Right now we say good morning to the Prime Minister. Hello.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be with you.
HOST: Are you watching the Super Bowl today?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll be in Parliament today, unfortunately. There is an Aussie playing though, Michael Dickson, playing for Seattle. And he, of course, is a punter. That seems to be what, going back to Ben Graham many years ago, that seems to be the role that they play, Australians in the NFL. But of course Jordan Mailata was not a punter, ex-Souths guy. And I must say, given I'm up on Brisbane radio, I'm very, very, very sorry that the Souths are getting -
HOST: No, you're not. You are not at all.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm very sorry. He's such an amazing player.
HOST: Rumour has it that you told Wayne that he had to. Is that it? You made, like, the PM's call?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I did have a chat with Payne yesterday though, and welcomed him to the team for 2027 and said, I wished him luck this year. He's a great footballer.
HOST: Does he know that you're calling? Do they have to announce it, or have you just got his number and decided to call?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, I got his number. And I can get numbers these days.
HOST: When you're the head of the Australian intelligence agency, you can find out anything you want.
HOST: Would you answer a phone call on a Sunday when you didn't have the number?
PRIME MINISTER: Got it off Blake Solly and the Souths mob. Just a welcome call. Souths is very much a family. It will be great.
HOST: Do you have the power as Prime Minister to call up the agents or whoever you need to and go, 'Oh, I need to get in contact with this person,' and they can just go, 'Yep, we'll send you the contact now.' How does all that work?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't interfere at all in any of those processes. And I'm not sure who, I think Wayne Bennett was responsible for being the main recruiter here, but Payne Haas has said that he just wants a change, which is -
HOST: I feel like you do have access to do that, Prime Minister. You skated around that question.
HOST: He doesn't, but he has people to do it.
HOST: I felt like I was watching the Winter Olympics for a second there, the way he skated around that.
PRIME MINISTER: The Winter Olympics is great. It's the one time every four years that people concentrate on snow sports in general.
HOST: Yeah. Or practise how to mop the floor really fast in the hallway.
HOST: Who's the snowboarder? Is it Scotty James? The snowboarder?
HOST: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: Scotty James. Yeah. He's on Thursday. But I was watching last night, there was a guy doing the luge, which is very crazy, in my view, from Townsville. If you're living in Townsville, where are their luge courses? It's a very strange thing sometimes. But Australia, we punch above our weight in all sport, but particularly in the Winter Olympics, it's fantastic to watch. I just watch them in awe, as someone who tried to ski once and was completely hopeless. I'm just amazed that they can do what they can do at such pace, no fear whatsoever.
HOST: And the luge is kind of an accurate representation of the Liberals' numbers.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is a bit like that at the moment, I've got to say, but these things do go up and down. But at the moment, I think if they're just continuing to fight each other, it's hard to see how that is going to end, given the extraordinary animosity which is there within their party and between the parties on the right wing of politics at the moment.
HOST: We spoke to Pauline Hanson, and we haven't had her on the show for ages, but we were speaking about the support for One Nation going up. Can you see that as an indication that people are just, I guess, fed up with a lot of things and it's always been the talk of the cost-of-living and now they're looking for different answers?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the thing about One Nation is that they never provide any solutions. They are a source of grievance. And particularly, I think the big concern I have with One Nation is that they often look at people who aren't like them to say 'those people are responsible for your lot in life'. I would much prefer to see the traditional parties get support. We need to acknowledge that that's there and that people are frustrated about issues like cost-of-living, which is why we are doing all that we can to make a difference.
HOST: But I would say that your answer has just been to spend more. And I guess people always like people that spend. I like 'Holiday Matty' over there, because he doesn't have any responsibilities. But the thing is with that, do you not take into consideration that your government has been responsible for spending so much and causing inflation, contributing quite a bit, and therefore increasing the interest rates?
PRIME MINISTER: We've delivered two budget surpluses. Our predecessors delivered zero.
HOST: Yeah, but that was COVID years when you talk about that.
