DAVID LUTTERAL, HOST: Guess who's just called in? The Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, no less.
NIKKI OSBORNE, HOST: I've never heard that one before, I must admit.
LUTTERAL: How cool is this? Good morning PM. How are you?
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. I am very, very well. I'm on my way to the Gold Coast.
LUTTERAL: Well, I know why you're good. I hear you had a delicious meal at the new Cantonese restaurant, Fifty-Six, last night. I mean, as a man that likes to see Brisbane evolve, I can imagine you were very delighted with that.
PRIME MINISTER: Word’s out. It's a cracker of a restaurant, I've got to say. It was absolutely delightful.
LUTTERAL: Well, it's a sign of Brisbane emerging and going into some wonderful places. And on that note, Mr. PM, I want to ask you about the State Government. Because over the last 24 hours, it seems like they're trying to take an arena away from us, the inner city Brisbane Arena, which the Federal Government has put a significant amount of – or promising significant amount – of money in within the Olympics and the Olympic $7.1 billion. What's happening there, mate? They're trying to not build that in and around this, in five days when we have the 100 day review finishes? What's, what's happening?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's not clear. I'll leave them to make their announcements about their position. But the Federal Government, we've provided $2.5 billion for an indoor arena and importantly the whole objective there wasn't just to provide something for the Olympic Games in 2032, but to provide a legacy so that big artists when they come to Australia want to play at a venue that is close to the city, that's world class.
LUTTERAL: Yes. Dua Lipa – you're a Dua Lipa fan, I know that.
PRIME MINISTER: I am indeed. And I hear from my Brisbane friends that travelling north there, to where the current venue is –
LUTTERAL: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: To where the current venue is, Kylie played there a little while ago.
LUTTERAL: Yep.
PRIME MINSTER: It doesn't quite have the same atmosphere for gigs –
OSBORNE: It’s a bit of a hike. It’s a bit of a hike.
LUTTERAL: We need it in the city.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. Well, it’s difficult for people to gather beforehand or afterwards to catch up and have a drink, talk about the gig, what they liked, what they played, what they didn’t play all that –
LUTTERAL: Spend a bit of money in the local economy, PM, spend money.
OSBORNE: Instead of playing toad golf afterwards in the Boondall Wetlands.
LUTTERAL: Yeah, exactly. And having to go home because you're there, you're in the city.
OSBORNE: Yes.
LUTTERAL: And it's a spend as you say. You have dinner beforehand, you have dinner after, you have drinks, you have time with your family, where –it's something we, we really need, PM. So, your stance right now is that money will stick with the Arena. If the feds are going to give this two point whatever billion dollars it is – $2.5 billion – the inner city arena’s, what you're going to be spending it on?
PRIME MINISTER: That's what we've done. I mean, we'll await the review of the State Government to put it out and we of course will listen to their views. But we do have an agreement that that's what our money's for. On top of that, we've got another $900 million for the other smaller venues, to assist. So, it's a total of more than $3.4 billion we've got for the Olympics. And on top of that, we've funded things like the upgrade of the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra and other sports, that are Olympic based sports, to the tune of $1 billion to make sure that we want Brisbane to be a huge success and we want Australia to be as close to the top of the medal tally as we can be.
LUTTERAL: Rock on.
OSBORNE: And we want Taylor Swift.
PRIME MINISTER: We do. We want it all.
LUTTERAL: Yeah, we want it all. We want it all. We want to be on the grid is what we want to be. Brisbane wants to be on the grid.
OSBORNE: And now one other question I have, a slight pivot –
PRIME MINISTER: Brisbane is a great global city.
LUTTERAL: Damn straight.
OSBORNE: Slight pivot. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, what's going on there? I saw a headline that big pharma have said to Trump to put tariffs on that. What's going on?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well, we're standing up for our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. It was introduced by a Labor Government, way back, with Curtin and Chifley, and we are defending it. And we want to reduce the cost of medicines. The maximum cost we’ll reduce to $25. Now that's more than a 20 per cent cut. We cut it from $42.50 down to $30 in 2023 and today's announcement is to cut it further to $25. Saving Australian families hundreds of dollars every year, is so important.
OSBORNE: Now, what's important to Luttsy is, is Viagra under that umbrella?
LUTTERAL: Why does she always take it there, PM?
PRIME MINISTER: Always there. Look, I'm not going to talk about individuals’ –
LUTTERAL: Speculate.
PRIME MINISTER: – pharmacy needs.
LUTTERAL: Or individual broadcaster’s needs.
PRIME MINISTER: There’s privacy concerns there.
LUTTERAL: Well, I said you had dinner, so I guess you could have thrown me under the bus, but you didn't. I respect that, but. Well, that's good, mate. Brisbane's rocking and rolling, PM, but thanks for fighting the good fight for us in that regard. How long – so, you’re Gold Coast, how long are you there for? What are you doing down there?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm doing the pharmacy, big conference there at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. There'll be 3000 pharmacists I think are going to be there so it's a pretty big deal. I've been in Queensland, this is day three now in Queensland. I've been up at Hervey Bay having a look at the impact of the floods. Went to Gladstone talking about jobs and Future Made in Australia there, and then in Brisbane yesterday looking at Urgent Care Clinics. I went and thanked all the workers at the Services Australia site there, there's more than a thousand people working to process claims quickly for people who've been affected by the floods and they're doing an amazing job, I've got to say. More than $98 million is out the door in the pockets or the bank accounts of Queenslanders and northern New South Wales residents who have been impacted.
LUTTERAL: Thanks for calling in, PM. And Ash heading straight to the Convention Centre where we can get that Cialis deal.