SUBJECTS: Visit to Cairns; sports; Sydney lockdown; need to fix vaccine rollout and national quarantine; Queensland’s bid for Olympics; music; DJ Albo; Reclink; South Sydney Rabbitohs.

BEC DENT, HOST: Joining me right now in the studio, lucky enough to have Anthony Albanese, Leader of the Opposition, Labor Leader. Good morning. How are you? 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Bec. I am very, very well. 

DENT: You just breezed on in there with 30 seconds to spare. True professional.

ALBANESE: Well, you interrupted my putt-putt golf just outside the studio there.

DENT: There's lots of games here. Elliot Lovejoy loves his games. And we do have a putt-putt competition this Friday happening, which is raising money for local charity, men's mental health care.

ALBANESE: Very good, very important issue. 

DENT: Are you a golfer? 

ALBANESE: I'm a tennis player or try to be.

DENT: You would be loving the Wimbledon. 

ALBANESE: I am indeed. And golf, I try but I'm not real good.

DENT: Me neither. 

ALBANESE: I walk my dog on the golf course. 

DENT: Toto? Is that right?

ALBANESE: Yes.

DENT: Obviously a fan of The Wizard of Oz. 

ALBANESE: I'm missing Toto. I've been away for many weeks now. I was in Canberra for 15 days so I could come to Queensland.

DENT: That was my assumption because I'm like, Sydney is in lockdown, you're from Sydney.

ALBANESE: I haven't been there for a long time, so I'm missing Toto and missing my son. But that's what you have to do to get out and about with the lockdown. So I've been to Toowoomba and Brisbane and here and I'm going to Gladstone and to Mackay and getting out and about this week. It's a busy week. 

DENT: What's happening in Cairns here today? I mean, you're here for a reason. 

ALBANESE: I'm here with Elida Faith, our candidate for Leichhardt. She had a crack last time. She's a great candidate. And she would be, I think, an outstanding representative. Warren's been here a long time. I think he hasn't really delivered what he said he would. And I'm here to make sure that Elida can get elected. We will be talking about the impact that the failure of the Federal Government in rolling out the vaccine and fixing quarantine is having on the lockdown. The Cairns economy is so dependent upon international visitors as well as visitors from the southern states. So after here, we're doing something at the Divers Den about there. 

DENT: And I guess I did want to touch on the COVID rollout. And you just said it's just not been effective. Obviously, quarantine is not working.

ALBANESE: We are last in the developed world, stone cold last when it comes to the rollout of the vaccine. And the real tragedy is that this time last year, we were doing better than the rest of the world. And we've squandered that advantage. We did have an advantage being an island continent, it's a bit easier for us to close our borders than it is in countries in Europe. That’s a bit more difficult.

DENT: It is very hard for people to be able to get here. 

ALBANESE: But we've squandered it. And now it means that as the rest of the world's opening up, we're shutting down. You see the crowds at Wimbledon. They couldn't even have the tournament last year. And we've had a lockdown that my great city of Sydney is about to be locked down for the third week in a row.

DENT: July 16, to be reviewed. Ouch.

ALBANESE: And that's bad for them, but it's bad for the whole country. Because people who had trips booked here are unable to come. 

DENT: And I guess that's a problem because it does flow on, obviously for the tourism industry up here there's no certainty for us if the lockdowns continue.

ALBANESE: Absolutely. And I've been up here before this year, and I remember being here in January, meeting down at the waterfront there, all the tourism operators, and just taking a walk along the wharf and the boats all there that would normally have been out on the reef. And they just weren't getting the traffic. And they expected to be doing better, frankly, by July. But last Friday, I'm somewhat stunned that last Friday the Government came out with its four-phase plan and we're at the beginning of phase one, which is that we need to fix the rollout of the vaccine. No kidding. We knew that. That was the original plan. So the new plan is a bit like the old plan that hasn't been implemented. So I hope we get it right.

