E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

SEA FM MACKAY WITH JAY AND DAVE

TUESDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 2015

 

SUBJECT/S: Abbott Government’s cuts to child care; Children’s television shows.

 

JAY: Bill Shorten joining us live in the studio, hello mate.

 

BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Good morning gentleman.

 

JAY: Good to see you mate.

 

DAVE: First off you’re here because you’re looking at the regional jobs to start off with, you’re looking at promoting that, but also child care as well.   

 

SHORTEN: It’s a big issue child care. Just even this morning as people are preparing for work, we’ll have couples, both of whom are going to work, but the cost of child care is so high that I’m sure that perhaps mum’s weighing up well, you know, I’ve got to work a certain amount of hours every day, that pays for the child care and there’s not much left at the end of the day. So the cost of child care, quality and accessibility are all big issues.

 

JAY: Do you think that a lot of people are actually thinking to themselves, well maybe someone should just stay at home, it will be a lot cheaper that way.

 

SHORTEN: Well unfortunately that’s the choice that some families have to make and listen, the only way that this country will get ahead is if people feel that they can go to work and their kids will be okay. So it is the real balancing of the cost of living versus people’s desire to work. It’s, there are no simple answers but there’s no doubt that it is one of the big issues of 2015.

 

JAY: So how do you go about combating that sort of thing Bill? How can we try and fix that?

 

SHORTEN: Well previously Labor increased the rebate that families could claim, so it gives them some more money which means that they can afford more child care. But along with, and also the current government, the Liberal-National Government have taken a billion dollars out of child care, we think that’s a bit retrograde. I think in the medium term we can’t expect our child care workers so keep working for bottom dollar wages so there’s some issue about where the resources come from, I think that’s a big debate, and are the resources going where they need to go, we’ve got to look after the workforce too in all of this because they’re really important.

 

DAVE: Can I just ask, can you change a nappy?

 

SHORTEN: Yes.

 

[laughs]

 

DAVE: You know what, you’re the first actual politician that’s ever just said yes!

 

JAY: We’ve never had, I think we’ve had the opposition to you guys on our show saying that there’s some of them that don’t know how the change nappies. Gold star.     

 

SHORTEN: Well my beautiful daughter Clementine’s just started prep but, my wife’s into equal opportunity, she said you need to change the nappy.

 

JAY: Okay, well that’s a good segue into our segment today for Bill Shorten.

 

DAVE: Exactly, considering you’ve just gone through all of the TV shows, the kids TV shows and you’re talking about child care and we thought okay, it’s getting a little bit too serious, we need to lighten up the mood so we’re going to play –

 

JAY: The kids quiz.

 

DAVE: Yeah.

 

JAY: Now we need you to put your headphones on there for a second so we’re going to play you a snipper of a TV show that your daughter Clementine might have watched. This is TV show number one, what is that television show?

 

SHORTEN: Sesame Street.

 

JAY: Sesame Street.

 

DAVE: It sounded like you had to think about that for a second.

 

SHORTEN: I did. I love my daughter but it doesn’t mean I’m watching all her TV with her.

 

[laughs]

 

DAVE: Okay, well let’s try the second one shall we?

 

JAY: Here we go. That is so easy. Are you kidding me? Play it again, listen to the theme song Bill. ‘Look over there, it’s Humphrey Bear’.

 

SHORTEN: I do know that now. I can’t help it if my child watches Nickelodeon Junior and Disney Junior.

 

DAVE: Okay well this one is going to be a fairly easy one for you. It is another kids TV show so number three.

 

JAY: Here we go.

 

SHORTEN: Oh no, I was going to make some Wizard of Oz joke there but I won’t.  

   

JAY: What’s the answer?

 

SHORTEN: That’s Bronwyn.

 

DAVE: It’s parliamentary question time!

 

SHORTEN: That’s Bronwyn, you can see my eyelids starting to tremor uncontrollably.

 

DAVE: It’s like the bullies in the playground and Bronwyn’s actually the principal having a go at everyone.

 

SHORTEN: Yeah, okay. [laughs]

 

JAY: That’s the biggest child’s television show that we’ve seen anyway. Mate, child care, going back to the original point, it’s something important that affects a lot of our families listening this morning and your job, you’re going to try and fix that for those families who work pretty hard, yeah?

 

SHORTEN: Yeah we have too. We want our children to be raised properly and in the early years that’s when they’re, it’s really important they get quality care but by the same token it’s a crazy situation if both parents are going to work and one of their income is just basically going to pay the childcare bill, it sort of defeats the purpose.

 

JAY: Well there you go, Bob – oh I’m thinking about Bob the Builder. Bill Shorten joining us live in our studio this morning, mate thanks for your time.     

 

SHORTEN: Yeah real pleasure, thanks gentleman.

 

ENDS

 

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