SUBJECTS: NRL; NRL Grand Final; South Sydney Rabbitohs; vaccine rollout; COVID-19 across Australia.

HOST: Good morning, Albo.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Good to be with you.

HOST: Thank you for joining us. We are honoured by your presence here. First of all, congratulations, the Bunnies have made the Grand Final. You must be stoked.

ALBANESE: Absolutely. Second time in 50 years. Just a pity I can't watch them. And it will be the first one I've missed since 1970. My mum took me in 1971 and I took my own son in 2014. But I'll be cheering on very loudly at the TV on Sunday.

HOST: So, are you going to have a celebratory drink perhaps or some sort of food to go with this watching?

ALBANESE: I think a beer is required when watching the Grand Final.

HOST: What's your beer of choice, Albo?

ALBANESE: One that's liquid.

HOST: I'm just curious if you've been in contact with Russell Crowe about possibly facetiming each other during the Grand Final. I know you are both very big Bunnies supporters.

ALBANESE: Well, he's off in Thailand preparing for a movie that he's doing. We have texted and he's pumped. And I'm certainly pumped as well. We don't get many chances but, as I said, our second one in 50 years. But this one will be particularly sweet, I think, because so many people wrote us off when Latrell Mitchell got suspended and we've being fantastic in the last game with Wayne Bennett as the coach and the last game for Adam Reynolds in red and green. So, there's a lot riding on this but the South Sydney faithful will be there cheering them on wherever they are right around the country.

HOST: Absolutely. Do you know what I love, Albo? The Cronulla Sharks didn't make the Grand Final this year. Maybe a sign of things to come? That would have been a great matchup with ScoMo versus you in the football.

ALBANESE: I am a lifelong South Sydney supporter. That's the difference.

HOST: You know what? I did read an article yesterday about ScoMo. Apparently, he's a bit of a flip flopper with these teams and codes. 'I love rugby. Oh, no, no, I love rugby league now.'

ALBANESE: Absolutely. He is on the record saying rugby union was his sport, not rugby league. And I was there in in 1971. I doubt whether he was there or even knew that it was happening in '73 or '78 when Cronulla made the Grand Final.

HOST: You are right across it, Albo. What does the text chat look like between you and Rusty?

ALBANESE: It's friendly banter. He's a good trade unionist, Rusty, actually. He's got pretty good politics. But he is very much focused on footy and films at the moment. But he cares about issues like climate change. He's had a lot to say about those issues as well. And he, of course, has made a fantastic contribution to Souths. I was a board member of Souths in the late 90s. And when we got kicked out of the comp, and then when we came back, I was very much involved with the club when he took over, essentially, the running of the club. I remember discussions about why can't you and Peter just be sponsors. And I was told, quite rightly, that the club spent most of its time, the CEO spent most of the time, on internal board matters, which was what was happening at the time, perhaps. And the truth is it's been very successful, the new administration. And Blake Solly is a fantastic CEO, I've got to say. And Nick Pappas as the chairman has been great. And Wayne Bennett runs the footy team and what happens on the field.

HOST: How many Rabbitohs jerseys do you own? I guess like over 50. You just have two suits, a good one and your one for formal events, and then the rest is just all Rabbitohs clothing. That's what I imagine your closet as.

ALBANESE: I have so many different shirts, polos, footy jumpers. It is a bit sad, really. Fortunately living in Sydney and Canberra means that I can sort of hide the obsession by having half in each.

HOST: On a serious note, for a second. Now, obviously, the biggest issue federally that's affecting all of us, and especially here in Newcastle and the Hunter, has been the vaccine rollout. Now, obviously, this rollout, I guess if you live here, it seems to be very Sydney-centric, like we're getting told each day that we can go out and get vaxxed, but there's been a severe lack of supply here in Newcastle in particular. It is starting to ramp up now. How much of a failure do you think this has been on the part of the Government?

ALBANESE: Well, it's been a shocker. The Government's main job this year was to secure supply. This time last year, they were saying we were at the front of the queue. And the truth is that we weren't. The truth is we were running last in the developed world. And then for Newcastle, just to rub it in, they took vaccines that were allocated to Newcastle and brought them down to Sydney. It was just an extraordinary decision. And the fact that we're struggling now to get vaccinated, people with disabilities, when they were supposed to be completed by Easter is, quite frankly, just shocking. The issue here has been one of supply, because they didn't do enough deals with enough pharmaceutical companies to get enough vaccines early enough. And Moderna has just arrived in the last couple of weeks. But the Moderna was being put into people's arms overseas six months ago and earlier. And overseas, they're already doing boosters in a number of countries. And we were just way, way behind. And the Government refused to admit that they were so far behind. So, that's been failure number one. And the second is just quarantine, purpose-built quarantine. This current outbreak is because of a failure where you have one limo driver take foreign air crew to hotel quarantine without a mask, without being vaccinated. And that's where this all began that has now seen such extraordinary consequences, particularly for New South Wales, Canberra and Victoria.

HOST: You're 100 per cent right. Well, Albo, we'll have to let you go. Thank you so much for your time. Good luck at the Grand Final, first of all. Thank you very much for joining us. And you could be the next Prime Minister of Australia, great to talk to you, Albo.

HOST: It's really cool to have a chat to you.

ALBANESE: Could I just say a big shout out to everyone there in Newcastle who, when we got kicked out of the comp, we were sitting in the boardroom and we got messages that busloads of people from Newcastle were coming down to rally for us. They weren't Souths supporters. They came in their Newcastle jumpers. And it was just fantastic, the support that Newcastle gave. And I'll never forget it. So, when Souths aren't playing the Knights, let's go Knights. You can only have one team. It's 24 years ago today, a bit of trivia for you, the Knights’ Darren Albert's cross for that try. And so, you can have a beer of whatever sort you like after nine o'clock.

HOST: I will take that as gospel.

HOST: Chat soon. Thank you. I love Albo. What a fun guy.

ENDS