SUBJECTS: Inner-West of Sydney and its residents; Willie the Boatman’s Albo Corn Ale; Bob Hawke and Hawke’s Lager; vaccinations; flying on small planes; rugby league; Quick Draw game; Splendour in the Grass.

 
VOICEOVER: Our next guest is a politician. But he’s not just any politician. He’s the Leader of the Opposition.

RECORDING OF ANTHONY ALBANESE: Ah, no big deal.

VOICEOVER: Which means if you’re not feeling what ScoMo’s doing…

RECORDING OF ALBANESE: In your guts, you know he’s nuts.

VOICEOVER: … then you’ll probably vote for this guy. Please welcome Anthony Albanese.
 

JOEL CREASEY, HOST: Albo, welcome, good to see you.

KATE RITCHIE, HOST: Hello.

TIM BLACKWELL, HOST: Hey Albo, how are you?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Hello, I’m very well.

CREASEY: You’re looking very dapper.

BLACKWELL: Listen to the song we’re playing. Can you pick it? It’s just for you.

ALBANESE: Excellent, Bird Man.

BLACKWELL: Every time I see you out and about you're wearing a Radio Bird Man t-shirt.

ALBANESE: Showing my age, really. What a great song.

RITCHIE: You said that you bumped into each other a few times.

BLACKWELL: Albo wouldn’t remember but I walk up to him and go you’re my local member.

ALBANESE: Where do you live?

BLACKWELL: I can’t say, we’re national, but yes, you are my local member.

ALBANESE: Oh very good. Are you happy with your representation?

BLACKWELL: Oh totally, I love the way the bins are collected.

ALBANESE: The Inner-West is a great place.

BLACKWELL: It is a great place to live.

ALBANESE: Highest number of craft breweries in Australia.

CREASEY: Really?

BLACKWELL: Is that right?

ALBANESE: Highest number of people working in the arts, including in radio, in Australia.

BLACKWELL: Leigh Sales is in the area.

ALBANESE: Leigh Sales is there.

BLACKWELL: Annabel Crabb is in our area.

ALBANESE: Yeah, they are all there.

RITCHIE: You’ve got an exclusive club.

ALBANESE: It’s not very exclusive.

RITCHIE: Tim will never be invited.

BLACKWELL: You know why I’ll never be invited? Because I play ads.

ALBANESE: It can have its plusses, but it can have its negatives as well.

BLACKWELL: Of course, of course. Speaking of craft beer, have you got one recently? I’m just reading on your little cheat sheet here that you've had a craft beer named after you or you're involved in the making of the craft beer?

ALBANESE: Willie the Boatman, which is in St Peters, has an Albo Corn Ale. They didn't ask me at the time. I was traveling overseas and I kept seeing all this stuff on social media saying ‘I just drank an Albo’ and I was like ‘what is going on?’ And so I came back and I rang up Pat McInerney, who began with a still at the back of his garage and now employs lots of people. It’s a great place. He said we name all the beer after local people. So there is one named after a local teacher and after the local plumber, Crazy Ivan.

BLACKWELL: I might just hang out with them and see if they name one after me.

RITCHIE: I’m not quite sure you’re in that local crew.

ALBANESE: He’s a local.

BLACKWELL: I’m a local.

RITCHIE: You would drink them dry.

ALBANESE: I don’t get any though.

RITCHIE: I was going to say do you have like a never-ending supply?

ALBANESE: You would think that would be a reasonable deal.

RITCHIE: Your name is on it.

ALBANESE: Oh no.

CREASEY: Have you had an Albo? How does it go down?

ALBANESE: It goes down very well. They've ended up employing lots of people. And I can tell how I'm going politically because they tell me that last year around budget reply sales went through the roof. So when I do something like on your show, people will be listening, they’ll go in and they'll buy an Albo.

RITCHIE: There will be a spike.

CREASEY: A nice cold Albo.

