HOST: Coming home to roost you to. This man demanded to come on after a number of comments you two made before the election. It gives me great pleasure to welcome Australia's newest Prime Minister, the Marrickville Mauler himself, Anthony Albanese.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning.
HOST: Good morning, sir.
HOST: This is an honour to be in your company.
PRIME MINISTER: Gee, I have been elevated.
HOST: Mr Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: This is a big deal. No, I said I'd keep coming on the program. Didn't I? I remember my friends before the election. I've got a few more now.
HOST: I have a few less.
PRIME MINISTER: You gave me that commitment that you were going to vote for us too.
HOST: No, no, no.
PRIME MINISTER: That was a turning point.
HOST: I remember, sir. But do you know what I remember? I remember it being more of a deal if you got a spray tan. Let's have a listen.
PRIME MINISTER: Erin, will you vote Labor if I bronze up?
HOST: Come on, Erin.
HOST: You know what? It's only one vote, it won't count anyway. Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: Molan backs Labor. That will be a splash tomorrow.
HOST: Now, Prime Minister, I don't want to focus on appearances, because that's getting other people into trouble in politics right now. But I didn't notice any particular shades of bronze on you.
PRIME MINISTER: You had to look more carefully. You had to look at my toes.
HOST: Bless. And what about Hughesy? What is he in trouble for?
HOST: Non-stop playing of this bit.
AUDIO: It won't be easy under Albanese.
HOST: You played that about 100 times last week? Didn't you Hughesy? What do you want to say to the Prime Minister now?
HOST: Well, I mean, you know what? The weather was good yesterday. And I thought maybe it will be easy under Albanese.
PRIME MINISTER: I've got to say, during the campaign, I just kept thinking to myself, and I sent this to the campaign director, Paul Erickson, I just kept saying, have we actually tested their ad? Because it just seems to me that the clear implication there is everything's really easy now. And I reckon people out there are going, “Hang on a second here”.
HOST: Do you feel different now that you're Prime Minister? Because I mean, Saturday night, can you remember the moment on Saturday night where you thought, “No, we've got it”?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. I actually had a small number of people here in my home. I had just a few of my staff. I had Penny Wong, who's one of my best friends on the planet, was here. I think she was probably here in case I lost. So, I actually cooked Penny and my son, Nathan, dinner. I cooked some pasta. Everyone was like, “Aren't you nervous?” It's like, “Oh, well, I knew that I'd done everything that I could”. So, it was what will be will be. And I'm not one of those people who, you know, look online at every movement in a vote. Because in the past, I've done those TV shows. They should start them at 7:30 or 8. Because nothing is happening. And they give this big analysis about some outcome in the electorate of Reid and it's based upon 0.01 per cent.
HOST: But the trend, Albo. The trend.
PRIME MINISTER: It's just always a bit of a nonsense until some real figures come in. And we knew that pre-poll, we had done pretty well. We expected to do better, like at nine o'clock or whenever they came in. So, I just couldn't see a path for the Coalition to get to 76 seats throughout the campaign. I just couldn't see it happening. So, it was a matter of how it turned out. But you never know until the count happens. So, I was pretty philosophical about it. If you come from my background, anything in life is a bonus. And I knew I'd done my best. And that was all that I could do. And I knew as well that “Molan backs Albanese” had gone out there.
HOST: When was the moment, Albo? What time of night was it the moment where you said to yourself, “We've got this”?
PRIME MINISTER: I didn't allow myself to get ahead. So, it was pretty late, I guess, before I knew. I knew they couldn't get there pretty early. That was clear. But the question was, what sort of Parliament would it be? Would we get to 76 or at least close to 76 to make that clear? And then really, it only really hit home when Scott Morrison rang. That was like, “Wow”. That was good. We had a good conversation, a professional conversation. And he wished me well, congratulated me. I wished him well and his family well. We had a little bit of a discussion about transition issues.
HOST: He's got to give you the Wi-Fi password for Kirribilli.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I said to him that him and his family could take their time. I wasn't one of those people who would, you know, worry about those things.
HOST: That is nice of you to give them a bit more time to move out.
HOST: Take an inventory of what is there.
