CLANCY OVERELL, HOST: Welcome back to Betoota Talks. We are again keeping up the momentum with our pre-election interview series. You are joined by myself, Clancy Overell, and the eternal cadet Wendell Hussey. Today's guest is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Thank you for joining us now.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good to be here.
OVERELL: Now, a lot has changed since the first time we met, Mr Albanese. It 2015 – early 2015, I think you were Infrastructure and Cities Shadow Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Shadow Minister –
OVERELL: Shadow Minister, yeah. You were still hungover from the 2014 Rabbitohs Premiership. And I guess it was back in the days when Redfern was still a bit rough, that's where we first met.
PRIME MINISTER: At Cleveland Street.
OVERELL: Yeah. Well, no, might think it might have been further in, like Redfern way, like Chippendale.
PRIME MINISTER: Chippo.
OVERELL: Yeah, but a lots changed. You're now Prime Minister. So, what I want to ask is, who was the first person who kind of instilled that into you, that you could be Prime Minister? I mean, if it was someone that you knew as a young boy that someone said it to you? Or who was the first person professionally that told you that you could be Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, personally, I only found this out through my biography, Telling It Straight by Karen Middleton, get in a free plug there, that my mum had told some of my cousins “oh he could be Prime Minister one day." She never said it to me because, you know, mothers don't do that, they like to keep you grounded. It was really only around about 2012-13 people – the Labor Party was in a bit of internal chaos, you might recall –
OVERELL: A bit going on.
PRIME MINISTER: Bit going on, and at that time some people started to come to me and say, “well, you should be leader.” And so, I hadn't really thought about it. I didn't go into politics to be the Prime Minister, I went into politics to make a difference to my local community. And so, I was Leader of the Government in the House of Representatives. So it was a more prominent role. And a few people mentioned it to me then. And then in 2013 I ran for Leader, I wasn't successful, with Bill Shorten. So then in 2019 when we lost, and of course people expected us to win, I'd already thought it through whether I wanted the job or not, if it was available, and so I had a crack and was elected unopposed and then won the 2022 election.
WENDELL HUSSEY, HOST: Niceties out of the way, let's get down to business. Latrell Mitchell looking rock hard fit. Wayne Bennett's got the arms crossed down at Heffron Centre where they are now. Is anything short of a top four finish this year for the Bunnies, a failure?
PRIME MINISTER: In Wayne we trust, and he's back.
HUSSEY: There's a vibe down there.
PRIME MINISTER: There is a huge vibe, and Latrell is looking really good as well. Cam Murray's looking good.
HUSSEY: Always looks good.
PRIME MINISTER: Ready to play in round one. I was in the dressing room after – I got this photo – in the dressing room after the semi we won a few years ago versus Manly. Cam Murray has his shirt off. He looks unbelievably good. I look complete crap. It looks like I've played for 80 minutes plus extra time.
HUSSEY: The hair is always immaculate.
PRIME MINISTER: He looks perfect.
HUSSEY: Yeah, he's, I believe that he's a bit of a man's man, like all the blokes think he's the best looking guy in the NRL, but the girlfriends have different opinions on certain players –
OVERELL: Yeah, he's traditionally good looking to the point where heterosexual men can recognise it.
HUSSEY: He suits the male gaze. Can you tell us –
PRIME MINISTER: My future mother in law just is besotted with him –
OVERELL: Cam Murray?
PRIME MINISTER: Besotted with Cam Murray.
OVERELL: He’s a local boy too, he’s a Grayndler boy wouldn’t he be?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah he’s a good boy, yeah, went to Newington, in my turf.
OVERELL: Mascot?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, yeah. Mascot juniors.
HUSSEY: You always talk about your love affair with the Bunnies. How did that start, and how did that develop to the point where you were marching on the streets when they were kicked out of the comp?
