: The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, joins us live in Port Moresby. Great to have you with us.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, good to be with you.
SHIRVINGTON: Let's go through this. So, we understand St Clement's, the church, of course, has ended the lease. They've made their decision. But you abandoning your office, is it setting a dangerous precedent?
PRIME MINISTER: What absolute nonsense, seriously. This is an office that is actually shared with St Clement's Church. The car park is a shared car park. The people attending, trying to attend church services have been disrupted as well as people haven't been able to get the services that they need. And people being denied access to assistance on the NDIS or Centrelink or Medicare, that doesn't advance any cause in the Middle East. All it does is disrupt people and alienate people from the cause that the protesters are purporting to support.
NAT BARR, HOST: Okay, so you're getting out of the way, basically. Look, these protests aren't nonsense, though. We appreciate, obviously everyone's right to protest, but they're happening around the country every week from both sides. Is this Australia's new normal?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it shouldn't be. What this does is undermine the cause that people purport to represent. There's no impact on the Middle East from stopping a local resident getting support on social security or on the NDIS or Medicare or migration. All there is is a disruption to them. And in addition to that, of course, the car park is a shared car park. It literally is a part of the church structure, which is why, not surprisingly - the Anglican Church have very good landlords, if you like - have of course said, really, enough is enough. And the disruption that's caused has, I think, given no credit to the people who've engaged in it. Importantly, you've had Greens Party senators be a part of, addressing these meetings. But it's just disruption. And my staff and their safety is also a real issue. When people have gone into the office, disrupted by - the latest trick, so called, is to put balloons full of materials that make it uninhabitable. Now, my staff, I have a duty of care. And the Anglican Church also have concern for the disruption that's occurred to church services. So, we'll continue to provide support for constituents, of course, whether by phone or by meetings in various council offices. We'll have a new office established. And certainly, I think the people have voted very consistently by electing a majority, an absolute majority on the council when they had the opportunity to have their say and by also re-electing me as the local member with an absolute majority as well of primary votes.
SHIRVINGTON: For now, PM, you'll work remotely, but still in support of your community. Of course, the protesters have said that they're going to follow you wherever you go. So, it's going to be interesting to see where your office does pop up and what happens. Moving on. You're in Port Moresby, of course, to see a historic -
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they undermine their own cause.
SHIRVINGTON: Can we talk about Port Moresby for a sec? Because you're there to seal a historic new defence deal. How is this going to help Australia? What does this mean for the defence forces?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, today, of course, we are commemorating 50 years of the birth of a nation. It's quite extraordinary. And unlike many parts of the world, our flag wasn't torn down, it was brought down peacefully. And the new flag of the new nation of Papua New Guinea rose 50 years ago today. Since then, we have been partners in economic development, in security, in the way that we've engaged with people-to-people links. And what we're looking at for the next 50 years is, how do we advance that? And we have been great partners. Of course, on the Kokoda track, we got the support of PNG citizens who of course were then under the Australian flag. But they gave great support to our diggers who made such an incredible sacrifice to keep both PNG and Australia safe during that time. As we go forward, we want greater interoperability of our military. We want to make sure that we move forward together as partners.
BARR: Okay, Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time. We'll leave you to it.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Nat.