DENT: I do want to touch on briefly, because it's just made the news and it's gone up like gangbusters, that petition for Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Premier, she's from your Party. She is wanting to head over to Tokyo, put the pitch out there, hopefully get Brisbane 2032 across the line. But people are saying, 'Well, if we can't travel, why can she?'

ALBANESE: Well, I wasn't critical of Scott Morrison for traveling in Australia's interests. He's had two international trips in the last couple of months. He went across to New Zealand, then he went across to the United Kingdom and France and went around Europe. People need to do their job. Is it in Queensland's interest to get the Olympics? You bet it is. It transformed Sydney as a global city. It put it on the world stage again. We've had Olympic Games in Melbourne and in Sydney. I think it would be great if Queensland gets the Olympic Games. And I just think that should be the focus. I am a mate of Annastacia’s. She works each and every day for Queensland, to keep Queenslanders safe but also for Queensland jobs. And this will be an Olympic Games that will have activities in the regions. And I know the Commonwealth Games had a really positive impact on the Gold Coast. When I was Infrastructure Minister, we invested in light rail, we invested in the stadium there on the Gold Coast. And it was terrific. But quite frankly, the Commonwealth Games are small beans compared with the Olympics.

DENT: And I think honestly, I think what the petition represents is more just a dissatisfaction with the public of where we're at right now. And they're just frustrated. And I think they are just venting that frustration.

ALBANESE: And I get that. I get that. But I wasn't critical, as I said, Scott Morrison has had two overseas trips. You've had ministers travelling overseas in the Australian Government. And, quite frankly, Annastacia Palaszczuk, if the Federal Government had listened to Annastacia and fixed national quarantine, I was at Toowoomba on Monday, that Wellcamp site, you could have had fit-for-purpose facilities, they should have been up and running in January of this year. We could have had Australians home. We could have had safe quarantine. And it hasn't happened because Scott Morrison has been too busy patting himself on the back. If he had spent more time listening to Annastacia, I think Queensland and Australia would have been better off.

DENT: I'm sure this isn't nothing that he hasn't heard before. But they are some pretty strong words there aimed at our Prime Minister, which is understandable. I know you have your time on the floor. So you've all heard it before. But I want you to stick around just a little bit, if you've got time. I want to find out about the person behind the politician. 

ALBANESE: We can do that.

DENT: About Albo himself. Forget about Anthony Albanese. Let's find out about Albo. 

***

DENT: I saw your playlist online there. It was a pretty good playlist.

ALBANESE: I have a few playlists. One of the things I got to do, when I was Deputy Prime Minister, I got to host Rage. 

DENT: That's a dream. 

ALBANESE: Absolutely. Talk about on the bucket list. I was doing the Triple J Hack program and then the Rage people came in and we were talking music. And they were like, 'You know a lot about music, you could host Rage'. And I go, 'Oh, please, can I?'

DENT: And do you play instruments? Where has the love come from? You just love music. 

ALBANESE: I've just always loved music. And I was the beneficiary of, I'm of the age whereby you could go to pubs and see the Oils and Cold Chisel and Powder Finger, The Go-Betweens and all of that. It was great era for particularly for sort of indie Australian music. And INXS, I saw INXS at a pub with like 200 people, you know, which was awesome.

DENT: Obviously not wearing a suit. You're in jeans, you are in your civvies. 

ALBANESE: Absolutely. 

DENT: I want to know a little bit more about civilian Anthony Albanese. We'll find out more after Kings of Leon, a song I'm sure you approve of. You’d have it on your playlist. It's Use Somebody on Triple M. Again, Anthony Albanese, Leader of the Opposition, Labor Leader, in town at the moment and joining us again on Triple M after this.

