SUBJECTS: 2022 Election, Leadership and honesty,  Labor’s policy agenda; Labor’s telehealth policy, Rising costs of seeing a GP in Tasmania; Fixing the Aged Care Crisis.
 
HOST: We're joined right now by the Federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese. Good morning.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Thanks for having me on the program.

HOST: You're very welcome, Albo. Can we call you Albo? Or DJ Albo? What do you like to go with?

ALBANESE: Albo’s fine.

HOST: Is it? Because Tubes was trying to tell me it was sexist. But I thought that was it's an endearing nickname like Woody and Tubes.

HOST: Well, it just is. It's been my nickname since primary school.

HOST: There you go. Good. I've got your permission. Big headlines.

ALBANESE: You kinda get used to it. 

HOST: Big headlines over the last 24 hours. I just want to read one of them out to you: ‘Morrison's Cabinet confusion, and Albanese’s epic stumble, welcome to day one of the Federal Election.’

ALBANESE: Well, politics has its ups and downs doesn’t it?

HOST: Do we know the cash and unemployment rate this morning? I’ve got to ask that because that's all anyone's talked about for 24 hours.

ALBANESE: Yes, indeed. It’s 0.1 and 4. And I knew it, I knew it yesterday too, but it just went blank. I fessed up, put my hand up and said that it was a mistake. And I was concentrating on other things, but I'm not making excuses. Copped it sweet.

HOST: I think it's fair enough. As a voter in the electorate of Clark what I want and what I think Tasmanian’s want is our politicians to be accountable and honest. And I don't think we're getting that currently. And I think that the way you've answered that, Anthony, is a reflection on, I think, who you are. So how will a Labor Government change that perception of politicians that I think a lot of the public have?

ALBANESE: By being straight. Politicians don't always get it right. I didn't get it right. It wasn't my best ever press conference, yesterday. I put my hand up, said that that was the case, accepted responsibility. People know that. We've all made mistakes in life. I've got to tell you, you know, one of the things I'll never forget, though, is why I'm in politics. I mean, politics to make a difference to people's lives. I’ll never forget that people are doing really tough at the moment. And the government needs to perform better.

HOST: And we really want to touch on that in just a second. One thing I found interesting is you said you want - you've learnt from Labor’s past mistakes. What are some of those that moving forward you're going to rectify, fix?

ALBANESE: Ah, look when we were last in government, I was a senior minister in the Rudd and Gillard Governments and the truth is that we were a bit focused on ourselves and not enough on the needs of people. And we removed a first term elected prime minister in 2010. And that had consequences. I think we in government, we concentrated power a bit too much. There was a centralisation of the economic response to the Global Financial Crisis, which was necessary for the short term to have fewer people making decisions, but that continued longer than it should have. I think good Cabinet processes are really, really important. Because the more people you have involved, the better the decision-making processes.

HOST: We are speaking with Federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese on Triple M. And what I wanted to ask you is it does seem like a very personality driven campaign. And what frustrates me is I am actually a fence sitter. So we've put the call out for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to join us as well. We just like to offer both sides. But what I don't like is when it gets all caught up in these personal attacks, because you right, Hobart, Tasmanians are hurting. 

ALBANESE: Oh look, they are and the cost of living issues, you know, petrol was almost $2 a litre before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We have housing costs that are in a real crisis. So particularly here in Tasmania, rising rents, rising housing prices, we have the cost of everything going up except for people's wages. And people know that.

HOST: Exactly. We've spoken about this and this is we just want to talk Tassie issues with this election if that's okay, because I honestly am heartbroken to see so many people living out of tents, so many people, like there's a lot of people making money off Tassie right now except the people that were born here, grew here, and you've got wages that are still hundreds of dollars below the national average. And you've also got Tassie as one of the top five most expensive cities in the world. What's your government going to do to alleviate that pressure because it's real and it's now.