PRIME MINISTER: Just when I came out of the womb. My mum raised with with three great faiths. Catholic Church, South Sydney Rugby Football Club and the Australian Labor Party. So, I've got a little bunny that was my grandparents that is one of my cherished treasures and we just always – my mum used to take me to – you’d have to catch a couple of busses from Camperdown to Redfern and used to sit on the hill there at Redfern Oval. It was a pretty rough place I’ve gotta say, in the corner. And I played in the South’s juniors comp from under 6’s at Moore Park there, we – St Joseph's Camperdown – we played in a black jumper with one white V but a red bunny, as all the South’s juniors teams played with a bunny on the insignia. And I just always, always, loved Souths. So I said at my mum's funeral, I'm not sure what she was proud of, the fact that I was a Director on the South Sydney board or a Member of Parliament. So, I thought they were pretty level pegging. And when we got kicked out of the comp, it was a great people's movement to get us back.
OVERELL: It's really interesting looking back at that, and we won't spend too much time talking about it, because we've also interviewed Mike Whitney before. We’ve also interviewed Mikey Robins before.
PRIME MINISTER: I was on the board with both of them. Did Mike Whitney tell you about the time that him and George, we stopped them, him and George Piggins during a board meeting – they were pretty rough times. They wanted to go across to Redfern Oval and tie it on. We stopped him at the board meeting. So it was a bit rougher than our Cabinet.
OVERELL: Yes. I do, I did find it quite interesting that you kind of – these people came out of the woodwork from different areas in public life. You know, there was obviously Anthony Albanese from politics. We had Mike Whitney, Australian cricketer, and also at that time the host of Who Dares Wins on Channel Seven, and Andrew Denton, and you know, he was the thinking man in that whole arrangement. And then, of course, you had the Pappas family, and you had Mikey Robbins, the guy who would just stand up and MC these fundraisers, these endless fundraisers to get Bunnies back in the comp.
PRIME MINISTER: To try and do our bit. But, importantly, you had the people at South’s Leagues Club when we went back, when we got the news that we were kicked out of the comp, and people in tears for them. Souths was their life, and salt of the earth people. And then the contrast with when we got readmitted to the comp when we won the court case, and just the exuberance that people felt for that victory that we fought. We could have rolled over and amalgamated, but we fought and we won.
OVERELL: There's conspiracies amongst Manly Sea Eagles fans and Sydney Roosters fans that the South Sydney Rabbitohs is the reason you got elected last time, 2022, because you called on the Club and Russell Crowe voiced the nationwide ad campaign.
PRIME MINISTER: He did, he did. Russell – we didn't even advertise that it was Russell. It was quite funny at the launch because he's got that distinctive, wonderful voice. So I think the best two voices in the world are Russell Crowe and Jack Thompson.
OVERELL: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: And Russell did that for us as a favour. And you could just see people going, is that Russell Crowe?
OVERELL: Gladiator.
PRIME MINISTER: It sure was.
HUSSEY: Back to politics. The US obviously has a huge influence on what happens here and the media has been quite fixated on what's going on over there for the last couple of months. In your lifetime you've seen elections over there go from Gore versus Bush to what we had this time around, which was MAGA versus Brat. How concerned are you about the polarisation of politics seeping into the Australian landscape?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't want it to go down that road here. I think it's pretty ugly over there where people have stopped talking and having discussions and are just screaming and yelling at each other. And you know, that I think is really unhealthy in a democracy and I really hope here that we can have more civil discourse, to put it that way. I want people to engage. I want the country, as well, to be united. The US, quite clearly, is a divided country and I don't think that's a positive. I want us to concentrate on what brings us together, and that's part of the Australian way as well. We look after each other. You know, I was up in the floods recently around Townsville and Ingham, and there, I was working with David Crisafulli the Queensland Premier, and no politics involved. How do we help people? How do we fix –
OVERELL: We ran a story on that, we said Italians built North Queensland the first time, they’ve come back to do it again.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right. They're everywhere.
HUSSEY: How hard is that to do? Like politics can be quite adversarial, right? Like you're down there in Question Time, and it's hard not to shout at each other across the aisle and all that sort of stuff. Finding the common ground and finding the unity. Do you often have to check yourself and just go “oh let's just keep trying to work through this, let's not go caught up in the muck fight.”