HOST: Are you going to move from the Inner West to Kirribilli? Is that the move, the big move, for you, Mr Albanese?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm sitting down with Prime Minister and Cabinet who are coming to see me this morning, actually, to talk about those things. I didn't allow myself to get ahead of Saturday night. I think managing your mental health is, you know, going into what was essentially a grand final, as one of the two teams, the red team versus the blue team, if you get ahead of yourself, I think you can cause difficulties if you don't get there. And so, I didn't do that. I'll spend most of my time, I am sure, in the Lodge in Canberra. My son, of course, is still studying at uni here in Sydney. And anyway, we'll work those things through. I kind of have been a bit busy in the last week. Sworn in on Monday and headed straight to Tokyo for the Quad Leaders' meeting.
HOST: And Joe Biden definitely knows your name. Does Joe know your name?
PRIME MINISTER: Joe Biden certainly knows my name.
HOST: He liked you, didn't he? He really liked you.
PRIME MINISTER: We got on really well. We'd met before. And I think the change position that we have of action on climate change, and we have a common purpose, I think, on national security issues, on a range of matters. And we got on really well. That was a fantastic meeting.
HOST: Your son Nathan, I can imagine, you know, when I, and obviously not on the scale that you have, but things to me I always think about is I want my daughter to be really proud of me like the stuff with the Online Safety Act. And I looked at Nathan and how proud he looked standing next to you. What does it mean to you for your son? Because I know it would be really hard that your mum wasn't here to see this. That will be a hard thing for you. But how proud were you for your son to see this?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, it was just awesome. He sat here. He was more nervous than I was. He was like, “So, how's it going? How's it going?” And I dictated the speech, I had Katie Connolly, one of my staff, was literally sitting on the floor, pretty close to where I am now. And I was sitting where I am now on the lounge. And my staff had done a couple of drafts and everything of a winning speech and a losing speech. And I wanted to make sure that it was my speech. So, I just dictated it. And that was what came out of my mouth then on Saturday night at the Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL. I'm determined to keep it real. I didn't go to one of the big inner-city hotels, which is a tradition that the parties have done. I wanted to go to a local RSL at Hurlstone Park there. It's a great club. And it's one that I've spent a lot of time on over the years with the veterans at various events. And it was, for me, about keeping things local, making sure that I respected where I've come from and where I want to stay. I want to make sure that I keep my feet on the ground. It's difficult. And it was a quite extraordinary trip to Tokyo.
HOST: Were you nervous? Were you nervous?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I was. I've met President Biden before. I hadn't met Prime Minister Modi or Prime Minister Kishida before. But I was confident about our position. I had met with Prime Minister and Cabinet last week, it seems like so long ago, it seems like months ago. But we had put in place measures to ensure we could have the swearing in on Monday, if the outcome was clear, and then travel to Tokyo. It was important that Australia be represented at such an important meeting. And I thought the election would be held with a bit more of a gap, I've got to say. That's why I thought the election would be on 14 May. But that was a decision of Scott Morrison. But in the end, it meant that we hit the ground running and I didn't have time to think too much. It was that we were off. I had briefings on Sunday, then briefings on the plane on the way up, and had other briefings about defence, national security and a range of issues on the way back as well. So, we've got a lot of work done. Penny Wong is in Fiji as we speak. We've had economic updates from Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher. Richard has been acting PM this week for a few days. So, it's been a “hit the ground running” process.
HOST: Well, congratulations.
HOST: Congratulations, Prime Minister. And I think it is going to be a different Parliament. Even with you saying or getting Tanya to apologise about the Voldemort comments.
PRIME MINISTER: She did that on her own, to be fair. But I want politics to function differently. I think Australians do as well. I think the nastiness of the last Parliament where anytime we tried to speak on anything, we just got shut down. I actually want it to be a place of an exchange of ideas. And I think that people who have been elected deserve to be treated with respect. And that's how you build relationships. That's why I have a good relationship with Erin's dad. You just treat people with a bit of respect.
HOST: Except the Teals, they can go away. That's me speaking, of course, not the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, thank you so much. We look forward to catching up again soon.
HOST: We're pumped up, mate. We are going to follow your journey and we're going to stick with you. Alright, mate?
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, guys. Really appreciate it. Talk again soon.
HOST: Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
HOST: He is lovely. He's always been an incredibly lovely, affable, relatable bloke.