ALBANESE: Well practical measures, cheaper childcare for families. That is one of the real cost of living pressures which is out there. In terms of housing, 30,000 additional social and housing - and affordable housing units through our Housing Australia Future Fund, our electricity plan to power the nation will reduce household power bills by $275. We will make more secure work and absolute priority as well and put in place measures which put pressure to lift wages, not to not to put downward pressure on wages. There's no simple fix. But what it needs, and this is one of the lessons I think of last time, people say that I have modest promises. But what I'm determined to do is to restore faith in politics by delivering on every single thing that I promise is something that we can deliver so people will look back at the end of the first term government and say, well, you know, they did exactly what they said they would do. It’s making a positive difference to my life we’ll support them to be a long term government.

HOST: You’re on Triple M Breakfast with Woody and Tubes. We’re joined by the Federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese. Now Anthony, you used to be a DJ? Or you’re still a DJ? Is that right? I mean you probably don't have much of a chance to DJ much anymore.

ALBANESE: Still occasionally I do. I did launch - we've got a candidate who happens to be called Madonna, Madonna Jarrett, who’s our Candidate for Brisbane. So, I DJ’ed as her campaign launch in a club in Fortitude Valley a week ago. That was a bit of fun.

HOST: Can you stay right there because we want to play one of your tracks from your playlist, your DJ playlist, and then we know you've got a huge announcement for Tassie to share with us. But these are a couple of the tracks that we know are on your playlist. 

HOST: We played it a little earlier. Sheryl Crow ‘All I Want To Do’. Black Eyed Peas are in there, Nirvana, but you've chosen ‘Mr. Brightside’ by the Killers which we're going to play right now. Coming back after this song though, the Federal Opposition Leader of Tasmania, Australia, Anthony Albanese, You’re on Triple M breakfast with Woody and Tubes. 

MUSIC BREAK

HOST: That is straight from Anthony Albanese’s DJ playlist. We are speaking with the Federal Opposition Leader himself and you couldn't hear that song properly through the phone, yeah?

ALBANESE: Yea, they cut me off. I was muted. It gives you such energy, that song, whenever you play it.

HOST: We were a little worried you were going to sing along. That was the problem. 

HOST: I don’t mind that. 

ALBANESE: Well, there’s a potential that that could have happened and that would have not been good for your ratings.

HOST: I did hear too that you've been listening to our flock of 80’s, which we've got a countdown after 9. Is that true, Anthony Albanese?

ALBANESE: It's always very good - Triple M. I don't listen to Triple M Hobart, I've got to say all the time at home, but in my car, I just find that a station that plays lots of music and has good news is a good break when I'm driving around Sydney. 

HOST: That's what we're all about. Now Anthony Albanese 20 per cent of Tasmanians, it's come out, has said that they don't know you, and I find that incredulous to be honest. What I want to know is, the seats of Clark, Franklin and Lyons which we cover down here in Triple M Breakfast with Woody and Tubes. There's a swing seat, there's a safe Labor seat and there's a seat that belongs to Andrew Wilkie. In the past, a lot of leaders and Prime Ministers haven't spent a lot of time here. How are you going to familiarise yourself with southern Tasmania if elected Prime Minister?

ALBANESE: I have been such a regular visitor to southern Tasmania. I do want, the state government, years and years ago we put money into fixing up the point there $50 million, and it hasn't progressed as much as it should have. But we also made a major commitments during this election about ferries there on the beautiful Derwent. I love Southern Tasmania. I love all Tasmania, I’ve got to say. It's a great place. I went on the Three Capes Walk a little while ago. That was funded when I was a Minister, but I went as a paying customer the December before last, just before the whole world sort of shut down. And it was it was just magnificent. I’ve spent lot of time holidaying there, I've got to say, in Bruny Island and right around Southern Tasmania.

HOST: The Cape Walk just got nominated for the top five things.

HOST: Fifth in things to do for Lonely Planet in Australia. So that's amazing. 

ALBANESE: It is absolutely extraordinary. The views that are there, and it's a pretty easy walk, in terms of it’s a bit under 50km, I think it's 48km over the three nights. But it's lovely. And it was one of the great things, it's fantastic to get off the beaten track, so to speak, whether it's Cradle Mountain or there. And it's a great way to switch off.