PRIME MINISTER: I think you do have to be conscious of it, because it's really easy to just get sucked into a divide. But I think what you need to avoid is what we see happening a bit here, but certainly has happened a lot in the US, which is to look for division. And we see that trying to pit people against each other, you know, particularly punching down is one of the things that goes on where people who are vulnerable, who aren't in a position to fight back, are seen as fair game. And that, to me, is pretty unhealthy and toxic.
OVERELL: How do you respond to that? When you know, you made it clear when you came in that there was going to be certain things that were going to happen as Prime Minister, and you, you know, remained firm on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. That became something else. But you know, for what you're saying then, you're looking after disadvantage, you’re looking for people who were vulnerable, and you're looking to do something for them. You know, that sentiment, or that mission, can be written off as ‘woke’ in this day and age.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure, but you look at - we had the Closing the Gap targets last week, we're reaching 5 out of 19. You know, if you're Indigenous, you have a greater chance of infant mortality, health issues, less chance of education, less chance of proper housing. We need to do better. And that was us putting our hand up and saying well we've been doing things a certain way for a long period of time. Indigenous people have asked us to try something different, to listen to them, rather than have bureaucrats decide for them in Canberra. And that's all a Voice to Parliament was. A non-binding advisory committee. And we saw then, the example of a lot of misinformation, deliberately you know, saying that it would decide where our defence forces should be or anything else. Truth is, there was none of that. It was a pretty modest request. But we had the outcome. We accepted it. We moved on and are now trying different ways to achieve the same result.
OVERELL: What do you think some of your mentors, Tommy Uren, would think when we have a political landscape now where providing even a basic safety net for the most vulnerable people can be written off as ‘woke’ or identity politics?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they'd be distraught about it. I mean, Tommy was someone who fought in World War II. Was a POW in Timor, Changi, Burma-Siam Railway, then Japan. Saw the second bomb on Nagasaki dropped, and never had a hint of bitterness about him. Reached out against racism, sought reconciliation with Japan, and that's the Australian spirit. So, Tom would be distraught that people looking to divide – I mean, really, the next election is about cost of living, it's about education, health, everything else. It's not about how many flags people stand in front of. And you know that sort of looking for division is something that is a real concern.
HUSSEY: We had Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer on last week's show, and she was talking about this upcoming election. She said that the test for you was, had you done better than that guy? And that guy was Scott Morrison, because that was a bit of a test for the last election. What do you make of that?
PRIME MINISTER: That just shows what a generous person Bridget Archer is, if the test is to do better than Scott Morrison. That just shows her warm heart. Bridget is a very good person in a not so good party, is my view of Bridget. But you know, Scott Morrison left a shocking legacy. They left us with a $78 billion deficit. We turned that into a $22 billion surplus. Left us with aged care summed up with ‘neglect.’ Appointed himself to multiple ministries without telling anyone.
OVERELL: That was pretty bad wasn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER:It was a shocker. He was living with Josh Frydenberg and didn't tell him he was also the Treasurer. We had the Robodebt scandal, which cost lives, literally cost lives. An immigration system that was in just a disaster. No skills agreement for a decade, like it was a shocking legacy. Inflation had six in front of it when we were elected, it's now got a two in front of it. And so I thank Bridget for setting that as a test, I've got to say. But you know that's why when I see the slogan that Peter Dutton has decided upon, ‘Back on Track’, the first word ‘back.’ I don't think we want to go back to the chaos and dysfunction that was the Morrison Government of which Peter Dutton was a key part.
OVERELL: Now, the newspapers and press gallery are obviously going to champion that messaging. Let's get Australia back on track and champion that amnesia. They've got a lot more love, a lot more love for your opponent than you. I'm sure you've been made aware of that over the last term in Parliament. But you've been around long enough to know, you know, when the media class does turn on a leader, it can do damage. Why do you think they like Peter Dutton more than you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's some in the media who are a cheer squad for the other side of politics, and you just factor that in. I think people factor that in. They're smart. I think a reputable outlet like the Betoota Advocate provides more news than some of the so-called news outlets –
OVERELL: Mastheads.
