Radio Interview – Nova Perth
NAT, HOST: Time to catch up with our friend, the host with the most, Anthony Albanese.
NATHAN, HOST: He’s also the Prime Minister.
SHAUN, HOST: He’s the Prime Minister.
NAT: Albo, hello.
NATHAN: And he wants us to vote a certain way and that is, ‘Yes, yes, yes!’
SHAUN: Is that him or is that someone else we know that lives in his house?
NATHAN: Prime Minister, good morning!
NAT: Albo, hello.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. What an introduction that was.
NATHAN: Yes, yes, yes!
SHAUN: People are wondering, where did they get this recording from?
NATHAN: I don’t know why you used ‘You’re the Voice’ when you had Harry met Sally sitting there, waiting to go.
PRIME MINISTER: We should have used Meg Ryan, you reckon?
NATHAN: Don’t you think?
SHAUN: She was in everything there for a while, wasn’t she, Prime Minister?
NATHAN: She was America’s sweetheart.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s a great movie and a great scene.
NATHAN: I really liked her in Working Girl. It’s the first time I ever saw a woman wear sneakers with a business suit with, like, a business skirt.
NAT: Wasn’t that Melanie Griffiths?
NATHAN: Oh, that was Melanie Griffiths.
SHAUN: How dare you.
PRIME MINISTER: How good is Sleepless in Seattle.
SHAUN: Yeah, that was a good one.
NATHAN: I don’t think I ever watched the whole thing.
PRIME MINISTER: A tear jerker.
NAT: Yeah.
SHAUN: It’s always with Tom Hanks.
NAT: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were the golden couple, weren’t they?
NATHAN: Albo, what’s your most favourite movie of all time? If it’s on the TV, you’ll just settle, it’ll grab your attention, just sink into the lounge and watch it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, here we go, true confessions here. On Father’s Day this year, I sat down with my son and we watched Godfather and Godfather Two. We didn’t get to Godfather Three, but the trilogy is magnificent.
NATHAN: I have never seen it.
SHAUN: I’ve watched them 100 times over.
NATHAN: Are you joking?
SHAUN: Yeah, absolutely.
NATHAN: I’ve never seen it.
PRIME MINISTER: My son hadn’t seen it either. That’s just bad education. They are movies that you have to see.
SHAUN: For sure.
NATHAN: And do you believe that the second one’s better than the first? Because I know a lot of people say that, which is unusual for sequels, obviously.
PRIME MINISTER: The second one’s magnificent, I think the second one’s the only sequel to, I think it won Best Picture, as well.
NATHAN: Yeah, right.
PRIME MINISTER: It is just, you know, De Niro and Pacino are just magnificent.
NATHAN: Oh, you love your Italians.
PRIME MINISTER: I do indeed.
SHAUN: Prime Minister, when you watch them back, because they’re so old, sometimes it takes a little bit away –
NAT: Because it’s like, everything could have been fixed with a mobile phone.
NATHAN: It’s slower pace because movies I like a quicker pace. But I do love the fact that that’s the movie that you do, is the Godfather and mine’s White Chicks.
NAT: Similar themes.
NATHAN: Same, same.
PRIME MINISTER: Funniest movie.
SHAUN: Prime Minister, we are obviously going to touch on the Voice and the vote coming up, the referendum coming up here. Have you been a bit disappointed in the fact that there is factions? Rather than, I’d imagine that this is a thing, and I’ve read it a lot, that this should be a time where we’re all coming together rather than splitting apart.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it should be a moment of national unity because it’s such a modest request. It is a request to be recognised. Our history, the reality of this great continent we share with the oldest continuous culture on earth. And we should recognise First Nations people in our founding document. Pretty straightforward. And the second thing is the form of recognition that Indigenous Australians have asked for is just a non-binding Advisory Committee to give advice, to give a Voice, so that they can be consulted on matters that affect them. Because we know that when you ask people who are directly affected, you get better outcomes. But I’m still very hopeful going forward.
SHAUN: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: Everywhere I go, there is a positive response. I’ve got my local Yes launch on in the Inner West of Sydney tonight. I’ve got the great, Ray Martin –
SHAUN: Yeah, righto.
PRIME MINISTER: Will be interviewing myself and Rachel Perkins as part of that event. And in showing my age as well, we’ve got the Hoodoo Gurus playing.
SHAUN: How good.
NAT: They played in Fremantle on Sunday night actually.
SHAUN: Did they?
PRIME MINISTER: They’re fantastic.
