Triple M good times, greatest hits. Marto, Margaux and Dan with you, please be up standing for the national anthem. The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, joins us in the studio. Good morning, Albo.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good to be with you. I, unlike Marto, have turned up in person.
HOST: I know.
HOST: Well, we should explain, I'm at Moreton Island. And Albo, you should visit Moreton Island one day. It's a wonderful place. And I'm in the middle of a fishing competition at the moment. This is really holding me up, so we better make this quick, hey?
PRIME MINISTER: Fantastic.
HOST: He's got a presentation for you coming up soon, Albo, as well. He's scared. He's being a coward.
HOST: Which is potentially why he's organised himself to be at Moreton Island this morning.
HOST: But first, what were you doing at the EKKA yesterday?
PRIME MINISTER: Mate, I was having fun, is what I was doing. Engaging with people, meeting the banana growers and the people involved.
HOST: We saw you eating a banana. Did you not learn from Peter Dutton the year before eating the Dagwood dog? You know that Photoshopping --
PRIME MINISTER: It never looks good eating, right? I did learn that a strawberry sundae is much better.
HOST: Is it?
[GRAB] PRIME MINISTER: It is never a good idea to be photographed eating.
HOST: Has that popped up on social media anywhere with some Photoshopping going on, or did you get your team to scrub that from the internet?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm sure it's everywhere. But it was good fun.
HOST: The Albo float in the Mardi Gras next year, that will be the photo they'll use, you know that.
PRIME MINISTER: I also had to put a blue ribbon sash on Max the horse, whose rider won the competition inside the arena there. I've got to say this horse was really, really big.
HOST: Did you see Buster? The really, really big bull? 1,347 kilograms, he's the third largest bull in Australia.
PRIME MINISTER: I stayed away from Buster the Bull, which was very wise.
HOST: I would too. I think so, absolutely. But what are you doing up here in Queensland and more importantly Brisbane?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I always want to go to the EKKA, because it's such an event here and to meet people from regional Queensland as well. And yesterday afternoon, I went to a house here in the eastern suburbs looking at a battery, Therese and her family welcomed us in. They've put a battery to store their solar energy. That will - they're one of the 28,000 people who've taken up the rebate. The government will pay 30 per cent of the costs of anyone who puts a battery to store energy from their solar panels in their home. And so, it'll save Therese and her family over a thousand dollars a year, permanently reduce their power bills. And so, it was a real opportunity to meet the family there, in the suburbs here of Brisbane. Queensland has the highest number of solar panels in the world.
HOST: When you said you were going to visit a house in East Brisbane, I thought maybe the Bluey house, have you been to the Bluey exhibition yet?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I haven't.
HOST: It's huge, Bluey, not only here of course, telling the story of a Brisbane dad in the suburbs of Brisbane -
PRIME MINISTER: Bluey is an international phenomenon.
HOST: International phenomenon. They've just signed a $30 something million deal.
HOST: Million or billion?
HOST: I was going to say billion.
HOST: She's not great with maths, Albo.
HOST: But I'm not good with numbers. But it's a ridic, a $1.2 billion deal with whoever, Netflix or something?
HOST: She's getting lost.
PRIME MINISTER: 1.2 billion?
HOST: We're not the ABC, we're not the ABC, Albo. I need to talk to you about rugby league, and in particular the Rabbitohs. Alex Johnston.
PRIME MINISTER: Mate, we had a win.
HOST: I know. It was wonderful. I was down there. They didn't let me into the stadium.
HOST: Yeah, he beat the Titans, the bottom of the ladder.
PRIME MINISTER: It was so exciting.
HOST: Yeah, so exciting. No, but I want to talk to you about Alex Johnston. He's now five tries behind Ken Irvine for the greatest rugby league number of tries in rugby league. The day he breaks that, which should be in the next three weeks. Will you use your power to allow fans to stop the game and run onto the field?
[AUDIO CLIP]
PRIME MINISTER: There's the song.
HOST: He nearly broke out in dance.
PRIME MINISTER: There's a song. We haven't heard it much. Mate, it should. I've pitched up to the NRL. They should. This is a moment like when Buddy Franklin broke the record. Yeah, all the fans at the SCG ran on. And AJ is such an extraordinary - he's a lovely bloke, too. He's actually really gentle. He's played for just one club. Good LaPa boy.