PRIME MINISTER: Which are there just producing, you know, over and over similar articles which are essentially a cheer squad for one side of politics. I don't think that you can let that get to you, get inside your head, I think that's part of the objective. People are smart enough to know when they see the lines over and over again that that's just where they're coming from and they factor that in. Our job is to do good policy and to hope that that translates into good politics. But we've inherited a really difficult situation with global inflation off the back of COVID as well. So people have been doing it tough. We accept that, but we've been doing something about it, whereas Peter Dutton has just been opposed to every cost of living measures that we've put in place.
HUSSEY: What is your pitch to the Australian people as we go into this election? You mentioned there that people are doing it tough, and a lot of people will say that their lives are worse now than they were three years ago. What do you say to that going into this election?
PRIME MINISTER: If Peter Dutton had his way, then Australians would be, on average, $7,200 worse off. We know people have been doing it tough. That's why we've taken action. Wasn't an easy decision to change the tax cuts to make sure that everyone got a tax cut. That meant that almost 90 per cent of people were better off, but particularly young people and women that we did tax cuts, Cheaper Child Care, Cheaper Medicines, the Energy Bill Relief, Free TAFE for 600,000 Australians. So we've been dealing with the immediate pressures that people have been under whilst putting in place a system where inflation is now 2.4 per cent. It had a six in front of it when we're elected. 1.1 million jobs created. Unemployment has been lower under this Government than any government in 50 years, and that really matters. And importantly, real wages are increasing as well. Four quarters in a row. So, we have been undertaking all of that while setting Australia up for the future. We need to take action on climate change. It's real. This nuclear fantasy sometime in the 2040s doesn't have any plan for energy security. Says that 40 per cent less energy will be used than what the Australian Energy Market Operator says will be necessary. What that means is 40 per cent less economic activity, 40 per cent less jobs, manufacturing going offshore. That's what their figures show. So I think the contrast is really strong. Australians would have been worse off if Peter Dutton had been in government, if Morrison had been re-elected. And they'll be worse off still if there's a change of government. We know what they do when they come into government – they cut. Peter Dutton is saying that they'll cut everything but he won't tell you what it is, and the only positive plans they're saying they'll do is this nuclear fantasy in the 2040s and free lunch for bosses.
OVERELL: So you, you've been, you've lived that life. You've been – you've had corn flakes for dinner. You know, let's put it that way. You've white knuckled it you know, economically, as a young man. You can understand why people are looking for some sort of pressure valve. You know what I mean? Some would say that the referendum copped a bit of that too. You know, how do you explain to the voters that things take time, and how do you do that?
PRIME MINISTER: That we've got your back.
OVERELL: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: The last election, I said, no one left behind, no one held back. You know, no one left behind – we've increased Rent Assistance, for example, by 45 per cent. We have cut student debt by $3 billion and if we're re-elected, we'll chop another 20 per cent off student debt. We are looking after the youngest Australians through Cheaper Child Care by giving a 15 per cent pay increase to child care workers so there's someone to look after kids. But in aged care, we've done the same. Aged care workers getting a huge increase that they needed. There's a nurse in nursing homes 99 per cent of the time. That's what we said we would do. The Coalition said that was impossible. We've done it. And so whether you're the youngest Australians or oldest Australians, or in the middle if you're getting Free TAFE, the support that we've done with the schools agreements across the country. We're doing our best to make sure people are being looked after, but as well having our eye in these turbulent seas, having our eye on the horizon. So where are the jobs of the future? Through the shift to green aluminium, green steel, support for a Future Made in Australia, all of those measures as well.
OVERELL: Now, in your sixth decade, you're probably working harder than you've ever worked before. You're not a local Member anymore. The next couple months you're going to be visiting every single town in Australia every two days. What do you do? What do you do when you get a moment yourself? That's our question, because you're up at sparrow’s fart. You know, we have to do this. You walked into an empty Betoota Advocate, because you had to get in here to make time, right? Do you play backgammon? What do you, what are we talking about?
HUSSEY: Candy Crush?
OVERELL: Golf?
