SUBJECTS: World Record Store Day, Marrickville Metro toilet; Australian Club not allowing women; A Queen’s Birthday Honour award or knighthood for Mick Molloy; Scott Morrison’s photo at a pub in the UK; the Biloela family; vaccine rollout failures; next federal election date.
 
DANGEROUS DAVE, HOST: Mickey, there’s a lot going on in the world of politics.
 
MICK MOLLOY, HOST: There’s a bit to digest.
 
HOST: PM overseas, guest of the G7. More vaccines are needed on the ground. Families reunited as well. We're joined by the leader of the Federal Opposition, Albo. Anthony Albanese joins us right now on Molloy.
 
HOST: How are you mate?
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good afternoon. I'm doing pretty well.
 
HOST: Before we get to the heavy stuff, a couple of things. It was World Record Store Day last Friday and I know you were tweeting about this or mentioning this. As a former DJ, can I ask, did you go and buy anything from the record store?
 
ALBANESE: I did, mate. I went to RPM Records in Marrickville and I bought a live double album of Bowie that has all the great songs on it as well as a cover of the Stones’ It's Only Rock’n’Roll (But I Like It), which is particularly good, right at the end. And I got a picture disc of The Cure, Faith, which is, I think, their third album.
 
HOST: Oh, well done. You know your stuff. I saw The Cure live, I have to say. One of my favourite bands. What was the first album you ever bought, Albo?
 
ALBANESE: First album I ever bought was Honky Chateau by Elton John. I’m showing my age.
 
HOST: That’s a good record.
 
HOST: And what was the first live concert you ever saw?
 
ALBANESE: I saw AC/DC at the first ever, I think it was, Sydney Festival that used to take place in January and it was down at Paddy’s Markets. I was about 10 or 11, it was like a free concert. And I just thought, wow, you know. It just blew me away. The Young boys went to, of course, Ashfield Boys High School in my electorate for a little while. It was a great gig. And then I used to go to, there were quite a few free concerts when I was a kid, bands like Ol’ 55 and Sherbert, bands like that, Hush.
 
HOST: I saw Hush do Bony Moronie at a shopping centre in Port Macquarie when I was on holidays. Dare to dream. Hey, you mention Marrickville. Did you know that there’s a shopping centre, the Marrickville Metro.
 
ALBANESE: I know where this is going.
 
HOST: There’s a toilet that features a mural of a young Anthony Albanese in the cubicle. Like, there you are, staring down like the eyes of God, watching people on the toot.
 
ALBANESE: Inspiration. Marrickville Metro only opened their big new centre, I think, on the weekend. But a number of people have sent it to me and I think it is very, very strange indeed. They didn't ask me for it, funnily enough. But it's quite an artistic version of an old photo of me from 1985. It’s aged because I've got an International Youth Year t-shirt on. It was the day I became president of Young Labor so, full with long hair and an earring.
 
HOST: Well, that could win an Archibald, that one, I think. And as you know, if you ever become Prime Minister, they hang a picture of you in Parliament House. I suggest that one there is up there. Have you ever been a member of the Australian Club?
 
ALBANESE: Certainly not and wouldn’t want to be.
 
HOST: Wouldn’t want to be? Not your speed? What do you think about all the goings on today?
 
ALBANESE: Look, seriously, any mob of old blokes who say that they want to just hang out with each other and exclude women in 2021, seriously, it's a shocker. I thought we’d moved on from there.
 
HOST: Well, I would have thought the Liberal Party has the men's club covered but, you know.
 
ALBANESE: That’s the same membership, I think, from the look of things, I’ve got to say. From John Howard and others walking out of the meeting proudly saying, we stopped those sheilas joining. It is unbelievable.
 
HOST: If you get the top job, and I need you a serious response to this, the Queen's Birthday Honours List. Any room for Mickey? Can you guarantee you’d slip me onto that list?
 
ALBANESE: Mate, I’ve got to say, given that Peta Credlin got an award for this, you’re a chance, mate. You’re a chance. Best I can do because there’s a bit of independence in the process. Although it does appear there’s a little bit of political engagement. I think you would be very popular.
 
HOST: Well, you never know.
 
ALBANESE: It’s a pity we don’t have knighthoods. Sir Mick Molloy has a bit of a ring about it, doesn’t it?
 
HOST: And I would arrive on a horse, in armour, and let you knight me, personally.
 
HOST: Hey Albo, stick around, we’ve got more to chat with you in just a moment. He’s the Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese.
 
