SUBJECTS: Western Australia; Mining; Covid pandemic; Supporting Tania Lawrence in Hasluck and Tracey Roberts in Pearce; Labor’s Plan for a Better Future.
 
HOST: Alright, here at at 96FM we did not plan that song of course with the Federal Opposition Leader four days from the election Anthony Albanese, coming on, "All I Need is a Miracle",  Anthony, good morning. 
 
HOST: Good morning.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: No, no...
 
HOST: That was a fluke.
 
ALBANESE: I did. I did hear that.
 
HOST: We would not be so rude. Now, we're nearly there.
 
ALBANESE: We're nearly there. Are we there yet? It is a bit like that. The kids in the back of the car, are we there yet? I think frankly, the voters are over it. I think the idea of this long, long, long campaign, which has really been six formal weeks, but seven to seven weeks in reality, but...
 
HOST: Yeah, it's a slog. It really is.
 
ALBANESE: But it is great to be back here in the great city of Perth.
 
HOST: All right, well, we are a state, our great state often envied for our mining revenue, but it is the backbone of our economy. So if you're elected to government on Saturday, what commitment to West Australians can you offer to secure the prosperity of mining?
 
ALBANESE: What we will do is make sure that we secure existing industries. But we do something more than that, as well. WA has vast reserves of nickel, of lithium, and the new industries of the future, we should be making batteries here. So not just exporting our resources, but thinking about how we value add how we make more things here how we create more jobs here, rather than export the raw materials overseas, wait for the value to be added, and then bring it back. That's the future for Australia that I see one where we stand on our own two feet. One where we take advantage of the enormous resources that we have.
 
HOST: Anthony, we've seen our numbers, spiraling a bit this way here in the west. And the fact that you're here in WA right now, what to strategies do think you'll implement to deal with the next stage of the pandemic?
 
ALBANESE: Look, one of the things we need to do is to get back to educating people on a national scale about the need to get their booster shots, they need to continue to get vaccinated and look after themselves, but also the people they come into contact with their family and their community. And I think some of that has dropped off from the Federal Government at the moment. What's very clear is how important it was for WA to maintain its borders, because that's meant when the infections have arrived here, people who are vaccinated, I myself got Covid during this campaign, if you are fully vaccinated, the impact on your health is far less.
 
HOST: When you got Covid, during the campaign, did you think ‘oh, my God, really’? Could the timing have been worse?
 
ALBANESE: That was one of the terms that I may well have uttered at the time, it may well have been something a little bit more provocative.
 
HOST: A bit stronger.
 
ALBANESE: Because I didn't, I had no symptoms at all. It was a Thursday night. I'd flown from Brisbane down to Nowra. I'd done a big event there on the south coast of New South Wales. I'd flown back to Sydney in the afternoon, I'd walked through a shopping centre with our candidate in Top Ryde. And then I was at home I got a PCR test, and it came through pretty quickly on the on the text message saying that I tested positive. So it was like ‘ahh’ but then the good news was the timing. It wasn't good to get it during a campaign. But if I was going to get it, it really was the sweet spot. Because I got the test because I was coming to WA on the Friday. But I was coming back the week after of course for our campaign launch. So it meant that I was out of iso and could come back for the very successful campaign launch that we had at your magnificent Optus Stadium there. So, it was all good. And Mark McGowan got it on the same day, of course, just showing how close we are.
 
HOST: Yeah. I've always been curious about campaign launches and why when the campaign starts isn't that the launch? I mean, why did they happen? The Liberals just had theirs this weekend gone. Some people have already voted.
 
ALBANESE: It's rather bizarre. More than 3 million people had voted before the Liberals bothered to have their campaign launch, but it's because they don't have much to say.
 
HOST: But you did not have yours at the beginning, either. I mean it is....
 
ALBANESE: We had our as soon as it had been organised, it does take a couple weeks to organise. We had ours three weeks out from polling day and I think that was the right thing to do. And it's the first campaign launch ever held in Perth since John Curtin.
 
HOST: Can you be honest with us mate if you dared to dream I know you might play humble here, have you dared to dream and think in five days’ time, you could wake up as the 35th, 31st, Prime Minister of our country?
 
ALBANESE: Oh, of course, that's an option. But I also need to be very careful to not get ahead of myself. I think that in terms of my own mental health, you can't get ahead of yourself with these things. It's a matter for the Australian people now, about 4 million people have voted already. And I just don't want to leave anything in the tank. Nothing on the field. We're out there campaigning here in WA, and I've got the Leadership Matters breakfast this morning. I'll have more events in Perth before I head back east. But, you know, we put a very positive agenda forward for A Better Future. I think our plans for cheaper childcare, I was in a childcare center yesterday with Tania Lawrence there in Kalamunda. I was out handing out How To Votes with Tracey Roberts in Pearce, and will continue to campaign each and every day.
 
HOST: Let's, let's make it official. We have the time, you are used to this sort of thing. You have 60 seconds to pitch to the people of WA why we should vote for you.
 
HOST: Are you ready to go?
 
ALBANESE: Ready to go. Labor has a Plan for a Better Future. We have a plan for cheaper childcare, cheaper energy prices to make more things here, we have a plan for more secure work, we believe that the cost of everything is going up except people's wages aren't, which is why people should vote Labor sometime between now and this Saturday. And actually we can do better in this country. But to do so we need a better government.
 
HOST: All right.
 
HOST: There we go. That's 30 seconds.
 
HOST: 30 seconds.
 
ALBANESE: There you go.
 
HOST: 30 seconds pitch.
 
ALBANESE: That's all I need to convince people. We don't need three more years of the same.
 
HOST: Short and sweet. Good to catch up and all the very best as we hit for the big day on Saturday.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks very much. I hope to talk to you at the other end, on the other side as they say.
 
HOST: On the other side. Thank you.
 
ALBANESE: Thank you. Bye.

ENDS