OLIVER PETERSON, HOST: Joining me live is Anthony Albanese. Good afternoon.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: G'day Oly, welcome back and congratulations on the birth of young Henry, I think it is? Joining a little brother.

PETERSON: Very kind of you to say. Thank you very much Albo, Henry is doing extremely well and we are extremely excited. I'll tell you what, I'll let him cheer on the Rabbitohs this weekend how does that sound?

ALBANESE: I reckon he'll be a South Sydney supporter for life if we get across the line on Sunday.

PETERSON: Well there is a brewery nearby in South Sydney called Young Henry's - so perhaps it's got something, the two together.

ALBANESE: They actually produce a beer in South Sydney colours - they are the beer sponsors for the Rabbitohs. So young Henry it would be entirely appropriate for him to cheer on the bunnies on Sunday.

PETERSON: Yeah, well I'll let him do it this once and I'll stick to rugby league for just a moment, do you think your South Sydney Rabbitohs can defeat the Panthers on Sunday night without Latrell Mitchell because, as I said I'm gonna leave my Dragons scarf behind, so is Henry, so is Edward, and Amy. We're going to cheer on - the house, and I really hope the club's able to send out Wayne Bennett a winner.

ALBANESE: Well, it would be good. And he's a super coach. He's a great manager of young men. He's done a great job with Latrell Mitchell being suspended. We knocked over the Panthers a couple of weeks ago and then discharged Manly pretty easily on Friday night. So I think they're in good form. And Wayne gets the best out of his team. And let's hope as well that Adam Reynolds last game in South Sydney colours, sees us have a win, but it'll be tough. Penrith have been fantastic over the last couple of years as well so let's hope it's a great game. And I, of course, am very biased, the outcome that I'm seeking on Sunday.

PETERSON: Indeed and maybe it'll be a sign or an omen for you over the next 12 months or so, if there's one thing that fires up West Aussies, as you know, it is the state's fair share if the GST. The PM, he said about a month ago now a deal is a deal. Why has it taken you in Federal Labor though so long, the guarantee the minimum 70 cent floor?

ALBANESE: We were the ones arguing for it. The Prime Minister had to be dragged kicking and screaming to it. It has been very clear that we've always thought that WA deserves its fair share. As you know, Oly when I was the infrastructure minister, I set up the WA infrastructure fund designed to fund projects, like the Great Northern Highway, Gateway WA, the largest ever road project in WA history. The Perth City Link project where we sunk the railway line, joined up Northbridge to the CBD, and other projects right around the state. And I want to work with Mark McGowan. And I think that he's doing a fantastic job as Premier of WA. WA shouldn't be punished for being successful. Because WA's success means extra revenue for the Commonwealth as well. Without WA our economy would have been in really, really bad shape if not worse last year.

PETERSON: So if Labor's always backed it in and the deal was struck three years ago Anthony Albanese, why did you have to write to the Premier and reconfirm that? Are you feeling the pressure from the other states like New South Wales and Victoria?

ALBANESE: Not at all, I'm just making the position very, very clear of what Federal Labor would do under my leadership. We advanced projects as well, funded the Swan Valley bypass. We funded projects right around Western Australia. And I've always worked very closely with the West as you know Oly. If you compare my visits over the last decade with that of the current Prime Minister, you'll find that I am a much more regular visitor by multiple times than Scott Morrison. I've been engaged with WA. I understand that it's important that the whole country be supported and often I think Canberra, because of the distance, can look at the West and ignore it and we've seen that to a large extent with this Government where they went to the point of course of backing Clive Palmer's legal case against WA in the court. And that's something that costs the Australian taxpayer a million dollars for the privilege, some of which went directly to Clive Palmer.

PETERSON: On that subs deal with France, would you reconsider the maintenance and full cycle docking programme if you win the next federal election and actually help us here in WA. Because Federal Labor didn't back Mark McGowan's campaign for the full cycle docking and maintenance programme before a decision was made only a week or two ago now.

ALBANESE: Well, what we were saying, was that at that time the Federal Government was had some real issues with the subs programme and we were right. They ended up walking away from it. We've being told time and time again that the subs programme was on budget, on time and true. So we have an 18 month process of looking at the new deal. We certainly support the arrangements with the United States and the UK. And we're supporting the idea of nuclear powered submarines. Because all of the evidence is that they're just more efficient, more effective. And we think that that's the way to go. But we do think that the Government needs to examine and come up with answers for how much did breaking the deal cost? And how much will the programme cost going forward we think they are all reasonable questions that Australians are entitled to get answers to.

PETERSON: Specifically on the maintenance contract. It's all going to be done in South Australia, though. Would you if you were Prime Minister, would you move some of that maintenance here to WA?