[Song break]
 
HOST: It is Molloy on Triple M. Denise Scott will be joining us in just a moment. We are currently joined by the Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, on the line.
 
HOST: Okay, let's get to the G7, if you don't mind. There seems to be some reasonable stuff going on in the background, hijacked by the tone deaf appearance of our PM at a country pub with his family when no one else is allowed, even for compassionate reasons, to leave the country. Is that the right look for the leader to be sending to all Australians right now?
 
ALBANESE: I’ll leave those things. I’ll just raise the bat and watch the ball hit the keepers’ gloves on that one, I think. It’s up to him to make those decisions.
 
HOST: Well, it looks like he's holidaying overseas, Albo. So, in a pandemic he goes and has a beer in a pub for us all to have a look at and during bushfires he goes to Hawaii in a Hawaiian shirt. Is this appropriate from a Prime Minister when the country's on the ropes, twitching on the canvas? I'm in Melbourne and I can say that picture is kind of offensive to me.
 
ALBANESE: You'll make your own judgment and Australians will.
 
HOST: I know you agree with me, so, I’ve just got to say yes to that. Okay. Thank you, Albo. Why do we have to appear so mean sometimes? And I’m talking about the Tamil Biloela family. Why is it so hard for us to let them be together and back in a community that desperately wants them and is reaching out for them?
 
ALBANESE: Look, it’s just absurd. The fact is that government ministers for immigration will make hundreds of decisions every year, just about, to intervene and to say, well, there are special circumstances here, so it's not setting a precedent, but due to the circumstances we’re going to give these people a visa of some sort or other. The tragedy here is, you might have noticed today, the Government crowing about, we're going to have this special visa for people from ASEAN countries to our north to come on work on farms and to work in places where we can't get enough Australian workers. Guess what, they can't get enough Australian workers to work in meatworks. Now, Nades, the dad here, worked at the meatworks in Biloela. They actually are importing temporary labour, this bloke is part of the local community, paying local taxes, wants to be part of the local community, they want him there. The mum, Priya, she volunteered in the local community as well. I travelled there in 2019, after I became Labor Leader, and the community loved these two little girls, you know, they've been born there. For goodness sake. The idea that one of the girls has had to have an operation on her teeth because they were rotting because she hadn't had nutrition, then we have her stuck in Christmas Island at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, this has all cost, of taxpayers’ money in order to, what for? To what end? When the community want them. I think we're a better country than that. And we should be making sure that this family can go home to Bilo. As it is, there's going to be ongoing costs of their community detention there in Perth. It's just a shocker.
 
HOST: It's just, we don't look good and it's not who we are. And I think that local community is the real Australia and I hope they are listened to. I want to talk about vaccines quickly. Greg Hunt – anti-vaxxer?
 
ALBANESE: Well he’s not very good at rolling it out, is he?
 
HOST: He’s not rolling it out. 
 
ALBANESE: They’re pretty good at rolling out the red carpet for the Prime Minister when he turns up at events but they’re no good at rolling out a vaccine.
 
HOST: Well they might as well make Pete Evans Minister for Health. I mean.
 
ALBANESE: We’re not in the top 100 of countries. We’re still not up to three per cent of Australians being fully vaccinated. We asked questions today in the Parliament about aged care workers. They were all told aged care workers and residents were all supposed to be fully vaccinated by Easter. It's now the middle of June. Neither has happened. It's holding us back and it means, between rolling out the vaccine and not fixing up quarantine, so we've gotten people in the middle of CBDs in hotels, the Victorian lockdown happened because of a stuff up in hotel quarantine in Adelaide. And there are consequences for it. People want to get on with our lives and return to normal and be able to go to the footy and be able to engage with each other. These two jobs they’ve had, they’ve botched both of them.
 
HOST: It’s not on. Thank you for your time today, Albo. If you were a betting man, when do you think you’re going to the polls?
 
ALBANESE: Well, the Prime Minister says that he will go full-term next year. If they go early, it would be only because of one reason, it’s because he thinks it’s going to get pretty bad over the Christmas period and early next year. Three years is too short for me. We have too many elections. There should four-year terms, I think. We're due next year. But anytime between October and May, we are ready.
 
HOST: Alright, well just remember, if you do get that job, Queens Birthday Honours List. I’ll turn up on a Shetland pony. You can knight me.
 
ALBANESE: Sir Mick Molloy.
 
HOST: Thanks for your time today Albo.
 
ALBANESE: Ciao.
 
HOST: Anthony Albanese, the leader of the Federal Opposition. This is Molloy on Triple M.
 
ENDS