Radio Interview – Nova 93.7 Perth with Nathan, Nat and Shaun
NATALIE LOCKE, HOST: Nathan, Nat and Sean and the Prime Minister, just casually dropping by on Thursday morning. Albo, welcome back.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: We get the music and all.
LOCKE: Of course you do.
PRIME MINISTER: An intro to kick off the show.
SHAUN MORRIS, HOST: Do you know all the words?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course I do.
LOCKE: To the second verse, do you know the second verse?
PRIME MINISTER: The second verse is fantastic.
MORRIS: Do you know it?
LOCKE: Beneath our radiant Southern Cross.
NATHAN MCMANUS, HOST: I don’t know that part.
PRIME MINISTER: For those who’ve come across the sea we’ve boundless plains to share. It’s a great story of modern Australia. It’s great.
LOCKE: Welcoming people from overseas.
MORRIS: Do you know ‘I love a sunburnt country’? We used to sing it at school.
PRIME MINISTER: No.
MORRIS: Natalie?
LOCKE: Dorothea MacKellar, yes.
ALL: I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains. Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.
PRIME MINISTER: We sang Baa Baa Black Sheep.
MCMANUS: You’d know Khe Sanh though?
PRIME MINISTER: Khe Sanh I know.
MCMANUS: You’re going to pull out a ukulele are you?
PRIME MINISTER: No, that doesn’t end well. We’ve seen that movie and it just crashes.
LOCKE: Albo, You’ve been in our state for what, roughly 24 hours, is that true?
PRIME MINISTER: I have, around about that.
LOCKE: And low and behold, the radioactive capsule is found, draw your own conclusions.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m just saying, people can read into that what they will.
MCMANUS: So you had a little headlight torch, on the side of the road looking for it?
PRIME MINISTER: Looking for the ten cent coin size…
LOCKE: Not even, smaller.
MCMANUS: 8 millimeters, can you believe that? And they found it.
PRIME MINISTER: It does help that it was kind of sending off…
MORRIS: Yeah, radioactive. Can I be honest, though? I don’t think they found it. I just think they said they found it because everyone was panicking.
MCMANUS: It’s all good, nothing to see here.
MORRIS: Because it’s small enough to say, ‘Oh, here it is, look Shaun, I found it’.
PRIME MINISTER: No, they found it, I got a heads up.
LOCKE: So you got a call to say…
PRIME MINISTER: When they had found it, I got a heads up and they were rapt.
LOCKE: I bet they were.
PRIME MINISTER: Because they weren’t all that confident, funnily enough.
LOCKE: No, well, it was a needle in a haystack.
PRIME MINISTER: They had all these teams out there looking.
LOCKE: It was like 1400 kilometres.
PRIME MINISTER: A 1400km strip and they found it at a truck stop.
LOCKE: Quite close to Newman, so it didn’t last on that truck for very long.
MCMANUS: No, not at all.
MORRIS: It’s tough to tie something down.
PRIME MINISTER: Note to file, don’t lose it in the first place.
MORRIS: It is akin to cleaning up before someone important comes over, though.
LOCKE: Yes, it is.
MORRIS: I don’t think if you weren’t coming it would have been found. I don’t think as much effort would have been put in, like, ‘Oh, my God. He’s coming’.
MCMANUS: Lots going on at the moment. There’s one question that there’s stuff written in the paper today, and I know this would probably get asked to you a lot, but the Voice to Parliament. We’re going to get a chance to vote on, the referendum is going to be coming. I don’t think there’s many people who walk down the street, understand what it is and what it’s about. How would you break it down for the everyday person what exactly is going on here?
PRIME MINISTER: I would break it down with two words, recognition and consultation, simple as that. Recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our Constitution. They’re not recognised. Other countries, in the nation’s birth certificate you recognise the full history. Our history didn’t begin in 1788 with the colony in Sydney. It goes back 65,000 years, so recognising them.
MCMANUS: Can we do that anyway? Could we just go, why aren’t we recognising them?