PRIME MINISTER: There wasn't a COVID in 2013, or 2014, or 2015, or 2016, or 17, or 18, or 19. They weren't COVID years. They delivered deficits every year. They had no savings at all in their last budget.
HOST: They also didn't have the inflation though.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, they did. A big inflationary surge -
HOST: Let's just forget about that, it's in the past. Let's talk about now, because I guess families now are kind of going, 'I don't care about the past. We voted for you because we actually wanted to make change.' And now it feels like there was a lot of promises made at the election, why people voted for you and the cost-of-living still hasn't gone down. And to be fair, your government has spent a lot.
PRIME MINISTER: No, inflation has a three in front of it. It had a six in front of it when we're elected. We've delivered $114 billion in savings. We've kept unemployment low.
HOST: So, you say the people listening to this that are really struggling have nothing to complain about?
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. We put measures in place to make a difference for them. That's why people listening who require a script and go to the chemist will be paying $25 rather than $42. That's why rent assistance has been increased twice. Those are measures that make a difference to people who are doing it tough. That's why we made the difficult decision to cut taxes for everyone, not just for some, and why people will get a tax cut in July, and then they'll get a tax cut next year. So, what we've tried to do is to manage inflation, get it down whilst providing support for people. If you just let rip and had austerity measures and didn't provide that cost-of-living relief, then people who really need that support wouldn't be getting it. But we've designed the support we're giving to make a difference as well and to grow the economy. So, things like free TAFE make a difference to individuals, but they also give us the skilled workforce that we need.
HOST: Well, Prime Minister, while we've got you, we do need your help on something else. We've joined forces with the wonderful people of Ipswich and we're trying to bring Superstar Edge here in town. Stay there. We have a question to ask you next here at B105. [BREAK] Another thing we wanted to talk to you about, Albo, because we know that you've got a little bit of pull with people, especially internationals when they come into the country. Ed Sheeran is making his way to Brisbane. He's here at the moment. And you're a music lover and we are on a mission. We've teamed up with the mayor of Ipswich.
HOST: Who's a legend.
HOST: Teresa Harding.
HOST: Teresa. Have you met Teresa?
PRIME MINISTER: I have, I have indeed.
HOST: What a wonderful woman.
HOST: She used to be in the Defence. And I was like, oh gosh, I'd take orders from her. She's amazing.
HOST: A wonderful woman, a lot of fun. She wants to get Ed to Ipswich, because he visits Ipswiches all around the world because that's where he grew up. And we're on a campaign. So we just wanted to get from you an official quote from the Prime Minister that we can pass on to Ed Sheeran and encouraging him to come and visit Ipswich in Brisbane.
PRIME MINISTER: I can certainly do that. G'day, Ed. Anthony Albanese here, Australia's Prime Minister. You really need to go to Ipswich. Ipswich, Queensland. Not Ipswich, UK.
HOST: Love it. Yep. Perfect. Because we want to play this too as well, so you can chat to Teresa about this the next time you see her. She is so keen for this that we said we wanted to get her on the air to do anything to promote it. She jumps on a rollercoaster.
HOST: Well, it was at the Ipswich show. I think it was the scariest ride that was there.
PRIME MINISTER: I've been to the Ipswich show. It's fantastic.
HOST: Yes, it is. Would you get on a rollercoaster and sing an Ed Sheeran song like this?
[CLIP]
PRIME MINISTER: She's committed. She is absolutely committed.
HOST: So, next time, you'll be in town for the Ekka. If you want, we can arrange, we'll get you a Dagwood dog. We'll put you on a -
HOST: When's the last time you went on a show ride? Besides Parliament every day.
PRIME MINISTER: It's a while ago. My son's now 25, so one of the great things about having a kid is that you can do things that you really would be embarrassed to do by yourself, if you go with your kid.
HOST: Well, I tell you what, if you be a good boy, we'll take you to the Ekka when it comes around.
PRIME MINISTER: He's too cool to go to the show with me now.
HOST: Oh yeah. Mate, appreciate you calling through this morning. Always a pleasure. Great to chat to you.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you guys.
HOST: Good on you.
