Radio Interview – Triple M Riverina MIA

STARRY, HOST: So we’re joined this morning by the Prime Minister, Mr Anthony Albanese. Good morning, sir.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Starry. It’s good to be with you, and it’s fantastic to be in Griffith.

STARRY: Now, this is your second visit in as many months, but be honest, you’re here for the food, this is just a bit of a side bonus to open up a sports centre. You must really love the place.

PRIME MINISTER: Well I’m told that I am the first sitting Prime Minister to ever visit Griffith. So that makes me the first and the second, I think.

STARRY: That does, I believe so. I think you can take that one all the way to the bank. So, before you were Prime Minister, did you come to Griffith, to the region much? Have you been here even just on a non-work related basis to sample the food, to sample the region?

PRIME MINISTER: I have. I’ve been here to a couple of the fantastic restaurants here. And I’ve also visited the region when a few years ago I was Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water, and I visited the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and looked at water issues, and I met with farmers here and I met with the agricultural sector. But of course also the Italian community here have a proud history and as someone with a name like Albanese, I’m connected with people here. I have friends of long-standing, people like Tony Catanzariti and others here who’ve made Griffith such an extraordinary place. It’s a great city. And it’s made even better by this quite extraordinary regional sports centre that’s been opened here on the weekend.

STARRY: It’s absolutely incredible, 20 years in the making. What does a facility like this mean to a town like Griffith?

PRIME MINISTER: It makes it a town of opportunity, even more so for youngsters to realise their dreams. It’s 10 years till the Brisbane Olympics, and let’s hope that there’s some locals here who come along, try athletics or basketball or netball or try the various sports that will be on offer here, hockey, and that it produces some champions, as it has in the past. Evonne Goolagong Cawley is one of the greatest ever Australian athletes, of course, a Wimbledon, French and Australian Open champion. And she comes from a little place just outside of here and is a proud daughter of Griffith and the Riverina.

STARRY: You’re a sportsman yourself. Do you get much time to play sports these days being Prime Minister, or is that just something that’s off the table these days for you?

PRIME MINISTER: It’s a bit hard, but tennis is my preferred sport. And fortunately, there is a tennis court at The Lodge.

STARRY: I was going to ask that.

PRIME MINISTER: It’s pretty handy, I’ve got to say. It was the only way I was going to live in a house with a tennis court was to become Prime Minister. But I got there.

STARRY: So do you have to get up really early in the morning and play with a tennis ball that kind of glows in the dark for you?

PRIME MINISTER: You’ve always got to get up pretty early in the morning. But it’s good fun. And this afternoon, actually, when I return to Sydney, I’m going to my local tennis courts at Marrickville and I’m playing in an intra-club competition this afternoon. So we’ll see how I go.

STARRY: Do you get much time to yourself, being Prime Minister? Do you get time to do those type of things or is it just go, go, go all the time?

PRIME MINISTER: No, it’s pretty go, go, go. Yesterday, I of course got up early in the morning in Lismore, I did all the breakfast TV shows, I’ve done a big press conference with Dominic Perrottet, the Premier, at 8am. I then flew back to Sydney, I did a press conference out of Parramatta with Jim Chalmers, the Treasurer, and the local MP. I then had a lunch engagement. Then I did a little fete for Halloween at a local public school at Annandale and then I spoke at the Electrical Trades Union 120th anniversary dinner last night. This morning I was up early here to Griffith. It’s a very busy life but it’s one which is really rewarding. I want to make a difference to people’s lives and I love going to the regions. It makes such a difference to come to a community like this and meet people on the ground and have a chance to talk with them about what their priorities are.

STARRY: And a lot of people want to see that in their leader and I think we can see that, that you’re really focused on getting out there and talking to the people. Listening to your schedule right there, I thought I was busy. I’m a muso and I travel back and forth to Griffith and Melbourne and Albury-Wodonga and all that kind of stuff. But your day just sounds full on. Music, you’re a huge music fan. You know, we’ve seen images of you going to rock concerts and stuff like that. Is that something you’re going to do all the time? Try and find that time to go out and check live music out?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think you’ve got to do some things that keep it real. And I went to the last Oils concert at the Hordern Pavilion, and we went down, out of the stand where they had the seating, and it was an opportunity to talk with people. It’s a pretty amazing gig. Three and three quarter hours they played for. And they went through, they played lots of stuff from Powderworks, from the first album, and from Head Injuries and Place Without A Postcard, the first three, and it was just fantastic. So I can’t do it as often as I would want, but I’m getting to see a concert of The Clouds at a local venue in my electorate, the Factory Theatre. I think it’s early December and I haven’t seen them for quite a while. And now one of the lead singers, Trish, actually works for me in my Electorate Office part-time. So it’s an opportunity to get out there and I think you need some for your mental health, you need to relax a little bit. I get to listen to music on the plane, that’s really important.

STARRY: Your plane rocks out?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I DJ’d last night at the Halloween event at Annandale, our public school. And let me tell you, if you want to get a bunch of young boys and girls dancing, just go to Taylor Swift.

STARRY: Really, that’s the go to? Hey, are you a muso yourself?

PRIME MINISTER: No.

STARRY: No, not a singer or anything like that?

PRIME MINISTER: That’s why I’m a DJ. Because I’m hopeless, no one wants to hear me sing, and no one wants to hear me play an instrument. So it’s something I can do.

STARRY: We’ll try and get you behind the decks one night here in Griffith. I think that’d be great.

PRIME MINISTER: That would be cool.

STARRY: Mr Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, thank you so much for your time this morning. Appreciate it.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much. Have a great day.