PRIME MINISTER: No. Sometimes I do Sudoku on the plane, I've got to say, occasionally. That keeps the old mind going. I watch – Jodie and I watch the odd Netflix show, and it can take a really long period of time. It can take a couple of months.
OVERELL: You have to watch it together.
HUSSEY: She's sitting on episode four for six weeks.
PRIME MINISTER: Although from time to time, don't tell her I said this. From time to time, she has sneaked ahead an episode.
HUSSEY: Well she’s got to you know.
PRIME MINISTER: You know, which is understandable.
HUSSEY: The major plot twist at the end of episode six, she's like “oh, wow.”
PRIME MINISTER: Didn't see that coming. But –
HUSSEY: Do you get to enjoy footy? Like say, at the Bunnies game are you able to just go – “righto for the next 80 minutes I don't care about politics, I don't want to be wining and dining, but I just want to watch this game and enjoy.”
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely, yeah. And fortunately, Jodie is someone who enjoys footy too. We met through our love of Souths of course. And going to the footy is fantastic because you can just click off and there's nothing you're thinking about other than the next tackle –
HUSSEY: How good Cam Murray looks.
PRIME MINISTER: All of that, exactly. And similarly, with gigs as well. If you're seeing some live music, you click off, whereas if you are watching TV, you never quite click off properly.
OVERELL: Do you sneak in the back and go see the occasional, you know, pub gig? You probably can’t nowadays.
PRIME MINISTER: It's harder.
OVERELL: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: It's getting harder, but I do get into The Enmore occasionally.
OVERELL: Secret back door. I did it once.
PRIME MINISTER: It is a back door actually, in the lane there is where you get in. Last band I saw there was King Stingray. That was pretty awesome, I've got to say, or I went to see Cold Chisel in Canberra, and that was pretty good.
OVERELL: They had a big tour.
PRIME MINISTER: It was awesome.
OVERELL: Yeah. I don’t know how many dates they did but they gave it 100 every single night. It was almost like they were in their 20s again.
PRIME MINISTER: And they never, yeah, they gave their all, and they were as good as they've ever been, in my view. And I’m from a generation that got to see Chisels and Oils and Spiderbait and INXS in local pubs around here. That was pretty good.
OVERELL: What was the – Chisel had a secret name, Cold Chisel had a secret name they would play under.
PRIME MINISTER: Barking Spiders.
OVERELL: Barking Spiders. So that was when they didn't want to advertise that they were playing a gig, but they wanted to play a gig.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. I think it was Barking Spiders.
OVERELL: They all had one didn’t they?
HUSSEY: You mentioned unity a little bit earlier there. You used to have a great friendship with Chris Pyne, before he used his expertise to go into the world of defense lobbying.
PRIME MINISTER: He's now working a lot less and earning a lot more.
HUSSEY: Yes, he’s done well for himself. Who across the aisle or in the independents do you kind of get along with and don't mind having a chat to at a different function here and there?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I still have a chat with Christopher Pyne, and we exchange the odd message. But I get on with a whole bunch of people. Keith Pitt, recently, we appointed as an ambassador. He's someone I've caught up with for a beer at Bargara Hotel. I catch up with David Littleproud sometimes. I catch up with Bridget Archer. I can talk with people right across the board, and I had some of the independents for a drink at The Lodge last week, and that led to all sorts of conspiracies, but it's just politeness. I catch up with them during sitting fortnights for a meeting to chew the fat, tell them what's coming up. I'm someone who meets with MPs across the board when they ask to see me. I caught up with Warren Entsch who came to see me. He's retiring, but came to see me about a local issue. He’s a Lib from up at Cairns.
OVERELL: I want to talk now, last time we spoke, I think, we were asking you where you think you're going to make gains? You've said this. You said it multiple times in the last few months that you’re confident of a Labor majority, where do you see yourself making gains?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Leichhardt is one of them.
OVERELL: That’s what got me thinking.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, Matty Smith makes you look short Clancy, I gotta say.
OVERELL: He's seven foot tall, former Cairns Taipan.
PRIME MINISTER: I can't wait to have Matt Smith and Dan Repacholi sitting next to each other in the Parliament.
