SUBJECTS: Final days of the election campaign; Prime Minister tackling a child; Labor Leader’s speech to the Italian community; Housing affordability; Media reports on Metricon; Labor’s election costings; Coalition’s waste and rorts; Labor Leader’s media appearances.
 
LISA MILLAR, HOST: Speaking of the economy, I want to go straight to the Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, who is heading into a final blitz, as they call it. You're coming to us from Camperdown, just outside your old childhood home. Good morning.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Lisa. Yeah, that number 41 on the home there was something that I drilled in a long, long time ago, I've gotta say. About 40 years ago, I put that number on the house there. And this is where I grew up. This is where my journey began from a council house in Camperdown, through to being candidate for Prime Minister. It's a great country when people can aspire to run for the position of Prime Minister from such humble beginnings.
 
MILLAR: Mr Albanese, five states, 20 seats - it really is a blitz for you in this last 48 hours. Is it tighter than what you –
 
ALBANESE: It sure is.
 
MILLAR: …had hoped and anticipated?
 
ALBANESE: Oh, no, Lisa. Elections in Australia are always really tight - that's the truth. And I'll be in Bennelong a bit later this morning, but then I'll be going to Queensland, where I'll be in Longman, in Dickson, in Ryan and in Petrie. And then, later on, I will be in South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria over the next couple of days. So, it will be a busy time. I spent three days earlier on in the week in Perth.
 
MILLAR: The big question, of course, is are you going to be playing any sport in those pic-ops?
 
ALBANESE: Well, I think they were interesting pictures. I'm just glad that the little boy is OK. That's the good thing about that.
 
MILLAR: Yeah. Do you have sympathies for the Prime Minister? Because everyone has probably got a picture opportunity that's gone wrong.
 
ALBANESE: Ah, look, I'll just leave it out there, Lisa. I'm not going to comment. I think the only comment that I'd make is that I'm very pleased that the young boy was OK.
 
MILLAR: You have been campaigning in what should be a safe Labor seat, it kinda says something that you've had to give up precious time in the last couple of days to campaign for Kristina Keneally –
 
ALBANESE: I’m not sure where that is.
 
MILLAR: Well, in Fowler. Kristina Keneally. –
 
ALBANESE: Come on. No –
 
MILLAR: Yeah?
 
ALBANESE: Lisa, we organised for the Italian community to go and have an event at the Marconi Club. It happens to be in that electorate. It was organised weeks ago. It's been advertised for weeks. It was the Italian community from all over Sydney coming to the Marconi Club because there's an opportunity to have a Prime Minister with a surname of Albanese, after we have always had Anglo-Celtic candidates for Prime Minister. They're very proud. And I'm proud of my mixed heritage of half-Italian, half-Irish background. Guess what religion I was brought up with?
 
MILLAR: Yeah, I listened to that speech. I found it – it was interesting that you were having a go at the Opposition – at the Coalition, I’m sorry – about the way they use your name in advertising. What bothers you about it? What do you think it says?
 
ALBANESE: It bothers members of the community, I think. Members of the community who are my age, maybe a little bit younger, certainly older, all know that when we were kids at school, people made fun of your name. That's just what happened, unfortunately, all too often. And it's a matter for others. But members of the community have been raising it with me during the campaign.
 
MILLAR: So, you think the Government's made a bad call on the way they're trying to, you know, use the "Albanese, not so easy"? Is there a hint of racism about it? What's going on there?
 
ALBANESE: Well, that's a decision for them. I'm just saying that –
 
MILLAR: Well, you commented on it last night, so I'm just curious as to –
 
ALBANESE: Yeah, because members of the - well, it's pretty obvious. Members of the community have raised it with me. I think there's a political element behind their slogan as well, which is it implies that things are easy under this Government, and that's the real problem. We have real wages, we know yesterday, have been cut by 2.7 per cent, the largest since the Wage Price Index was published in 1998. People are going backwards. People know the cost of everything is going up, except their wages aren't, and here they are saying that - implying - that life is easy under them. The truth is that life is tough for a whole lot of Australians. This Government is out of touch, and this Prime Minister just doesn't get it.
 
MILLAR: There are some more figures that are gonna be coming out today. The unemployment rate, it's expected to be under 4 per cent for the first time since the 1970s. You'd have to welcome that, wouldn't you?
 
ALBANESE: Oh, I welcome any drop in unemployment. We'll wait and see what the figures show later today. The problem for the Government is, they said that their strategy around wages was all about employment, and if employment went down to where it is now at 4 per cent, then wages would rise. What we're seeing is that wages aren't rising. 2.7 per cent cut in real wages means an extraordinary cut - like, around about $2,000 for people on the average wage.
 
