HOST: Good morning to you and welcome back.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Good to be here. Nadia,

HOST: Should the election be called now? Are you ready?

ALBANESE: It should have been called earlier. The only reason why it hasn't been called is so that the Morrison Government can use taxpayer funds to advance the interests of the Liberal Party. We saw in Senate Estimates this week, ads that are in Liberal Party colours paid for by taxpayers. It's extraordinary. They're also making more appointments, political appointments to various bodies, before the election is called. It's just an extraordinary abuse. Everyone knows that the Prime Minister has stopped governing and is just campaigning, and he should call the election and let the Australian people decide.

HOST: Yeah, just on that point there, doesn't your side do the same thing. You appoint people to Government bodies when you're in Government?

ALBANESE: Nothing like what that, there's an odd political appointment by all sides of politics, that that's the truth. But it's rampant under this Government and to, for example, to appoint people for terms that, to extend their terms when they expire in July, which is what this Government has done in order to try to preempt the right of any Government to appoint people based upon merit. This government's obsessed with appointing mates to bodies like the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. And it's just an extraordinary abuse of power.

HOST: So what would you do in Government just on that point, because I did speak to the Centre for Integrity yesterday about this very issue, because there's a couple of former Liberal MPs here in WA that have been appointed to the AAT. And he was saying that it shouldn't be a Minister making those appointments. He should have an independent panel that decides who gets those jobs. Do you agree with that? Is that something you would consider and that was the suggestion coming from Geoffrey Watson.

ALBANESE:  Well, there's got to be a meritocracy here. The idea that if you're a former Liberal Councillor, not just an MP, though, they've stacked the Administrative Appeals Tribunal full of these appointments, and to appoint people just days before an election is called is an outrageous abuse of power. Look, occasionally there are good appointments for jobs, we supported Mathias Cormann being appointed as Secretary General of the OECD, Kim Beazley was a great ambassador to Washington, you can be a former politician and be appointed on merit. But what we see from this government is failed politicians, failed staff members all given jobs paid for by the taxpayer some of these jobs paying or over up to $400,000 a year and more.

HOST: So would the better system then be to have an independent panel decide who gets these jobs rather than the Ministers? That's something you would look at?

ALBANESE: Well Cabinet makes these appointments, it shouldn't be just left to a Minister, but there should be transparency in it. At the moment there's no transparency, this Government is really out of control when it comes to making these decisions.

HOST: But then you can't knock the system if you're not willing to change it.
 
ALBANESE: Well we would look at changing the system with more transparency in proper appointments. This is just extraordinary. It doesn't matter whether it's the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, or other bodies where people have been appointed on mass. A body like Infrastructure Australia, where the only political appointment with any connections that I made was Mark Birrell, who was a former Liberal Minister in the Kennett Government but a worthy appointment as the former chair of Infrastructure Partnerships Australia. Look at what I did in Government Sir Rod Eddington a great Western Australian was appointed the chair of that body, people like Heather Ridout and Kerry Shot serious people to advise the Government. What we've seen from this government as bodies like that, frankly just stacked with political appointments and that's undermined the integrity of the system.

HOST: Anthony Albanese the Opposition Leader is my guest this morning. He is spending the day in Perth. And I'll get to your calls after this interview. And I want to know if you will be listening very closely to what the politicians will be saying over the next four or five weeks or have you already made up your mind 1300 222 720. Let's look at a couple of other issues. The Premier made time to share the spotlight with the Prime Minister when he was in town a couple of weeks ago. Will they be doing the same for you this time?

ALBANESE: I'll be with him this morning at 9:30. At Midland we'll be announcing my plan for a newborn screening programme to end the lottery that goes on. We don't engage in world's best practice here. In terms of screening for newborns, we want to increase the number of conditions which are screened up from 25 conditions to world's best practice of 80. And what that will do by increasing the number of rare diseases and conditions that can be detected from what's a very simple blood test at birth, parents can be confident that their bub will be fully screened. And I look forward to doing that with the Premier this morning. And then we'll be engaged in other activity after that, this morning, and I look forward to it.
 
HOST: What's that other activity?

ALBANESE: Well, we'll be doing a street walk in in Cannington. And we'll also be having some other meetings but we'll be appearing publicly and privately this morning and I'll be with the Premier again tomorrow.

HOST: Were you annoyed that the Premier made time for their Prime Minister ahead of you?

ALBANESE: Not at all. Come on. He's the Premier, Premiers appear with Prime Ministers as they should. And the only reason why there wasn't a public appearance last time was because the Premier had to travel to Sydney because of the court case brought by Clive Palmer that was backed of course and funded by federal taxpayers because the Morrison government chose to backing Clive Palmer rather than backing the people of Western Australia.

HOST: He was actually in town on the same day that you were you actually had media conferences at the same time in other parts of the city.

ALBANESE: He was flying out, he was flying out that afternoon.

HOST: Okay, for that morning, when you held your press conference

ALBANESE: He was flying out that afternoon, and we had a function that evening that the Premier would have been at with me. This is all fairly, bizarre the suggestion that the Premier of Western Australia should not appear with the Prime Minister. If I win the election, I will appear with Premiers and Chief Ministers of whatever political persuasion, when we're making joint announcements.

HOST: Anthony Albanese; WA has a dire shortage of nurses and has had for some time, and nobody was really sure where you get the registered nurses that you have promised to put in nursing homes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And then we heard this week, your Shadow Attorney General suggesting a possible pause on the one year deadline to deliver that promise. Is what you promised unachievable?