OVERELL: It seems to work in the bush, doesn't it? Just get someone who blacks out the sun and they’ll elect them.
PRIME MINISTER: I launched his campaign, the announcement at the Cairns Show, which is the biggest show outside of a capital city in Australia, I’m told. He knew everybody. Everyone knew him. And you can't miss him. And I think he's certainly one to watch. There’s a range of other seats in Queensland that we're interested in. Christopher Pyne’s old seat of Sturt, we have Claire Clutterham there, she's chasing that down. And indeed, you had Bridget Archer, so I should be polite about Bridget.
OVERELL: She might jump over to Labor yet, you don’t know.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, she's part of a very bad show. And Jess Teesdale there in Bass is fantastic. And in Braddon, we've got Anne Urquhart is one of our senators who's trying to go down to the Lower House, there's a retirement there. So a range of seats where we've got, I think, really strong candidates. Gabriel Ng in Menzies, which has a big population, around Lunar New Year, we were down there, I was down there with Peter Dutton. I was talking to people. He was talking to his candidates.
OVERELL: Was he using that broken Chinese accent when ordering food?
PRIME MINISTER: It doesn't seem to like engaging with people that much. But there at Box Hill, I think that's a show for us. But right around the country, we don't write off any seat. We'll be out there campaigning up and down, north, south, east and west.
HUSSEY: Yeah. I mean, don't write off our seat here in Maranoa, only 25 per cent swing maybe needed, I think, to bring that one home.
OVERELL: Well, yeah, look speaking of Jack Thompson earlier. Sunday Too Far Away. That was the last time we had Labor out here. Now you have – leading into that last election the narrative was, which was an interesting one, because you had previously been the Deputy Prime Minister, but still the narrative was – who is this bloke? Yeah I didn't really believe that, but that was the narrative. Right now the narrative is, what has he done? So you're obviously not going to be given the right of reply to that in the press scrum. So just rattle it off.
PRIME MINISTER: Lowered inflation, higher wages, 1.1 million jobs. So, if you don't do the economy right, you can't do other things. Two budget surpluses, first in 20 years. We'll wait and see what happens with interest rates, but we've certainly lowered inflation to the point where it's 2.4 per cent, well within the band. So it's really important. Cheaper Child Care and child care wages. The gender pay gap is at a record low because we fixed child care and aged care. Aged care was in absolute crisis when we came to government. People were leaving the sector. Older Australians wouldn't have had a workforce had we not fixed it. We fixed it with big reform. And in addition to that, our action on climate change, we not only have a target, we got a way to get there, with the Safeguard Mechanism, Capacity Investment Scheme, we've got record investment in renewables, plus gas. That's the way forward, not nuclear. And what we've done for young people, we recognise the intergenerational issues. $32 billion Homes for Australia Plan. The cut in student debt, all of those measures. The tax cuts particularly helped young people as well. And our place in the world. Like, Australia was in the naughty corner. When it came to climate change conferences in the Pacific, you had Peter Dutton making jokes about Pacific Islanders, you know, water lapping at their doors. We have turned that around, and we now have good relations in the Pacific. Good relations with ASEAN, you know, good relations as well with our traditional allies through AUKUS. And if you look at Cheng Lei, brought home from China, Sean Turnell, brought home from Myanmar, Julian Assange hanging out on the beach here in Australia with his family. Those things don't just happen. They happen because of good diplomacy and good work internationally, and because of Australia's reputation that we've restored. And that matters.
OVERELL: They're going to be playing – last election, they were doing the khaki election. They wanted to be, it almost felt like we were going into war and we needed a big, strong, Liberal Government to look after us. What do you think they're going to be playing leading into this election, 2025? What's the – is it going to be another khaki election? What's it going to be?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll wait and see. But there appears to be a shift in Peter Dutton rhetoric from anti-China, like quite hostile to trying to be more friendly, just in the last month. But you know, we've restored $20 billion of trade with China as well. That means jobs in the regions. That's made an enormous difference in barley and wine and meat products. The next election, I think – I don't know, because they haven't got much going forward. Like they've got those three policies in three years, that's all they've developed. Nuclear fantasy, free lunches for bosses that everyone has to pay for, and cuts that they'll make but they won't tell you what they are. So it will be hard for Dutton, I think they will just try to take advantage of the fact there's been global inflationary pressures on, we know people have been doing it tough. But they'll continue to talk Australia down. My job is to be optimistic as the nation's leader, because I am. I reckon something like climate change is a good example. You can go “oh it's all too hard, it's going to be too difficult.” The truth is that acting on it also will produce jobs and economic activity, particularly in the regions.
