Look who's here. We saw him eating up a storm yesterday at the EKKA, and he's in the studio this morning. Albo, the Prime Minister. Good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Great to be with you. The diet went out the window yesterday, I've got to say.
HOST: It's always a headlines, isn't it, where how you eat the strawberry sundae -
PRIME MINISTER: There is no good way to be filmed or photographed eating as a politician. It's as simple as that. And they wait and wait and wait. And you hear these days and the days when people had to actually process film, but now it's all digital, so you just hear it, click, click, click, and away they go.
HOST: And they go, that looks great. And you're right. I can't think of a single food where you would be like, oh yeah, people look sexy eating it.
PRIME MINISTER: None of it looks good. I had honey yesterday on a little spoon, that was okay, because that was delicate.
HOST: But then I guess once it's in your mouth it gets sticky, so, mm mm mm mmm.
PRIME MINISTER: That's true.
HOST: It's like going on a first date and ordering spaghetti bolognese. And I was like, what are you doing? That's just -
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, you've got to put your -
HOST: Yeah, like me for who I am. Have you set a wedding date?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we're close. We've decided it will be this year.
HOST: Okay.
PRIME MINISTER: It will be this year. We're close.
HOST: We know you've got a date. I'm not going to ask.
PRIME MINISTER: We've got a couple of options, we've got a couple of options. Wait for your invite.
HOST: Okay.
PRIME MINISTER: Not really. Just teasing.
HOST: Do you have like the rest of us, there's always a list, right? You've got your tier one and then people reply, no, we can't make it. So, then you've got a second pocket, third pocket?
PRIME MINISTER: Our list is pretty small. We're going to do something that's -
HOST: All of the Liberal party?
PRIME MINISTER: - not enormous. The problem is if you go to the tier two, if you like, as you frame it, then you end up having to - tier two is pretty big.
HOST: Well, obviously it's like fantasy for - you got to eliminate some of them.
PRIME MINISTER: I know a lot of people. And so does Jodie. Jodie's got tonnes of cousins. Her mum and dad are one of, I think nine and eight respectively. So there's -
HOST: Wow. Any world leaders?
PRIME MINISTER: No. It's not a political event. It's an event between myself and Jodie.
HOST: Are you going to write your own vows or are you going to go through a religious -
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, we'll do all that ourselves. And we've had a bit of time to plan it.
HOST: Yeah, so you'll leave it to the last minute.
HOST: ChatGPT, Abby, hello?
HOST: Talking about the AI, heard a lot of people are concerned of how we talk about social media ban, and that is going to come into effect, but it's how you implement it and people are like, well, wait a minute. If AI is taking off and we've got to do a Face ID, then is that going to be a bit of an issue to certify our age? Is it -
PRIME MINISTER: This is something we are going to have to navigate as a society, not just as government. This is going to change the way that we work, the way that we live. 30 years ago, people weren't clicking photos everywhere. They weren't texting. I'm old enough to have backpacked around Europe at a time where you had to once a week get some coins, put it in a phone -
HOST: Or reverse charges?
PRIME MINISTER: And dial home to talk for a couple of minutes to let your mum know that you were still okay.
HOST: Now she can geolocate you through her Apple Find My Friends.
PRIME MINISTER: Now, anything can happen. Well, at that time, I am amazed they all came off. I had agreements like, I'll meet you in the main square of Athens, wherever that is, on 5 June at twelve o'clock and you had to be there.
HOST: You had to be there. Yeah. Now you're like, oh, you know what? I'm actually feeling a little bit sick, or maybe we should go to this place. I heard that. It's a lot better.
PRIME MINISTER: And away you go.
HOST: When you went backpacking, where did you go? That must've been a wild time that I'm sure you're glad there was no Facebook for.
PRIME MINISTER: I went into, I'd done no travel. I went into a travel agent and said, I want to fly Qantas to London. Where do they go via? And they went via Harare in Africa, in Zimbabwe. So, I went to Zimbabwe for a month and then arrived in London. I went on a Contiki tour first around London, which was fun. Sorry for, if there's anyone who was on that bus, for whatever what went on during that time.
HOST: Imagine that, though. There's some guy who sees you now up on TV as a world leader, and they go, I saw that guy's bum in Africa on a Contiki bus, whatever -
PRIME MINISTER: No, no. Around Europe. London. That guy was pretty loose. And then I got a Eurail pass that you could get, I dunno if they still exist. 60 days. And so, I slept lots on the train. I crossed over to West Berlin from East Berlin because Bruce Springsteen was playing. I got stuck over there because there was a curfew getting across. All my gear was at this youth hostel in East Berlin, and the next morning I had to talk my way through the East German guards, because I only had a single entry visa of why it was they had to let me in because my gear was there and I sort of came out and said I just wanted to see what it was like on the other side.
HOST: I guess you're not organising the honeymoon, are you, after all those experiences?
PRIME MINISTER: I think we might stay in a bit better place than we stayed at that time.
HOST: Not just going to sleep on the train. Now you also are one of the first people to get your hands on our brand new book that we've made as well.
PRIME MINISTER: It's awesome.
HOST: So, all the royalties are going to Make-A-Wish foundation. And we are the three characters. So Stav is the sloth, Mattie is the magpie, and I'm the alpaca.
PRIME MINISTER: Fantastic. The alpaca. How did you get to be the alpaca?
HOST: Because it's an A, so, we had to come up with an animal with an A. I wanted to do - even an ant was cuter than the alpaca spitting, but they said that I -
HOST: There's too many similarities. Angry?
PRIME MINISTER: The alpaca was a bit rude to King Charles, remember?
HOST: Yeah. They spit and yeah. What did it do to King Charles? Did it spit on it?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. It wasn't good. Kids will love this.
HOST: Hopefully.
HOST: So, if you do pre-order right now, booktopia.com.au is where you can get your hands on it. Of course, the royalties' going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation
PRIME MINISTER: For a good cause.
HOST: Yes, you can order one and you can read it to your dog though.
PRIME MINISTER: Toto?
HOST: There'd be a library in Canberra that holds all the most important pieces of literature. That's surely one that you could put in there.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there is the National Library, of course. Has every book that's published in Australia. It will be in there. It's actually part of the law.
HOST: Oh, so it would be in there, right.
HOST: So, who does it? Someone has to go and buy them, or is it just law that you have to send every copy? What, just to keep your eye across everything?
PRIME MINISTER: No, the publishers send. Part of the deal of the national collection.
HOST: Wow. Book number two needs to start with an A, so we do go in front, Okay.
PRIME MINISTER: Aa.
HOST: Aa. Okay. There we go.
HOST: Albo the Aardvark.
HOST: Mate, Great to see you. Thanks for popping by.
PRIME MINISTER: Fantastic. Thanks guys.
