?
JULIA GILLARD:
Sometimes but I always find that people respect it if you say, ‘Look, I don’t know, but I’ll get back to you’. Obviously Federal Government is a tremendously complicated thing and if someone walks up and says, you know, ‘I’ve got a really individual enquiry about something that happened at Centrelink when I went to apply for this form of benefit’ or something, or, you know, a problem with a visa for a friend of mine who’s come, you know, trying to visit Australia, then you’ve obviously got to go and research and look into those kinds of things.
When people are asking about Government policy, generally, we’re able to provide an answer on the spot and tell them what it is that the Government’s doing. But a lot of the exchanges in these Community Cabinets are also about new things that people believe need to be done that mightn’t be on Government’s radar yet. But community cabinet’s away making sure it ends up on our radar.
TANYA:
Well, one of the things on everybody’s radar and particularly for us in Newcastle is about alcohol, drinking, curfew times. I noticed Tony Brown, he’s one of the more high-profile campaigners for curfews. He has been granted an audience with Kevin Rudd tonight and he’ll be pushing that barrow. Over the weekend, we heard about the banning of advertising for alcohol completely. Do you think any of these things would help Julia?
JULIA GILLARD:
I certainly think we’ve got to be acting on alcohol and binge drinking. I think the statistics are very worrying. We were particularly worried when we were framing the May Budget about binge drinking amongst teenage girls. And that’s one of the reasons we’ve acted to put different tax arrangements on alcopops, which would make them more expensive, and have made them more expensive. We need to make that arrangement permanent by getting our legislation through the Senate and unfortunately, the Liberal Party is opposing it. But I think that that’s one measure that can make a difference.
And then, of course, we’ve got to be investing in preventative health measures and one of the passions of my colleague—Nicola Roxon, who’s Minister for Health—is to invest in prevention. She thinks that’s the big undone agenda in this country—to be educating people about the real risks of binge drinking and alcohol abuse.
DAVID:
Okay, just want to change the subject completely because you are Victorian. Were you at the AFL Grand Final on Saturday?
JULIA GILLARD:
I was, yes.
DAVID:
Who were you cheering for?
JULIA GILLARD:
I barracked for Hawthorn. I’m actually a Bulldogs supporter, so we got taken out in the preliminary final by Geelong. So I thought when we came to the Grand Final, I’d go for the underdog, so I went for Hawks. I did say publicly that it was causing me some personal pain to be on the same bandwagon as Jeff Kennett but there we have it.
[Laughs]
JULIA GILLARD:
And it turned out to be the right bandwagon to be on because it was a tough, tough contest but the Hawks came through.
TANYA:
So … there’ll be no doubting as to who you’ll be on this weekend in the NRL Grand Final?
JULIA GILLARD:
[Laughs] No, I’ll be with the Melbourne Storm. You would’ve been able to predict that, wouldn’t you? [laughs]
DAVID:
Yes, for sure. And Julia, before you go, for your bonus question: who’s singing this?
[Music plays] Julia, Julia, Julia …
TANYA:
It’s an old song. She’s only 47 today.
JULIA GILLARD:
[Laughs]
DAVID:
If she doesn’t know that then she doesn’t deserve to be Deputy PM.
TANYA:
Do you know?
JULIA GILLARD:
Oh, my lord! [Laughs] They, they … I think they played that as I walked into the North Melbourne Grand Final Breakfast on Saturday morning.
DAVID:
Ahh!
JULIA GILLARD:
And I’ve been debating ever since with my partner, Tim, whether or not it’s an old Beatles song.
DAVID:
Yes, it is.
TANYA:
Well done.
DAVID:
We’ll give you that. Its John Lennon.
TANYA:
By the way, what did Tim give you for your birthday?
JULIA GILLARD:
He’s given me some earrings and a beauty case with some small bags in it—so a little purse and a little bag for putting in bits and bobs and lipsticks and that kind of stuff in it.
TANYA:
I bet you’re the first Deputy PM that’s ever been given that for their birthday. [Laughs] Well, let’s hope.
JULIA GILLARD:
I can’t imagine that Tim Fischer or Mark Vaile or John Anderson or Brian Howe wondering around with a red beauty case with earrings in their ears, no.
TANYA:
[laughs] Let’s just hope that anyway, Julia.
DAVID:
Yep, actually before you go, will we have a female Prime Minister in our lifetime?
JULIA GILLARD:
I think inevitably we will. Things are changing very quickly for women in politics, I think the fact I’m in the position that I am shows things are changing quickly. And I really am hopeful I’ll live to see the time when no one bothers remarking anymore whether a politician is a man or a woman because it’s just so common for women and men to do all the jobs in politics that it’s just part of the background, part of the way we live.
TANYA:
Alright, have fun in Newcastle today. You’re in the best spot on the harbour there at the moment. Are you staying again tonight?
JULIA GILLARD:
We will be here tonight, yes. So we’ve got a big day in the Community Cabinet this evening and I’m really looking forward to it.
TANYA:
Alright.
DAVID:
If you mention Tanya’s name at the bar between 6 and 7 tonight, they generally give you half price, Julia.
JULIA GILLARD:
[Laughs] Okay, I’ll remember that.
TANYA:
Alright, have fun. Thanks for chatting.
JULIA GILLARD:
Thank you.
TANYA:
Alright, there’s Deputy PM Julia Gillard, along with the rest of the Cabinet in town today.
DAVID: She’s celebrating her 47birthday today. She’s quite proud of it too.
ENDS