PRIME MINISTER: No, because to change the Constitution you have to have a referendum. So the Constitution was written in 1901. For example on defence, it says well, I’ll paraphrase the words. But it basically says, we’ll have a Defence Force and it will have an Army and a Navy. It doesn’t have an air force, why? There weren’t planes flying around 1901. So it just recognises the principles that are in the Constitution. And then consultation, just that where matters are going to impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, we consult them. They get a voice, literally a voice. They get a say, that’s all it is about.
LOCKE: And it won’t impact most people. That’s the bottom line, it’s to the Indigenous people that it will make a difference.
MORRIS: It’s a chair at the table.
MCMANUS: But isn’t that the case anyway? We’ve got representatives there. There’s chairs, in every government there is at the moment…
PRIME MINISTER: There’s not a structured voice for Aboriginal Strait Islander people. At various times there has been ATSIC, there were various forums.
LOCKE: There’s been elected representatives who are Indigenous.
PRIME MINISTER: And there isn’t at the moment. And Indigenous people met themselves at Uluru in 2017, they had five years of meetings and consultation. They said, this is what we want and we want to enshrine the Constitution so that governments come and go, hopefully this government just comes for a while.
MCMANUS: We won’t repeat that one.
PRIME MINISTER: And doesn’t go, yes, you’ve thrown me now. And so they want to enshrine to get that permanency. But the government of the day will legislate for the structure and all of that. But it’s just the principle that where matters affect Aboriginal people, we should consult them. And what we know is when the programs do consult and have that sense of ownership, you get better outcomes. Justice reinvestment, some of the community health programs…
LOCKE: And buy in from the Indigenous community that it affects.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right. So if I’m going to come in here and do something in your studio I’d ask you beforehand or else you’d be not terribly happy.
LOCKE: Well you came in here throwing darts and throwing quoits like an absolute boss though.
PRIME MINISTER: Who would do that?
MCMANUS: And tell everyone what happened when you threw your first quoit in how long? When’s the last time you threw a quoit?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, probably 50 years.
MCMANUS: 50 years?
PRIME MINISTER: Nailed it.
MORRIS: Right in the middle, 50 points.
PRIME MINISTER: 100% I am never throwing a quoit again, because I copped out.
MORRIS: Could that be one of the most proudest things during your Prime Ministership?
PRIME MINISTER: That could be something when the re-election comes around that I mention in my campaign launch.
MORRIS: We can get the vision.
PRIME MINISTER: We launched the last campaign in Perth and I could come back here and say to the people of Perth, ‘remember the day at Nova FM before 6:00AM, before 6:00AM when I threw a quoit and nailed it.
MORRIS: Now, let’s talk about cost of living and this is an example. So I love these pasties you can get from Farmer Jack’s, right, love them. They were $3.49, now they are $4.99 and they’ve gotten smaller and that seems to be an example of what’s happening everywhere.
MCMANUS: That’s so true. Yesterday I picked up a packet of CCs, sorry to jump in here, they said half price on the thing. I was like, ‘oh, beauty’. But they’ve dropped, they’re like they’ve been in the microwave.
MORRIS: It’s half price because there’s half of them. So there’s that, there’s electricity…
PRIME MINISTER: I’m older than you blokes, what about Mars Bars?
MORRIS: I remember when Mars Bars were 60c.
PRIME MINISTER: And when they were big.
MORRIS: And they were big, yeah, don’t worry about that.
PRIME MINISTER: We’re on the big picture here.
MORRIS: What are we doing? Because it’s getting really touch and go.
LOCKE: There are people that are on the edge.
MORRIS: I spoke to some old people that were at the Galleria Shopping Centre and asked what they’re doing, ‘how are you?’, you know. They were there just to sit in the air conditioning because they couldn’t afford to put it on in their house.
LOCKE: And we’re in the middle of a horrific heat wave.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s really tough. We’re doing what we can to address cost of living pressures. From January 1, pharmaceuticals cut from $42.50 to $30. So when you think about things, you think about what’s ever gone down in price in your life. Not much does. That was the first cut in 75 years, since the system was introduced.
MORRIS: That was amazing, I was really thankful for that one.
