Radio interview – Fox FM Melbourne – Fifi, Fev and Nick
FIFI BOX, HOST: We have a very special guest in the studio and he has his very own jingle. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, welcome back to the show.
PRIME MINISTER: Good to be here.
BOX: So lovely to see you.
PRIME MINISTER: So good of you to have a jingle for me.
BOX: I know. Well, we only do that for our favourite guests and I guess it deserved that.
PRIME MINISTER: Obviously, can’t have a jingle for everybody.
BOX: No. Now, I have to be honest, Prime Minister, I’m a bit thrown at the moment, because the boys just told me that next week, or the week after, we’ll be doing a 27 hour marathon radio show to break a Guinness World Record.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay.
BOX: Which I think is a stupid idea that I don’t want to do.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m with you.
BOX: Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m with you, I’ve got to say.
BRENDAN FEVOLA, HOST: I don’t want that. I want positivity, mate. You are the Prime Minister. You travel all around the world, you’re always up, you’re working. This is, because I broke a Guinness Book of World Records from a helicopter, the ball got dropped 220 metres, no one’s ever done it before. And I did it last year. And Fi turned around and said, ‘I’m not good at anything’. And now she’s the best at radio. She’s the queen of radio. So, I found a record she can break and I’m trying to pump her up to get her over the line. And you just said you agree.
PRIME MINISTER: I was just trying to back her in.
FEVOLA: No, don’t back her in.
NICK CODY, HOST: You announced a Budget surplus for the first time in over a decade. You don’t think Fifi can stay in here for 27 hours?
PRIME MINISTER: I think she can. I think she can do it. Whether she should do it is a different question, but she can do it.
FEVOLA: There we go.
BOX: I love this. And see, looking at you, you are fresh. And I’ve seen the travel you’ve been doing recently, only, what is it, a fortnight? No, less than a fortnight ago, off to see the Coronation of King Charles, and then you’ve come back and you get straight into it. See most people.
PRIME MINISTER: I was in three cities yesterday.
BOX: No way. How do you deal?
PRIME MINISTER: As you do. Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne.
FEVOLA: Adelaide would have been fun.
BOX: Adelaide and Melbourne in one day. What do you do to deal with combat tiredness or fatigue?
PRIME MINISTER: Coffee. Coffee, I’ve just walked into the studio with a coffee here.
CODY: You didn’t walk in, you kicked the door off the hinges. I’ve never seen a guest entrance like that.
PRIME MINISTER: They told me one minute, and I was two minutes away so, you know, dash.
CODY: Your security have to be pretty fit. This isn’t John Howard’s old slow jog around Canberra, this is a PM moving at pace.
PRIME MINISTER: No, none of that.
BOX: Now, you’re nearly a year in. Is that right? When’s your anniversary?
PRIME MINISTER: We were elected on the 21st of May and were sworn in on the 23rd of May. So, that’s next week.
FEVOLA: Next week.
PRIME MINISTER: Almost there.
FEVOLA: You going to have a party?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I think I might be working that day. Parliament’s sitting on the 23rd and we’ve got, speaking of schedules, from now I go to Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Nhulunbuy in Arnhem Land for Yunupingu’s memorial service, the great Indigenous leader, then Darwin, then to Hiroshima in Japan. That’s my week up until Friday.
FEVOLA: Do you keep the suit on in the Northern Territory because it’s so hot up there?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no one wears the suit in the Northern Territory. They’d throw things at you, you’d just look weird. You’d just look weird. So, no tie.
FEVOLA: No tie?
PRIME MINISTER: No tie in the Northern Territory.
BOX: Do you get to, because I’ve seen The West Wing and…
PRIME MINISTER: It’s a documentary.
BOX: Oh you’re right. When your people come in and pitch, ‘Now you’ve got to do this, this and this. You got to fly here and there.’ Do you get to do that, ‘No, I don’t want to do that one?’
PRIME MINISTER: No, I’m pretty hands on.
BOX: Yeah, I reckon you want to do it.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m pretty hands on with my diary. It’s the way I try to keep some control over my life. So, with much frustration for, shout out to Marika here, she’ll be very pleased to get heard on Fox. She gets frustrated, she’ll text me and go, ‘PM, you’ve been playing with your diary again?’ Because I’ll shift things around and put things in.
CODY: I guess you are the PM, you can do whatever you want.
PRIME MINISTER: I can do all that. I can.
BOX: Apparently according to Marika you can’t.
PRIME MINISTER: We come up with new ideas, why don’t we go here? So, it can be frustrating, but you’ve got to have some control, I reckon. But it’s busy, some things you’ve just got to do.
BOX: Yep.
FEVOLA: Hey, you went to the coronation, which was amazing. I watched all of it, I loved it. Do you think there will be another Australian Prime Minister at a coronation?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t know. At some stage, I think there will be another vote on the republic, at some stage. But the Australian Prime Minister would still go because we’d still remain part of the Commonwealth.
FEVOLA: Will we remain in the Commonwealth?
