FRAN KELLY, HOST: Prime Minister, welcome to Mornings.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning Fran, good to be with you. Good to hear you back on the radio.
KELLY: Thanks very much. Well, are you happy to be the national cheerleader in chief for the Matildas during the World Cup?
PRIME MINISTER: I sure am. Sam Kerr, of course, was our flag-bearer at the Coronation in London earlier this year. She's an amazing player, and it's a fantastic event for Australia to host. We have, I think, our best chance ever of doing very, very well. We have a fantastic team, as the hosts there's a big advantage for a home team. I hope we get through the group, which is Ireland, Nigeria and Canada, and if we finish first we’re likely to face Denmark in the next round.
KELLY: You're all over it, Prime Minister. We've been running a competition here on Mornings to really get things going, asking our listeners to come up with some Matilda chants, they’ve done a great job. Gemma was our winner announced yesterday, I want you to listen to her chant.
GEMMA, LISTENER: Matildas kick a little harder, Matilda sing a little longer, Matilda you kicked the goal and bring home the World Cup.
KELLY: What do you reckon? Would you be happy to lead the crowd in that chant tonight?
PRIME MINISTER: I reckon she's pretty good, but I can't sing as well as your listener did. But the good news is about singing at the footy is that no one can hear an individual, so it gives you a bit of an incentive no matter what the quality of your voice to get behind the team. And I'm sure that the whole of Australia will be behind the team tonight. They've had great wins, not in the World Cup of course, but in the lead up, the victory against France and, of course, the victory against England, in England was amazing. England are one of the favourites along with the United States, of course, for the World Cup. And it's going to be a fantastic event, it’s the third most watched event in the world, only behind the Men's World Cup and the Olympic Games, and I think that Australians are really realising just how big this event is.
KELLY: It's massive, isn't it? Are you planning to have a word with the team or the captain Sam Kerr today before they run out?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't think they need my advice, I think they're all over it. But I certainly will be sending them a message today, is going into the dressing room. And I'm really looking forward to tonight, it will be a really exciting event.
KELLY: What's your message going to say?
PRIME MINISTER: Just best of luck and go Matildas, it will be a pretty simple message going in there. Sam Kerr’s such a great ambassador for our nation, and all of our players, of course, have done it tough. They don't get paid the same amount that male footballers do, but so many of them have played overseas as well as here. And we're seeing a real rise in the status, and I think we'll see not just Sam Kerr, but names like Emily van Egmond and Mary Fowler, what a great future she has in the game, she's just a very young player. We'll see Clare Polkinghorne, all of these players will become household names over the next month or so.
KELLY: If we win, when we won the America's Cup, Bob Hawke famously declared any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up at work today is a bum. If we win this World Cup, will you declare a national holiday?
PRIME MINISTER: I will talk to, the states are in charge of public holidays. I spoke to them, and it was a part of protocol for the Queen's passing, and I think that was the right thing to do to commemorate what was a sad event after seventy years of leadership. But I'll tell you what, it will be a time where we should celebrate as a nation if we win the World Cup, but that'll certainly be my view so I'll put that very strongly, but we won't get ahead of ourselves here. We need to get through the first round, and then wait and see how we go. We have of course played in the World Cup many times, our best performance was at the Tokyo Olympics where we finished fourth. So there's five stages you've got to get through, you’ve got to get through the group stage, then the round of sixteen, then the quarters, semis, and of course, the final. So we need to finish first or second to get to the next stage. Hopefully tonight, I think all Australians, well not all Australians, but so many of us, of course, have a bit of Irish heritage as well in our blood. So it will be it will be played in really good spirits tonight I’m sure.
KELLY: Well, you're talking to a Kelly, so I’m with you on that. Prime Minister, it's the it's the most popular sport in the world, football. More than a billion viewers expected to tune into this Women’s World Cup. How important are big events like this in the context of, you know, Dan Andrews decision to cancel the Commonwealth Games? The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has called for an Australian solution to hosting the Games here. Are you as Prime Minister engaged in any kind of Australian solution?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think the state premiers have all come out and made their position clear. I'm sad for the athletes that this isn't going ahead, it is disappointing for them that that that has happened.
KELLY: Are you concerned about any reputational damage from this in terms of hosting future major events?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this isn't the first time that it's happened, of course, the last time the Commonwealth Games was due to be hosted in Durban and a similar thing occurred. But I'm very focused on the positive of tonight, kicking off what is the third largest event to be held in the world being hosted right here in Australia and in New Zealand. And I know that the New Zealand Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins is also really looking forward to New Zealand hosting the Games. Of course, they've had a tragedy there in New Zealand, and I've been in contact with Chris this morning about that. And that is very sad indeed to see another dreadful shooting with fatalities there in New Zealand.
