SUBJECTS: Voting options for Australians in COVID-19 isolation; Labor’s costings; Anthony Albanese’s experience making hard decisions; plans for the Quad Leaders’ meeting after the election; Australia’s choice for a better future with Labor.
 
SABRA LANE, HOST: Anthony Albanese, welcome.

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

LANE: The full time whistle is about to go. Have you given this everything?

ALBANESE: I've given it absolutely everything, I've got nothing left in the tank. Today, I'll be in four States, commencing here in Sydney, going to Adelaide, and then travelling to two more States. And I'll keep going until six o'clock on Saturday because I absolutely believe that Australia needs a better future, and you can only have that if we have a better government.

LANE: Tens of thousands of Australians infected with COVID between Saturday and Tuesday night might not be able to vote if they didn't apply for a postal vote. One independent’s trying to mount a legal challenge, are you worried that people might be disenfranchised? And do you support a legal challenge?

ALBANESE: Well, we're talking here about the disenfranchisement, potentially, of up to 200,000 people who will be denied the opportunity to cast their vote in our democracy. Our democracy is precious, the Government can reverse the decisions that they've made today, and they should do so and ensure that they have access to a vote. 

LANE: Do you support a legal challenge to make that happen? 

ALBANESE: Well, the government should just do this. We have been raising this with the Government for a series of days through Don Farrell, our Shadow Minister. The Government can fix this and they should. Our vote is precious. Our democracy is precious, and it shouldn't be the plaything of government incompetence.

LANE: Labor is spending $7.4 billion more than the Government. Given all the global pressures and uncertainty, how likely is it that that figure will spiral further? It's not unheard of with government spending.

ALBANESE: We have put out exactly what we will do in each area during this campaign. And the difference between us and the Government is that we have a plan for the future, which is about investing in childcare, investing in skills and training and investing in a clean energy economy. Now, these accounts don't take into account second round effects. But what they will all do is to grow the economy and produce an economic dividend. That's our priority of planning for the future. Areas like childcare will increase women's workforce participation and boost productivity, and produce a return over a period of time. But that isn't accounted for in these numbers.

LANE: But still, you're a long-time parliamentary veteran, you know that government spending often, budgets differ to what actually happens on the ground, how likely is it that figure could spiral further?

ALBANESE: It won't. We have been totally responsible during this campaign, and we're talking about a Government here, that doubled the debt, even before the pandemic. That in between the mid-year economic forecast in December, and the March budget, in three months, they added an additional $70 billion dollars in expenditure without a single offset.

LANE: Now, governing is going to be hard for whoever wins tomorrow night. With higher inflation, higher interest rates, tougher decisions will need to be made to deal with rising costs of things like Medicare, the NDIS and Defence, have you got the ticker to make hard decisions?

ALBANESE: I make hard decisions all the time Sabra, and I've done so to put us in a position whereby we're competitive at tomorrow's election. I lead a team that will be the most experienced incoming Labor government in our history since Federation if we’re successful tomorrow. It's an experienced team. It's one that has served in senior roles in government before, plus an addition of new talent.

LANE: Can you name one hard decision you made, while you were a minister?

ALBANESE: I've made hard decisions all the time. To fix national transport regulators to bring the States together, 23 down to three, with an economic dividend for our national economy of $30 billion over 20 years.

LANE: A hard decision, where you had to cut billions in spending.

ALBANESE: What we did was we had a global financial crisis, when we were in government, Sabra, as you're aware, but the hard decisions were to prioritise investment, to get rid of the pork and the waste that had occurred under the previous government scheme, that has dominated the way that this Government does spending. So we did for example, community infrastructure grants were all delivered, through our program, through local government. So we got the decisions decentralised, rather than what this Government has done is sit around in an office with colour coded maps and allocate according to political benefit, not according to economic benefit, let alone community benefit.

LANE: If you win, you've got a plan to be sworn in quickly with Penny Wong so that you can fly off to Tokyo for the Quad leaders’ meeting, who’s going to be acting prime minister in that instance?

ALBANESE: Richard Marles will be sworn in as well, and there's a range of procedures have been put in place by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Depending upon whether the Government wins, the opposition wins, or there's an uncertain outcome. And those decisions have been done in consultation and cooperation, and with the advice of the heads and senior people in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. I believe that it's quite extraordinary that the Government knew that the Quad leaders’ meeting was to be held just three days after the federal election, but chose 21st of May, rather than 14th of May to hold the election. That's a decision that Mr Morrison made, but the consequences are that the Prime Minister and Cabinet Department have had to put in place these measures because it's important that Australia be represented at such an important forum with the leaders of our most important ally, the United States, but also the very important relationships that we have with Japan and India.

LANE: If you lose will you stand down as leader, and not re-contest the leadership.

ALBANESE: I'm contemplating a majority Labor government on Saturday. That's what I'm working towards, at 6pm, and that is my only consideration.

LANE: And you're not even contemplating? There are many of your colleagues who were very scarred from the result last time round.

ALBANESE: Oh look, it's a mountain to climb. It's a mountain to climb. Labor's only won government three times from opposition since the Second World War. And we knew that this election was going to be close, but I say that people have a real choice here. They have a choice for a better future with our measures to deal with the cost of living, with cheaper childcare, cheaper energy prices, cheaper medicines, our plan for more secure work, our plan to strengthen Medicare, our plan to make more things here, and our plan to end the climate wars, and in addition, our plan to fix politics by having a national anti-corruption commission.

LANE: Mr Albanese, thanks for your time on AM.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much Sabra, have a great day.

ENDS