MILLAR: Two days before an election campaign, though, and an unemployment rate sitting so low will surely give the Government a boost for their argument about how they run the economy. It's not –
 
ALBANESE: Our borders are closed, Lisa. Our borders are closed. People are doing it tough. That's having an impact on employment figures. We know that that's the case. But we know as well that people are really doing it tough. And we want an economy that works for people, not people working for the economy. That's why we'll take pressure off cost of living by offering cheaper child care, cheaper electricity prices. We have a plan to lift wages. We have a plan to deal with the cost-of-living crisis that is out there. And people are doing it tough. They're not doing it easy under this Government. And this Government is complacent, they don't have a plan to grow the economy, they don't have a plan for the future. All they have are scare campaigns and fear campaigns.
 
MILLAR: When you talk about the borders being closed and staffing, that's one of the issues that's feeding into the building industry as well. One of the big stories today is concerns over the future of Metricon, the biggest home builder. You know, we're all talking about needing more housing in Australia. Your policy is to get 30,000 more social homes and affordable homes. How can you promise this when clearly the building industry is in such difficulty?
 
ALBANESE: Well, this is of real concern. There are thousands of people who work for Metricon and it is of concern, the reports which are out there. It's not just Metricon, of course. There are other construction companies have had difficulties. One of the problems that has occurred was skills shortages. We simply haven't trained enough Australians. That's why we have a plan for 465,000 fee-free TAFE places in areas of skills shortage. What we need to do is to recognise that we were really dependent on temporary labour from overseas, and what we need to do is to make sure we skill up Australians for the jobs of now, but the jobs of the future as well. Make sure that migration is targeted towards areas of skills shortage, and make sure that businesses can get the labour that they require. That's why we'll create Jobs and Skills Australia, a body that includes private sector representatives, to make sure we get the proper planning for the labour market that we need.
 
MILLAR: You've copped a lot of flak over releasing your costings, leaving it until today. Was it worth it? You could have released them earlier and avoided the walkout from the press conference, the fiery media questions?
 
ALBANESE: There was no walkout, Lisa. Some of the media these days, I think when the media cameras are focused on them rather than on the person answering the question, that says a lot. I did an entire breakfast with The West Australian and 600 people, I did an interview, I did another interview with a TV network, I did a full-scale press conference with Mark McGowan. We are releasing our costings on the same day that the then Opposition did the last time the Coalition were in Opposition. Every Opposition has tended to do it at that time at the end of a campaign. That's when you release your costings. But what we have done as well is released the costings for every policy that we've announced as we've gone. And yesterday at the National Press Club - somewhere, I might add, Lisa, that the Prime Minister hasn't bothered to show up to, the first Prime Minister in 50 years to not address the National Press Club and to be accountable at that most important forum - I announced $750 million of savings during that National Press Club address.
 
MILLAR: Yes, and in fact a lot of that comes from those Regionalisation Funds and the Community Development Grants Program. That's sparked comments from Barnaby Joyce, saying you're basically renouncing regional Australia. Are you ignoring regional Australia?
 
ALBANESE: Well, what I'm renouncing is the rorts that are endemic in Barnaby Joyce and everything he does. Let's be clear, Lisa, the North Sydney Pool was funded from a Regional Sports Program. It's the one right next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This Government have established a whole range of rorted funds. We all know Commuter Car Parks, where there's actually no train station for people to get on, the North Sydney Pool was funded from a Regional Grants Program. This Government have used taxpayers' money as if it is money of the Liberal Party and the National Party.
 
MILLAR: Anthony Albanese, this will be the last time we speak to you as Opposition Leader during this campaign. Thanks for your availability over the last six weeks. You've had a couple of stumbles, you had a bout with COVID, it might not have gone as you had entirely planned. If you don't pull it off this weekend, is it yours personally to accept?
 
(CAR HORN AND YELLING IN BACKGROUND)
 
MILLAR: You've got a few fans there by the sounds of it.
 
ALBANESE: I've always had fans in Camperdown, Lisa. Look, one of the things I've done during this campaign is I've turned up on the ABC. I've done ABC Breakfast a number of times, I've done RN Breakfast, I've done ABC TV at other times, I've done Q&A, Insiders, 7.30, the National Press Club broadcast on the ABC. I've turned up and made myself accountable. I'm not quite sure why we have an Australian Prime Minister who seems allergic to appearances on the ABC. It took the sixth week of a campaign for him to make his first and only appearance. I'll be appearing on 7.30 later this week.
 
MILLAR: Alright. Anthony Albanese, thanks very much for your time.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks, Lisa, and have a great day.
 
ENDS