KELLY: Yeah, it's a terrible incident. We're speaking with the Prime Minister, Prime Minister, I know your time is tight, but just a couple of other issues because you are also the number one cheerleader for the Voice to Parliament. This week you said the Yes campaign needs to be stronger in putting its case, the Indigenous Affairs Minister, Linda Burney said last night, ‘if we miss this moment, we may never get it again’ - that was a quote. Are you worried you might be the prime minister that sinks constitutional recognition and sets back reconciliation for a long time? The polls aren’t looking great.
PRIME MINISTER: Fran, I'm the Prime Minister who is giving Australians the opportunity to have constitutional recognition. It has been spoken about for such a long period of time. We've had Labor and Liberal go to the election in 2019 promising to advance this issue. It was under the former Coalition, that they set up the Calma-Langton Report about the detail that established the Joint Parliamentary Committee under Julian Leeser and Patrick Dodson, and then nothing happened last term. I do say, if not now, when? We've waited a long period of time, 122 years to recognise the fullness of our history. We should be proud of sharing this great continent with the oldest continuous culture on earth, and that's what this referendum is about. And it's about two other things as well, getting better outcomes and closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by listening, by giving them a Voice.
KELLY: Okay, but you did say this week the Yes campaign needs to be stronger in putting its case and the key slogan –
PRIME MINISTER: What I said actually Fran, what I said, because things get reported and they get changed on the way through, is that the Yes campaign is always in any referendum harder than a No campaign - and we've seen that, so that's why it needs to be stronger. The case needs to always be stronger and it is. If you look at, and I encourage people, your listeners to look at the Yes case and the No case that has now been released. The Yes case is positive, it's about the future, it’s about hope, it's about making a difference and improving outcomes. The No campaign, I think, exposes it’s shallowness by the fact that the people that it quotes, attempts to raise issues, including quoting Greg Craven who's actually a supporter of the Yes case, and quoting others as well who are supporters of the Yes case. Because this is based upon trying to raise issues that aren't actually on the ballot paper, people will be voting on something that is very clear, and very simple – constitutional change and better outcomes through listening. Okay, I'll just change and pick better outcomes through listening.
KELLY: We are going to be joined by Warren Mundine up next, one of the leaders of the No campaign. The polls do suggest that less and less people seem to be convinced of the need for the Voice. What is your message to those Australians who are intending to vote No in this referendum?
PRIME MINISTER: My message is that this is an opportunity to produce better outcomes for Indigenous Australians. And if we keep doing things the same way, you should expect the same outcomes. At the moment, we're only achieving four out of the closing the Gap targets, we have an eight year life expectancy gap, we have a greater chance of Indigenous young males going to jail than going to university. We have a gap in education, health, housing, life expectancy, infant mortality, in so many areas, and we need to do things better. This is a change that will recognise Indigenous Australians, and will just allow them the opportunity to be listened to through an elected body that may make representations to the Parliament. It doesn't change the government, it doesn't change the way the parliament functions, it’s not about all the things that will be raised, and my challenge to Mr. Mundine during the interview is to say why without disparaging the sort of Indigenous leaders who've been disparaged in that way without raising things that actually aren't on the ballot paper. It's a simple proposition, and that's why I'm very hopeful that Australians will focus on what is being put forward and vote Yes in the referendum.
KELLY: Okay, and PM just a very quick one on some news reported in the Canberra Times today. There's been a lot of interest and a lot of fury, really over the Robodebt policy itself and the interest in the Commission's findings. The Canberra Times reports today that Kathryn Campbell has been suspended without pay from her high paid AUKUS Secretariat job following the findings of Robodebt, she was the Department Secretary at the time that oversaw it. Can you confirm, and will she be suspended permanently?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm not going to comment on individual cases in detail about the future because there are processes in place, but I certainly have been advised that that is the case. And I think that that action which has taken, of course, most people who have a look at the human tragedy that was caused by Robodebt and the findings of the Royal Commission are very, very clear about failings by the Morrison government, and indeed before going back to when Scott Morrison was the Minister, but also some failings with the bureaucracy as well, and it's appropriate that there be a response to that.
KELLY: Prime Minister, thank you very much for joining us here on Mornings.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very, Fran.
KELLY: And go the Matildas.
PRIME MINISTER: Go the Matildas.