SUBJECTS: How to pronounce ‘Albanese’; childhood of Anthony Albanese; Federal election.
 
HOST: What I was coming on to say is that we all say Anthony Albanese.
 
HOST: How do I say it again?
 
HOST: Anthony Albanese.
 
HOST: How do you say it?
 
HOST: This is him actually saying it.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY (RECORDING): Albanese.
 
HOST: But you're saying he doesn't want us to call him Albanese?
 
HOST: That's just that he's putting the Italian part on it. His point, I believe that his point there was that he's saying there is an 'e' on the end.
 
HOST: This is him explaining why it's Albanese.
 
ALBANESE (RECORDING): It is Albanese. But you don't say spaghetti bolognese, do you? So, I'm not terribly precious about it. Which is why Albo is a lot easier. You can't get that wrong.
 
HOST: You can't get that wrong. And he has called in, the Leader of the Opposition has called in. He heard we were talking about it. Good morning.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning.
 
HOST: I said earlier, if we were introducing the Leader of the Opposition now, how would we pronounce that last name? We'd say Anthony Albanese, is that correct?
 
ALBANESE: Do you want to know the easiest way to do it? Albo. That is the easiest way.
 
HOST: Having the nickname going.
 
HOST: Was that your nickname at school as well, Albo?
 
ALBANESE: It was. From the time I was in primary. I was just at a little primary school in Sydney. And from the time I was in primary school, because Albanese is a little bit more difficult to pronounce. But in Italian, you always say the vowel at the end of words, which is why it goes up, if you think about, 'candidato partido laborista', which, you know, I am the Labor Party candidate.
 
HOST: So, are you saying we should be saying 'spaghetti bolognese'?
 
ALBANESE: No. Because people do anglicise it. And growing up, I was always Albanese. So, you can pick people who knew me from the time I was a kid in terms of my surname, because they didn't pronounce it properly. But when I got into public life, the Italian community will kind of say the vowels on the end. That's why it sings. That's why you need to, as well, speak with your hand. Because of those vowels at the end, you need to emphasise. It is a whole body experience.
 
HOST: How do you introduce yourself? Let's say if the election, it is this year, if you end up the Prime Minister, you go on and meet, I don't know, whoever, you introduce yourself as the Prime Minister of Australia, you say my name is Anthony...?
 
ALBANESE: Albanese is how I do it. That is a simple way. Because in Italian, at the end to the 's' is like a soft and then hard 'a' at the end almost, instead of the 'e' at the end of a word for Albanese.
 
HOST: But the Australian way, even though you said your mum said 'Albanese', the Australian way, really, is like you're saying 'easy'.
 
ALBANESE: Correct. Or just Albanese. But as you just played, I am not precious about it.
 
HOST: We were thinking you were going to call in and give us a mouthful.
 
ALBANESE: No. I'm fine. I get Albo. I've heard it from the time I was a kid. I've always had that. That makes it a lot easier as well. I've got three syllables in my first name and four in the last. So, it's a bit of a mouthful.
 
HOST: It's good to know how you say your name now. Because I don't know much about you. And I just Googled you. You've had a very humble beginning. You were brought up by your mum, by herself. And you grew up in public housing.
 
ALBANESE: I did. And my mum made the very brave decision to have me by herself, which was a big thing to do in the 1960s.
 
HOST: There was no mother's pension back then?
 
ALBANESE: Well, she worked for a little while, cleaning office buildings and doing things to try to get by. We lived in council housing with my grandparents originally, but then they died when I was little. And she then, unfortunately, she had rheumatoid arthritis. It really crippled her up. So, we lived on an invalid pension, which is now called a Disability Support Pension, because she couldn't work. She wasn't well. And there was just me and her. So, we didn't have much. But I had unconditional love of her. And then because she had me in 1963, I was born, there was a story created, she had travelled overseas, met my father, had a relationship, he was marrying someone from the town in Italy where he was from. So, she came back, had me, kept me. And I was told, and the neighbourhood were told, in order to keep the respect in a good Catholic family, that my father had died. And I didn't learn that he was, in fact, around until I was 14 or 15, she told me the truth. And then I didn't search for him until she had passed away, out of respect for her. And she was enough for me. But I then searched for him and found him at the age of 46 We met for the first time in Italy. We were very lucky to track him down. And then he lived for another four years after we met. So, I got to meet him and his family, including my half-brother and half-sister, and nieces and nephews over there in Puglia in Italy, in Southern Italy. For a long time, I grew up and people didn't know either. I kept, out of respect for my mum, it says something about the pressure that was on a young woman wanting to have a child out of wedlock in 1963, she had to come up with a story that was more respectable, rather than the reality which was she was a single mum. And so, I missed out on a lot of the Italian culture. But I had his name and connected with my family only in 2009 was when we met.
 
HOST: Just quickly at the news, I know it's not your decision, but when, if you have a guess at this point, when are people going to the polls?
 
HOST: When are we going to go to the election?
 
ALBANESE: He's going as late as possible, I think. It has to be May 7 or May 14, they are the two dates. So, probably, we won't be going to the polls till then. And I am hopeful of a good result. But we'll wait and see how it goes.
 
HOST: We'll call you Albo on the show, or Albanese, which is what you said. And in the lead-up to that election, we've got a deal where if you come on and you beat Susie, smarter than Susie, you can have the floor and spruik why we should vote for you. And the same thing goes for the Prime Minister. So, hopefully we'll see you challenging Susie for the right to tell us why we should vote for you later in the year.
 
ALBANESE: That is on as long as it's not in a swimming pool, I am up for it.
 
HOST: Deal. Thank you.
 
ALBANESE: Done.
 
ENDS