SUBJECTS: COVID-19; Cost of living pressures; Wages; National Reconstruction Fund; Childcare; Border security; Election debates.
 
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: We’re trying to talk to Anthony Albanese, and he joins us now.

ALLISON LANGDON, HOST: He’s back! He's out and about! How‘s that fresh air?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: I am, it's great, and it's sunny down here in Mahoney Park in Marrickville. It's a beautiful day.

STEFANOVIC: Well that was ‘Thank God You’re There’ because that was the longest filler I’ve ever done in my life. Look I wanted to ask you -

ALBANESE: I gotta say, my dog’s pretty happy too because she's been in iso for seven days without a walk, so a fun morning.

STEFANOVIC: So honestly, how’re you feeling?

ALBANESE: I'm feeling much better. And this is a disease that you don't want to get. No one wants to get it. But I'm feeling much better, there were a rough couple of days. I'm told that I'll continue to feel fatigued and tired towards the end of the day for a while yet. But I'm out and about, and gee it's good to feel that fresh air.

LANGDON: Well, that's a really good point you raised there, because I know your doctors have told you to take it take it easy. Are you're gonna listen to advice, and what does that then look like considering, you know, you've just missed a week of the campaign, you're gonna feel that need to kind of make up for lost time, I imagine?

ALBANESE: It just means being sensible. So it means if I if I feel really tired have a rest, it means doing, perhaps, less things during the day. But I expect, and the doctor's advice is, I'll get better each day. And certainly today I feel terrific this morning. I feel better than I did yesterday. And yesterday, I felt better than I did the day before. That's what happens. But this does have an impact, as millions of your listeners tragically have had this over a period of time, more than half my shadow cabinet have had COVID now. And at the moment, I think there's at least two of them out, including Madeleine King, will miss campaign launch in Perth on Sunday. So if it was going to happen, the timing, whereby I'm out a couple of days before our campaign launch in Perth, is really the sweet spot. So I look at it from that perspective, it could have been a lot worse, this could have happened today. I could have tested positive and then we would have had all this planning for the campaign launch that would have had to have been postponed.

STEFANOVIC: Okay, I also want to welcome you back in charge of numbers, saying that we have millions of listeners is a great boost to our egos here on the Today Show.

ALBANESE: You do! You do! Who wouldn't watch the Today Show in the morning? And particularly, I'm very conscious that Friday morning with myself and Christopher Pyne used to be compulsory viewing.

STEFANOVIC: And you still are. By the way, thanks for the promo. We love it. 

ALBANESE: Always happy to help!

STEFANOVIC: Now, look, obviously, while you've been away, the cost-of-living pressures have escalated, 20 year high. When was the last time when Labor was in government they got control of inflation like this?

ALBANESE: Well, the truth is that the cost of everything is going through the roof, and everything's going up except people's wages. And what we're seeing from the government is complacency, a government that always wants to take credit when things are going okay, but will never accept any responsibility whatsoever when things aren't going well. This is a government that are really out of touch, a Prime Minister who said if you're having trouble with rents just go buy a house. And this inflation figure just tells the Australians what they already knew. Every time they go to the supermarket the costs of things are going up and up. I've done some online shopping this week, an iceberg lettuce $5.50. For an iceberg lettuce. It used to be a couple of bucks.

LANGDON: But Albo, the thing is, I don't think people want to hear their politicians telling us what the problem is anymore. People are living this every day. They know what the problem is. They want to know how you're going to fix it.

ALBANESE: Well, we're going to fix it, one by having a plan to address wages. This government won't even put in a submission supporting a wage increase for aged care workers. We're going to lift productivity through the National Reconstruction Fund by having the National Broadband Network operate properly to lift the productivity of businesses. And then the way that you can place better profits and better wages. The only way you can do that without placing pressure on inflation is by making sure you have those productivity improvements, and we're aiming at that as well. We'll have cheaper childcare. We'll help, over a million families will be better off with our cheaper childcare plan. That's a plan that's been dismissed by the government. Families out there know that when their kid goes from childcare into kindy, all of a sudden, it's like they've got this big wage increase, because they have more money in their pocket. As well as, of course, that will boost productivity as well by improving women's capacity to work. 

STEFANOVIC: Alright, Border Force have released a video this morning, which is unusual for its timing probably more than its message during a campaign. Peter Dutton says that that's a message directly to the boat smugglers. They're getting primed for your government. You do have a perception issue, don't you, of being soft on boats? The floodgates opened, well and truly, under Kevin Rudd when he was captain of the ship, now, what are you going to do to stop the boats?

ALBANESE: We're going to operate exactly the same policies as the government does, on issues like boat turn backs, offshore processing, resettlement in third countries. And I note that that's precisely the message that is out there from the Defence Department today. So they're acknowledging that the policies will stay exactly the same, which they will.

LANGDON: Look, um, Scott Morrison has committed to two more leaders debates, including one on Nine, that's for Sunday, May 8. Can you lock that in right here right now?

ALBANESE: Well, I'm happy to have debates. But what Scott Morrison has done is go off and negotiate with himself as if it's a one side debate. The National Secretary of the Labor Party always sits down with the National Secretary of the Liberal Party and sorts this out and I'm confident that they'll be able to do so. But they’ve got to pick up the phone. Scott Morrison doesn't decide where and when each debate will be. I'm certainly up for more debates. I won the first debate. Why wouldn't I want more?

STEFANOVIC: Just quickly before we go my friend, the InStyle shoot, I mean, on occasion, we've done those shoots ourselves, and it obviously didn't work out for me as well as it has done for you. It used to be Kevin 07 and now they're saying it's Albo 007.

ALBANESE: Well, I'm not sure what to make of that. I’m here running under Albo 22. And I'm very hopeful of a good outcome on the 21st of May. You've got shots of my Toto running around the park here this morning with her little bandana. She's doing her bit for the campaign. And I just thank everyone, including your listeners there, for the well wishes that I got while I had COVID. It was just a reminder of the generosity that's out there. Including from your good self Karl.

LANGDON: Okay, and we're just hearing that our people are going to call your people and they're going to lock in Sunday, May 8. Good stuff, we're on.

STEFANOVIC: To our millions of listeners. Thank you Albo.

ALBANESE: They’ll sort out a series of debates. They’re all - you've got Nine, Seven, ABC, National Press Club, all vying for debates. 

LANGDON: You've already said Nine’s the place!

ALBANESE: Adults need to sit in the room and sort it out.

LANGDON: Thanks Albo, Good to talk to you.

ENDS