KIIS 106.5 - interview with Kyle and Jackie O

JOURNALIST She had the highest swing vote in history of Australian politics, it's theForeign Minister Julie Bishop.

JOURNALIST Well done Julie.

JOURNALIST Hello and congratulations ma'am.

JULIEBISHOP I think that's a little bit of an overstatement…

JOURNALIST I don't think it is!

JULIEBISHOP I think what you're suggesting is that I've got the highest primary vote in thecountry, not the swing…

JOURNALIST Yeah, whatever it is.

JULIEBISHOP Whatever, thank you very much for the kind words.

JOURNALIST I just know if people vote then you're a winner, that's how I see it.

JOURNALIST Oh well, that's the main thing.

JULIEBISHOP That's right! As long as you get over the line first, you've won.

JOURNALIST Well you know what you only have to worry about that, what, every four years orsomething isn't it?

JULIEBISHOP Three years…

JOURNALIST Three years.

JULIEBISHOP Every three years we have it. It's four years at state level and three years ata federal level. So every three years I go through the longest job interview.This time it was eight weeks.

JOURNALIST No don't come whinging to me! I have to put up with that every eight weeks withour ratings!

JOURNALIST The survey, of course!

JULIEBISHOP I know, I know you're constantly being judged on your performance. Welcome toour world.

JOURNALIST Yeah, cause it was your birthday on Sunday, wasn't it? Happy birthday forSunday!

JULIEBISHOP Thank you. It was indeed.

JOURNALIST And did the Prime Minister get you a cool present?

JULIEBISHOP I had a little birthday cake given to me by the Prime Minister. I actuallyspent the day, can I name drop for a second?

JOURNALIST Please!

JULIEBISHOP I spent the day with Vice President Joe Biden and took him to the MCG where wewatched a game of footy between my beloved West Coast Eagles and Carlton and…

JOURNALIST He wouldn't have had a clue what was going on!

JULIEBISHOP Not a clue but he had some Americans who are playing AFL now sitting next tohim and giving all the tips. And it's a pretty confusing game for most ofAustralia let alone an American…

JOURNALIST Can I ask, was Joe Biden in Sydney yesterday?

JULIEBISHOP Yes, yes he is.

JOURNALIST Hang on. Are you travelling around with him?

JULIEBISHOP Well I'm in Canberra today because we have the swearing in of the Ministry butthen I'm coming up to Sydney and meeting him in Sydney today.

JOURNALIST Right let me ask you something. I was in Paddington yesterday around the OxfordSt area here, and I was sitting at a traffic light and it was red for anextraordinary amount of time – about three songs it was red – and I saw somepolice car lights and everything and I thought, "It feels like there's a Presidentialmotorcade going down! Why is the light red for so long?" and then I've realisedmaybe it was, in fact, a Presidential motorcade.

JOURNALIST Was he on Oxford St yesterday?

JULIEBISHOP Well spotted, absolutely. I think there are about 35 cars in his entourage andwhen the President or the Vice President travels through any city they stop thelights so that they can get a clear run, and yes, he's in Sydney, and I'mcatching up with him today.

JOURNALIST Ask him why he stopped at the Tool Shed! [Laughter] I don't know what's goingon down there…

JOURNALIST Lies! Lies!

JOURNALIST Maybe they wanted a drink? The 7-Eleven is right next door, you never know.

JOURNALIST Do you guys get…you don't get that kind of privilege though, do you?

JULIEBISHOP We certainly don't and…

JOURNALIST Why?

JULIEBISHOP Well I'm very pleased that Australia is such a peaceful, stable country,relatively speaking, and our politicians and public figures have relativefreedom. Of course we have security but not to the extent that an AmericanPresident or Vice President would have. So when you see 35, 40 cars in anentourage you realise the extent of the security surrounding a significantpublic figure from the United States.

JOURNALIST What's your security like though, in terms of, because you always have to be ina government car. Can you just get an Uber if you want to or is that notallowed?

JOURNALIST Oh you wouldn't do UberX!

JULIEBISHOP I can do all sorts of things, as long as I don't tell!

JOURNALIST Oh that's what Hillary said.

[Laughter]

JOURNALIST Now wouldn't you, is there a little bit of, I know we're Aussie and we all sitin the traffic together and we can be sitting in peak hour traffic and there'sthe Prime Minister sitting there, the flag's not even got any wind behind itbecause we're stuck on the M4…wouldn't you just love to be able to ring upsomeone and go "Change all the lights to green. It's Julie Bishop here, I wantall the lights green to the airport"!

