Everybody upstanding please. The Prime Minister is in the house. Anthony Albanese. Welcome back, Albo.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good to be here.
NATHAN MORRIS, HOST: He's upset with us.
SHAUN MCMANUS, HOST: Oh, why are you upset Albo?
MORRIS: We cheated on him.
LOCKE: Oh, yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: That's true.
LOCKE: Sorry about that. We're just being even in the scheme of things.
MORRIS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: You don't seem terribly enthused about it, so I'm probably fine.
MORRIS: Nothing happened that would have helped him.
MCMANUS: The interesting thing is that both political parties always promising the world and whether they deliver on that is an interesting time. You've got some good news recently, there's child care raises?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.
MCMANUS: What else? Taxes. We've already spoken about that once before.
PRIME MINISTER: You've had - every one of your listeners has had a tax cut since I've last been in the studio.
MCMANUS: You know, sorry Albo -
PRIME MINISTER: That's made a big difference.
MCMANUS: Yeah, it has. I'm just reading a lot of stuff with the RBA and they're saying more money in the economy is not good because the inflation. That's what we're talking about, cost of living. It's such a tight line because that tax cut was always going to happen whether you're in government or the Opposition we're in government to whatever level it was.
PRIME MINISTER: Ours is different. Ours was going to be to everyone though. Not just to me.
MCMANUS. So, there's more money in the system is what I'm talking about. Then you've got the RBA saying more money in the system is bad and that's-
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what Michele Bullock has actually said is that the Reserve Bank's job is to look after inflation, which it is. The Government's job is to look after inflation but it's also to look after people. There's a shorter version as well. What we've done, is we're having cost of living relief whilst we're putting that downward pressure on inflation. That's why we've designed some things like 500,000 extra fee-free TAFE places - helps people but it also puts downward pressure on costs. Cheaper child care - yesterday we announced a 15 per cent wage increase for child care workers, early educators. Well, they're just underpaid. If we didn't do something about it, there wouldn't be people to look after our youngest Australians. They're not child minding. What they're doing is giving our youngest Australians a good start in life and we know that's so important for our economy. I'm really proud. A 10 per cent wage increase from this December, another 5 per cent next December.
LOCKE: And that's not going to cause the cost of child care to go up?
PRIME MINISTER: No, exactly.
LOCKE: Because that's the big concern.
PRIME MINISTER: We designed it in that way. In order to be eligible, the centres have to guarantee that they will put a cap on their costs. So, it won't be passed through. It's good for workers, good for kids and good for families as well. But it's also good for the economy. The economy benefits because women can go back to work earlier or they might work an extra day or two. This is really positive. This is how you design economic policy in a way that helps people but also puts that downward pressure on inflation.
MORRIS: What's happening with the supermarkets? What are we doing about that? Because we had the investigation, we all know, we're being ripped off. We know that. What's the next move?
PRIME MINISTER: What we're doing is we're mandating - they had this voluntary code of conduct, which is a bit of a joke, really, that they designed and looked after. So, it was like, 'trust us'. What we're doing is mandating the code of conduct. We're giving the ACCC, the competition tribunal, extra powers.
LOCKE. So, when will that happen? When will we see the fruits of that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that that's happening already. One of the things we are seeing is some response because they know it's coming as well. We're already seeing, if you look at the last inflation figures, the things that were difficult, that were sticky, were things like insurance, petrol prices, that are, of course, is impacted by international figures. If you look at some of the other areas, they are heading in the right direction.
MORRIS: Because my butter is $8.
MCMANUS: Yeah, well, you go for the fancy one.
MORRIS: I go for ButterSoft, I don't have time to chip away.
MCMANUS: Is ButterSoft fake butter, by the way?
MORRIS: No, no, no. It's real butter, just softer. It's called ButterSoft.
MCMANUS: It's just great marketing. I wonder where they came up with that one from?
PRIME MINISTER: Great marketing. They should get a bill for that free ad. I reckon you might get a little punnet of ButterSoft arrive for free in the here.
MORRIS: ButterSoft, I wouldn't use anything else. Let talk about you. I think that you actively use margarine. Am I right?
LOCKE: That's a slur, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't actually.
MORRIS: I do, I think he's a margarine person.
PRIME MINISTER: I don't use either.
MORRIS: What do you mean?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't use either.
MORRIS: Ever? You can't have Vegemite on bread. You can't just have raw Vegemite. That's a monster.
PRIME MINISTER: I don't. Part of the diet. I love Vegemite, I really miss it and I can't -
LOCKE. So, does that mean you're not having toast either?
PRIME MINISTER I don't have bread. We had dinner together -
MORRIS: Yeah but I didn't notice your dry roll.
PRIME MINISTER: No, because I didn't have a roll.
