AMANDA KELLER, HOST: Well, what a few weeks our next guest has had. Six weeks on the campaign trail, got COVID halfway through, wins an election, becomes Prime Minister of Australia, jets off to Japan to meet the likes of Joe Biden, comes back home, moves home, gets caught in his PJs, swears in a new Government, moves house, jets off to Indonesia. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Hello.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. It has been a bit busy, hasn't it?
KELLER: Wow, it sure has. We saw that you were there last night at State of Origin. You attempted to get one of those haircuts like Jack Wighton perhaps?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, no, no-one wants to see that.
BRENDAN JONES, HOST: Yeah, but is it true that someone came up to you in the dunny and said, ‘Are you someone famous?’
PRIME MINISTER: It is true. It's a great country.
JONES: It is, and you just say, ‘Yeah, well I'm the Prime Minister mate.’
KELLER: Well, speaking of being Prime Minister and having to get used to that, you were photographed going to collect the newspaper out the front of your home in Marrickville. You had your UGG boots, you had your PJs on, did you suddenly when you saw that picture printed go, 'Oh, that's right, I'm Prime Minister, I have to dress like a grown-up now.'
PRIME MINISTER: No, I just have to be me. That's me keeping my feet on the ground. I didn't know the photo had been taken. I'm still in Marrickville at the moment, speaking to you from here. And I was wearing a very old Newtown Jets jumper, it had bits of thread hanging off and everywhere. But that's what people do isn't it, early in the morning?
JONES: Yeah, exactly. That's what, well I'm here usually but.
KELLER: I dress like I'm hosting the Logies every time I leave my home. But that's a different story.
JONES: But you must have been...
PRIME MINISTER: Well that's to your great credit. I'm basically pretty slothful around the house.
KELLER: Fair enough too.
JONES: Amanda's always camera-ready, but it must have been hard for you as soon as you won the election and then next minute you're talking to Joe Biden. How surreal is that?
PRIME MINISTER: It was pretty full on because normally I'd be sworn in around about now, after two and a half or three weeks from the election. But because the Quad Leaders’ meeting was so important that we go to it, we did have discussions with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet the week beforehand in Canberra, and they were very keen. It was clearly in Australia's interest to be there with the leaders of the US, Japan and India, pretty important countries for us. So, we put in place the swearing in of a five person Government on Monday morning at 9am and then we were on the plane and then we were meeting the next day. I think it sent a really good message about the strength of our democracy here in Australia to the world, that there was just a smooth transition of a change of government. And there we were with many of the same policies in terms of our national security issues, our alliance with the United States is something that's not a partisan issue. And our friendship with Japan and India is also something that's not partisan. But we obviously have a different position on issues like climate change, and that was welcomed by our partners internationally as it's been welcomed when I was in Indonesia this week.
KELLER: And a big week in Indonesia and there's Penny Wong bursting out her Indonesian, who knew?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh well Bahasa is, of course, there's a difference apparently between Bahasa Malaysian and Bahasa Indonesian.
JONES: Right.
PRIME MINISTER: But they're pretty close, clearly, from the same family of languages and there was Penny and Luke Gosling as well, our Member for Solomon in Darwin, he's very fluent in Bahasa Indonesian, so it was pretty good. And we had Ed Husic with us as well, our Industry Minister, who is the first Muslim Cabinet Minister in Australia. And it just shows the strength of Australian society and our multiculturalism, the fact that, you know, Ed's just one of the team and that was welcomed I think in Indonesia as well.
JONES: And of course you wore the shirt, don't talk yourself down, you wore the Indonesian shirt?
KELLER: Did you bring it home?
PRIME MINISTER: You've got to wear the batik, well I took that one up there actually, one of them, I wore a couple. I got the shirt done for President Widodo's visit to Australia when he addressed the Parliament. It's actually a batik from his village of Solo which is on Java. And so it was very much welcome. So, I brought that back and I also brought back the bamboo bike. I think it's probably in Customs somewhere.
JONES: It's getting fumigated as we speak.
PRIME MINISTER: But we brought it back on the plane. It was a really nice and warm gesture from the President to go on a bike ride where we had our one-on-one discussion before we sat down for a one-on-one. And for him, it was of great significance, it symbolised both of our humble beginnings, given the positions we, we now hold. And the bike is really important to Indonesia because it's not just a form of transport in whole parts of Indonesia, everything happens with a bicycle. And it was terrific.
JONES: And he didn't spring that, he didn't spring it on you, that you knew that you were going to go for a bike ride, because imagine if you got all this way and you couldn't ride a bike.
KELLER: Or you were wearing your flares.
PRIME MINISTER: It was the night before, through our Ambassador said, ‘Prime Minister, can you ride a bike?’ I said, ‘Oh yeah, I used to get around, we didn't have a car in my family, so I had nothing but a bike is what I got.’ I only learned to drive in my mid-twenties or early twenties, as you know if you live in the Inner West you can get around on a bicycle a bit. And so, it was good fun, although I must say we went really, really slowly in the beginning and I did say to the President can we maybe speed up a bit. It's really hard to ride a bike at one kilometre an hour with cameras all around you.
JONES: Have you got the bamboo training wheels, perhaps?
PRIME MINISTER: Probably, we needed, when they said a bamboo bike, I was like, ‘What's a bamboo bike actually like?’ You know, but it was a sustainable bike as well, which was a part of him sending a message. The President was very keen on cooperating with Australian businesses on what they want to do, which is to reduce their emissions. And of course, for them it's not just about climate change, it's about air pollution as well. That's why they're very keen on cooperating with us, which means there are investment opportunities for Australian businesses as well.
KELLER: Well, we've been speaking about how your life has changed in the last couple of weeks for your partner Jodie as well. Is she annoyed that you don't want to go to Kirribilli House? Are you going to settle in Canberra?
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all, no. Well, we'll be hosting, tonight, Jacinda Ardern at Kirribilli.
JONES: Oh, good.
PRIME MINISTER: I haven't been there yet, I mean I've been there with former Prime Ministers. Didn't score an invite off the last one. I have been there in the past. But we're hosting Jacinda there. Look, it is inevitable, I think, that you spend more time as Prime Minister in Canberra then you do in Sydney. But when I'm in Sydney, I will stay at Kirribilli. But at this point, I haven't stayed there yet. But the Lodge is pretty nice I've got to say. It's a better form of public housing than the one I grew up in.
KELLER: Well, fair enough too.
JONES: Yeah. And if you need someone to look after Kirribilli, we can do that.
KELLER: Yes. If you need someone to just look after while you're not there, just give us a call.
JONES: Can we actually just look at putting a jet ski dock in there and perhaps putting jet skis back into Sydney Harbour just to while we got you there?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not sure anyone wants that to happen...
JONES: I do.
KELLER: Well, that's a party of one.
PRIME MINISTER: Besides yourself.
JONES: Well, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, it's great to talk to you. Congratulations on your win. And good luck in the future. I'm sure we'll be talking to you.
KELLER: We'll catch up with you before too long.
PRIME MINISTER: Indeed. Thanks very much, guys.