SUBJECTS: 2022 election; Labor’s policy agenda; Labor’s Powering Australia plan; Labor’s plan for Fee Free TAFE places; resignation of Peter Gutwein.
 
HOST: Black Magic, Tuesday morning, you got Jimmy and Nath. HIT 100.9. Seventeen minutes past eight. 

HOST: And Jim this is exciting. He's an Australian politician. He's been a member of parliament since 1996. And has served as the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Australian Labor Party since 2019. He's now in the running to be our next PM, the big dog in the big seat in the big chair, Prime Minister, after the election on May 21st. He could only be Anthony ‘Albo’ Albanese, welcome Albo.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: That's quite an introduction there.

HOST: Get used to it mate if you’re the PM. 

HOST: Imagine what we’ll do if you’re PM. 

ALBANESE: I'll have to come into the studio for that.

HOST: Friends with Russell Crowe, huge South Sydney fan.

HOST: Yeah, didn't even talk about your obsession with the South Sydney Rabbitohs either Albo, so.

ALBANESE: Indeed. No, I am obsessed. I was on the board when we got kicked out of the comp all those years ago and we fought our way back with people power so I'm trying to use people power to win another battle at the moment.

HOST: Absolutely. Using rugby league to win an election. I absolutely love it. Just Redfern, all voting for Albo.

HOST: Anthony, how are you going mate? I know you're down in Tassie at the moment on the election trail.

ALBANESE: I’m going very well. I’m in Lonnie as we speak, it's a superb day here. I've got to say, it's just stunning. And it's great to be back in Tasmania. I was very keen to begin the campaign here in Tassie. It's an important state for us. And it is such a beautiful place. It's always uplifting I find it, coming to Tasmania.

HOST: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, well, Lonely Planet just rated 55 of our things here in Tassie in the top 100 to travel to in Australia. Did you hear about this Albo?

ALBANESE: How goods that? And Three Capes walk, that I did the December before last, is I think in the top five things to do, I think in the world, in terms of travel. I've got to say it was a fantastic four days. And I started my fitness kick in order to get fit to make the 48 ks okay. There are a couple of pretty tough hills. But apart from that it's flat in the most part, but it's just such an extraordinary part of the world.

HOST: Albo can I ask you about Tassie? And sort of, I mean we get Rebecca White on the show. We love Bec. It is an interesting time here in Tasmania with obviously, you know, Peter Gutwein stepping down, he was hugely popular, especially during the pandemic. But there does feel like there is a bit of change in the air, do you feel that and are you confident with I guess where Labor is heading here in Tasmania?

ALBANESE: Well, I certainly hope so. I don't know Peter Gutwein very well. I met him at the Launceston Cup event that took place at Boags Brewery the night before. And he just seemed like a really down to earth, good bloke. And I think he has provided leadership at a difficult time and stood up for Tasmania. He made strong decisions on border closures that was difficult for those of us who want to come to Tassie. But I really wish him well. And I think it's a pretty courageous decision to say, “well, I've had enough, I'm going to now go and do other things, other priorities in my life”, and it's obviously a genuine one. But I've been a mate of Rebecca White’s for a very long period of time. I'm a huge fan of Bec. I just think she would make an outstanding Premier here in Tassie.

HOST: Bec is phenomenal. Now Albo, I didn't know if you know this, but Peter Gutwein he does 100 pushups, 100 sit ups every morning, he's also a black belt in Taekwondo. Any martial arts on the cards?

ALBANESE: Well, I better not fight him then.

HOST: I don’t know if that was part of your campaign trail that you wrestle former Premier Peter Gutwein, but I would advise against it

ALBANESE: No, no, I'll give that a big miss mate. It sounds like he's training for the Rabbitohs. 

HOST: Put him in the front row. They need a fullback for Latrell, he’s done his hamstring.

ALBANESE: Maybe Peter Malinauskas, who made a fairly prominent visit to a swimming pool during the South Australian campaign, got his top off, embarrassed the rest of us in politics by doing so. Maybe we could have the Peters could have a little wrestle.

HOST: Absolutely. Hey, Albo look I'm not going to ask you the question of what's the cash rate? And what's the unemployment rate? Because I guess you do know what the answer is on that.

ALBANESE: I’m all over it.

HOST: Maybe I will. Albo what is the cash rate? What's the unemployment rate?

ALBANESE: I’m all over it. 0.1 and 4.

HOST: There’s our boy, good on you.

HOST: Well can we ask Albo, like Nathan and I were chatting about it this morning before the show. And I'll be honest, you know for me personally, Jimmy, I don't think, you know, we want a Prime Minister that needs to know all the numbers off the top of their head. For us it's more about what are you going to do about the employment rate? So that question, what is it that you're looking to do?