OVERELL: Do you think the same about housing?
PRIME MINISTER: Housing? Absolutely we –
OVERELL: It does feel nihilistic for young people. They’ve kind of just, in their mind, turned off to the idea of owning home.
PRIME MINISTER: And it's tough. They didn't even have a Housing Minister most of the time they were in government. We've put more money into housing than any government in Australia's history. So whether it's social housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund whether it’s Built to Rent. In my turf of Marrickville, yesterday there was an announcement of 1200 extra places. 1200 –
OVERELL: Is that that flat iron on Parramatta Road?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, no, that's, that's the other – I think there's four to five hundred going there, but 1200 around Marrickville, four to five hundred in Camperdown. That's what we need to do, sensible development that gives people an opportunity to get into housing. Supply is the key, and if you don't build more homes, and that is what we've done through Housing Australia Future Fund, the Build to Rent scheme, as well as our Help to Buy scheme as well.
HUSSEY: Now, we cover a range of things here at the Betoota Advocate, but one of them that we've covered in a fair bit of detail has been your bucks party. You proposed to Jodie, you’re waiting till after the election, I believe, to tie the knot. But can you confirm any plans, locations, for where the phones will be going in the Gladwrap bags and getting on it for a weekend?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Betoota would be pretty good.
OVERELL: It’s pretty visible in Betoota.
HUSSEY: Well you are, you could do the –
PRIME MINISTER: The Birdsville Races maybe? That's a big – I've been there once.
HUSSEY: Kidman Hotel here in town. You can block up the windows upstairs. They'll let you have that.
PRIME MINISTER: There's Rusty's farm up there at Nana Glen, that'd be pretty good. He's got a pub there as well, on location.
OVERELL: On location.
PRIME MINISTER: How good is that?
OVERELL: Have you considered maybe Magic Round for a buck’s party?
PRIME MINISTER: Magic Round for a buck’s party?
OVERELL: I mean it’s probably a bit more sensible than Vegas Round.
PRIME MINISTER: That would be – Magic Round. I’ve been to a Magic Round, and indeed it is fabulous to see everyone walking around Brisbane just in their colours. It's awesome. There's an idea. You're a visionary.
OVERELL: Yeah, I know. You’ve got to have a bucks though. That's the thing.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh no. It has to happen. It has to happen. Are you guys going to come on the bucks?
HUSSEY: On the bucks? Well yeah if we could be added to the group chat.
OVERELL: Penny Wong's running the group chat. Who's running the group chat? Is it Nick Cave?
PRIME MINISTER: Nick, Penny. It's an eclectic bunch. Cam Murray –
OVERALL: Cam Murray.
HUSSEY: Jim Chalmers will be champing at the bit, I reckon.
OVERELL: Anyway, thank you very much for joining us, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, guys. And how about you let this guy get off his cadetship?
HUSSEY: Oh I know he keeps dangling the carrot. My dad's been mates with him for ages.
OVERELL: A decade as the cadet.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s long enough for you, I’m giving the Prime Minister imprimatur here.
HUSSEY: Thank you, yeah.
OVERELL: Well, the thing is Mr Albanese, I gave this kid a job because he was going off the rails. I'm not convinced he's back on, back on the rails yet.
HUSSEY: I don’t know, this buck’s party chat might get me off it.
PRIME MINISTER: He’s clean cut. Give him a break.
OVERELL: Yeah he got a haircut. Thank you for joining us. And glory, glory to South Sydney.
PRIME MINISTER: Indeed, this year.
OVERELL: This year.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s always this year. We're always Premiers in February.