HOST: You should be there to lead him out like William Wallace. You should be painted up --
HOST: Reggie the rabbit.
HOST: You and Reggie walking out together. Could you imagine?
HOST: Here's Reggie.
[GRAB] CHARLIE GALLICO, MASCOT: I'm sorry if I've done something wrong.
PRIME MINISTER: Reggie. Poor Reggie got banned for a while, of course.
HOST: You should be able to overturn that.
PRIME MINISTER: I pitched up for Reggie when that happened.
HOST: I know we heard it.
HOST: We did hear you.
HOST: Now we do have a gift for you, Albo.
HOST: But can we just check, there is a registry of gifts. If you get stuff from foreign dignitaries and I noticed in the last year I've looked it up, you got a pill box, you get all sorts of strange things. Bowls and stuff.
HOST: What's the strangest thing?
HOST: You have to declare them. What is the strangest thing you've ever received?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh gee, I don't want to offend.
HOST: They're not listening to us. Don't worry.
PRIME MINISTER: But you do get some weird stuff. And the thing you get as Prime Minister as well is gifts and things from people who you don't know. I get invited to a lot of weddings of people I don't know, who just pitch up -
HOST: What, to DJ?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well it's like you're welcome, and sometimes they'll do that. They'll put on there, 'and PS, if you want to spin a few discs, that'd be great too'.
HOST: What about christenings? Have you ever been fronted up as a godparent?
PRIME MINISTER: I was recently last year godparent to twins.
HOST: Oh wow. That you didn't know?
PRIME MINISTER: I knew them, but I wouldn't say I was the closest friend. I was like 'why not? I'll be in that'.
HOST: We have a gift for you and we'll explain it as it comes into the studio. Here comes producer Alex.
HOST: You do have your security detail and we had to give them the heads up.
HOST: Explain it, Albo, what are you looking at?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, this is a bunny. It's not quite like Reggie the Rabbit. And it's a wooden spoon with Wayne Bennett, the greatest coach in rugby league history, who has avoided the spoon.
HOST: Not this year. No, no, not yet. This still a few weeks left.
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's over. It's over. We'll beat Parra this week.
HOST: You could lose to the bye. They might take two points off.
PRIME MINISTER: We'll beat Para this week. That is just terrible.
HOST: It's all yours mate.
PRIME MINISTER: You know what I'm going to do - now, you've met Wayne Bennett. I am going to give him your name, address and phone number. And you're in deep doo-doos.
HOST: We already have been, don't worry.
HOST: Turn it around. What's on the other side? Nothing. Now, that's a space for your face because you are the wooden spoon in the Courier Mail tipping. I have just managed to pip you by one point.
PRIME MINISTER: You know why?
HOST: You tip the Rabbits?
HOST: You don't do your tips?
PRIME MINISTER: Because I tip Souths every single - I do.
HOST: I always forget to do mine.
PRIME MINISTER: I even did it overseas. And I even did it in China where we didn't have a phone, because we had a burner phone and I had to go to the journalists, give it to them in writing. But here every week. Look. Rabbitohs. Who have you tipped? Eels? Loser.
HOST: How dare you.
HOST: Are you trying to say that you are going to overturn me this weekend?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. You've got Panthers -
HOST: We'll have to see about that.
PRIME MINISTER: Warriors, Bulldogs. Look, we're all the same except, oh, you've tipped the Tigers.
HOST: Are you alright with that? Finishing last? Is that bad for your brand, brand Albo, that you're finishing last in the tips?
PRIME MINISTER: You know what my brand is? Loyalty, mate. For 43 years between 1971 and 2014, I was loyal.
HOST: Albo, congratulations. I don't know where you'll put that spoon. There must be a room at Kirribilli with a bunch of bizarre gifts. You can put that in there.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm going to give it to Wayne. I going to give it to Wayne with your address.
HOST: Tell him it's from Triple M Brisbane. He'll love that.
PRIME MINISTER: With your home addresses.
HOST: Thank you, Albo. What a wonderful country.
HOST: It's been wonderful talking to economics with you this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Tevita Tatola will be round to a place near you, and Koloamatangi. Cam Murray. Got nothing else to do. They're not playing.
HOST: Are you threatening me? How good is it when the leader of your country can come in and call you a loser to your face? I love this joint. What a beautiful country.
PRIME MINISTER: It is a great country. Thanks for having us on.