HOST: You know, so we've got promises from you then because we are a Tassie show. We're very Hobart focused and biased, because we both grew here, we were made here. We've got promises on infrastructure, we've got promises to alleviate housing issues, and child care. And I know that you're very big on looking after our senior citizens. So, can you guarantee these promises? Because I think we're so used to being let down on multiple occasions and can you guarantee that you will see out the full term?

ALBANESE: Absolutely. And we have fully-costed all of our promises. Our aged care commitments, for example, I met with nurses in Devonport yesterday, and people in the aged care sector are doing it so tough. There is an ageing population here in Tassie, it's interesting that one of our commitments is for 24/7 nursing in aged care, and that is the law here in Tasmania. It shows that can be done. But there are other things that we need to do as well. We've partnered with Maggie Beer about improving food and nutrition for aged care residents. I found the royal commission that said that half of aged care residents weren't getting the nutrition that they need just so unacceptable in Australia in 2022. But today we have a big commitment about regional mental telehealth services as well. That is really important. This'll support some 450,000 consultations over four years, it's very important that people in regional Australia are able to access mental health services. If you don't fix these problems it ends up costing the whole system more. But it also costs in human costs.

HOST: That's what I was going to say, not just financially, but the emotional costs as well. And I think we definitely need to be able to look after people because, sometimes, my experience personally, and also speaking with other people, is if you're in that middle ground you don't know where to go. They don't class you as sick enough to go to the hospital. And if you don't have private health, you can't access the clinical services. And I think that is so important moving forward.

ALBANESE: It is important. Mental health issues, of course, confront our young people often with really tragic consequences and early intervention, being able to get that assistance, it should be regarded as no less significant or important then if you break your arm. You're going to get access to health care. If you have issues, you should be able to deal with it. I mean, the other issue that we really need to do as well is to address the costs that are rising of seeing a GP. Particularly in our regional areas, they are even worse than in our cities.

HOST: We've actually got a text in from Jamie, who was going to ask about how a Labor-elected Government is going to make the cost of going to see a GP more affordable. And I think that's really important. Because what that does, if you can go and see your GP, it's accessible, it's affordable, it means that it releases a bit of strain on our major health services in the hospital.

ALBANESE: Exactly. We need to look at ways in which we can take pressure off emergency departments. One way we do that is by providing health care for aged care residents, that is one.

HOST: Because the gap, what we've learned is the gap has not, the gap is bigger. So, if someone goes to the doctor, the Medicare rebate hasn't actually adjusted.

HOST: Hasn’t changed since the early 2000s.

ALBANESE: Exactly right. And there were 1900 changes to the Medicare schedule you know, with very little notice, little consultation with the Australian Medical Association or GPS, or that the health sector, it was just put out last year. There's real pressure on the health system. And we'll be having a lot to say about that in addition to the Telehealth announcement that we're making here today in Tasmania in the electorate of Lyons with Brian Mitchell.

HOST: Federal Opposition Leader, Brian Mitchell up there in Lyons – shoutout to him. Very quickly. You’ve been very generous with your time, the Opposition Leader of Australia, Anthony Albanese, is on the line. Our last question for you, it's a bit of a fun one for you. You're caught drinking Boags up there in the north of the state.

ALBANESE: Caught? Caught? You know you’re allowed to. 

HOST: Caught, because we're Cascade folks down here. But we've got a text from Luke in Howrah, he says “thanks for joining us, are you able to tell me the exact price of a carton of Special Edition Cascade Export Stout with Cadbury Old Gold purchased from the Cascade gift shop?” I think he's having a laugh at you there. But they're $82, what I want from you.

HOST: Oh, you should have let him guess! 

HOST: I should have let him guess, but it's 82 bucks but what I’d like from you…

ALBANESE: That's cheaper than Albo Ale, which is available from Willie the Boatman craft brewery in my electorate. It’s a bargain.

HOST: When you come down, when you come down to Hobart, I've got a six pack of it, I'd be more than happy to share a beer with you, Anthony Albanese. But thanks so much for joining us on Triple M breakfast with Woody and Tubes.

ALBANESE: I'll take you up on that. Thanks very much.

ENDS