SUBJECTS: COVID restrictions across the country; vaccine rollout; national quarantine; Morrison Government failing Australians during a health pandemic; music; saving Dolly Parton’s Australian tour. 

GAVIN MILLER, HOST: On the phone right now, it is my absolute pleasure to welcome Federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese. May I call you Albo? 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: You can indeed, Gavin. Good to be with you.

MILLER: Mate, good to be with you as well. The strange thing is you and I were both supposed to be in the same room as each other in our Perth studios looking each other in the eye right now. But this COVID thing moves quickly, doesn't it?

ALBANESE: We were. That wasn't quite possible. Yes, I would have been in Port Hedland yesterday for our Shadow Ministry meeting. We had a lot of plans. I was due to be in Perth from Saturday, going up to Port on Monday and then back to Perth last night and then I was due to be there till Thursday evening. So it was going to be six days in the West which I was really looking forward to. I was looking forward to being in the studio there with you. But we will have to do that next time.

MILLER: But here's the thing, I'm not in the studio either. I couldn't get out of Melbourne. So I'm sitting in something that looks like a soundproof shipping container in Melbourne right now, Albo. It has got us all. Now listen, I really thought long and hard about how to approach this conversation with you on live radio this morning. Because, you know, part of me thinks I need to pretend to be impartial. But the absolute honest truth is I'm not. I'm going to say full disclosure, I would prefer you as PM to Scott Morrison. But I'm going to qualify that by saying if you were a jar of marbles or a lump of clay, I would still prefer you as Prime Minister to Scott Morrison.

ALBANESE: Well, I think that's a compliment, Gavin. But I'll take the conclusion there. Because I do think that they've been in office now for almost a decade and gee whiz, they're dropping the ball. There's no plan for the recovery. But there's not even a plan to get us through at the moment. I think that the damning figures of 4.7 per cent of Australians being fully vaccinated, the confusing messages which are out there, a Government that can advertise anything at all but can't advertise the promotion of people getting vaccinated, I think the failure to set up national quarantine facilities. The Government had just two big jobs this year. And they have botched both of them.

MILLER: Well see, here's what I learned as a citizen with this pandemic, I honestly didn't realise how important state elections are and how much it's the state leaders that really pull the trigger when the poo hits the fan, you know?

ALBANESE: Well, they do when a Federal Government won't accept responsibility for anything.

MILLER: There you go. 

ALBANESE: I find it extraordinary that somehow state premiers now are responsible, apparently, for our immigration system, our customs, our quarantine. And I do think that the state leaders have done a magnificent job stepping up. But the Federal Government's got to do a bit more than just pass off that responsibility. On areas like the supply of the vaccine, states can't order it in. I think Mark McGowan has done a fantastic job in keeping West Australians safe. But the idea was that you would keep safe and as the vaccine rolled out, then the risk would be less and we'd be opening up more. But we still have today 12 million Australians in lockdown. That is extraordinary 18 months into the pandemic.

MILLER: That really is. What would you say to people who are a little bit hesitant about the vaccine? Because as you kind of touched on, there's been all sorts of information. We've got the AMA now refusing to endorse what the Prime Minister said yesterday. I mean, it's a mess. How do we get a clear message out of all this?

ALBANESE: Well, I do think you've got to follow the health advice. Talk to your doctors. People do need to get vaccinated. But talk to your doctors about it. The problem has been that a whole lot of people who've been trying to get vaccinated just can't get appointments. And that's an issue of supply. Look, the Prime Minister says this isn't a race. But the truth is, it always has been a race.

MILLER: Absolutely.

ALBANESE: We have been stuck at the barrier and the other horses have jumped out. And we're just there waiting. And the truth is that we also put all our bets, we had a whole lot of opportunity to do a win-place on a number of horses in this race and we put every dollar on AstraZeneca. And there have been problems as a result of issues that have arisen there. And that's why this time last year, in every interview I did, I kept saying you had to have five or six deals because you had to mitigate your risk. Because with these issues, things can always arise. Our scientists have done an amazing job, really, at producing vaccines in such a short period of time. But we know that the research that was done there in Brisbane, including by the CSIRO, didn't come through with a vaccine. But why is it that we haven't got Moderna here now and Johnson & Johnson and these other vaccines that are available and have been rolled out around the world? Why is it that we continue to use hotels in the middle of our CBDs? 

MILLER: Don't even get me started. Putting people in the middle of our most crowded cities, I mean, really come on.

ALBANESE: It makes no sense. 26 outbreaks we've had. It's been a shocker.

MILLER: Albo, can I be honest? I'm starting to get frustrated with this conversation, not at you, but just at the content. Can I take a complete left-hand turn and just ask you about music? 

ALBANESE: Always happy to talk music.

MILLER: You talked music with Clairsy and Lisa last time you're on the radio and it got a lot of traction, because now everyone knows that you like your Smiths and your Triffids and your PJ Harvey and your Joy Division. You've got a very eclectic sense of taste in music. But I wanted to talk about the time when you were Transport Minister, that you actually intervened to help Dolly Parton from having a tour go you-know-what up.

ALBANESE: I did. I heard about this tour that was about to be cancelled because Dolly Parton doesn't like flying so she travels around and stays on a bus. She had two buses that she has for tours and they're enormous. They're places that she stays in as well. So they were too wide and too long for the roads, basically, to be imported in. So they were on ships almost about to arrive here in Australia and the bureaucrats weren't going to let them in. And so I intervened by signing a ministerial order so that the tour could go ahead.

MILLER: So did you go and see the show? And if so, how was it?

ALBANESE: I did go and see the show. I'm not really a country person, but Dolly Parton, of course, is a great artist. And I got to meet her and have a chat with her. And she was very charming and was very grateful. She arrived in Australia and at her press conference, she gave me a big shout-out and said that she would famously smear lip gloss all over me if she caught up with me. She is quite a character. The concert was really good fun in Sydney. So it saved the tour, but it also meant that the, I think the figure that was provided was $28 million, that tour was worth, to the Australian economy. That's a lot of jobs as well as bringing a lot of pleasure to people who were her big fans.

MILLER: Albo, I've enjoyed this chat so much. I could literally do this all day. I'm sure you've got much more important stuff to be doing than talking to me. But thank you for your time this morning. 

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Gavin. 

MILLER: Good on you, Albo. I love saying 'Albo'. Fantastic.

ENDS