SUBJECTS: Wages; aged care; positive agenda; cost of living; the Labor team.
 
PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: Senior political reporter Jonathan Lea caught up with the Opposition Leader a short time ago.

JONATHAN LEA: I don't know whether I should say welcome to Tasmania or thank you for having us in Tasmania!

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: How about both? Beautiful day here in Launceston, if a bit chilly.

LEA: It's a cracker. What matters to voters here? It's a working class area, working class seat.

ALBANESE: What matters is people feel like it's just too hard to get by. The cost of living, everything's going up except their wages and that's the big feedback that I've had in visits to Launceston. Also, there is an ageing population here as well. They're very concerned about the aged care crisis, and that we deal with the recommendations that are there from the Royal Commission, of making sure we get a nurse in every nursing home, making sure we have better wages, 215 minutes of care for aged care residents, and the basics of better food and nutrition.

LEA: Do you need to lose an election before you win one as leader?

ALBANESE: Not at all. The last two Labor leaders who won from opposition, Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd, didn't lose an election, they won their first try. So too, by the way, did Scott Morrison, and Malcolm Turnbull as well.

LEA: Are you mopping up Bill Shorten’s mistakes, winning these seats back for the Labor Party?

ALBANESE: I'm running my own agenda here. I'm running on a positive agenda about who I am and a better future for Australia. But we have learned some of the lessons of 2019, 2016, and, indeed, of our time in government. And we've learned from that experience. I have a policy, or a philosophy if you like, that was taught to me by my mentor, Tom Uren, he said ‘you got to get better every day and you've got to learn something new every day’. And I keep doing that. And I hope that's reflected in the positive agenda for a better future that we have.

LEA: A lot of the commentariat is saying this is going to be a particularly bitter and nasty campaign. Should we expect that?

ALBANESE: Well, I hope not. I hope it's about Australia's future. We have, though, a government that doesn't really have an agenda, a government that handed down a budget a couple of weeks ago, where all of the one-off payments just end as soon as people have cast their vote. They don't have a plan to deal with climate change and energy. They don't have a social policy plan. They don't have an industry policy plan to grow new jobs. We've got quite an exciting agenda in all of those areas. And we'll be advocating that positive agenda over the coming weeks.

LEA: It’s early days, and the last question from me, when do we start to find out more about your team? When will we learn key ministers? If you're elected, who they’ll be, Defence, Home Affairs?

ALBANESE: Oh, look, I'd expect that everyone will be in the job that they currently hold. I'm very happy with the team. That's my starting point. And I'm very proud of the team that I lead. It's a mix of experienced people who've served in high office I've been a Deputy Prime Minister, served as acting Prime Minister at times, I've been a senior minister in the government. A range of other people have served in senior roles, Penny Wong, Tony Burke, Chris Bowen, and others, people have served as Chief Ministers in Katy Gallagher or Premiers in Kristina Keneally, but also we've got new people who've come through like Terri Butler, who haven’t served as ministers in the past. And so, I think it's a really good mix and, and we're ready, we're ready for government. We've been working hard on the policy plans. We've been waiting for the fourth quarter, as I've called it, we're now in time on in the fourth quarter, the wind’s at our back, and I hope that it takes us to a win on May 21.

LEA: It's early days for questioning. But thank you very much for being generous with your time.

ENDS