SUBJECTS: Federal election; cost of living; Labor’s policy agenda.
 
DAVID KOCH, HOST: All right, he's aiming to be just the fourth leader, would you believe, to win from Opposition since World War Two, incredible bit of history as the Labor leader joins us now from Launceston. Anthony Albanese, we just heard from the Prime Minister, we're putting you under the 30 second clock for your first pitch to Sunrise viewers. Why should we vote for you?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: I want a better future for Australia with more secure work, with higher paid jobs. I want to take pressure off the cost of living by having cheaper electricity prices, by having cheaper childcare. I want to make more things here in Australia.

MONIQUE WRIGHT, HOST: Okay, well, you got in within 15 seconds there, Anthony Albanese. Pretty good going. One of the main criticisms of you is that the electorate doesn't know you. Has that been a deliberate strategy coming into this campaign? And what do you want people to know about you?

ALBANESE: Wherever I go, people know me. And I'm the son of a single mum, grew up in public housing in Camperdown in Sydney. No one gave me a leg up in life. I'm an example I think of what Australians want for their kids is what my mum wanted for me - aspiration for a better life, for greater opportunity. And I know the difference that government can make to people's lives because I've lived it. And that is why it's absolutely critical that I'll continue to get out during the campaign over the next six weeks, engage with people, as I have over the last three years.

KOCH: Anthony Albanese are you ready to lead though? In the past, we've seen Labor go into elections before saying ‘yes, they're ready to govern’. And it's turned out they really haven't been. How's it different this time?

ALBANESE: I'm certainly ready to govern and my team are ready to govern, Kochie. I think that the Hawke government, when you look back at it, learnt the lessons of the Whitlam government. I've learned some of the experience, the good and the bad, of the Rudd and Gillard governments, and I will bring that experience of looking at where things could have been done better by the fact that I was Leader of the Government in the House for those six years. I've been acting as Prime Minister, I've been the Deputy Prime Minister, I've been a senior minister for six years. The difference between me and the Prime Minister is that I've been Acting Prime Minister on a couple of occasions, he's been Acting Prime Minister for four years, he doesn't accept responsibility for things that are under his control. Things like ordering enough vaccines, things like responding to the bushfire crisis, dealing with flood victims, providing that support. We've seen in recent times - flood support, not given until he was there in Lismore, and then given selectively depending upon whether people lived in a Labor electorate, or a Coalition electorate, that's not the Australian way. I think at the last Budget as well, just a couple of weeks ago, we saw a government that was concerned about cost of living only until the election is over. Once people cast their votes, the support disappears. My plan for cheaper childcare, for example, will take pressure off working families permanently.

WRIGHT: Okay, one of the big problems, listening to the pitch yesterday by the Prime Minister, is that he is talking to a vulnerable electorate for a whole range of reasons, natural disasters, the pandemic, and wars and so on, and saying that it's a massive risk economically, if we vote for you. How do you possibly counteract that? Given how people are generally feeling about the cost of living in particular?

ALBANESE: By looking at the facts, the fact is that this government have left Australians with a trillion dollars of debt. They had doubled the debt before the pandemic, had nothing to do with the pandemic, and Australians are really doing it tough out there. They talk about headline figures of unemployment, but the truth is that there are one and a half million Australians who want more work. There's too many Australians in insecure work working three or four or five casual jobs, who can't get enough income to pay the bills. We have a plan to take that cost of living pressure off for more secure work, for dealing with cheaper childcare. Our climate change policy is about lowering energy prices, $275 for every household, by 2025. This government have had 22 different energy policies and haven't landed one of them. They're out of ideas. They're out of time. And at the election, they should be out of government.

KOCH: Before we're out of time, quick question, what's your biggest weakness?

ALBANESE: A weakness I've found is loyalty. I'm very loyal to people, and that sometimes can make me a bit predictable. And that sometimes can hurt politically, but I make I make no apologies for that. That's just who I am.

KOCH: Anthony Albanese, thanks for your time. Good luck with the long six week campaign. Appreciate your time.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, see you on the trail.

ENDS