Where is my Prime Minister?
TIM BLACKWELL, HOST: Where is my Prime Minister? Your Prime Minister's right here. Mr. Anthony Albanese, good morning at 11 to 8.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. How are you coping with getting up a bit early?
COULTER: It's very different. It's very, very different. What time do you usually get up in the morning?
BLACKWELL: This is good.
PRIME MINISTER: Too early, too early.
COULTER: Too early.
PRIME MINISTER: About half past five, something like that usually.
COULTER: There we go.
BLACKWELL: I just don't want to have this job and then that turn into my personality though, like talk about bedtimes and waking up times. I'm gonna try and be normal.
COULTER: Well, it has, it has become your personality.
BLACKWELL: I need to say apologies to you Mr. Prime Minister. The last time we had you on Albo, I put you on hold. I won't be doing that now. You're live on air around Sydney. We've got Sarah Harris here.
SARAH HARRIS, HOST: Hi, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Welcome Sarah.
HARRIS: Hey. Have you caught any of the show this morning?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven't. I'm in Canberra so I've been doing -
HARRIS: Oh, we're on the live stream -
PRIME MINISTER: I have been getting on top of things for the week ahead in Parliament -
COULTER: Very, very busy man.
PRIME MINISTER: Feeding, feeding the dog, doing all the things that you have to do.
BLACKWELL: How's Toto? Is Toto still all right?
PRIME MINISTER: Toto is all right. Absolutely. And I've just been trying to calm her down from barking in the background because my security team have arrived. She gets upset because she knows that they take me away for the day.
COULTER: Oh, that is adorable. Mr. Prime Minister, I wanted to ask you - you are obviously in the top job in Australia, and we have somehow been trusted with what is considered the top job in radio in Australia. Do you have any tips for us for handling all of that pressure and responsibility on our shoulders?
BLACKWELL: Yeah. Not to get too ahead of ourselves, you know, that kind of thing.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I've been, you know, working away. You'll be, you'll be fine. You'll be fine. Just as long as you arrive at the right time. You must have to adjust. I find now I'm just used to getting up early. I go to bed early now and I used to be a night person but that's all, that's all gone to rubbish now in this job.
HARRIS: I don't know, at times this morning, I don't know, I felt like, it's felt like the Coalition in this studio. It's a bit of a hot mess at times. What is going on there? Do you even have an Opposition anymore, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, look, I just sit back and watch with some incredulity, I've got to say at their carry on. They really don't like each other and I think yesterday, having a look at them, you know, David Littleproud looked like a hostage at that press conference. And I'll just, I'll just let them - I'll concentrate on doing my job, which is providing support for people and dealing with cost of living pressures. And dealing with international issues, the full bit that we've got to deal with -
COULTER: Do you reckon we'll ever see Pauline Hanson as Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
BLACKWELL: Good.
PRIME MINISTER: No, Pauline Hanson and One Nation are all about grievance and identifying problems, not providing solutions and dividing people. So, I think it's unfortunate the state of the traditional conservative parties in Australia at the moment. I hope they get their act together because I think that's good for the country to have a strong government, and a strong Opposition, but I don't think Pauline Hanson is the answer to anything.
COULTER: That's good to hear. I wanted to speak to you this morning as well about the women's health package that the government has focused on. I personally had endometriosis and it took me such a long time, like ten years to get the right diagnosis and actually get the treatment and eventually get the surgery. And I'm so pleased to see that the government has a huge focus on women's health.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, absolutely. It's so important. It's the biggest women's health package that Australia's ever had. More than 660,000 women already since in the last year, have accessed more than 2 million cheaper scripts for things like new contraceptives and menopausal hormone therapies, endo treatment, that have been listed on the PBS. We've opened Medicare Endo Clinics as well that are making a real difference.
COULTER: It's huge.
PRIME MINISTER: Making a real difference to women's health, saving families thousands of dollars across their lifetimes and just having an appropriate acknowledgement that for a long time these issues were ignored. And in people like Katy Gallagher, our Minister for Women, she's such a strong advocate, and putting that front and centre makes an enormous difference.
COULTER: It sure does. It sure does.
BLACKWELL: Now, Valentine's Day is coming up on the weekend. Are you taking Jodie to Frangos in Petersham?
PRIME MINISTER: I wish I could. That might be a bit different. I love Frangos, upstairs there.
BLACKWELL: I know, it's so nice. I sit out the back with the soccer posters, but that's -
COULTER: VIP.
HARRIS: You're not blowing off Valentine's Day in the first year, are you, PM?
PRIME MINISTER: No, of course I'm not. I, of course, proposed on Valentine's Day two years ago -
HARRIS: We've got to top that now.
PRIME MINISTER: It took us a little while, we had through an election -
BLACKWELL: You don't put your feet up after that, though. You don't propose and then do nothing.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we closed the deal. But I'm going to, I'm going to Orange on Saturday to speak to the ALP Country Conference there, and then I'll come back, and then Jodie and I are going out for dinner.
COULTER: Oh, beautiful.
PRIME MINISTER: We're not going to Frangos.
BLACKWELL: Okay, well, I'll go, I'll go for you.
PRIME MINISTER: Just in case people were -
BLACKWELL: Oh, yeah, wink. You're not going to Frangos. All right.
COULTER: Well, congratulations on the wedding, too.
BLACKWELL: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: It was, it was fantastic. And it was such a lovely day. It was small, but absolutely delightful. And it was raining in the morning, which I'm told is, is bad luck.
HARRIS: Oh, no.
BLACKWELL: Well, it's nice that Kyle got the invite and ours didn't hit our inbox.
HARRIS: Went to the Hotmail account.
PRIME MINISTER: There were no media people there, no celebrities there -
BLACKWELL: I know.
PRIME MINISTER: Families and friends. And it, on the day when it was raining, Jodie was getting prepared and not, not panicking, but very, very concerned and complaining that, you know, 'it's pouring outside', and I was telling a little white lie by saying it's just sprinkling. And it was actually pouring.
COULTER: See, you know what to do.
PRIME MINISTER: It stopped just in time.
COULTER: Good husband mode.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, that's it.
COULTER: Good husband mode.
BLACKWELL: All right, well, for the record, you're not going to Frangos in Petersham for Valentine's Day. Mate, lovely to speak to you, as always.
PRIME MINISTER: Enjoy.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, you too. Thanks, Prime Minister.