ALBANESE: Not at all, one of the things we have to do is to take a bit of a step back here, should there be a nurse in every nursing home? That's what the Royal Commission found. And I find it extraordinary that this government called the Royal Commission, and then it undermined and refused to implement its own recommendations. One of the things we can stop is nurses leaving the system, that's one of the problems we have at the moment is that nurses are leaving the aged care system, we also need to train more nurses. That's why we've allowed for funding for 20,000 additional University places in areas of skill shortage, one of those, of course, is nursing, we also will engage with the sector to achieve positive outcomes. We need to, we need to fix the crisis in aged care, because people simply aren't getting the support that they need. And our aged care residents deserve better than the conditions that were identified by the Royal Commission, whether it's the fact that more than 50 per cent aren't getting the nutrition that they need. They're literally starving, whether it's the stories about maggots in wounds or wounds not being treated, whether it's people falling down without anyone in the sector to look after them. There is a crisis in the aged care sector, which has been identified by the Royal Commission. And we make no apologies for saying that we will act on it.

HOST: And I've no doubt there are a lot of people that will agree with you on that point. I guess what the question is, is why would you be able to deliver that promise of having registered nurses in those aged care homes around the clock within a year? I mean, that even your Attorney, Shadow Attorney General, is saying you may have to pause that with that one year.
 
ALBANESE:  Well be delivering on our commitments, we'll be working with the sector. This isn't a promise that has come in the absence of evidence. This is as a direct result of the Royal Commission, the interim report, which was titled 'Neglect' that was founded under pressure, it must be said by this Government and in accordance with the recommendations of that Royal Commission. So I find it extraordinary that there is a Royal Commission report that's identified the crisis in aged care. Our older Australians deserve respect and dignity in their later years. And I'll tell you what this is really about, it's about priorities. This is a government that spent five and a half billion dollars on the submarine contract with the French that didn't lead anywhere except to that contract being torn up. This commitment from us is two and a half billion dollars. And they're saying, oh, we can't afford to do it. It's just a matter of wrong priorities. And we need to put the humanity and care and dignity back into the system. And this election, one of Labor's key commitments is around the care economy, childcare, Medicare, aged care, we will deliver on them, because Labor cares.

HOST: And just to be clear, the pause on that requirement for nurses. Within a year, can you rule that out? Is a pause on this requirement, a possibility, can you rule that out now?

ALBANESE: I stand by, I stand by our policy and our commitments, in accordance with the Royal Commission. I'll tell you what we'll do on day one, on day one, we will be acting on this, we will be working as we have with the Nurses Federation, with the aged care sector. In the aged care sector, people like Mike Baird the New South Wales, former Liberal Premier has been very supportive of our announcement, as have people in the sector and I'd say the other people who've been supportive, are the families of people in aged care, because they are terribly concerned about the state of aged care in this country. And we will put our shoulder to the wheel, do whatever is necessary. Now some of that, of course, is about increasing training here. Some of that is about attracting people back into the sector. Some of that is about as we've done, of course, many nurses in terms of Australia's an attractive place to come. I had an accident in, in January last year, I think we've spoken about my car accident, I tell you what, there are a lot of Irish accents in the hospital where I was. So we need this to be a priority.

HOST: Okay, I don't think I really got an answer to my question. But I want to move on to a couple of other issues.

ALBANESE: Well, yeah, we'll be acting on it and the government will be doing nothing.
 
HOST: We'll know in 12 months if you're able to deliver on it, but let's move on. Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said yesterday your government won't necessarily reduce spending but improve the quality of spending. How will you do that?
 
ALBANESE: Well, by stopping the rorts and the waste, by stopping the sports rorts that we've seen community safety rorts, all those programmes that have been set up, that use taxpayers money, as if it's a Liberal Party money. Stopping the waste in terms of advertising, the massive use of consultants and mates of the government that have gone on to some of these appointments that have been made for political purposes is another area of waste, we'll make sure that we don't have circumstances like the five and a half billion dollars that's been wasted without producing any increase in our defence assets. What we'll do is make sure that we value every dollar that is spent, we will end that waste, but will also prioritise investing in programmes that grow the economy. Now, childcare is a great example of that. By making childcare cheaper, you increase productivity, increase workforce participation, and all the evidence shows that every dollar spent produces more than $2 returned to the national economy.
 
HOST: Just finally, if you go to albanese.com.au, that has been pinched by a Liberal staffer, and it actually redirects to the Liberals website. Someone's obviously having a bit of fun, but I just wonder how you feel about that?
 
ALBANESE: Well, that's not fun. That is an extraordinary admission by the Liberal Party, that they just prepared to engage in dirty tricks. And it is outrageous that we have a Prime Minister who's pretended to be a hairdresser, and a fighter pilot, and a ukulele player. But now, it appears he's pretending to be me. You know, people who log on to albanese.com.au are looking for information about the Labor Party, the fact that's been redirected to the Liberal Party site, just says it all about a Government that's got nothing positive to say about its own agenda. It's just engaged in a whole lot of tricks and fear campaigns. That's what we can expect in the coming weeks, because they're not proud of their record, and they don't have an agenda for a fourth term.

HOST: I'll leave it there. Thank you very much for your time.

ALBANESE: Thank you

ENDS