NAT: Yeah, yeah, yeah. For the 40th anniversary of America’s Cup win.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the last time I saw them was there at the Perth Telethon dinner, there at Crown last year, and they were awesome. Everyone got up and danced and it was a good bit of fun. So, that will round off the evening. But there’s 120 events in Perth alone, between now and October 14 and so people are getting out there. What I found is that when people actually look at what the question is –
SHAUN: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: And get away from some of the fear campaign, that was there too remember, the fear campaign was there with marriage equality –
NAT: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: And with the Apology to Stolen Generations. None of it eventuated and it’s really similar, like it won’t, there’s no downside here, there’s just an upside for the most disadvantaged group in Australian society and why wouldn’t we want to embrace that, by voting Yes?
NATHAN: Look, the Yes vote doesn’t scare me.
NAT: But there is a lot of fear mongering out there for sure.
NATHAN: Because people are being told that it’s going to spiral into something else. So, that’s not the thing. But I do understand why there is resistance at the moment, Albo, and that is because at the moment, for the Yes vote to get over the line, you have to look out outside of yourself –
SHAUN: Yep, true.
NATHAN: And you have to look for another group of people and you have to look out for them.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s true.
NATHAN: At the moment, people are protecting themselves because of the cost of living. And I’m going to be honest, they don’t have the brain space to be able to think about that issue, when they are trying to put food on their tables and put petrol in their cars.
SHAUN: Petrol.
NATHAN: And keep the lights on and keep the heating or the cooling on. That’s why, at the moment, it’s just the timing of it is really unfortunate because I just don’t think at the moment, people are feeling generous enough to –
SHAUN: Think outside themselves.
NATHAN: To think outside of themselves. What do you have to say to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think Australians are generous people.
NATHAN: No, I do think they are generous, I just think the timing is stuffed.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I understand that people are doing it tough, which is why we’re putting such a big effort into putting that downward pressure on inflation, by giving cost of living relief, by fixing the Budget, we’ve turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus, last year. That’s about putting downward pressure on inflation, about helping people, at the same time as we’ve provided that cost of living relief. And we’ll continue to do what we can to engage. We’re dealing with supply chain issues, as well. Fee-Free TAFE has gone gangbusters in Perth, really making a difference to the labour market.
NAT: Yeah.
SHAUN: That’s a good thing.
NAT: I know a lot of people that benefited from that, yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: So, we’re doing all of those things. But at the same time, people can, I think, take a few minutes, to just look at what the question is.
SHAUN: Yeah, for sure.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s so, clear.
NAT: Yeah, and there is a lot of information out now, for sure.
PRIME MINISTER: And if they do that, vote Yes and make a difference. The truth is, it won’t impact on most of people’s lives, it won’t impact on your life directly.
NAT: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: But it will help some of the most disadvantaged people.
NATHAN: Just to be heard.
PRIME MINISTER: By giving them a Voice, so that we get better outcomes.
SHAUN: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: And the other thing it’ll do is, if you give people a say, then you give them responsibility for the outcomes as well.
SHAUN: Yes.
NAT: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: And you’ll get better efficiency, you’ll get savings. Instead of bureaucrats in Canberra making decisions, let’s get, when it comes to people in the Kimberley or the Pilbara, ask them what they think should happen and you’ll get better efficiency, you’ll actually get savings. There’s been a lot of money thrown into Indigenous Affairs over the years. It’s not closing the gap, it’s not efficient. We need to do things better.
NAT: Yeah, we do need a different approach.
PRIME MINISTER: And that’s what it will do.
SHAUN: Well, good on you mate.
NATHAN: Well, I can’t wait until Perth the next time because I think that maybe we’ll do a special screening of the Godfather Three, we’ll watch it together.
SHAUN: Let’s do it.
NAT: We’ll watch it together as a family.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s on. Well, I’ve got to tell you, you should line up someone who you know in Canberra to drop by The Lodge, next Saturday there’s an open day in the morning and they can go and see that your photo is still up, above the fireplace in the Lodge.
NAT: Still on the mantel piece.
NATHAN: Oh my god!
NAT: That’s so funny.
PRIME MINISTER: An open day –
NATHAN: Yes!
PRIME MINISTER: So, you can check it out for yourselves.
NAT: You better nail it down. Someone will flog that.
NATHAN: Yeah, that’ll be on eBay for millions by the end of the day.
PRIME MINISTER: Well they might. No, we’ll have security. I think there’ll be a special camera on that photo.
SHAUN: There should be.
NAT: We love your work, Albo, thanks buddy.
SHAUN: Good on you mate.
NAT: We’ll catch up again soon.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, guys.