PRIME MINISTER: There’s 57 Commonwealth countries, but there’s only 15 now are part of the realm, that is, have the King as our head of state. So, at some stage, I’m a republican, I think we will make that decision to have an Australian as our head of state. But we’ll stay in the Commonwealth, it’s an important part of our history. So, a whole lot of countries have opted out and now have their own head of state and they’re still competing in the Commonwealth Games, coming to Victoria soon.
FEVOLA: You’ve got to win one of them.
BOX: Do you think you’ll come?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s something you could do. You could go in the Commonwealth Games.
BOX: Oh, you’re very generous. That’s a lovely, that’s probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said.
FEVOLA: It’ll be Fifi the Eel.
BOX: I’ve got to be good at something, but apparently I’m not.
PRIME MINISTER: No, pick a sport at the Commonwealth.
BOX: Hurdles? Discus? That one looks like you just throw it.
CODY: That’s not discus, whatever that was.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s disco. That was a bit different.
FEVOLA: Do you remember Eric the Eel? You could be Fifi the Eel. Just, as long as you compete.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, have a crack.
BOX: Thank you. This is very humiliating in front of the Prime Minister. Can we revisit this conversation another time?
PRIME MINISTER: You look pretty fit. I reckon you could do it.
BOX: Thank you. I love this, Prime Minister, thank you for the encouragement.
PRIME MINISTER: There you go. Another idea, not just the 27 hours without sleep.
FEVOLA: You’ll be right. Hey, just asking for a friend, PM. Now, vaping. What’s happening with vaping? Is it gone?
BOX: It’s very bad.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s not a good thing. And the problem with vaping is that it’s a bit of an entry point into then full on tobacco use. And the problem with vaping as well, is that it does, of course, contain nicotine, many of them, and some of the marketing things with little dinosaurs and stuff on, aimed at…
BOX: Pretty colours.
PRIME MINISTER: Pretty colours, unicorns and all that.
FEVOLA: They’re disgusting.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s not a good thing.
CODY: PM, I’ve got a friend that may or may not be in here, but he just thinks it’s fruit juice.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, nah.
CODY: Can you let him know it’s not fruit juice?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s not healthy. It’s not a good thing.
FEVOLA: It’s terrible for you, man.
PRIME MINISTER: Everyone here’s on the water.
FEVOLA: Yeah, we are, we are. It’s healthy. Water’s healthy.
PRIME MINISTER: Very good. Stick with that then.
FEVOLA: I’ll be throwing these in the bin then.
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll be confiscating those. I’ve got people that can take them off you.
FEVOLA: I think I’ve got them covered. Another question for you. Now, I’ve been divorced to my wife, who’s now my fiancé, so we’re back engaged again, the mother of my children, but we’re going to get married again. And I know you like going to weddings. Will you come to mine later in the year?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh mate, when’s it on? Send us an invite.
CODY: There we go, he’s coming!
PRIME MINISTER: Send us an invite.
FEVOLA: How was that wedding?
PRIME MINISTER: It was a hoot. It was good fun. I left before the party afterwards.
FEVOLA: Probably a good thing.
PRIME MINISTER: Probably a good thing, but it was great. I love weddings. Two people saying they love each other and they want to spend the rest of their lives together. What’s not to like?
BOX: We’re speaking of Kyle Sandilands’ wedding also, by the way, if nobody knows. But I love that, and I love that you said send the invite, because I have a feeling Marika might have your diary that week and unfortunately, yeah, it’s out of your control. Marika?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, indeed.
FEVOLA: Nah, Marika will just say yes.
PRIME MINISTER: Marika will become a cult figure as a result of this interview.
FEVOLA: Is Marika on the couch?
BOX: Which one’s Marika?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no.
FEVOLA: They’re all laughing their heads off, all your people out there. Should we call her?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, because they know what Marika is going to do to me for mentioning her on radio.
FEVOLA: Oh, you’re in trouble?
BOX: I’m just getting a vibe that Marika is terrifying.
PRIME MINISTER: No no, she’s disciplined, I think is the right word.
CODY: The AFP are scared out there, shaking in their systems since you brought up Marika.
FEVOLA: They’re scared because I said I got them covered.
BOX: Well, thank you so much for coming into the studio, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, thank you for your faith in us that you think we can break this world record.
PRIME MINISTER: You can, when’s it on?
BOX: I don’t know, Fev just surprised me with this idea about ten minutes ago.
FEVOLA: I literally just popped it five minutes ago.
PRIME MINISTER: And so you’re going to be on air for all that time?
FEVOLA: Yes, so there’s rules and regulations. So, other stations have done this before and they’ve gone for a couple, but they’ve all napped in between at night-time when no one’s listening.
PRIME MINISTER: Soft.
FEVOLA: Yeah soft. We have to literally speak after every song. We have to be on air for the whole 27 hours.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well, otherwise it’s not a record. I’ll ring in and chat with you.
CODY: Sorry, Marika.
FEVOLA: She’s flapping about.
PRIME MINISTER: Marika, put it in the diary. I might need to ring in three or four times.
FEVOLA: Just to keep me awake, from different cities.
PRIME MINISTER: Now for part four of the Prime Minister and you.
BOX: Thank you so much, enjoy your day in Melbourne.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks guys.