SARAH MACDONALD, HOST: We're starting the morning with the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese. Good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Sarah. Good to chat with you.
MACDONALD: Good to have you too. What a morning. The Middle East again seeing war and carnage and we've been talking a little bit about that on AM. I know Penny Wong has spoken to the Foreign Minister of Israel. Who have you spoken to and what's your latest thoughts on the conflict?
PRIME MINISTER: I've spoken to the Israeli Ambassador to Australia who's there in Israel, as well as with our DFAT officials on the ground there. This was an unprovoked and quite horrific attack: more than 1,000 Hamas fighters heading into southern Israel, some 600 Israelis killed and then hundreds of people killed as well in Gaza. This was an extraordinary attack, obviously coordinated over a long period of time and very indiscriminate in who it targeted: families going about their daily business, people in Kibbutzim, a rave concert of young people being either murdered or in some cases taken captive and taken into Gaza. And it is of real concern. For those Australians who are concerned about relatives or family they can call 1300 555 135. That's 1300 555 135, because we know that there are many Australians present at any time in that region.
MACDONALD: Israel is fighting back and it's looking like this could be a long and difficult war, including a ground war in Gaza. Is our support utterly unconditional for Israel?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we call upon everyone to do what they can to protect civilians. But Israel, of course, has a right to defend itself. This was an attack on its territory in southern Israel and they were abhorrent. They must stop. We call for all of the hostages to be released. There is nothing to justify the targeting of civilians in such a way.
MACDONALD: Should we be lighting up the Opera House with the Israel flag tonight? I know there is concern by many about the house being lit with flag designs and a new policy to reduce this.
PRIME MINISTER: That's a matter for the NSW Government. My understanding is that they've made that decision in order to show their sympathy and solidarity with what has occurred here. From time to time we do that. The Opera House has become a symbol from time to time. It's controversial when it's lit up, but it is a symbol of Australia. And certainly when Prime Minister Modi, for example, visited Australia, we had the Indian flag there.
MACDONALD: But you asked for that, didn't you?
PRIME MINISTER: I did. The objective there was going to be as part of the Quad Leaders meeting, the intention was for all four nations flags involved in the Quad were going to be part of that exercise.
MACDONALD: I'm getting some texts about that, but I'll come to those in just a moment. The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is with us. How concerned are you about Hezbollah joining in and Israel having to fight on multiple fronts here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm very concerned about any escalation of the conflict here. That will, of course, just result in further casualties on all sides and that will not be productive if that occurs from southern Lebanon.
MACDONALD: What does this mean for the deal that the US has been brokering between Israel and Saudi Arabia?
PRIME MINISTER: We will wait and see how that plays out. The immediate concern here has been, quite rightly, the priority to stabilise things in Israel, to see the Hamas fighters removed from where they are. There was attacks on some 20 different locations and that has been a priority for the Israeli Defence Force, understandably. The concern here is also of the civilians who've been kidnapped here and taken to Gaza. It is likely that there are not just Israeli citizens involved in that, given the nature of the people who are visiting regularly in Israel in that part of the world.
MACDONALD: The Prime Minister is with us. It is 20 minutes to nine on ABC Radio Sydney. To the referendum, Newspoll is showing Yes down to 34. Resolve says only Tasmania is voting Yes and that the Labor vote is down and your personal approval dipping with it. Did you get Australians wrong on this?
PRIME MINISTER: No. Look, what we've done here is do what the request has been for some period of time. And prior to the 2019 election both political parties said they would advance the referendum and constitutional recognition. The Uluru Statement from the Heart goes back to 2017. I promised on dozens of occasions that we would hold a referendum and I'm still very hopeful that Australians will, in coming days, before they cast their vote, examine what it is they're voting on. And it's just two things: recognition of our history, the fact that our history goes back since before 1788. And secondly, the form of recognition that Indigenous Australians are asking for is a non-binding advisory committee, just a committee, that can give advice to the government, make representations about matters that affect Indigenous Australians. It will still be, of course, up to the Parliament or up to the government of the day whether they accept that advice or not. But we know that when we listen to people who are directly affected by issues, then you get better outcomes.
MACDONALD: I wonder, though, if perhaps things have changed since election night. We did have a caller last week who talked about election night and the priority in terms of this on the Government. I'm just going to play a little bit of him.
