SUBJECTS: Christian Porter’s resignation from Cabinet; blind trust; civil nuclear industry; renewables.

CHRIS SMITH, HOST: Anthony Albanese, the Federal Opposition Leader, is on the line. Anthony, welcome. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Chris. 

SMITH: I should kick off and say, we can beat Manly, can't we, and get into a Grand Final? 

ALBANESE: You bet we can. They did very well versus the Panthers. And we're back to the old traditional rivals of Manly. It'll be a good game. We just have to shut down Turbo. 

SMITH: I'm nervous already. All right. 

ALBANESE: Easier said than done. 

SMITH: Correct. Christian Porter has resigned from Federal Cabinet over the trust fund, the blind trust fund. Are you happy about that?

ALBANESE: Look, this was completely untenable because there was a clear breach of the ministerial guidelines. But it's also a breach of the obligations we have as a Member of Parliament. This is a fig leaf. You can't have large secret donations to a Member of Parliament, have it disclosed that it's happened but not say how much money, not say where it came from or why. The idea that he doesn't know - how did people know where to put the money? How did they do it? Random plugging in of bank numbers into a system and try and transfer it? 

SMITH: Shouldn't the Prime Minister have waited, though, until the investigation into the blind trust fund was done and had been completed?

ALBANESE: No, there shouldn't have been an investigation because there was an admission at the very beginning that it was in breach. Christian Porter has moved on, but the stench is still there. So is the cloud of blowflies above all of this.

SMITH: But the story from the ABC proved absolutely nothing, Albo.

ALBANESE: That had nothing to do with this issue. This issue is about whether Members of Parliament can accept money from anonymous people and not declare it. And that makes the whole issue that we have whereby if we have any private interest, we have to declare it. It is completely farcical. And it is a clear breach of the obligations we have as Members of Parliament.

SMITH: Do you want him to hand the money back?

ALBANESE: I want him to either hand the money back or resign. He can't stay in his position as a Member of Parliament, to have accepted money for a private legal matter versus the ABC. He chose to take this action. He chose to do that. It ended badly for him. And now, it's ended badly for his ministerial career. But it needs to be resolved. Otherwise, in the future, anyone can simply list in their pecuniary interest declarations, 'Oh, I received money, or I received a gift, I don't know how much, I don't know where it was from, I don't know who gave it'. That renders the whole process irrelevant. And that is a process that is there to stop corruption. 

SMITH: Okay. I want to ask you a question about a civil nuclear industry. Would you ever entertain being part of a vote to lift the legal barrier on having a civil nuclear industry in this country?

ALBANESE: No.

SMITH: Why?

ALBANESE: Because it doesn't stack up. Because it doesn't stack up economically. Because it has outstanding environmental issues.

SMITH: If it did stack up economically - 

ALBANESE: But it doesn't, Chris.

SMITH: Have you done your homework on modular nuclear reactors? 

ALBANESE: This is a huge distraction. Chris, there is no one commercially in this country who says that it stacks up. There have been inquiries after inquiries, the last one by Ziggy Switkowski, who found, yet again, that it just isn't commercially viable. The cheapest form of new energy in this country and the urgency that we need is through new renewable energy. Nuclear energy would take years and years and years to produce.

SMITH: So, have you done any work on modular nuclear reactors?

ALBANESE: There has been a lot of work. Do I do it as a Member of Parliament? No. 

SMITH: Because you're not interested in having a civil nuclear industry, right? 

ALBANESE: I am not interested in a distraction from the debate that we need to have in this country. This is a debate on nukes that comes up, in terms of civil nuclear power, comes up every few years. Every few years, it's a cul de sac and it's a distraction from what we need to do. 

SMITH: I appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for that. 

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Chris. 

SMITH: Federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese.

ENDS