This is what happened when Mamamia requested an interview with the Prime Minister.

“I’m just wondering how our interview request is going?” *crickets*

You’ve probably seen the PM interviewed on the TV or heard him on the radio over the past week.

We know that he does interviews. He talks to people all the time. All sorts of people.

And he does interviews on all sorts of important issues.

Now, we know he’s a busy man. And he probably gets a lot of interview requests.

But over the past 18 months, he’s turned down every single one of Mamamia’s requests for interview.

Every single one.

We’re trying not to take it personally.

So when the Government made an announcement about family violence for International Women’s Day, we thought we should request an interview with the PM and the opposition leader.

Because four million women a month read Mamamia, – and one in three women will experience violence in their lifetime – so we knew they’d be interested in hearing about what’s being done to protect women and children.

Over the last few weeks we have attempted to reach out to the PM’s Press Office to get a response on our interview request.

We sent a letter.

Plus:

5 x phone calls.

16 x emails.

1 x haiku.

2 x photos of a mailbox.

1 x Richard Marx video (it was “Right Here Waiting” because his dulcet tones are undeniable.)

After that first letter, we were told that someone would get back to us. But since then, we’ve not even received an acknowledgement or holding response or anything at all.

At this stage, we’d be happy if someone got back to us with an out-of-office reply.

Click through for a gallery of our attempts to contact the PM’s Press Office over the few weeks (post continues after the gallery)

So, that’s it.

That’s why you don’t hear from Tony Abbott on Mamamia.

It’s not because of some leftist conspiracy. We’re not in cahoots with North Korea.

The PM just ignores our calls.

And our emails.

And our haikus.

AND OUR RICHARD MARX.

You won’t hear from our Prime Minister on Mamamia because Tony Abbott is not interested in speaking to the millions of Australian women who read this website. Despite being the self-appointed Minister For – wait….what is it again? – OH THAT’S RIGHT. WOMEN.

Even if he’s not interested in talking to Australian women, it’s exceedingly poor form not to respond to correspondence or interview requests.

In the meantime, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten responded to our request and sat down with our Editor in Chief, Jamila Rizvi to talk about ending violence against women in this country.

Here: Bill Shorten talks exclusively to Mamamia about ending family violence.

We’ve got to ask – does the PM have a problem with talking to the four million monthly readers of Mamamia? Or does he have a problem talking about family violence?

You will have to make up your own mind…

 What do you think? Would you like to hear from the PM on this or other issues?