JULIEBISHOP Yes, we don't have that kind of executive, presidential role in Australia. Theattitude here is far more egalitarian, and while there's appropriate securityit is certainly not over the top, and I'm perfectly happy to take my place inthe queue with everybody else. Of course there are times, for security reasons,that they do take different steps or different procedures but otherwise youjust do what your security tell you.

JOURNALIST What do you make yesterday of Sonia Kruger's comments?

JULIEBISHOP I think it was pretty divisive. The challenge that we have as a country is tomeld all the different ethnic, racial, religious divides that make up a countryinto one very cohesive society. So we are one of the most successfulmulticultural nations on earth, we have people from all four corners of theglobe living in Australia and we are one of the great success stories and Iwould hope that that continues.

JOURNALIST So you would disagree with what she said?

JULIEBISHOP We have a non-discriminatory immigration system. We bring people in on visasbased on need, we bring people in based on skills, on the talent and the skillsthat they can contribute to our society. We bring people in on a whole range ofreasons but we don't discriminate based on religion. In fact freedom ofreligion is guaranteed in our Australian Constitution.

JOURNALIST Which I think is great however, don't you think we should put a little note onthere saying "If you don't live our lifestyle, if you don't like our lifestyle…"

JULIEBISHOP Not your lifestyle.

JOURNALIST Not mine, we couldn't all live my lifestyle!

JULIEBISHOP No, clearly not your lifestyle.

JOURNALIST Oh it would be bloody out of control! If you don't live the Australian way,don't bother coming! Because we're open to everyone and we love everyone andeveryone loves everyone, but if you don't like our way of living, don't come.

JULIEBISHOP Well I think it's important to remember that when people come to Australia onvisas, we have very stringent security, character, health checks. We take along time to do that, sometimes we're criticised that we take so long to do thesecurity, character, health checks, but that's so that we ensure that we getpeople into Australia who are going to be positive contributors to our society,and likewise you must obey the laws of this country…

JOURNALIST Can I ask, for example, how come Snoop Dogg is not allowed to come and do aconcert because he is too much of a threat but terrorists can come throughsometimes? What happens there?

JULIEBISHOP Well we certainly don't believe that terrorists come here because we believethat we screen them out, but there are various reasons why people can't come toAustralia – if they have a particular criminal record, if they are likelyto be a national security threat, there are a whole raft of reasons. But wecertainly screen for anyone who has terrorist tendencies, you can't always getit right but we have some of the best border protection in the world, we've gotsome of the best security and intelligence and law enforcement agencies in theworld…

JOURNALIST That's true.

JULIEBISHOP …and they work around the clock to ensure that we can keep Australians safe,whether here in Australia or overseas.

JOURNALIST Well I wouldn't feel safe being overseas. How safe do you feel about Australiain terms of how worried should we be about terrorist attacks here?

JULIEBISHOP Well we're not immune and we're seeing in cities overseas that terroristattacks have evolved in all sorts of unexpected ways. The one in Nice recently,an horrific attack where a guy had not been known to the intelligence agencies,had become radicalised in a very short period of time it appears, and then buysa truck and drives down through a crowd of people. I mean, that is horrendous,bizarre, but how do you detect somebody like that? He had a criminal record,sure, but he wasn't known to intelligence agencies as being a terrorist threat.

JOURNALIST Yeah, exactly. Just a mad man.

JOURNALIST That could happen anywhere.

JOURNALIST Hey, I believe, someone's probably standing beside you like someone's standingright beside me now, with current intelligence updates that some guy's gonemental on a train in Germany. What's happening there? Can you tell us more?

JULIEBISHOP Well it appears that he's been shot but there are no details as to hismotivations, but he had an axe and…

JOURNALIST An axe?

JULIEBISHOP Yes, and it appears there was an attack on a train in Germany. Now we can'tassume what was behind it but we certainly know that the local media in Germanyare tweeting that 20 people or 21 people have been injured and the suspect wasapparently shot in the incident, but it could be a man with mental healthproblems going on a rampage on a train in a city in southern Germany, or itcould be something else. We just don't know at this stage.

JOURNALIST We are quick to react, we think everything is terror-related now, don't we? Buta lot of these things have been mental, lone mad men.

