A very special political edition of Yay or Nay today with the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Good morning to you, Sir.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Wonderful to be back here in beautiful Perth. I've brought the rain.
CURULLI: Thanks for that.
KYMBA CAHILL, HOST: Yeah, haven't you.
PRIME MINISTER: Everyone's pleased with it. People are saying to me it's been too dry here.
CAHILL: Yeah it's good. We've turned our sprinklers off. It's time, we're ready.
CURULLI: Mate, are you on a cloud at the moment? Because you, just speaking of, it was raining votes for your party in the last election and I just, it was over before it began.
PRIME MINISTER: It went pretty well. It was good to have a Saturday night of the election where you are pretty relaxed by early on. Some people have said to me, 'Oh, you know, wouldn't have been better if it was closer?'. And I'm like - "no, I'm the sort of guy who wants my team to win by twenty goals, not one".
CAHILL: Yeah well, and you've avoided the awkward situation of having to sit in any job interviews and tell them what your negative traits are. Like, if they are like, 'Tell us the worst thing about up you. 'I'm a perfectionist'. 'I work too hard'.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah well, I was confident and said that we would be in a position to form a majority government and we were. So now we have to repay that trust that we've been shown. Not get carried away, implement what we said we would do. And that's why I brought the entire Cabinet here yesterday afternoon. We had a great meeting here. And that I think symbolises the fact that we won't forget the appreciation that we have for the way that West Australians have voted and the confidence they've shown in us.
CURULLI: We appreciate that. We're going to play a round of Yay or Nay. So, very simple game - you get a three, two, one, countdown. I'm going to give you a topic, yourself and Kymba, then you'll hear that countdown and then you have to immediately say whether you are yay for it or nay for it. Are you ready to go?
PRIME MINISTER: That's a pretty simple game. I can do that I think.
CURULLI: It is a very simple game.
CAHILL: Manageable.
CURULLI: And then we discuss. Okay, here we go. Number one, influencers getting involved in political campaigns?
PRIME MINISTER: Yay.
CURULLI: Yay.
CAHILL: Nay.
CURULLI: Nay for you.
CAHILL: Yeah, I don't really know. What are your thoughts? Why yay?
PRIME MINISTER: Because politics shouldn't be about just people in suits and old blokes essentially pontificating behind a keyboard. It should be about everyone participating and the more people get involved, the better. And one of the things that, so called, influencers represent is just new media. They're just a different form of media and engagement. And you've got to get to people where they are. I mean, one of the things I do as you know, here speaking at 94.5, is I do, I love doing FM radio, not just AM or Four Corners or what have you. Because that's what people are listening to and it gives you an opportunity to get that feedback.
CAHILL: I hear what you're saying, but I think if influencers, it's that thing where you go, if people are influencing to say, 'Hey, I think you should get involved in politics, work out how it works, go and research your parties'. But if people are just going, 'I'm voting what you're voting, Taylor', then I don't think it's cool.
CURULLI: Like Abbie Chatfield backing the Greens.
CAHILL: I want people to think for themselves.
CURULLI: That's pretty powerful.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, and she did that. I did her podcast. She's a Greens supporter, but she had me on to pitch my view. And why wouldn't you want to talk to that audience and talk to people who are engaged, who won't listen to the nightly news?
CURULLI: And other forms of media.
PRIME MINISTER: But they will listen to that. And why is that any less legitimate than some of the talkbacks on some of the Sydney radio stations I'm thinking of, for example.
CURULLI: We don't worry about them over here.
CAHILL: You don't even have to move to them, we know we don't know what we're talking about.
PRIME MINISTER: But they're very different from, I mean, Perth AM radio is very different from some of the Sydney stations who just yell. Like, you go on their stations and it's just them shouting at you and that's what they do.
CURULLI: I have one more for you -
PRIME MINISTER: So, they're trying to influence opinion as well.
CURULLI: One more for you. A little light-hearted one here. Valentine's Day proposals?
CAHILL: Nay.
PRIME MINISTER: Yay.
CURULLI: We thought that might be the case.
PRIME MINISTER: Come on. Come on, bring the romance here.
CAHILL: Is it romantic or is it lazy? I mean, you could have picked any other day. Do you not have an anniversary date even?
PRIME MINISTER: Like now, I will never forget, nor will Jodie, the day I proposed. It's a really -
CAHILL: That's kind of my point. It's lazy, mate. You could remember another day, you know you can.
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's not.
CAHILL: I believe in you, Albo.
PRIME MINISTER: Why need to? What, we're going to have Christmas Day not on December 25th each year?
CAHILL: No, it's just if you proposed on Christmas Day, it's lazy. It's already Christmas. Like Valentine's Day is already Valentine's.
PRIME MINISTER: It already about love.
CURULLI: Yeah, it's so funny because I think blokes think differently. Like for a time there, I had an alarm set on my phone that would go off at 7am every morning where I'd send my wife, it would remind me, 'Send my wife a nice message for the morning'.
PRIME MINISTER: And isn't that good?
CURULLI: Well, when she found out that I had to set an alarm, like, it didn't go down very well.
PRIME MINISTER: You're a bloke, mate. Give you give yourself a pat on the back.
CURULLI: Every day I do, mate. Prime Minister, great to have you in.
PRIME MINISTER: Fantastic.
CURULLI: Good to catch up with you, mate. We'll catch up with you again.
PRIME MINISTER: Good to be here.
