Prime Minister, thanks very much for your time. Congratulations.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Kieran.
GILBERT: I remember when you had the tough times in Labor, the Rudd-Gillard turmoil. You at times were emotional at the difficulties facing your Party. How does it feel today as we sit here in this place and you've got upwards of 90 seats or thereabouts and you've unified your Party?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, unity is the key, that sense of purpose that we've had. We came into government in 2022 in what were very difficult times and they became more difficult with the economic turbulence, frankly, that hit the world. So, we had inflation with a 6 in front of it and it was rising. We had interest rates that started to rise. The economy was really soft. And our task was to deal with that the Labor way, the Australian way, to get that inflation down. We've got inflation down to 2.4 per cent and within now the lower half of the Reserve Bank band that they aim for. We've had one interest rate decrease, we've got real wages increasing. That's been important. But importantly as well, I'm really proud that we have maintained employment. Unemployment's at 4.1 per cent. It's an historic low. And economists would tell you, 'oh, the only way to get inflation down is essentially to get unemployment up.' Well, that's not the Labor way. We don't want people to be sacrificed. And the philosophy that I put forward in the lead up to 2022 was very much no one left behind, no one held back. So, looking after vulnerable people, but also the aspiration that's an important part of Labor's agenda.
GILBERT: Well, it's interesting, that point, the aspirational vote, because again, to go back in a little bit of history, the Howard battlers, he was always about the aspirational vote. Have you claimed that mantle now? And that centre ground, which, for anyone that knows politics, that's how you win elections and clearly from your form at the weekend, it's how you win big.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Labor's the Party of opportunity. And if you look at education, of course, there's a key to that. What we've done in early childhood learning is so important. The schools agreement, better and fairer funding for schools. I'm really proud that on the day before the Budget, of course, on March 24 - seems like a long time ago now, I've got to say - I stood in the Prime Minister's Courtyard with Premier Crisafulli from Queensland and doing the last of the national agreements that we've put in place now to get that better funding for every public school. So, we value every child in the country. And so whether it's that or Free TAFE, the higher education policy that we have as well, through the Universities Accord, that's the key to opportunity, but also seizing the opportunity that's there from the economic transformation of climate change action. It is a challenge, but it's an opportunity as well. And it's one we haven't shied away from, it's one we've leant in to. So, that projects like the one there at Tomago in Newcastle, the biggest employer in the Hunter there, that Rio Tinto aluminium smelter, and so their transition to clean energy, which will be so important with firming capacity in there -
GILBERT: Does this give you the window now, the majority, and does it embolden you to get that done? Because, you know, you've got your critics on that issue. It's been quite a polarising issue. Do you feel like this gives you the window now to get it done?
PRIME MINISTER: What it does, Kieran, is give investors more certainty. And I think the nuclear plan, that - who knows what they're going to do, the Coalition, with that. But, you know, they had no plan for overcoming the Howard Government's ban. They didn't have any state government or state opposition supporting their plan. None of the local communities were consulted. You had the Leader of the Opposition not going to any of the seven sites. And it was really a plan for pause, while something happens in the 2040s. Now we can't afford that. We had 23 policies announced by the former Government and none of them implemented. We've had one policy, you know, 43 per cent reduction by 2030. A mechanism of how to get there as well, the safeguard mechanism, but also the Capacity Investment Scheme, as well as specific projects like batteries and support for the Solar Sunshot program and others. So, we have a plan to get there. It requires private sector leadership. The private sector will now have more certainty leaning in and investing. We already have approved enough projects during the last term to power some 10 million homes. And so I think it is positive for the business community.
GILBERT: You want to be Prime Minister for all Australians. You said that and repeated it. You want to be Prime Minister for all. Just on some of those more sensitive projects like the offshore wind and so on, you know, it generated a fair bit of angst and so on in some of the communities. Obviously not hurting in a political sense in terms of the seat numbers. There was swings to in Paterson and Gilmore and elsewhere, but those people are still Australians, still upset.