MORRIS: Oh, no! That's not living.
PRIME MINISTER: That's true.
MORRIS: That's not living. Look at you. You've got so much pressure on there. Come on, mate. You can go and have a crusty roll here and there, can't you?
PRIME MINISTER: Have you seen what happens to people in this job? You've got to have some discipline, you've got to have some rules.
MORRIS: But you had your little fancy makeover. Remember when we got you your shoes from Country Road -
PRIME MINISTER: You've got to have some rules. I don't have bread -
LOCKE: And therefore don't need butter.
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly. And I limit myself. I love dessert.
MORRIS: Talk to me.
LOCKE: What's your weakness, dessert-wise?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, look, ice cream, I love ice cream.
MORRIS: Do you like a Coke spider?
PRIME MINISTER: I limit it. I love a Coke- I love a lime spider. I ordered that recently. There's a little place on the way to the coast, in Bungendore. One of those old school shops.
MCMANUS: Sorry, where's Bungendore?
PRIME MINISTER: It's inland New South Wales, in between Canberra and the coast.
MCMANUS: Awesome, great.
PRIME MINISTER. It's one of those old villages that has the old pie shop. It has one of those places that you love.
MORRIS: Like a malt shop.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, exactly. I went in there, I ordered a lime spider and all my team laughed at me. All these young ones were like, what on Earth is that?
MORRIS: And it was delicious. Did you try the lime spider? No, you didn't try and that's your problem. Because once you get past the Coke spider
PRIME MINISTER: It's a generational thing-
MORRIS: You realise the red creaming soda spider is-
PRIME MINISTER: Also excellent.
LOCKE: Good times.
PRIME MINISTER: But I'm not allowed to have them anyway. That's the point. I limit myself to one dessert a week.
MORRIS: And what is it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, ice cream. Whatever I'm given, some of the time.
MCMANUS: On the restrictions and all that kind of stuff. I always ask is the publicans as well. You go to many an event, and in a lot of the cases people want to see you have a beer with a local. You know, in a staged photo. You have got to have a beer anyway. Maybe a wine at a different event. How do you go about pacing yourself during a week?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I was at the Quinns Rocks Sports Club last night.
MCMANUS: Awesome.
PRIME MINISTER: I had a pint there with locals-
MCMANUS: I guess you do have a driver every time.
LOCKE: Do you invoke Bob Hawke and slam it back?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven't driven in over two years. I don't have to worry about that. Had just one. It was great. That's one of the things, you see, if you got a choice between giving up bread or beer. Sorry, the bread goes.
LOCKE: You're making the right choice.
PRIME MINISTER: The bread is gone.
MORRIS: Around the world culturally, if they hand you something and they want you to try a local delicacy, then you sort of have to have it?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh yeah. Well then you do it. I'm not religious about it and that's the key, I have found. You know, I won't say I haven't had bread for two years or three years or what have you. I have it occasionally. I just try to have a few little rules, if you like, in my head of no, no don't do that. So, I go to a function- quite frankly, often it's pretty easy to be disciplined about having a lunch, where they give you three courses and you know, it's rubber chicken, or chicken or salmon, is usually it. I don't eat much at those lunches.I always say, absolutely always say no to the dessert. I did have- I broke, it was Jodie's birthday last week and I have got to say, the place we went to for dinner had an amazing cake.
LOCKE: Oh really?
PRIME MINISTER: An amazing cake. And I loved it. See sometimes too, if you limit your intake, when you do have it, it's so good.
MORRIS: It's amazing.
LOCKE: It's even better when you do it.
PRIME MINISTER. So good.
MCMANUS: Hey Albo, with you being here and I know we're running out of time very quickly though-
PRIME MINISTER: We're on the big picture here today, aren't we?
MCMANUS: We've discussed everything but the one thing just in my household, just yesterday my wife was talking to someone and they were talking about the terrorist attack and the threat level being up. I thought wow, that's really filtered all the way through. Sometimes I dismiss this stuff.
LOCKE: And Taylor Swift's concert got cancelled. There's a lot of stuff going on in the world.
MCMANUS: Yeah. So, that's concerning.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh it sure is. Look, you know we shouldn't change our behaviour. In this country, we need to continue to be out and about. The Prime Minister needs to be able to walk into the Quinns Rocks Sports Club and get amongst a couple of hundred people. That's a great thing that we can do that. We do need to be conscious that we're in a more dangerous world. There are more threats, including threats to politicians. One of the things we need to do, as well, as political leaders, we need to dial it down a bit. You know, everything goes from one to eleven straight away. That's not helpful.
MCMANUS: How do you do that?