***

DENT: Joining me right now in the studio is Anthony Albanese, Leader of the Opposition, Labor Leader. My partner, he's just texted me and said, 'Say it, say it, take it easy Albanese'. So I've got to say it. You hear that all the time. Thank you for embarrassing me, it's fine, don't worry about it, keeps the relationship solid. We were just saying off-air, with people in public positions, whether they're famous, or they have a public profile or a job like yours as a politician, people forget that there's a person behind the title, I guess. And today, I wanted to sort of just point out a little bit more about you, humanise you, if you like, a little bit. 

ALBANESE: Sure.

DENT: Now, I know that you're a mad football fan. We just established that you're a music fan, but you love the Rabbitohs. Correct?

ALBANESE: I do. I was on the board of South Sydney in the 90s and into the naughties, when we got kicked out of the comp and they made a decision to exclude us. And we fought our way back. And yesterday was in fact the 20th anniversary of us winning the court case in the Federal Court, the full bench that saw us admitted back into the competition. And the great thing about that is that rugby league, genuine rugby league fans, throughout the country, but particularly here in Queensland, all backed us going back into the comp because it wasn't right. Rugby league is about people's identity. And the idea you can say, 'Oh, well, just go follow another team'.

DENT: No, it is your community club. You bleed that colour. 

ALBANESE: They just didn't get it. It was sort of a bunch of bureaucrats sitting down, counting beings, not understanding that it was about values. And I remember when we got kicked out of the comp, going back as a board standing up, we had a presentation at the Leagues Club there at Redfern. And people were just crying. For some people it was their whole life that was wrapped up in Souths. And it was a great day when we got to come back. And of course, we have been pretty successful. 

DENT: Doing pretty great over last couple of years. It's so true. It's very rare to find a more loyal fan, almost, than a Bunny because of what you went through, really?

ALBANESE: Absolutely. We had 150,000 people marching through the streets of Sydney.

DENT: You would understand our pain then after what happened with Origin. I know that you were at game one with the Premier and you saw what happened. And as a Blues supporter, you were obviously a lot happier about it than we were.

ALBANESE: I was. But you know, a great thing was when Queensland were down by 30 points, that crowd at Townsville there were still chanting 'Queenslander'.

DENT: You don't give up on your team.

ALBANESE: There was so much passion. It was just awesome. And I love Queensland's passion for the game. I think that Suncorp is the best stadium in Australia. But that stadium at Townsville, I hadn't been to it before, is a cracker. And it was a great thing. And I supported the game being taken to Townsville. I copped a bit of flak from some of our New South Wales people about that. But it was the right thing to do. I hope they take game three to Newcastle so that people in the region who back rugby league get to go.

DENT: Now, I know that you sometimes DJ as well, which is a nice little side thing going on. What's the one song that you always play in a DJ set?

ALBANESE: I play Iggy Pop's The Passenger at the end because I play songs that get a bit of audience participation. You know, the Slab by Hunters & Collectors, which is a really simple grunt at one stage. But for The Passenger, Iggy Pop, the la la la la la la la la bit.

DENT: You can sing it, if you'd like. 

ALBANESE: I deliberately didn't. The good thing about having a crowd is that they can't hear just you.

DENT: It is true, they drown you out. 

ALBANESE: There is an obscure video where I've got Tim Rogers and Dan Sultan up on stage doing it with us down at the Corner Hotel in Richmond. I’ve DJed mainly for charity, for a charity called Community Cup. And what they do is they connect people who are on the streets, homeless, involved in drugs or really marginalised people and try and bring them back into the mainstream through music and sport. It is a great charity, Reclink. And it was the idea of people like Tex Perkins and Paul Kelly and a bunch of people in Melbourne began it and then it spread out nationally. So I do do a few DJ sets for them to raise money, basically, for charity. Just a bit of fun. I don't take myself too seriously.

DENT: No, I'm getting that. I'm getting that vibe from you. Well, I mean, we've got to head on into the news. We're super late. But it has been a real pleasure. So thank you very much. Anthony Albanese, Leader of the Opposition. Enjoy your time in the Far North today. 

ALBANESE: Thanks for having me.

ENDS