PRIME MINISTER: That makes a real difference to people. Cheaper Childcare comes in on July 1 for families. Wages have started to increase which makes a difference as well. We brought down a responsible Budget last October to try and take that pressure off inflation. So one of the contradictions here is, a whole lot of things have gone up in price because energy went up in price because of the Russia invasion of Ukraine. But at the same time profits went up of companies, so there was more revenue to the government. We banked that. We paid off debt rather than rather than spent it because, which would have been the easy thing to do politically. But we did that because we wanted to take pressure off inflation. And we’re very hopeful. The Reserve Bank yesterday made a statement that they’re hoping that inflation essentially has peaked and it’ll start to decline.
LOCKE: God, we hope so. We’re going to get the Prime Minister to hang around. We got a musical interlude from Post Malone and Mark Morrison.
PRIME MINISTER: We can play some quoits now.
LOCKE: Now you’re just showing off, Prime Minister.
LOCKE: Albo in the house this morning. The Prime Minister has joined us before he jets back to Canberra in, not too far away.
PRIME MINISTER: No, not too far away, but I get coffee here. I’ll be back here at 6:00AM whenever I’m in Perth.
LOCKE: You’re happy with that?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m happy with that.
MORRIS: Well done, that was Abby.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you Abby.
MORRIS: She’s another girl from Kalgoorlie.
PRIME MINISTER: She’s very good.
LOCKE: She used to be a barista so she’s got the skills.
MCMANUS: I’ve got one more question which is about, you talked about inflation a second ago, but also interest rate rises. And I don’t know if this is a media build up but they said the possibility of being four more before that settles down as well. That’s the thing the Reserves Bank looking to use to be able to bring back inflation. Is that the right thing to do?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Reserve Bank are independent of government, so I’ve always got to be very careful about giving or attempting to give it instructions because they don’t take it. The truth is though, that hopefully inflation has now peaked. That’s what we’re hoping. So that should lead to less of an increase, certainly this year, than what we’d experienced. But interest rates were at 0.1, the official cash rate.
MCMANUS: I get that.
PRIME MINISTER: So that wasn’t going to last. Everyone knows that, they were emergency conditions and so we have seen an increase to more normal levels. But the difficulty will be that if you borrowed at a certain rate all of a sudden you can be under real pressure and I’m sure the Reserve Bank will be conscious of that.
MORRIS: I want to move on to some things about your life as being PM.
LOCKE: Just some super private questions.
MORRIS: Okay, so you’ve got security with you all the time, we know that. So if you’re popping down to the shops and you’re in the eight items or less aisle, do they line up with you or are they on the other side, where are they?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m not going to say on air where they are.
LOCKE: He can’t tell us where they are.
MORRIS: They’re there aren’t they?
PRIME MINISTER: They’re everywhere.
MORRIS: They’re there. If you want to buy something slightly embarrassing, I don’t know what that would be, but I’m sure you’ve got some stuff. Do they see everything you buy? You know what I mean, do you have any privacy at all?
LOCKE: Or do you Door Dash that?
PRIME MINISTER: On Sunday I bought some undies and socks, they were with me.
MORRIS: Were they…
LOCKE: Do they give you advice on colour or anything?
PRIME MINISTER: No, they’re very discrete. They do their job in a fantastic manner and it’s a good thing that in Australia, relative to a whole lot of countries, the leader, the President or the Prime Minister wouldn’t be out there shopping.
MORRIS: I know, it’s amazing.
MCMANUS: So you could go to Coles and Woolies or Kmart.
PRIME MINISTER: I can go out. There was one day in Canberra, very early on and I’m going through the Canberra Centre, I think it’s called, the big shopping centre in the middle of Civic. And I’m there and I’m walking through and I’ve got my dog, Toto, has a particular brand of dog food. It’s the only one she will eat, she’s a princess. And so I’m walking through with these two cartons of dog food, one under tucked under each arm. It’s because of inconvenience now I tend to buy in bulk.
LOCKE: When you buy it you’re buying a lot.