ALBANESE: A big spike. But all the craft breweries did okay during COVID because people instead of paying $50 for a case of standard they'd go in and spend $100 on a case of craft beer, which is a good thing because they're all very local and independent. That's great.

BLACKWELL: I saw a picture of you actually outside the Carlisle Castle Hotel, again this is in the Inner-West of Sydney, outside the big Hawke mural.

ALBANESE: I opened that.

BLACKWELL: Did you really?

ALBANESE: Yeah, Hawkey wasn’t well at the time. He was going to going to go himself. That’s a beer that raises money for Landcare, which is why Hawkey went into that. But that's a good drop. It's also now being brewed in the Inner-West.

BLACKWELL: Everyone asks you what are you going to ask the Leader of the Opposition when he comes in, and we spent 10 minutes talking about beer in our suburb.

ALBANESE: Yeah.

CREASEY: I’m thirsty.

ALBANESE: It’s well past beer o’clock.

CREASEY: Absolutely. I’ll have to crack one open.

BLACKWELL: We have a no jab, no entry policy in the studio. We hear you are well and truly vaccinated. Is that correct?

ALBANESE: Yeah, I've had the two jabs, all done.

BLACKWELL: Craft jabs or the actual jabs? The Willie the Boatman jab?

ALBANESE: No, I got the Pfizer, early on, to set an example, I guess, when we were trying to encourage people to get vaccinated people. If most people don’t get vaccinated we'll continue to have economic closures and restrictions on our normal way of life. So it's a good thing if people do get vaccinated.

CREASEY: Have you thought about doing a Australian vaccination concert like they're doing over in the US with Joe Biden and J Lo? Maybe we could do one here with you and The Veronicas.

ALBANESE: The rollout is going well over there. They did far worse with the spread of COVID but they are vaccinating a lot of people and you can just rock up and get a vaccine.

BLACKWELL: Who would have thought medical care in the US would ever be good?

ALBANESE: It’s not usually the model.

BLACKWELL: Well you are here for a game of Quick Draw. I did overhear you in our green room/boardroom saying I’ve got no idea about this game but you are playing Kate Ritchie.

RITCHIE: That’s good, I’m glad about that.

ALBANESE: She came out to intimidate me.

CREASEY: She does that.

ALBANESE: She did the whole, I’ve got this.

RITCHIE: My eyes aren’t very good so I had no idea who was in there.

ALBANESE: Well hidden.

BLACKWELL: We’ll get your local member in next week. I give a category and a letter and the first to yell out a correct answer gets a point and the first answer you yell out is locked in. Now I'll give you a practice question and we'll have a song to debrief.

RITCHIE: Oh, God.

BLACKWELL: Are you ready?

RITCHIE: I don't really know. I don't know what to expect with you. I don't know.

ALBANESE: I have no idea about the game.

BLACKWELL: I've given you the rules.

ALBANESE: I do know the rules now.

BLACKWELL: Yes, good. Here we go. Here's practice question to get you in the mood. Name something you'd see in the Canberra Bubble starting with R.

ALBANESE: Radio.

BLACKWELL: Wow. It's going to be a ripper game, guys. Strap yourselves in. If you're driving home from work do not change stations.

ALBANESE: Stay tuned, we were just teasing.

BLACKWELL: Anthony Albanese is here versus Kate Ritchie, Quickfire Kate Ritchie, in Quick Draw, next.
 
<song break>
 
BLACKWELL: We were talking about travel, the fact that we were kind of all locked in our houses and locked in our states for ages, which was kind of nice, and now someone who is in your position is pretty much on a plane four or 5000 times a day.
 
ALBANESE: You feel like that.
 
CREASY: You must know all the crew, the safety demonstrations.
 
ALBANESE: I can do the whole safety demonstration.  
 
CREASY: Right. I'd love to see it sometime.
 
ALBANESE: Particularly on the Dash-8.
 
BLACKWELL: Any touch and go moments?  When you fly really regionally and the pilot's wife is the stewardess so she hands out, like muffins, from a Tupperware container.
 
