Interview with Ben Fordham, 2GB Sydney

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PDF printable version of Interview with Ben Fordham, 2GB Sydney (PDF 20 KB)

E & OE

BEN FORDHAM: Well, a very good afternoon to you. There are some people unhappy, as you would know, about this plain packaging of cigarettes and over the weekend we find out that there is another added to the list – olive growers are unhappy because the Health Minister Nicola Roxon in her whole plan for these plain packages, she came out and said that look, the plain packaging should be olive green but that is outraged olive growers.

Nicola Roxon Health Minister is now on the line.

You can’t take a trick.

NICOLA ROXON: Well, obviously we’re determined to reduce smoking and what we’ve found and been told by our researchers is the one thing that is unattractive for young people in particular…

BEN FORDHAM: Minister, Minister

NICOLA ROXON: …Drab olive green…

BEN FORDHAM: …careful…

NICOLA ROXON: … and obviously out of the woodwork now have come the olive growers offended by this choice but I am also concerned I might get a complaint from Olive Oyl, Popeye’s girlfriend, concerned about this move but we haven’t heard from her yet

BEN FORDHAM: Minister, how could you describe it is as drab olive green, the olive growers are very, very upset.

NICOLA ROXON: I love a good olive. I am worried that perhaps I have revealed a bias though. I’m a little bit more partial to the black olive than the green olive.

BEN FORDHAM: The kalamata?

NICOLA ROXON: Perhaps that has affected my judgement when it comes to this.

BEN FORDHAM: Look, it just goes to show, doesn’t it, that when you come out and you say something we don’t always think six steps ahead.

You were clearly coming out and saying, coming up with a bland type of colour, a colour that as you said is not meant to excite young smokers like a hot pink or a blue, so you pluck olive green out of nowhere and what are the chances that olive growers are going to end up saying, and look can you see where they’re coming from? They’re saying look this damages our brand.

NICOLA ROXON: Well, I think it is fair that we could call it drab green or brown. We have since we’ve received this complaint been considering whether we should be calling it ‘military green’ but I think Stephen Smith would then have trouble. So really the point is for us to make it as drab as possible. I think the olive growers are getting a good bit of publicity out of this, certainly wasn’t our intention to cause them any harm but we have taken the advice on what is the most effective, to keep people focused on the health warning, not on the packaging. Poor old olive green is the colour chosen.

BEN FORDHAM: Alright, well, look, as an olive lover I’m going in to bat for the olive industry, I want you to make a commitment right here and now Nicola Roxon, Health Minister of Australia, that you will no longer refer to plain packaging as olive green.

NICOLA ROXON: I’m going to do my best to use drab green and hope that that doesn’t offend anyone who regards themselves as drab but I can’t give you a rock solid, iron clad guarantee but I certainly will do my best.

BEN FORDHAM: Why not?

NICOLA ROXON: Well, obviously…

BEN FORDHAM: …You claim to be an olive lover yourself….

NICOLA ROXON: …And I’m more into the taste than the colour but I am committed to making sure that this measure can work and we did actually have it properly tested. I actually think the technical description was olive brown but I don’t really think that will help our olive grower friends very much.

Happy to hold out an olive branch to them to try to find a way to resolve this and obviously drab green is our current preferred option.

BEN FORDHAM: Alright, so I’ve got a commitment that you’re going to do your best not to refer to the plain packaging of cigarettes as olive.

NICOLA ROXON: I’m worried that I might not be able to stick to that on each and every occasion but I will try to do my best.

BEN FORDHAM: Ok, Minister, thank you so much.

NICOLA ROXON: It’s a pleasure.

BEN FORDHAM: There is the Health Minister Nicola Roxon.

(ends)