E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

THE BIG BREAKFAST WITH MARTO AND MARGAUX

TRIPLE M, BRISBANE

FRIDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2021
 
SUBJECTS: Queensland visit; jobs and fairness in the workplace; Far North Queensland and tourism; car crash and religion; Wayne Bennett.
 

GREG “MARTO” MARTIN, HOST: Well he's been in town all week and look who's decided to come in and see us. Anthony Albanese, hello.
 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: I have. Good to be here.
 

MARGAUX PARKER, HOST:  Anthony, you've been in Queensland what's here for six days? Is that right?
 

ALBANESE: I've been here, well, every day in Queensland's a good day. I've been to Cairns and Bundaberg and Hervey Bay and Maryborough and all around South-East Queensland.
 

MARTIN: In Cairns, did you get out to the roof?
 

ALBANESE: No.
 

MARTIN: Have you ever snorkeled?
 

ALBANESE: Of course I have.
 

MARTIN: How good is it?
 

ALBANESE: It is fantastic.
 

MARTIN: ‘Brownsville’, did you go to Townsville?
 

ALBANESE: No I didn’t get there.
 

MARTIN: Yeah, don’t need to.
 

ALBANESE: Don't be mean to Townsville.
 

MARTIN: I just want to make sure you did all the important things. Did you go to the rum distillery?
 

ALBANESE: I did last time and I made an Albo-burg rum. It was very good. Except what they do is put all these little shots and you've got to do tastings, and of course you put six shots in front of you, and guess what happens? You down them, and then you’ve got to do a press conference.
 

PARKER: What are here for, Albo, what are you doing in the Sunshine State?
 

ALBANESE: I’m here to talk about jobs and talk about fairness in the workplace and to talk in Queensland, and in Far North Queensland we're talking of course about tourism jobs and the problems the sector are doing there. Here we just visited Cross River Rail, a fantastic project.
 

MARTIN: How good’s that?
 

PARKER: A great project.
 

ALBANESE: Just 1000s of jobs and reduce travel times for everybody. A really good project.
 

MARTIN: We love to talk about that, but that's ABC stuff. What we want to talk to you about is there was an article in the paper up here, in the Courier, about three days ago and I'll read the headline, “Albo’s olive branch to Christian voters”. Is it true, since that head on accident down in Sydney, you've turned to The Lord?
 

ALBANESE: Well, I've got to say my guardian angel looked after me. When you've got a Range Rover heading straight for you it does cause you to think about things.
 

MARTIN: Have you looked at ‘ScoMo’ and gone ‘he loves that Christian vote’ with his, what is he, Hillsong? Are you going to be joining him?
 

ALBANESE: Mate, I'm half Irish, half Italian, so guess what religion I am? See if you can work that out. I'll give you I'll give you the clue. Rome. It begins with Rome.
 

MARTIN: I think he's the Church of the Bunny, if I know correctly.
 

ALBANESE: I am that as well, mate. I came out of the womb with three great faiths; the Catholic Church, the Labor Party, and the mighty South Sydney Rabbitohs.
 

MARTIN: All right, well, we're on the right track because, can we play this with you?
Voiceover: Wayne Bennett or The Lord?
I have some quotes here, and you need to say is that Wayne Bennett who said that, or The Lord.
 

ALBANESE: Hang on, is there a distinction between the two things?
 

MARTIN: There won’t be if he can finally win another flag for you. ‘Season all your grain offerings with salt’.
 

ALBANESE: Got to be The Lord.
 

MARTIN: ‘Worry is like a rocking chair. It's something to do but gets you nowhere.’
 

ALBANESE: It's got to be the supercoach.
 

MARTIN: Correct.
 

PARKER: Okay, number three. ‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize?’
 

ALBANESE: That's a tricky one, that one. I'm going to go with Wayne Bennett.
 

MARTIN: That’s The Lord.
 

PARKER: Also known as The Lord. But no, in this case, just The Lord Himself.
 

MARTIN: ‘Don’t die with the music in you.’
 

ALBANESE: See that's just a weird one, isn’t it?
 

PARKER: That’s just the title of Wayne Bennett’s book, Albo.
 

MARTIN: All the best with everything. It's wonderful to run into you again. Looking fabulous.
 

PARKER: You’re looking fit and lean.
 

ALBANESE: I went on a big walk down in Tassie in December and I decided to get fit for it. And then I've kept going. Campaign fit.
 

MARTIN: Mate, lovely to see you, all the best. We’ll speak soon.
 

ALBANESE: Fantastic, see you next time.
 
ENDS