E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………

 

Mr Abbott joins me now. Good morning to you.

 

 

Morning, Mel.

 

 

Do you believe the Gillard Government is actively delaying the process?

 

 

Mel, we do know that early on in the process the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff called Fair Work Australia to inquire. Now, this is highly unusual. I think it is potentially irregular and when we raised this in the parliament a few months ago, the Prime Minister was unable to give a satisfactory explanation. Now we have the union boss Kathy Jackson, a heroic woman who wants to get to the bottom of this, saying that she thinks there’s been government interference. The Prime Minister has got to come clean. She’s got to detail every involvement between her, her office, her ministers and their offices and Fair Work Australia over this because the only way Julia Gillard survives as Prime Minister right now is because she has the tainted vote of Craig Thomson in the parliament.

 

 

Ok. Next topic is your major speech, the first major one of the year we heard and talking about a broad plan including tax cuts, better services, more jobs, stronger borders. What would be your first priority as Prime Minister?

 

 

The first priority is to get rid of the carbon tax. The carbon tax will drive up power prices, gas prices, fuel prices. That will feed through to every price in the economy. The best thing we can do for households, for jobs, for manufacturing industry is to get rid of the carbon tax which is an act of economic self-harm inflicted on our country by this bad government getting worse.

 

 

You mentioned dentistry, saying that it would be cheaper through Medicare but you said it was quote “an aspiration, not a commitment”. Is that because, I don’t know, are you worried about making promises that you can't deliver? Does it come down to this whole core and non-core promise?

 

 

Well, in the end Mel, the whole point of good economic management is to create a better society and part of a better society are better services from government. I would like to see dentistry on Medicare but we can only do it when the budget is back in strong surplus. That is why it is so important to get government spending under control. That’s why it’s so important to end the waste, like the national broadband network white elephant which is turning out to be school halls on steroids.

 

 

Australia Day security scare still making news. Do you stand by allegations that the Prime Minister’s office was involved? We’ve got reports this morning in the National Indigenous Times saying a federal government source said “Mr Hodges did not act alone. Others in his office were aware of what was planned with intention behind the call and those who were aware may have included the Prime Minister herself”.

 

 

Well, these are very interesting claims. Obviously, they are coming from inside the indigenous community, presumably from the Tent Embassy. We had in Darwin yesterday the Labor indigenous affairs minister in the Northern Territory call on the Prime Minister to give a full explanation. She wants an inquiry and she said Prime Minister, at the very least, has to apologise. So this is yet another example of the dirty tricks and deception we get from this government.

 

 

Can you give me a yes or no answer as to whether you will raise a no-confidence motion next week?

 

 

Look, while the Government has Craig Thomson's vote, it is firewalled against a successful no-confidence motion. That’s why any interference with the Fair Work Australia investigation would be so utterly, utterly reprehensible.

 

 

Alright. Tony Abbott, thank you for your time this morning.

 

 

Thank you, Mel. Nice to be with you.

 

[ends]