Fran Kelly celebrates 8 years on RN

This month it is 8 years since Fran Kelly began hosting ABC Radio National breakfast.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Kelly revealed how long it took to fully settle into the role and the interview she just can't manage to make happen.

''It is a big job, it is a big workload. That's what's great about it – every morning, that's what's exciting about it. But it's also every night, and that's what's slightly daunting about it.''

''It's a job that took me probably half that [eight years] to get a handle on, to be really feeling comfortable. It was a big change for me and the show evolved as we sorted and settled the team down. It was a job in which I was learning for a lot of the time … and suddenly before I knew it I'd been there five years.''

"It's a very competitive morning field now, there are lots of people wanting the interviews in the morning. But we have a really good strike rate – we're respected and we get treated with respect, by and large.''

But there's one interview she's unable to get on the program.

''It's a matter of record we're having trouble getting Tony Abbott,'' Kelly says. ''We've been asking a lot and we're not getting him, but we'll keep asking.''

Kelly says she's never seen a politician in Abbott's position snub a media outlet.

''Not quite like this, not for this length of time, and not this broadly. There's generally a regard for the audience [by leaders]. We have a very informed audience. They're not just influential, they are informed and interested, they're a vibrant part of this voting electorate, and they deserve to be addressed."

Read more in the Sydney Morning Herald here.