RITCHIE: I don’t think it happens like that.
 
BLACKWELL: That's happened.
 
RITCHIE: When?
 
BLACKWELL: Once, years ago. I was like “is this real?”
 
CREASY: I love that. I love those flights.
 
ALBANESE: Anything can happen. I don't like the little flights. The charter flights, when people say “you got to go on a plane with just six people” I'm like “yeah, that’s because it's really small”. Does this broadcast into Mt Isa?
 
BLACKWELL: Podcast, yeah.
 
ALBANESE: Yeah, I was going to say, Bob won’t mind, but being stuck on a small plane for six hours with Bob Katter. There’s a memory where he was telling the pilot where to go, when he was trying to look for this place, he was going “it’s somewhere over there”. He was looking for a site for a dam, literally, and so the pilot’s very politely flying around this plane. It was just one of the most bizarre experiences.
 
BLACKWELL: His mouth’s one of the propellers, he doesn't stop.
 
ALBANESE: He’s a good fellow, Bob.
 
BLACKWELL: You’d say that at the end of every sentence. Well done, well played Anthony Albanese. OK, here go, we're playing for real now. Let’s hope you and Kate have a bit more fire in you.
 
ALBANESE: What do you win?
 
BLACKWELL: Best of seven. Glory.
 
ALBANESE: Glory. Fair enough.
 
BLACKWELL: We can crack you a beer if you like.
 
ALBANESE: Glory, Glory. Souths are playing tonight, so glory, glory.
 
RITCHIE: Are they? Who were they playing tonight?
 
ALBANESE: Raiders.
 
BLACKWELL: You should have worn your Rabbitohs cap, Kate.
 
ALBANESE: Are you a Souths fan?
 
RITCHIE: Well, maybe.
 
ALBANESE: What do you mean maybe?
 
RITCHIE: I grew I was a North Sydney fan, the Bears, with my dad, when I was a kid. And then the West, the Magpies.
 
BLACKWELL: Joel’s the guy who you can’t shut up about the Rabbitohs.
 
CREASY: I’m not sure what we’re talking about.
 
RITCHIE: I don’t know what I am.
 
ALBANESE: Lock in. Lock in now.
 
CREASY: Arsenal.
 
BLACKWELL: Of course you’d say Arsenal. Question number one. Best of seven.
 
ALBANESE: Here we go.
 
BLACKWELL: Nice. Name something you'd see at a live gig starting with G.
 
ALBANESE:  Guitar.
 
BLACKWELL: Ah yes. AA - good initials. I’m just writing down the score.
 
RITCHIE: You don’t ever say that about me, you never give me compliments when I get a point.
 
BLACKWELL: KR? But AA is generally what’s around my neck when we’re at Splendour in the Grass. KR’s not.
 
RITCHIE: And he's an adult. Still impressed by that stuff.
 
ALBANESE: I'm with him. My son said to me yesterday, he said “Dad. I heard that you were in”, he’s 20, “I heard that when you did that thing that it was actually at Splendor in the Grass and The Strokes are playing this year. So do you reckon you could get to go again?” And I said “mate, I asked you to come with me last time and you said ‘no, that it'd be boring’”, and he goes “oh l but always young then”. He’s 20. Too bad.
 
BLACKWELL: November. It's going to be big and The Strokes are playing. Name a former Prime Minister starting with J.
 
RITCHIE: Oh my God, I'm so bad.
 
ALBANESE: J?
 
RITCHIE: Julian McMahon’s father.
 
ALBANESE: Julia Gillard.
 
BLACKWELL: Yeah. John Howard. John Curtin.
 
ALBANESE: I was trying to think of last names, I've got to say.
 
BLACKWELL: It’s not JB JiFi, you don’t have them alphabetically like that.
 
CREASY: Yeah, what was going on there? Both of you.
 
ALBANESE: I was waiting for the surname. I was thinking surnames.
 
