MICHELLE ANDERSON, HOST: What an entrance.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: What a nice one.
MICHELLE: Yeah, but listen, before we get into any business of any sorts, one Xavier Ellis over there swore he saw you just roll up in a Hertz hire van. Was that you?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I think there is one with staff in it.
MICHELLE: But I tell you what, a good dummy if it was you in there, because you'd never go, “oh Albo’s in there, it’s a Hertz van”
PRIME MINISTER: No, I get a little flag on my car.
XAVIER ‘XAV’ ELLIS, HOST: I missed the flag on the old Thrifty. But I've got a conspiracy theory for you straight off the top, your detail, I just had a conversation with some security, Hawthorn supporter. You're a Hawthorn supporter. Is that a necessary part of the job is you have to be a Hawthorn supporter to get on the detail?
PRIME MINISTER: No it's not. But if they're not aligned, if they don't have a team, then they're Hawthorne AFL and South Sydney rugby league.
MICHELLE: So, yeah, you get, you get dubbed, basically. You get knighted into those two teams if you join the crew and you don’t have anyone.
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely, if you don't have a team and you're on staff. I do the same, I remember when Kate Ellis became the Sports Minister in the Rudd Government. She was doing an interview and she was from Adelaide and she's a big Crows supporter and she was asked if she had a rugby league team. She said, “yes, yes, South Sydney.” And they said, “why?” and said, “Albo told me I had to.”
XAV: A lot of CVs have Hawthorn and the Bunnies.
PRIME MINISTER: Which is a good reason.
XAV: Absolutely. Hey, yesterday the city was, well, Perth in general was something we haven't seen too often. Helicopters, dogs, horseback. We had everything going on. The Premier of China was in town.
MICHELLE: But no one was quite sure though. Why is it all, why is the traffic going to hell? What's happening?
PRIME MINISTER: Kings Park was pretty busy yesterday I’ve got to say.
XAV: Did you even find yesterday being a bit abnormal, the size of the detail like, I thought it was peak hour traffic, but it's just the detail, that was extraordinary.
PRIME MINISTER: It was a big deal.
XAV: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: And I'm really pleased that I've brought Premier Li here. I brought Prime Minister Kishida of Japan here last year. It's sending a signal to the world that Australia isn't just Sydney and Melbourne. Premier Li went to Adelaide, Canberra and Perth didn't go to either Sydney or Melbourne. And guess what? Yesterday, that footage of myself and Premier Li in Kings Park with the beautiful Swan River in the background and the Perth skyline, that would have been seen by over a billion people in China. That's like the best ad you could possibly have -
MICHELLE: Absolutely.
PRIME MINISTER: Saying, come to Perth, bring with it your money, create jobs here in hospitality. It's a real economic boost as well.
MICHELLE: Speaking of hospitality, I always ask. It's very The Castle of me. Where did you eat? What did you eat? Where do you go for lunch? Where do you go for dinner?
PRIME MINISTER: We had lunch at the, giving them a free ad now, here on commercial radio, at the Westin.
MICHELLE: That's a real normal one.
PRIME MINISTER: We did have rock lobster, so to speak.
XAV: It's nice from WA.
PRIME MINISTER: Give the nudge to open up the industry. It was a good way to do it. And, of course, good Margaret River wine.
MICHELLE: We're dealing with all of that, aren't we? We need to peel that all back.
PRIME MINISTER: It's largely done. Crayfish is outstanding, but we're hopeful of that in the next couple of weeks. But the wine industry, there has been more wine sold into China in the last month than in the previous three years.
MICHELLE: Oh, that's fantastic. And the crayfish. We just got to get the crayfish across the line now.
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly. And be good for the growers. And our barley in there is going crazy here from the West, as well as other products. 75 per cent of WA's exports go to one country. Go to China.
XAV: Wow.
PRIME MINISTER: That's incredible.
XAV: Now, Michelle, do you want to explain to the Prime Minister what we've been doing over the last four or five weeks? And it's concluding this week with my favourite category.
MICHELLE: And it's on a high, we're doing the best of Perth, okay. And we've done different categories, as they've just said. We've checked out the bakeries, the best coffees, the best burgers, the pizzas this week, and the final week, the best pub.
XAV: Oh, yeah.
MICHELLE. So, it'd be remiss of us not to ask you about, well, favourite pub. What does it have to have for a start? When you're walking in? You know, what's the ambience like? What do you look for?
PRIME MINISTER: It's got to have a good bar. It's got to have lots of different beers on tap and it's got to have good food too. Makes a difference.
MICHELLE: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: Down at Freo, I think it's called Clancy's.
XAV: Oh, yeah, Clancy's.
PRIME MINISTER: Clancy's there at Freo. I've been there a few times with Josh Wilson and it's a pretty good pub.
MICHELLE: Nice.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's lots of good pubs in Freo.
XAV: Gage Roads. I'm a fan.
PRIME MINISTER: Gage Roads is awesome. I did a little event there about a year ago too.
XAV: Around a year ago we spoke and I think I said something along the lines of, it might have been off air, is there something you miss now that you are Prime Minister? And I remember you saying the opportunity to sneak off to a pub to have a quiet beer with your neighbour.
PRIME MINISTER: I don't go anywhere by myself these days.
MICHELLE: I was just gonna say you pretty well couldn't, could you?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's just part of what you have to do.
MICHELLE: If you're by yourself, there's a lot of people just around.
PRIME MINISTER: No, you’re never by yourself. So, no point pretending. You just have to deal with it. I haven't driven a car for two years.
MICHELLE: You’re kidding me?
XAV: Jump in mine. You can wiz me home if you like. Get the experience again.
PRIME MINISTER: There's a Hertz van outside.
XAV: But before you do go, thanks for popping in. But if you did have to nominate one pub and it could be a corner pub that you went to as a youngster when you were in uni or pre-PM days, if you could nominate just the one pub that you've had the greatest memories.
PRIME MINISTER: Probably The Henson in Marrickville. The Henson which is near, which is near Henson Park, which is where Newtown Jets play and the Swans AFLW team as well as the Giants. And after a game, it just goes off. Fantastic food there and just a really good atmosphere. And there's a few people, it's one of those pubs, and this is a good definition of a pub. If you sit on a bar stool and someone goes, “nah, that's Mick’s seat or that Joey’s seat or what have you.”
XAV: Same table every week.
PRIME MINISTER: I was with Bob Katter at a pub in Hughenden.
XAV: Would have been quiet.
PRIME MINISTER: It's a pretty rowdy town in, it's not quite outback Queensland, but it's up in the north of Queensland there, inland. And it's a town that's not a huge town. I don't know what the population is, but there's probably, you know, one pub for every four people.
MICHELLE: Good ratios.
PRIME MINISTER: Bob said to me, “don't sit there.” And this bloke came in, he was the biggest bloke I ever seen in my life. And I was like, “it’s his seat isn’t it?”
PRODUCER: The Prime Minister of this fair country, the top dog, Anthony Albanese. Enjoy your time in Perth, Albo. Thanks for coming in this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Good to see you guys.