: Well, you know it's a big announcement when the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese comes to town along with his Deputy PM and Defence Minister Richard Marles. Yesterday they were at the Henderson shipyard south of Perth, which will be turned into a global defence precinct, building and servicing naval ships and submarines. Now this morning, the PM is flying to Papua New Guinea to sign a defence treaty between the two nations. But first he's in the 720 ABC studio to talk to you. Prime Minister, good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good to be with you.
GIBSON: $12 billion over 10 years. It sounds like a lot of money, but given our defence spending has been pretty low, this was much needed.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it hasn't been pretty low. We've put now $70 billion of additional investment in over 10 years. That's a substantial uplift in our investment and will help not just with defence, but really uplift our capacity across the board in manufacturing and industry policy. This is an investment in our national sovereignty. It will allow us to produce continuous naval shipbuilding there at Henderson. Firstly the landing vessels for our craft and for our other assets that will go on there, and that construction will start next year. Then the Mogami class frigates that will start construction in a few years. The first few are going to be produced in Japan and the skills that we'll learn in order to produce them then at Henderson, as well as, it will allow for maintenance and dry docking facilities there for our subs which we will receive in the 2030s
GIBSON: And the US nuclear powered submarines?
PRIME MINISTER: And will allow for US or UK to also be maintained there. And so, this will produce about 10,000 jobs. 4,000 direct on site, but about 10,000 jobs directly as a case because of this investment. So, we'll really transform Henderson into one of the world's best shipyards. And of course it has a history there of building super yachts in the past and it's a magnificent facility. It's a good site. Very close to, you know, further down of course we have Stirling. And so, together this is a significant investment by the Australian Government.
GIBSON: It's all aimed towards AUKUS, which funnily enough has not been signed off on by the US President Donald Trump. You must be pretty confident that that is about to happen.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well, it has been signed between Australia and the United States. When there was a change of government, just like when there was a change of government here, we had a review. And the Starmer Government had a review. They're doing that. But this is in the interests of all three nations and we're confident going forward that it will continue to be supported. And this is also about our national sovereignty. This is about our capacity to build ships here, to build craft here, which is something that we need to do.
GIBSON: On that American review, though - and you'll be off to the UN General Assembly in New York - there's been so much talk about whether or not you're getting a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump.
PRIME MINISTER: Only by journos. I'm going to tell you, when I'm out there in the real world, no one cares. I do not get asked about it.
GIBSON: We're obsessed with it. Will you have a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump?
PRIME MINISTER: You are. Well, when we do, you'll know about it, so.
GIBSON. So, it's not booked in for this week or next week?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm not talking about it. Because there's a whole range of things that can occur, of course. So, we'll meet. We've spoken four times, we've had really warm conversations. I look forward to - we won't just see each other, obviously. We'll see each other in New York. He's hosting a reception on Tuesday night of next week. And as well, we'll see each other at various forums that are taking place between now and the end of the year. It's summit season.
GIBSON: Well, you've got a busy schedule. You're off to Papua New Guinea. As I mentioned today, it's a lot. So, this defence treaty between Australia and PNG, effectively integrating our defence forces, does that mean if one or the other is involved in a conflict, that we come to each other's aid?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll sign the agreement on Wednesday. It is a very significant upgrade in our defence relationship. Australia and PNG, of course, have a great history going back to the Kokoda Track and, and before. I last Anzac Day, walked the Kokoda Track for three days with Prime Minister Marape and spent Anzac Day at the dawn service at Isurava. It was incredibly moving and one of the best things I've done in my whole life. Not just in politics, in my whole life as a person, as an Australian, to be able to get that sense of what our diggers went through in World War II and just to be in awe of the sacrifice that they made. And this upgrade in our defence relationship will be across the board. It's a very significant treaty. We'll release it on Wednesday in the middle of the week. The next two days is about celebrating 50 years of independence.
GIBSON: Just on that point, though, would we come to their aid and vice versa if they were in a conflict as a result of this treaty?
PRIME MINISTER: It provides for mutual defence, which means that we will provide support for each other. It provides for an integration of our interoperability of our assets and our respective defence forces. It's a very significant agreement between Australia and PNG.
