This is a transcript of part of an interview with the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, at Kunda, in Queensland, on Tuesday, the 6thof November. It has to be read to be believed. Even more inexplicably, it is on the Prime Minister’s website1. Read it and weep. This is where we have come to.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’re on the bus tour. Why are you flying?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the bus is going all the way up to Rockie and that’s where it was always planning to go. I mean, it’s a big state and I need to cover as much of it in four days as I can. So we were never planning to take the bus to Townsville, we’d always planned to take that last leg up to Townsville by plane because that was the most effective way to get there and to spend the most time there with people on the ground. I mean, these visits aren’t about sitting on a bus. They’re about actually engaging with small businesses and our supporters and the people of Queensland and listening to them.
JOURNALIST: Then why have the bus?
PRIME MINISTER: Because it gets me from A to B.
JOURNALIST: Will you be taking the bus to Rockhampton from here?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. The bus will be going to Rockhampton from here. That’s right.
JOURNALIST: With you on it?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve got to get there earlier than the bus tonight.
JOURNALIST: So you will be flying to Rockhampton?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll get into Rockhampton tonight and I’ve got a programme tonight in Rockhampton and the bus can’t get me there quick enough so I’ve got to fly.
JOURNALIST: So you’ll be flying to Rockhampton and the bus will catch up with you and then you’ll fly onto Townsville?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll be flying onto Townsville. And your point is what?
JOURNALIST: I’m just interested in the point of the bus if you’re not on it.
PRIME MINISTER: I am on it, I just got off it.
JOURNALIST: But not onto Rockhampton or Townsville?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah well it’s a practical thing. I want to spend as much time on the ground with Queenslanders, and when I can be on the bus and go from place to place on the bus, that’s great. But I’m not going to sacrifice time with Queenslanders, listening to them and hearing them and talking to them about what’s important to them just to satisfy the media’s interest in the timetable for the bus1.
When I originally read this on Twitter, I assumed it was someone trying to outdo the mock interviews of the legendary Clarke and Dawe2 and I thought a new comic genius had been uncovered. It had, but not where you’d expect; in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Source
Thank you for link, I had to check.
Now the rational side of my brain is in denial … well it’s screaming into the void … will need to rely on reptilian brain … OMG ?
Dianna,
As I say, I thought it was just a joke, but typed in one of the more ludicrous phrases in inverted commas and bingo; it took me to Morrison’s website. My flabber was completely gasted.