Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins us live now from Ballarat. Good morning to you, PM.
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Hey, PM.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Friday morning. I feel -
ABO: I won't interrupt you, PM. Go on.
PRIME MINISTER: Just feeling a bit of deja vu here. Me and Karl, Friday morning. Did it every week for about six years.
ABO: Do you miss those days, PM?
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, it takes us back. We'll never have that time again.
PRIME MINISTER: I don't miss Opposition, I can tell you that. But I do miss Karl, I do miss Karl.
STEFANOVIC: Thank you, PM.
ABO: I feel like I'm getting in the way here. Should I just step out of the interview? Maybe the two of you can just carry on. Anyway, PM, it's Sarah here. So nice to see you this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Morning, Sarah.
ABO: An elite AFP team has now joined the manhunt. Was this guy, who is a so-called sovereign citizen, already on the radar with the AFP? Does it fall under federal jurisdiction?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, what's occurred here is that we have offered the Premier, Jacinta Allan, every support that is required. And this is a full court press. This guy clearly is dangerous. He's on the run and we want him caught and we want people who are traumatised in that northeast community of Victoria to feel safe again. Porepunkah is a small community and this has devastated them. It's devastated the families of the police officers who've lost their lives. And of course, it's devastated as well the entire police family. The police have a bond and it's a reminder of all of us that the men and women who put on blue to defend us and to look after safety in our local communities take a risk each and every day. So, they are heroes, Detective Thompson and Senior Constable De Waart are heroes. And we also give our thoughts to those who have been injured during this incident.
STEFANOVIC: All right, let's move on. Richard Marles' trip to DC. I mean, as Bluey would describe it, it all went a bit wackadoo, didn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: Rather bizarre sometimes, things that become an issue that just aren't. He went to the United States, he met the Vice President, he met the Defence Secretary, he met senior people in the Trump Administration. And that's a good thing. And then he came home. That's a good thing. And it was very positive, the meetings. Richard got back yesterday morning, straight into Parliament, straight down to the job. And the engagement with the United States is, of course, very important.
ABO: What was the point of the trip, PM? What was the objective?
PRIME MINISTER: To engage, Deputy Prime Minister to Vice President, Defence -
ABO: On what?
PRIME MINISTER: On the full range of issues, our relationship. And one of the things that we do is engage diplomatically right around the world. But there's no country that's more important than the United States. And of course, in the defence area, the AUKUS arrangements are critical for us.
KARL STEFANOVIC: So, it's been widely reported this morning that he was over there to sort this meeting between you and Trump-y. Has that happened? Have we got a meeting yet?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that wasn't his job and it wasn't his issue and I don't think it was - I don't know whether that was raised or not, but that's not the reason why he goes. We have office-to-office communication and Ambassador Rudd is responsible for those issues. But we talk between officers and I had a meeting on Wednesday with Congressman Jason Smith, who's the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee of the Congress. That's really important. It's like the Budget Committee, effectively. I had about three quarters of an hour with the Congressman. He's a very welcome guest here in Australia and we regularly have dialogue. Two weeks ago I hosted, I think there were about eight senior US Congress people and Senators at Kirribilli House. We engage very regularly.
KARL STEFANOVIC. So, have you got the meeting with the top dog yet or what?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, when you see it on your screens, you'll know it's confirmed. Of course we had a meeting confirmed. And events internationally meant that President Trump didn't stay at the G7. I'll be certainly with President Trump a number of times between now and the end of the year. It's summit season, which sounds glamorous, but isn't. You spend more time on a plane than you do on the land. And so we have a range of meetings, whether it's the UN General Assembly, ASEAN, APEC. So, we'll be running into each other regularly. And we're just trying to finalise the Quad meeting as well.
ABO: All right, PM, Obviously, Richard Marles being over there, he didn't actually meet with his defence counterpart or there was a bit of confusion there about whether they had an official meeting or not.
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, he did.
ABO: But core to all of this is the defence spending. Are we going to increase our defence spending as the US would like?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we're going to do is do what we like, which is to provide us with whatever assets we need and our capability - just in the last month we announced the frigates that the first ones will be built in Japan and then subsequent ones built here in Australia, a major upgrade of our surface fleet. And we'll continue to provide whatever investment is required to make sure that we lift our capability and we lift our relationships as well. We've lifted defence spending by $10 billion just over the forward estimates and by $57 billion over the medium term.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. The Iranian Ambassador was sent packing last night, and good riddance.
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.
STEFANOVIC: Strange scenes at the airport. He says Aussies are safe now in Iran. Can he be trusted in any way?
PRIME MINISTER: No, in a word. And I hope he didn't slam the door on the way out, because it was a big decision by the Government. No ambassador has been expelled from Australia in the post war period. That says something about how significant this was. But this was an attack on Australian soil orchestrated by foreign power. Completely unacceptable. And we took appropriate strong action.
ABO: All right, just finally, PM, before we let you go -
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not sure if you can see - I'm not sure whether there's rain or snow dropping on me at the moment here.
STEFANOVIC: Well, luck you.
ABO: Neither, neither. But we just wanted to get your take quickly, PM. I mean, talk about wackadoo. You mentioned it before, Karl. Bob Katter, I mean this country is built on migration, right? I'm a migrant first generation. He's obviously - a multi-generation migrant family. What was with that comment? It was bizarre.
PRIME MINISTER: Look, Bob Katter I like, but Bob Katter needs to have a look at that footage. Have a look at himself, frankly, and recognise that that's just not what we expect of any Australian, let alone someone who's in public office.
ABO: Being a migrant doesn't diminish your love of Australia, is all I'm going to say on that.
PRIME MINISTER: You're speaking to someone called Albanese.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, exactly. And Stefanovic.
PRIME MINISTER: We've got a Senate leader called Wong. Migration enriches.
STEFANOVIC: We're all wogs.
PRIME MINISTER: Except for the First Australians, we're all either migrants or descendants of them.
STEFANOVIC: I thought he might make a good MC for your wedding, Bob Katter. Don't you reckon?
ABO: Oh, that's a good idea.
PRIME MINISTER: I have my own security wherever I go, Karl.
SARAH ABO: So, that's a hard no?
PRIME MINISTER: And sometimes they're about keeping people out. But I thought you, I thought you were pitching up to be the MC, Karl?
ABO: Oh, now that I'd like to see.
STEFANOVIC: I was! I mean, no, I don't think any Prime Minister has got married in office. It's going to be some event and I think I'm the guy to deliver it for you.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well, don't count yourself out, mate.
ABO: Oh, maybe you can have it in Ballarat too. Some beautiful venues there.
STEFANOVIC: Good luck in Ballarat today. It's a beautiful part of the world. We appreciate you being on, PM.