JULIEBISHOP That's right. The lone wolf syndrome about which we hear so much, somebodymight have all sorts of antisocial mental health problems and that couldmanifest in violence. But then also we shouldn't underplay by any means theterrorist threat because we know that there are terrorist organisations aroundthe world who do export a model of terrorism, getting people who aren'totherwise known to intelligence and law enforcement agencies to carry outterrible attacks particularly on civilians.

JOURNALIST You've got a tough job, Julie Bishop, I'm telling you. I'm glad you're doingbecause I feel that you are the right woman for the job, so go forward and doprotect us all.

JULIEBISHOP Thank you.

JOURNALIST It's in your hands!

JULIEBISHOP That's my primary responsibility.

JOURNALIST I know.

JOURNALIST Alright Julie. Thank you so much for talking to us this morning…

JOURNALIST Hey when did you get that update? When did you find out about that train thing?

JULIEBISHOP This morning, first thing this morning.

JOURNALIST Alright, what time?

JULIEBISHOP Oh early, I'm trying to remember. I came running into Parliament House about6:00am so probably about 7:00am or just before?

JOURNALIST And I found out at 8:30am, something's not right.

JULIEBISHOP No, that's good…

JOURNALIST An hour and a half later.

JOURNALIST She should know before you. [Laughter]

JULIEBISHOP I should know before you.

JOURNALIST I know. Totally, totally. [Laughter] I'm not trying to race you to the info,but I'm thinking an hour and a half! Surely I should know before that! Thankyou.

JOURNALIST Thanks Julie.

JULIEBISHOP My pleasure.

JOURNALIST Deputy Leader of the Libs, Minister for um, what is it…

JULIEBISHOP Foreign Affairs.

JOURNALIST Oh yeah, yeah. I want to call you Secretary of State…

JULIEBISHOP You can call me that.

JOURNALIST Because I've been watching that show, I love it. You watch that show?

JOURNALIST Yeah, she watches it.

JULIEBISHOP I think it's a fantastic show but I have to admit my favourite is Veep.

JOURNALIST Oh love it, but it's a tad potty mouth!

JULIEBISHOP That is so true.

JOURNALIST Hey have you watched The Night Manager yet? That's a good one, Julie, you'lllike that.

JOURNALIST Whichone?

JULIEBISHOP No, I haven't seen that yet.

JOURNALIST Oh you'll love it!

JOURNALIST The Night Manager's got nothing to do with politics!

JOURNALIST It doesn't matter! She doesn't only have to watch politics shows!

JULIEBISHOP Is it on Netflix?

JOURNALIST No, you have to buy it on iTunes. Would you do that?

JULIEBISHOP Yes, I would. If you recommend it to me, I'll get it. There are a few longplane trips ahead of me that I'm sure I'll need some entertainment…

JOURNALIST Julie, you and I should Netflix and chill soon.

JULIEBISHOP Yes, absolutely, love the sound of it.

[Laughter]

JOURNALIST And are you up to speed on what's going on with Taylor and Kanye and all ofthat?

JULIEBISHOP Well I'm a Taylor girl, I have to admit.

JOURNALIST Oh you're Team Taylor, you're calling it.

JOURNALIST Hey hey hey, I've just had a great idea. Taylor's on the Gold Coast, right,she's in lockdown, she's on lockdown.

JULIEBISHOP Yes…

JOURNALIST Can you get us in there?

[Laughter]

JOURNALIST Oh you can't?

JULIEBISHOPOh now you're asking? That's a domestic issue. I'm normally able to make thingshappen overseas but leave it with me.

JOURNALIST Ok.

JOURNALIST And she is foreign so…

JULIEBISHOP Leave it with me.

JOURNALIST Yeah. Foreign Minister, just get us in!

JULIEBISHOP Looking after an American citizen…

JOURNALIST It could fall on your territory.

JOURNALIST I just want to set the record straight! I want to get all this hate offline.Let's all love each other again.

JULIEBISHOP And she might as well tell you, give you an exclusive.

JOURNALIST Exactly, there we go!

JOURNALIST Make it happen. [Laughter]

JOURNALIST I'll be at the airport waiting for the plane

JULIEBISHOP I'll just go through my contact list and see if I've got her mobile.

JOURNALIST Ok, thank you.

JOURNALIST Thanks Julie.

JULIEBISHOP Ok. Cheers guys.

JOURNALIST Bye bye.

JOURNALIST Bye.

JOURNALIST Julie Bishop, Foreign Minister there, going to hook us up with the Tay-Tay!