GIBSON: Prime Minister, great to see you out there. Playing nicely with the Premier yesterday and state MPs because there's been a little bit of to and fro recently when it comes to the fact that our hospitals are overflowing with older patients. And our Premier Roger Cook says that you should be funding more aged care beds in WA and giving us a bigger share of home care packages. Is that likely to happen?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we are putting in record funding into aged care. We have the biggest reform that has happened this century. We inherited a system that was broken. There was the Aged Care Royal Commission, summarised in its interim report by its title, what we inherited - it was called 'neglect'. We have put nurses back into nursing homes now 99 per cent of the time. The Opposition at the time said that wasn't possible.
GIBSON: But what about these home care packages?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're putting a range of increases of home care packages, we're doing - but the new system begins in October. What we're doing is transforming the system so that it's fit for purpose. We have an ageing population and we need more investment in hospitals. One of the things that we're doing is taking pressure off the emergency departments of hospitals by opening Urgent Care Clinics. We've opened eight already in Western Australia. We'll open another six before the end of the year as a result of the commitment that we made for 50 additional Urgent Care Clinics, bringing the total to 147.
GIBSON: Prime Minister, we've been celebrating really 25 years since the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony this morning, which is fantastic. And it was such a jubilant time.
PRIME MINISTER: It was.
GIBSON: I mean, you were an MP then, weren't you in Sydney? Did you go to the Games?
PRIME MINISTER: I was. I certainly did. I mean, it was fantastic. I went in the draw and you know, one of the surprises I had was we. You could get a ticket to weightlifting for, I think it was $15, because they wanted people to go and it was awesome. I went with a whole bunch of my mates. And the great thing about it was everyone wanted every athlete to succeed in lifting the weight, so everyone was on every athlete's side.
GIBSON: There was table tennis, there was whatever you went along to -
PRIME MINISTER: It was great hockey and all sorts.
GIBSON: Prime Minister. I've been getting a bit reflective about this this morning, though, and just thinking, I was there. The streets of Sydney, the nation generally, we were so united.
PRIME MINISTER: We were.
GIBSON: And I just kind of look now and think 25 years on, our streets are filled every weekend with protests, with division, with anger, with hatred. You're the leader of this country. Does that concern you?
PRIME MINISTER: It does, absolutely. I think that political discourse has got far more negative. I think that the way that people engage has got more aggressive. We need to be able to agree to disagree and to do so respectfully. And we need to have less shouting and more talking and, importantly, more listening. And I think social media has been a real contributor to this. It pushes people - the algorithms push people to extremes, whether they be extreme left or extreme right. You know, my electorate office has had its lease not continued because it's shared next to a church, St Clement's Church in Marrickville, an Anglican church. And people being abused when they're going to church on a Sunday and being accused of all sorts of things to do with the Middle East conflict does nothing to advance the cause, no matter where people stand on that issue.
GIBSON. So, you're moving your electoral office?
PRIME MINISTER: It's shut.
GIBSON: It's gone.
PRIME MINISTER: Shut last Friday. We're looking for a new site, but it basically became untenable for people. It shares a car park with the church and it became untenable for people to use their own car park at the church. And it suited the church because during the week, people would come to the electorate office on a weekend with church services there. There were people being abused going to funerals. And it just does my head in that people think that a cause is advanced by that sort of behaviour.
GIBSON. So, it just gets me back to that, you know, 25 years on. What have we become as a nation? And as you say, 2000, we didn't have social media, we didn't have all these things. We didn't have iPhones, we didn't have - 9/11 hadn't happened in 2000. And here we are in the world, conflicts and the marching on the streets and the chaos. Where are we?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well, it's something - I think discussing it, as a starting point. You can't find solutions until you identify the problem, and you need to acknowledge that it's a problem. I mean people want - when it comes to the Middle East, for example - people want the killing to stop, Israelis and Palestinians, they want people to live in peace and security but they also don't want conflict brought here. And I think that is a common view amongst the overwhelming majority of Australians. And one of the things I've tried to bring to politics and to leadership is to try to lower the temperature but there's so much angst out there and so much immediately dialling everything up to 11 and I just think we need to dial it all down, recognise we have far more in common than our disagreements and engage respectfully. And you know, one of the things about radio, if you look at some of the stations that used to be much more polite, if you like, are people now just shouting, and I find that unlistenable for a start.
GIBSON: Hopefully not much shouting here.
PRIME MINISTER: No. But being able to have a discussion like we're able to have now, that I've always been able to have in this studio.
GIBSON: I appreciate it. Thanks for coming in. You've got a big week, off to PNG. What now?
PRIME MINISTER: It's a huge - yes, straight there. It's sort of not really on the way from Canberra-Perth, PNG, but there you go.
GIBSON: Thanks for stopping by. Appreciate it.