ALBANESE: Well, we're going to create jobs, and we've got a plan to do it. Our Powering Australia Plan, to take one measure that we have, which is about dealing with the challenge of climate change, but by embracing the opportunities that are there for us to be a renewable energy superpower. We have a fully costed plan that says, independently costed by RepuTex, will create 604,000 new jobs between now and 2030. That's how you make a difference by changing and shaping the future, not just being a captive to events that happen. And then training up Australians for it, we're going to have 465,000 fee free TAFE places. And that will make an enormous difference as well for training Australians up. And 20,000 additional University places. We need to actually plan for the future and we're going to create an independent body called Jobs and Skills Australia that will give advice to the Government and will coordinate across, not just the Federal Government, but state and territory governments as well, to make sure we identify, okay, what are jobs going to look like in 10 or 15 years’ time? How do we make sure we plan for it? Put in place the skills so that Australians can fill those jobs?

HOST: Albo, I will commend you, of course, with that little gaffe, the mistake that was made yesterday on the campaign trail, straight away you and Labor, you came out you owned it. You owned the mistake and took responsibility. 

ALBANESE: Absolutely. 

HOST: How important is it that a leader owns the mistakes that they make? Because I can't say that many leaders recently have done that.

ALBANESE: Well, we all will make mistakes in our life. And I was concentrating on, my mind was on the announcement that we had about providing better services for children with hearing difficulties. We had a fantastic event with young Frankie, who had a couple of cochlear implants. We know that hearing for youngsters is so important for their opportunity to get an education and to participate. And we announced Shepherd Centre funding for both Hobart and Launceston so that they can deal with the whole of Tasmania. I had a blank, it was a mistake. And I fessed up to it, owned it and I think that's what leaders have got to do. You know, I'll never forget things that are really, really important, like the need to look after people, the need to support Medicare, the need to create jobs, the need to lift living standards, the need to take pressure off people in terms of cost of living. But, I got asked a couple of figures, and I couldn't give the answers so I accepted responsibility for that.

HOST: Albo is it true that your first thing that you thought to do was to book a trip to Hawaii when you didn't know the answers? Is that true?

ALBANESE: I won't go missing mate. I’ll always front up, and I fronted up during the bushfires each and every day. And I will always do that. And I think that Australians know that, maybe there are some people out there who say they've never made a mistake, I think the important thing is as well is that you learn from it, you own it, you learn from it, you move on. My mentor was a fellow called Tommy Uren, who was a Minister in the Whitlam and the Hawke Government. He was a wonderful man, a former prisoner of war of the Japanese. He fought for the Australian heavyweight boxing championship, he was a pretty fit fellow. He had an amazing life and he used to say to me, he was like a father figure, and he used to say to me, two things - One, “you got to learn something new every day”, and the second was “you’ve got to get better every day”. You've got to really just analyse it yourself, and that's a philosophy that I've taken throughout my life and it's taken me from being the son of a single mom, growing up in public housing into being able to run for Prime Minister of the country.

HOST: Can I ask you Albo, the election’s coming up and I guess I really encourage people listening to show you know, vote for the people that you know are going to help. It is Liberal versus Labor and there's policies and all that stuff. But I mean, it is also a bit of a popularity contest. And, you know, old Scomo isn't quite, very popular. I guess my question here is Albo, are you feeling confident knowing that people, I guess, don't want Scomo in charge anymore?

ALBANESE: I don't take anything for granted. We know that polls have been wrong in the past. All I can do is put forward really positive policies and also a positive attitude to issues like taking responsibility. It is an enormous honor to even run for Prime Minister, but to be Prime Minister I think you've got to accept responsibility, not look to always blame someone else. Always give an excuse. Like sometimes you just, whether it was the bushfires – the response wasn't good enough. Ordering vaccines, again, we were told we're at the front of the queue. Not true. We were way up the back. And as a result, we had all these lock downs and the state having to isolate from the North Island. And we had the same thing happen with rapid antigen tests, the same thing happened with support for flood victims. I just think this Government are always too little, too late, and they're always looking to not accept responsibility. I want that responsibility to be Prime Minister of the country so that I can do things. And from time to time if I get something wrong I'll put my hand up and say so.

HOST: Well Albo, we wish you nothing but the best of luck, producer Grace has just sent messaged in the chat here and saying that Scomo was up in the latest poll, so maybe you will win. 

HOST: Well, speaking of winning, we are excited to broadcast from your wrestle with former Premier Peter Gutwein

ALBANESE: No, no, I've got a proxy mate. We’ve worked it out. Peter Malinauskus, the Premier of South Australia, is my representative.

HOST: Ok I was going to say, because if it was you, you're paying…

ALBANESE: … and Mali will be up for it. 

HOST: Because if it was you, I just the recent polls are saying 0.1 per cent chance of winning. Albo, mate round of applause. We appreciate you coming on the show buddy. All the best on the campaign trail. And we'll chat again soon. Okay, good on you mate.

ALBANESE: Good on you guys.

ENDS