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. We want to have proper consultation with communities and bring communities with us. There are jobs that can be created there. Some of the scare campaign that was conducted, you know, the idea that whales are going to bump into an offshore wind project is, quite frankly, just not the case. There's a few things in the water. Whales are capable of swimming around. It's a pretty big ocean. And, you know, for some of the campaign was people who, you know, were basically aligned and that's life, that's the way it is. But we have genuine community consultation. That's what I want to occur. And for example, the offshore wind project was pushed further offshore as a result of that community consultation. I want good environmental outcomes. I want the community to come with us on that journey. But we also do need to have that economic transition. So, whether it's increased density of housing in our urban communities that's required, particularly around public transport routes. There's some of that people will say, 'oh, no, you can't have medium density housing.' Well, you know, I support heritage and all of that, but you can have appropriate development as well.
GILBERT: Are you going to put the foot on the accelerator when it comes to housing? Because again, I guess it goes to that continuity, the certainty for investment and so on.
PRIME MINISTER: That's right. Well, the programs that were put in place, many of which were blocked in the Senate by what I term the No-alition and the housing spokespeople of both the Coalition and the Greens, of course, have lost their seat. You know, we can't just hold back. I mean, the public housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund was held up. The Build to Rent scheme for private renters was held up. The Help to Buy scheme to enable people to go into home ownership was held up as well, in the Senate.
GILBERT: The Greens Deputy Leader says their vote's held up. Like, she seems quite happy with their vote. They've lost at least three, if not four seats in the Lower House.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's pretty hard to see that they have a reason for any joy arising out of this election. You know, the Greens political party, I think, lost their way during the last term. They held up important legislation. How do you hold up legislation to have more public housing, to have emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence? That was held up for month after month after month. How do you hold up environmental protections as well?
GILBERT: A lot of people saw them as extremists, too, on Middle East issues. Promoting the protests and so on.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you know, the Senator that you refer to, you know, came to demonstrations outside my office. Australians know that the Australian Government is not responsible for what has occurred in the Middle East. And I think some of the opportunism that was there, that demonstration outside my electorate office turned off my local community. I tell you, there were people I ran into who were like, 'why on earth are people blockading people from getting help on health, on Medicare, on social security, with Centrelink, on migration?' But they couldn't get through because you had this demonstration outside the office affecting my workers who are public servants who deserve respect and importantly as well, my constituents deserve respect and deserve the right to be able to go to their local Member to seek support, without putting up with the abuse that occurred. And I find it incredible that someone who's an elected office holder in the Senate thought it was appropriate to attend those meetings.
GILBERT: With success, it brings expectations. And the factions, obviously, you know, we've got more seats in the Caucus and people want to have different representation. How do you manage it without animosity building? Is that possible? Because the Victorian right wants another spot and then one of the Labor right. I can't see you dropping Chris Bowen or Jason Clare or one of those people who played a big role in the campaign. It's not going to happen, is it?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we have a process and we'll work it through. The important thing is, and something that I'm sure every member of our Caucus will be cognisant of - for most of the 125 years since Federation, we've sat at the other end of the corridor in the old place in the Opposition Party Room. Government brings with it responsibility, and no individual is greater than the collective, and that includes myself. And we need to approach this term with humility, to make sure that we deliver on the commitments that we made to the Australian people, but also that we operate in a way which shows solidarity. I can't have hoped for more support from my Ministers, from my Caucus, over the six years that I've been Labor Leader. And that has enabled me to really focus outwardly. And that's when you're successful, when you're focused inwards, the electorate will mark you down. And I can see that emerging in the Coalition. I think a whole lot of the lessons for the Coalition about their internal focus - yes, they had some level of unity, but that was on the basis of not having any policy debate that was developed. The nuclear plan - Matt Canavan, I don't agree with him on many things, but I agree with him that the nuclear plan was about their internals and about getting through the fact that they have climate sceptics who say it's not happening, right through to people who do understand that there's a need for action and an opportunity.
GILBERT: When you say no person's bigger than the team, it's hard though, isn't it, when you've got to put together your Cabinet, because especially after a big win, people aren't going to want to - I mean, we're getting ahead of ourselves here, but it's tough to navigate.
PRIME MINISTER: We have an incredible team and a Caucus that's full of talent, that's brimming with talent. And over a period of time that goes through, people have opportunities to contribute to the team in a range of ways, whether that is on a Frontbench position or through committees or through Caucus office bearers. There's a range of positions to be filled. I'm confident that whoever fills those positions, we will have an extraordinary team going forward.