RITCHIE: I feel really nervous.
 
CREASY: Two points to Albo, no points for Kate Ritchie.
 
ALBANESE: Hang on, is it best out of three?
 
BLACKWELL: Best of seven, you’ve got a while to go.
 
ALBANESE: I was about to claim it.

BLACKWELL: Name a spice you cook with starting with C.
 
RITCHIE: Cumin. Yes.
 
BLACKWELL: Here she goes. Here she cumins into town.
 
ALBANESE: That was good.
 
RITCHIE: Thank you very much.
 
ALBANESE: For those of you, which is everyone, who didn't get the visual Kate got very excited there.
 
RITCHIE: I know. Well, not much excites me these days. Mr. Albanese.
 
BLACKWELL: The Rabbitohs and cumin. Name something you do on a hot day starting with S.
 
RITCHIE: Sweat.
 
ALBANESE: Swim.
 
CREASY: Wow.
 
ALBANESE: Who got it?
 
RITCHIE: Me.
 
CREASY: Kate, just by a hair.
 
RITCHIE: What did you say?
 
ALBANESE: The same.
 
RITCHIE: No, I said sweat.
 
ALBANESE: Oh, I said swim.
 
RITCHIE: That’s not the same as sweat.
 
BLACKWELL: It doesn’t matter.
 
RITCHIE: Oh my goodness.
 
ALBANESE: I deserve half there, for the controversy.
 
BLACKWELL: Name something you'd see in the prayer room starting with T.
 
RITCHIE: Tampon.
 
BLACKWELL: What?
 
CREASY: OK.
 
RITCHIE: It’s my standard go-to T answer and I apologise that it came up today, because they're everywhere.
 
CREASY: Ah yes, the score is three points to Kate Ritchie, two points to Mr Anthony Albanese. Anthony need to get the next point to stay in the game.
 
ALBANESE: On what basis is that last answer legit?
 
RITCHIE: I wouldn't give that point to me either, but I did win it.
 
BLACKWELL: In the interest of time that answer is correct. Basically, any answer as long, as it's first, it’s correct. For the win Kate, to stay in the game Albo. Name something you take with you on a night out starting with W.
 
RITCHIE: Weet-Bix.
 
ALBANESE: Water.
 
RITCHIE: Don’t take Weet-Bix.
 
BLACKWELL: We’ll take water. Tie-breaker. Is that correct? Is it a tie-break?
 
CREASY: It’s a tie-breaker. You don’t take Weet-Bix, mate.
 
RITCHIE: I know, you can’t. It's just that we were talking about Weet-Bix. OK, what I'm going to ask you, is Weet-Bix a seasonal breakfast? Do you prefer it in the summer or the winter? What do you think when I say Weet-Bix with warm milk and honey, would you eat it?
 
ALBANESE: Who eats Weet-Bix with warm milk and honey?
 
BLACKWELL: Thank you. I know you think you’re next to Leigh Sales right now with these kind of questions. But you’re not, it’ Kate Ritchie.
 
RITCHIE: You are so rude.
 
BLACKWELL: 730 report’s on in 40 minutes, an hour, whatever. OK, for the win guys. Leigh’s writing the Weet-Bix question out now. Getting the producers to put it into her ear for next time Albo’s on. Name an Australian animals starting with K.
 
RITCHIE: Kangaroo.
 
ALBANESE: Koala.
 
CREASY: Kate Ritchie. What a game.
 
BLACKWELL: Such a pleasure to have you in. Well, good luck with everything. You’re on air. Don't take your headphones off and say anything bad, you’re still on, Albo. Lovely to have you in. Thanks for coming.
 
ALBANESE: I know, but now I was just listening rather than talking, and I can hear you. I’m very disappointed. Will you invite me back for return challenge?
 
BLACKWELL: Of course.
 
RITCHIE: You want to come back for some more questions.
 
ALBANESE: Yeah.
 
ENDS