Interview with Labrat, Camilla & Stav, B105, Brisbane

Subjects: The Leaders’ Debate; MasterChef; Twitter

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

PRESENTER:

Let’s chat with the man, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Tony Abbott, hello sir.

TONY ABBOTT:

G’day, how are you?

PRESENTER:

We are good. MasterChef last night, did you watch it after the debate, be honest?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I went to Portia’s restaurant in Canberra, which, I think, is a kind of institutionalised MasterChef and had a lovely meal.

PRESENTER:

Did you just drop a plug to get a free meal?

TONY ABBOTT:

Yeah, look, it’s a great restaurant and it’s kind of like, well it’s sort of like my home away from home in Canberra.

PRESENTER:

You got the deal. Gotta ask, obviously a big night for you guys last night and politics in general, how do you feel you did? The general consensus is Julia won by an earlobe. How do you think you went?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I was very happy because I think I got a chance to put a clear case for changing the government and I thought we just got a lot of waffle from the Prime Minister, who is struggling with climate change, she doesn’t know how to handle boat people and she’s all at sea when it comes to population. So I was happy with it, but you know what these debates are like, they tend to confirm existing prejudices, I think.

PRESENTER:

I’ve got some very important political questions I want to get to in a second. First though, I know Tash… shut up, Stav… I know Tash, in the newsroom, you had something to ask?

TASH:

Yes, no, I was just wondering Mr Abbott, we had the male and female worms for the first time during the debate last night and it kind of looked like the woman worm had it in for you for most of the debate. Now, you’ve got a wife, daughters, female staffers, lots of women around you, why do you think this is?

PRESENTER:

That was my question! That was my question!

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, look, if there’s anyone who gets strong women, it ought to be me because as you say, I’ve got three powerful young women daughters, I’ve got a strong, professional wife who runs a childcare centre, a community based childcare centre and I grew up with three sisters. So, I think I certainly get women, but, obviously, I’ve got some marketing to do.

PRESENTER:

I think it’s, and I don’t know about your views on this, but it’s terribly, terribly wrong, scientifically, to promote a male and female worm, where everyone knows worms are asexual and reproduce by themselves.
PRESENTER:

Oh, God almighty, you’re looking into that way to much. Hey, something else that was on last night and no doubt you watched the footage back, Channel Nine, the Channel Nine’s Sixty Minutes special gave this awesome part where you could actually jump on Twitter and post comments in regarding the debate and then they’d actually flash up on the screen…

TONY ABBOTT:

Right.

PRESENTER:

When you go back through the footage today, if there is a comment posted by someone with the username Labrat regarding earlobes, that was not me.

TONY ABBOTT:

I’d come back to you guys and say I didn’t like that comment.

PRESENTER:

Not me.

PRESENTER:

It wasn’t, to be honest, I actually missed the start of the debate and Donna, our executive producer, rings me and goes, “you’ve gotta jump on Twitter, this is awesome, whatever you type goes up on the screen”. I was tempted to send something, I did, I did. I did.

TONY ABBOTT:

Did you?

PRESENTER:

Yeah, it was good fun, though!

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, look, that’s, I guess, the amazingly interactive world we live in these days and, you’re right, it is amazing what people can contribute and I guess that’s all part of an incredibly vibrant democracy.

PRESENTER:

What he’s saying is, he doesn’t want your vote.

PRESENTER:

Hey, we’ll let you go, thank you so much for taking the call this morning, nice work last night and we’ll chat to you soon, ok?

TONY ABBOTT:

No worries.

PRESENTER:

See you later. Tony Abbott.