GILBERT: We've got a few to get through. You've been very generous with your time. I just want to ask you, the Mark Carney visit with the President, did that give you sort of a few tips on how you might navigate it? He seemed to - the Canadian PM seemed to handle that pretty well in the Oval Office.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I've had really warm discussions with President Trump, a discussion this week. Our third was warm. He made some really positive public comments. I build relationships with people, Kieran. It's one of the things that I've been able to do here domestically. I have many friends in the business community, in the union movement, in civil society groups that I've engaged with for a long period of time. I'm pretty upfront in how I engage with people and I've developed that as well. On an international level, I've got, I think I've got seven phone calls this afternoon, including from His Majesty King Charles, as well as leaders, and it's been really positive and they're relationships I've developed over a period of time. This time next week, I'll be with President Prabowo in Jakarta. I really look forward to the visit to Indonesia.
GILBERT: Just on that, is it important for Australia as a middle power to help sort of start to really strengthen that even further, given the turbulence around the rest of the world? If we've got those closer neighbours tight and, you know, those relationships strong?
PRIME MINISTER: It is important. I mean, I'll talk this afternoon with the Prime Minister of Japan, the Prime Minister of Thailand, a range of other national leaders as well, the Prime Minister of the Solomons. A schedule has been organised. And that's important for Australia. Our relationships with the world are critical. Just one little fact is one in four of our jobs is trade dependent. And so I'll be talking with Ursula von der Leyen as well, of the European Union. That's an important relationship for us as well as the relationship in the region.
GILBERT: We'll get that deal done, you reckon, with the Europeans?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll wait and see. But we'll work constructively. But we'll act in our interests. The last time around, the deal wasn't good enough. So, we said no. We'll act in our interest. Just as with the United States, they're very aware that the PBS and other important things for us, our biosecurity regime to protect our agriculture, they're not on the table. You don't do a deal in order to just say, 'I've got a deal.' What you do is you act in Australia's national interest. And I'll do that.
GILBERT: I'll let you go and prepare for the many conversations, including with the King this afternoon. Just the last one I want to ask you about is the culturally diverse vote. I was talking to Jerome Laxale, the Member for Bennelong, yesterday. We looked at a number of seats where there's high Chinese-Australian voters, Indian-Australian voters. Upwards of 20 per cent swings away from the Liberal Party since 2019. Is that it? Do you see that as a structural shift now? And if so, how much of a foundation was that for your big win, your thumping win?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's important. You know, I had a discussion with Prime Minister Modi on Monday. The Indian community, are a really important and growing community here in Australia. The Chinese community are important as well. Over a million can trace their heritage to China. And the fact that we are respectful, we support multiculturalism, we respect people regardless of their faith or where they're from. Every Australian needs to be valued. From First Nations, people who've been here for 65,000 years as a great privilege, or the newest migrants who come here to make a better life for their family - that deserves respect. It takes great courage to leave your country of birth and to come to Australia to make a new life for yourself and for the generations to come. And that's how we've built this country. And I think people could see the actions of the Coalition and some of their rhetoric. They could see it for what it is.
GILBERT: But they want an equilibrium, in those relationships -
PRIME MINISTER: Some of the retreat that was I think, even during the campaign, was very damaging, particularly to the Chinese community - could see, 'hang on, why is my loyalty to Australia being questioned because I happen to be Chinese?' Why is it that some of the Coalition's rhetoric over a period of time has essentially been to preside over a neglect in supply of housing, for example, and then all of a sudden blame migrants. You know, migration is one element of a much bigger story. The big problem has been supply and a failure to have supply of housing. And so I think that the relationships that my Party has built across the board with traditional groups as well, Greek Australians, Italian Australians, Lebanese Australians, are very important. And we respect people for who they are. And that's a part of modern Australia where we are a diverse society.
GILBERT: We are indeed.
PRIME MINISTER: And I think in these uncertain times as well, we can be a bit of a microcosm for the world that show that people can live side by side, respecting each other, of different faith, different ethnicities, different backgrounds, and we're enriched by that. Diversity is really important. And that's why they'll reject attempts to pit people against each other.
GILBERT: Prime Minister, thank you for your time. Appreciate it. And once again, congrats on what was a historic victory for you at the weekend. Appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Kieran.