CALLER: He talked a lot about the Voice and I was sitting there going, 'No, Prime Minister, people don't want to talk about The Voice, they want to talk about their interest rates going up. They want to talk about the cost of living'. And I just think for an experienced political operator like Anthony Albanese, I think he just got it wrong. People are more worried about their needs right now rather than wants.
MACDONALD: Should it have been less of a priority?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, on the night, I think people sometimes forget contexts on the night. There was one sentence in an extensive acceptance speech at the beginning about fulfilling the commitment that we made. But at the same time, we've got measures such as cheaper child care - I spoke about that on the night, too. We've done it. I spoke about strengthening Medicare, we tripled the bulk billing incentive and that takes place from next month. And we have halved the cost of medicines by extending out the 60 day scripts as well as the cheaper medicines policy we introduced in January. All of the things that I said we would do, I stood up on that night and went through the commitments that we made to the Australian people and we've been busy implementing them. We now have a National Reconstruction Fund. I spoke about climate change and the 43 per cent target, we've done that as well. I spoke about all of those issues, the first one that I mentioned, because at the beginning of a speech you acknowledge the traditional owners and I did that. We've been very busy to fulfil the commitments that we gave to the Australian people and one of those was to give Australians the opportunity to vote. But at the same time, we released an Employment White Paper just two weeks ago. Last week we introduced the changes to migration. It's certainly not the only thing that we're doing.
MACDONALD: Yeah, and I'd love to talk to you about that another day, but I think we just focus on the Middle East and the referendum today. Prime Minister, if it is defeated, what will you do? Where does this leave us as a country?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, a No campaign is what we have now. That's where it leaves us, it leaves us without constitutional recognition of First Australians and without a representative body of Indigenous people to advise the government. But we'll respect the outcome of the referendum. We're a democracy. People are being given the opportunity to have their say and they'll have that for the rest of this week and on Saturday.
MACDONALD: You love Billy Bragg. He told me earlier this year that Britain soiled itself publicly with Brexit. He warned Australia the world will be watching it. Do you think this is our Brexit? Will we be soiling ourselves on the world stage if we vote No?
PRIME MINISTER: I use my own words, not others. Certainly the world is watching, but it is hard to change the Constitution in Australia, we've only been successful on eight occasions out of 44. But here we have every faith group, sporting organisations, and importantly, Indigenous organisations themselves. Every land council, the Coalition of Peaks that was established under the former government, has 56 separate Indigenous organisations and all of them are supporting a Yes vote in this referendum. I sincerely hope that we do get a positive outcome. And that's my focus in the coming week.
MACDONALD: Have you been worried and concerned about a lot of the misinformation, all sorts of crazy things coming up, including that you did away with the Queen, the Voice will take the nuclear subs we haven't even built yet. What can we do about the sort of conspiracy theories and Americanisation of our politics that's going on?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's terrible, and Peter Dutton's been a part of that asking questions in the Parliament as a wrecker about the Indigenous Voice somehow advising the Reserve Bank of Australia about interest rates is, of course, a nonsense. And it is unfortunate that we've had, quite frankly, some just absurd debates too about how long the Uluru Statement from the Heart is, even though it's been there as a one page document, a very eloquent request from Indigenous Australia to walk with them to the better future, to advance reconciliation. It is unfortunate, and some of that has been repeated over and over again. I just say to focus on, and I plead with your listeners, to just focus on what the question is. And the constitutional changes proposed just says 'in recognition of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of Australia'. That's the recognition bit. And then there's just three points. There will be a body to be called the Voice. It may make representations on matters affecting Indigenous Australians, and the Parliament will determine the laws for composition and procedures of the Voice. So, the Parliament retains its primacy. That's what's before the Australian people on Saturday. And it is unfortunate there's been a whole range of other issues raised by the No campaign.
MACDONALD: Finally, Prime Minister, we have the NSW Rental Commissioner on after nine to assist the state on what they can do with rents. What hope can you offer for help for rents in your hometown of Sydney?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we've done is have the largest increase in rental assistance in 30 years and we put that in the Budget in May. But secondly, as well, the key to this is supply, and I'm working very closely with the Minns Government and others. We had our first launch of a new project in Riverwood just last week with the Premier for our Social Housing Accelerator, about increasing supply there. But there are a range of other measures that we have to increase supply. Now that our Housing Australia Future Fund has been passed through the Senate, that will also add to additional supply. There isn't an easy quick fix here. We need to make sure that supply and better planning is the key to that.
MACDONALD: Thanks so much for your time this morning. I appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much.