ALBANESE: Well, what what we would do, I'm not promising that I am saying that we'd have a defence force posture review about the whole range of defence arrangements that are in place. We think it's reasonable that Adelaide get its share of support. But we also think there's a need, and I announced that on the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty in the National Parliament, we haven't done that for 10 years. And we think that that is a reasonable thing to do when it comes to defence. I believe that WA has a very important role to play, not just down south, but also in in the north of Western Australia as well, in terms of defence arrangements.

PETERSON: Have a listen to this Anthony Albanese. This is Malcolm Turnbull at the Press Club today.

TURNBULL: Mr. Morrison has not acted in good faith. He deliberately deceived France. He makes no defense of his conduct, other than to say it was in Australia's national interest.

PETERSON: Now we often name the people who could replace you as the Leader of the Labor Party, do you reckon Malcolm Turnbull's after your job because he's sounding a lot like an opposition leader there?

ALBANESE: Well, the fact is that Malcolm Turnbull has called out some of Scott Morrison's behaviour when it comes to a failure on climate. When it comes to a failure to secure enough vaccines, he was very strong on that today. And when it comes to our arrangements it is pretty extraordinary. That the relationship with France is an important one, and has certainly sunk to new depths to say the least in recent times, and there's no doubt that it could have been handled better that something that President Biden has said in issuing essentially an apology to France. I note that the French ambassador has gone back to the United States, but hasn't been returned to Australia.

PETERSON: You mentioned the vaccination Tasmania I see today. It's now more than 12% ahead of WA on the double dose vaccination rates. Tasmania is third, WA is last. Of course we're both COVID free. We've neither of the states have had extra doses that New South Wales and Victoria have received due to the outbreaks there. By the end of October, there will be enough vaccination in WA to reach that 80 per cent threshold for 16 plus, so there's 10s of 1000s appointments available right now. What needs to be done, Anthony Albanese? Is it Mark McGowan that needs to do more to encourage WA residents to go and get vaccinated? Do you reckon this pace of the rollout is okay?

ALBANESE: The pace of the rollout is slow because the supply was slow. And WA up to recently it hasn't had as much supply as New South Wales that got additional vaccines. So it's not surprising when you have additional vaccines and you have a lockdown, like you have where I'm speaking to you from now in Sydney and right throughout New South Wales, when you have today we have a record number of deaths for New South Wales - that people get, tragically, get a hurry up. And that shouldn't have occurred, we should have had supply of vaccines much earlier. We've just got Moderna here in Australia recently, it's been rolled out all year around the world. And we should also have fixed up purpose built quarantine. Those two jobs weren't done by the Federal Government and because there wasn't enough supply, there also wasn't an effective public information campaign. And when we raise questions in the COVID Committee in the Parliament, the bureaucrats had a moment of honesty, and said, well, there's not much point having a public information campaign because we couldn't vaccinate more people, because we don't have enough vaccines.

PETERSON: Well we are going to have them by the end of October, which will be a welcome relief and get it! 

ALBANESE: Do it for yourselves, your family, community and country. I proposed earlier on as you know, I've tried to put forward constructive ideas including a $300 incentive or a reward for those people who had already been vaccinated. We should be doing everything we can to encourage people to get out there and get vaccinated. But it is far better if people get vaccinated before there's an outbreak, not because of an outbreak. What we've seen is vaccine rates lift where there have been outbreaks whether that has been in Victoria, or New South Wales. In WA, of course, you've been relatively well off, I watched the magnificent grand final of the AFL, there at the stadium on Saturday nightand the noise was phenomenal. It was just fantastic. And it's a great credit to Mark McGowan. But it's also a credit to the people of Western Australia who've done the right thing and kept safe and made sacrifices. But what people should be doing now is getting out there, getting those appointments and making sure they get that jab in the arm.

PETERSON: Yeah and you've been saying for some time as well you do support that national plan, but do you find it odd we will reach that 80 per cent threshold by Christmas, if everybody goes and gets the jab should be early December here - and the whole country is there, that come just before Christmas Eve and Christmas Day you could hop on a plane if you like where you are in Sydney and go to Paris but you won't be able to fly to Perth. Don't you acknowledge that that is nuts?

ALBANESE: Well, I certainly want to see restrictions not put in place for any longer than is necessary. And I'm sure that's the case for every Australian. But what we've seen in WA is that that little footy game takes place with a packed Stadium on Saturday night, that you're able to go to restaurants tonight. I'm not. Your kids are at school. My son hasn't been on to his university campus since 2019. He's been doing everything online. We can't gather in normal ways. And it's really tough. So it's not surprising that state governments are being cautious and protecting their populations because I know the conditions in which everyone would rather live. The conditions are that they are now in place in WA or Queensland rather than where I am in New South Wales at the moment.

PETERSON: We wish your Rabbitohs all the best on the weekend. Appreciate your time this afternoon. Thank you very much.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much Oly, go the Bunnies.

ENDS