SUBJECTS: Rabbitohs; Rugby League Grand Final.

HOST: Good morning!

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: G’day. How are you going?

HOST: Hello, sir.

HOST: It’s great to have you on, mate. Someone, Albo, someone’s accused you of not smiling enough. I believe you do smile a lot. You’re a smiler, aren’t you?

ALBANESE: I’m a happy fellow. I’m pretty happy this week. And I hope to be smiling a lot on Sunday night.

HOST: God, this is huge.

HOST: Right so, Member for Grayndler, but so that takes in, as we know, Enmore, Leichhardt, Marrickville, etc etc. But you don't, whom do you go for, Anthony Albanese?

ALBANESE: I go for the mighty Bunnies. The red and green. Came out of the womb that way.

HOST: Yeah, absolutely you did. Ed’s trying to accuse you of jumping on board.

HOST: Well, you weren’t originally a Balmain fan? You weren’t originally a Tigers fan, Mr Albanese?

ALBANESE: No, my grandparents followed Souths. My mum followed Souths. I followed Souths. My mum used to take me to Redfern Oval, she took me to the 1971 Grand Final on the on the hill at the SCG when I was a little boy and I’ve carried it on. My son had choices, he could have followed another team, but he decided he wanted to sleep inside. So he’s a Souths supporter.

HOST: So, Opposition Leader, can I read you something you might like? It’s 90 years since you won in ‘31, it's 70 years since you won in ‘51, it's 50 years since you want in ‘71, it's 20 years since you were reinstated. The stars are aligned, credit to Chris Smith. What do you think?

ALBANESE: It's an omen. It’s an omen. I was actually on the South Sydney board. This is one for Ed, for the cynics there, I was on the Souths board when we got kicked out of the comp and we fought our way back.

HOST: Did you protest? Did you walk down the street? Were you a protester?

ALBANESE: I helped organise the protests. If nothing else, that was my contribution as a Souths board member was organising protests. I was very good at that.

HOST: I stand corrected.

ALBANESE: We had over 100,000 people twice. It was the one chance you had as a federal politician to walk past the Woolpack Hotel in Redfern and be cheered by absolutely everyone. So I wasn’t going to miss that opportunity.

HOST: Can I ask, on Sunday night, are you going to do a sneaky? Or not a sneaky, you’ve earned the right. Are you going to be at Suncorp on Sunday night?

ALBANESE: All I can say is this, mate. The only chance that I've worked out as if I was inside the Reggie Rabbit costume. But the chair, Nick Pappas, tells me I’m too big for it.

HOST: That’s a sore point here, Albo. Be careful about people being big in costumes.

HOST: Indeed.

ALBANESE: So, unfortunately for me, I’ll be watching on TV because of the restrictions.

HOST: You’re doing the right thing. Albo’s actually being a man of the people and not using his position of privilege to get across the line.

ALBANESE: Well, Souths are like that. We’re like that.

HOST: You just need to start dating one of the players, then you can go, no worries.

ALBANESE: Then I’d be right.

HOST: Who would you choose, Albo? If you had to?

ALBANESE: For a Grand Final, I wouldn’t rule anything out.

HOST: I was about to say, if you had to be on the arm of one of them, who would it be? Come on.

ALBANESE: Oh, there’s a photo of me on Instagram after another semi-final a couple of years ago with Cam Murray. He’s got his shirt off.

HOST: Oh, beautiful.

ALBANESE: And unfortunately, it was Souths versus Manly I think. And I looked like I’d played for 80 minutes. He looks as fresh as a daisy.

HOST: How do they do that?

HOST: He’s a good-looking rooster.

HOST: If he said, ‘Can you pash me for good luck just before I go out there?’ would you do it, Albo?

ALBANESE: If it got us across the line, mate, I would do whatever was necessary.

HOST: Now, that’s a fan. I stand corrected. This man is dyed in the wool. Dyed in the wool. Well Albo, best of luck.

ALBANESE: Go the Bunnies.

HOST: Thanks, legend.

ENDS