Radio interview – 2DayFM Hughesy, Ed & Erin
ED CAVALEE, HOST: You’ll know him as the Member for Leichhardt. We know him as the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, that’s quite an introduction.
ERIN MOLAN, HOST: What is that music?
DAVE HUGHES, HOST: It’s the National Anthem
MOLAN: I thought it was a Royal…
PRIME MINISTER: Erin, please.
MOLAN: We don’t hear it as often as we used to, PM.
HUGHES: It hasn’t been cancelled yet
PRIME MINISTER: This is live radio, Erin.
HUGHES: We are thrown, Prime Minister, because you are so on time. He’s not always there when you call but he’s always on time. 7:50, bang – the phone rings.
PRIME MINISTER: I remember a discussion that we had, guys, before the election where you said ‘But if you win, will you continue to come on?’ And I have.
MOLAN: That’s great recall.
PRIME MINISTER: Always good to chat.
MOLAN: PM, I’m going to ask you about the Matildas to start off. First of all, are you going to the game tonight? What’s your prediction?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’m here in Canberra. So, it will prove difficult to get up there tonight, I think. But I watched last week from the lounge here. And I’ve got to say four-nil, we’d settle for one-nil tonight. But the Matildas – the whole of Australia will be cheering for them. We have lit up Parliament House in green and gold on the outside as part of a gesture. And they have been just so fantastic. The good thing about this is that it’s not just about what’s happening in the moment. I think the legacy in 10 years’ time, 15 years’ time will be that young girls and young boys for that matter who are watching the World Cup and being enthused, will participate. And some of them will go on to become Matildas or Socceroos. It’s just been fantastic. I couldn’t have imagined 30 years ago that you would fill stadiums for women’s team sport. It’s about time and it’s just fantastic.
HUGHES: The international boss of the whole thing, what did he say, Ed?
KAVALEE: Infantino said it’s the best World Cup ever.
PRIME MINISTER: He said to me one-on-one, he just said that the enthusiasm that is happening here is extraordinary. And you can feel it. You can feel the buzz around. People are talking about it. I went on a walk around Canberra yesterday and people didn’t want to talk about anything except for the Matildas. And that’s a great thing.
HUGHES: Alright, so if we get to the final is there a public holiday in the offing?
PRIME MINISTER: You see, public holidays are up to state and territory leaders. But you know what, we’ve got a National Cabinet coming up next week. I’ll be clearly putting the argument and I reckon they’ll they’ll fold like tents. They will go one after the other. Because if we can get there, that would be remarkable. It truly is the world game. I should note that the Diamonds had a fantastic win last night.
MOLAN: We had Paige Hadley on this morning show, PM. She’d already had a glass of champagne when she was doing her interview and I think she said they’d be going until 4am.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m sure they will. And certainly, Australia will welcome them back from South Africa, from another World Cup. But we’ve been the most successful team in Netball for quite a while. But in football, this is a sport that is inspiring young kids. And the great thing about footy out of whatever code is that you learn how to win, you learn how to lose, you learn how to cooperate with your teammates. It’s really good socially as well.
HUGHES: It’s the best part about being PM isn’t it – being a sporting tragic as you obviously are – getting front row seats at all of these sporting events?
PRIME MINISTER: I won’t deny the fact that it’s a plus.
MOLAN: PM, there’s also some hard parts about being a Prime Minister. And at the moment, the Voice is something that you’re incredibly passionate about. You talk about the fact that people are talking to you about the Matildas yesterday. But it seems like every headline is about the Voice. You were just at the Garma Festival, which looked incredible over the weekend. I just want to ask you, I had a meeting with Dean and a couple of the Yes campaign people at a Zoom maybe a month ago, because I wanted to ask them firsthand and find out as much as I could about it. Because I’m still undecided. I haven’t made up my mind yet. And the way they spoke, I thought, if every Australian could hear this, they’d vote Yes in five seconds.
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.
MOLAN: But then over the next few weeks, you then hear 10 million other things that make you go, ‘Oh, wait a minute. Is that actually the case? Oh, maybe what they said what, you know, blah, blah, blah’. Where’s this going wrong?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you’re right, Erin, that if people hear what the argument is, I’m confident they’ll vote Yes. And I’m confident they will hear that. They’ll cut through all of the noise to what this is about, which is about recognition of first peoples in our Constitution, just like every other country has done. But also then about listening in order to achieve better outcomes, better results, through having an advisory body to government that is not binding, won’t run programs, won’t provide funding, just an advisory body. Because we know that when we listen to people, you get better outcomes who are directly affected. The Garma Festival was an incredible inspiration. It’s put fuel in my tank, let me tell you, being there amongst a celebration of the oldest continuous culture on earth, anywhere. It’s a source of enormous pride.
HUGHES: As it should be. Good luck with that.
KAVALEE: Thank you, Prime Minister. Good luck to the Matildas tonight