PRIME MINISTER: You do that by being respectful about differences. Not immediately, you know, seeking division. We live in a great country where there is a diversity of religions and backgrounds that people have. There's diversity of views. That's a strength as long as we're respectful to each other, and that's really important.
MORRIS: Well, we're seeing that in the UK at the moment with the riots. I mean, those riots are really fundamentally started by a lie about the background and ethnicity of that young kid that was involved in the Taylor Swift stabbings. A lie-
PRIME MINISTER: That was social media.
MORRIS: That was social media. The lie was defunct. People didn't care. That's what's still powering that.
PRIME MINISTER: And it gets repeated over and over again. Australia, we are not participants in the current conflict in the Middle East, for example. But there's a whole lot- you look on any of my social posts-
LOCKE: I'm amazed at the responses.
PRIME MINISTER: And you'll see comments that are just wrong. It's just wrong and it's spread and people believe it and so, you know, all of that as well. People have to take their own responsibility for what they say and what they repeat.
MORRIS: You know, I just think, get all the terrorist cells together and then sit everyone down, and go, we're all going to have a chat now and try and calm this down. But first off, lime spiders.
PRIME MINISTER: Bring on joy.
MORRIS: Don't you think?
LOCKE: I tell you who else deserves lime spiders all around the Olympic team, obviously.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, they have been awesome.
MORRIS: That's under your prime ministership.
PRIME MINISTER: Is that an accident? I'll raise that.
LOCKE: Best call ever.
PRIME MINISTER: I tell you what, I got a wonderful message from one of the Olympic team, the admin people, just saying that the difference that we made. We put in funding earlier, so that a lot of the athletes, who don't get a lot for what they do, could go and compete in world championships and compete around the world and do that. The feedback is that has made a real difference. I get to welcome them back next Wednesday morning. They've just lifted up the whole country.
MCMANUS: Isn't that amazing? You watch an individual compete, you don't know them from a bar of soap, you fall in love with their story, get behind them as they represent our nation and you feel like you've won.
MORRIS: It's just a shame that we don't follow them their whole time when they're not on the Olympics, you know what I mean? Because they do really need your support all the time to get to where they are.
LOCKE: The swimmers get a lot of glory in this country, and as they should. You know, there are people like Grace Brown, who won the first gold medal for Australia for these games. The cyclist. Nobody had ever heard of her.
PRIME MINISTER: Cycling through the streets of Paris in the wet. Incredible.
MORRIS: Question- would you jump into the Seine today and do a bit of a lap?
PRIME MINISTER: No one wants to see that, mate.
LOCKE: You're saving the people of France.
MORRIS: Wait there, because I'm getting your sluggos.
PRIME MINISTER: I used to swim in Sydney Harbour.
MORRIS: Have you ever been a sluggos person?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course I have.
MCMANUS: It's a certain age. I still wear them now.
LOCKE: Tony Abbott put the country off the Prime Minister in sluggos, though, didn't he?
PRIME MINISTER: With good reason. The country was right. He was wrong.
MORRIS. So, in your drawer, your chosen swimsuit is a Speedo?
PRIME MINISTER: I do have Speedos.
MORRIS: Oh Albo, no.
LOCKE: Do you, because there's a pool at the lodge-
PRIME MINISTER: In the pool. In the privacy of the pool. Set up and down, away you go.
LOCKE: Toto and all the staff, watching.
MORRIS: Just eyes on the sky for drones.
LOCKE: The Italians peering over the fence from next door.
PRIME MINISTER: Toto is fine with it.
MCMANUS: He's seen a bit more.
LOCKE: If it's ok with Toto, it's ok with us. Prime Minister, it's always a joy. We'll see you next time.
PRIME MINISTER: Awesome. See you in, I'm bringing the whole ministry back in the first week of September.
LOCKE: God, that's a threat.
MORRIS: Bring them all in. Bring them all in, it will be great.
PRIME MINISTER: Bring the whole ministry in?
LOCKE: Back in the day, when Scott Morrison was Prime Minister, that was just him. So that was a lot cheaper exercise.
PRIME MINISTER: I had a reshuffle. Just before I did the reshuffle, Anika Wells who is the Sports Minister- now think about this. If you were in my position, and Anika Wells was in Paris-
MCMANUS: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: And texting you photos of herself in Paris with the Olympians, would you be tempted to, in the reshuffle, appoint yourself as the Olympics Minister? Recall Anika and head over there. I thought about it. I did think about it.
MORRIS: What about splitting the role between three local radio hosts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well. Envoys, special envoys.
LOCKE: Can you call us an attaché? I've always wanted to be an attaché.
PRIME MINISTER: An attaché?
LOCKE: I don't know what it means.
MORRIS: Sounds like a sex worker. And I'll be one, yes.
LOCKE: Albo, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: That's a note to end on. I'm out of here.