MORRIS: Two giant things of dog food and the tiniest dog known to man.
PRIME MINISTER: Don’t you attack my dog, say what you like about me, leave Toto alone. Tucked under each wing and people were stopping me and talking. I’m amazed, I’m waiting for the selfies, I’m sure they’re up somewhere on Facebook or something or another of me doing a selfie with this dog food tucked under my arm and a big bag of biscuits as well.
MCMANUS: That memes waiting.
PRIME MINISTER: Waiting to happen.
LOCKE: But I bet the dog food company is gagging to get their hands on that picture.
PRIME MINISTER: They are. They don’t know.
LOCKE: No. You’re not going to name them, are they?
PRIME MINISTER: No. Why give them free publicity? I give them enough.
MORRIS: And no one will pop into your house, right? So say when you’re staying at The Lodge or at Kirribilli, are you allowed to just hang a picture on the wall, do you have to get permission? What’s the deal with that?
PRIME MINISTER: That is one of the great privileges, is that the National Gallery of Australia with their National Collection include because it’s an official residence. I have artwork from the National Gallery.
MORRIS: Get out.
MCMANUS: Really important artwork.
LOCKE: Can you pick it or do they just send stuff?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. So there’s been a bit of a change in the artwork at The Lodge and Kirribillii. I know that will come as a surprise.
LOCKE: Have you got Blue Poles hanging in the lounge room?
PRIME MINISTER: No, but I do have a Jeffrey Smart, I have a Brett Whiteley. I have some amazing Indigenous art.
LOCKE: What a great perk.
PRIME MINISTER: Sally Gabori, it’s all Australian art. It’s fantastic. Arthur Boyd.
MCMANUS: That’s brilliant.
MORRIS: I don’t know if I’d want that in my house if it wasn’t mine. That’s quite scary.
LOCKE: But when you get bored.
MCMANUS: It’s not like you’re having a house party, are you.
PRIME MINISTER: No one can walk in and walk out with it, but it’s a good use. So in coming weeks I’m hosting the leaders, I’m hosting the Premiers and Chief Ministers tonight for dinner at The Lodge. I’m hosting the leaders of Vanuatu, and later this year we’ll have the Quad leaders so I’ll have President Biden, Prime Minister Kashida of Japan and Prime Minister Modi of India. And so it’s showcasing Australian art and the truth is that it’s better being on a wall and being seen than not.
MORRIS: It’s strange that we’ve never been invited.
MCMANUS: No doubt about.
LOCKE: Isn’t it weird. So should we just give you a buzz?
PRIME MINISTER: You need to come over to Canberra.
LOCKE: I’ve never been to Canberra. I’ve never been, never been once. I’ve travelled extensively. I’ve never been to Canberra.
PRIME MINISTER: It is a great city.
MORRIS: I performed a concert with the Big Brother cast and Delta Goodrem on the lawn of Parliament House.
PRIME MINISTER: There you go.
MORRIS: Yeah it was a huge thrill. I sung Hark the Herald Angels Sing for the Christmas concert. You probably heard about it.
LOCKE: They’re still talking about it.
PRIME MINISTER: They are.
MORRIS: We’re being wound up, security’s starting to point their guns at us.
LOCKE: Because apparently you’ve got a plane to catch, we really appreciate you dropping by.
PRIME MINISTER: See you in Canberra. It’s a great city.
LOCKE: If we come to Canberra would you have us over to the house, to The Lodge?
PRIME MINISTER: I would. It is Australia’s largest inland city. And it has The National Gallery, the War Memorial, and the National Museum.
LOCKE: Fyshwick.
MORRIS: You forgot Fyshwick.
LOCKE: That’s all Shaun talks about.
MORRIS: Is that where you buy the movies?
MCMANUS: It’s an industrial area, you can get a lawnmower there as well while you’re there.
MORRIS: Albo knows, he comes out with two bags full under his arms.
LOCKE: Thank you so much, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you so much. Thanks for the games of darts and quoits.
LOCKE: You have not lost it.
PRIME MINISTER: I won’t be playing quoits again. That’s it, I’m done.