SUBJECTS: Western Australia; Labor’s Plan for a Better Future; Governing for all Australians; Scott Morrison always refuses to take responsibility; Scott Morrison choosing to side with Clive Palmer over the people of Western Australia.
 
HOST: Anthony Albanese is the Leader of the Opposition. He may only be six days away from being the next Prime Minister of this country and he joins us now, he has spent a lot of time in Perth and Mr. Albanese, good morning.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, we're nearing the end of the fourth quarter, it is almost time on.
 
HOST: You have been a frequent flyer across to the West, well acquainted with our marginal seats. What's your vibe and what's your sense on how the West will fall on Saturday?
 
ALBANESE: It's good to be here. But I'm not taking anything for granted. We have a mountain to climb. We've formed government from opposition three times since the Second World War. So it's, it's a tough fight. But we'll be arguing for every single vote. Today I'll be with the Zaneta Mascarenhas in Swan along with the Premier Mark McGowan. I'll be with Tania Lawrence in Hasluck. And I'll also be with Tracey Roberts up in the electorate of Pearce. So I've got a busy day today before I do the Leadership Matters brekkie tomorrow morning.
 
HOST: Hey, Mr. Albanese. I'm a sports journo. So I'm a simple man, I ask easy questions and I would ask this to a sports player that's about to make his debut on a Saturday. How will you be emotionally, say Friday night, Saturday morning? Have you thought about the nerves that come in, will you be nervous? Will you not be nervous? How are you feeling about that?
 
ALBANESE: I'll look, I'll be nervous. But I'll be satisfied that I'm leaving nothing in the tank. And I think that's all you can do when you've got the equivalent of a grand final, which for me, this is, it's a grand final. I have worked for it, I'm fit, I've had a match plan. And, and we've played to it in sporting analogies. I wanted to kick with the wind at our back in the fourth quarter and we've done that. And I think we have a clear plan for a better future and the other side are just trying to play defence really and they haven't gotten any new players. We're fresh. We've got some good players on the bench. And we're ready, we're ready to go. I think we will be a good government. I want to make sure that we represent the entire country. We had a campaign launch here in Perth and everyone said beforehand why are you going to Perth to do the campaign launch. And those people in the eastern states and I said I want to represent the entire country and it was a great success, I've got to say and it was fantastic to have it there at Optus.
 
HOST: Mr. Albanese, you've super served the Triple M audience, we couldn't have asked for any more.
 
ALBANESE: It all made sense to me.
 
HOST: You've broken it down beautifully for all of us. Can I ask you, do you think it's been a fair campaign and have the standards on both sides have they been what the Australian public would expect?
 
ALBANESE: Oh, look, you have a bit of rough and tumble in the campaign and sometimes - the equivalent of the umpires, I guess, to continue to sporting analogies, the media, sometimes there's been a bit of booing of the umpires because, but that's life. You've just got to roll with it really. And I think that I've had now, it’s a number of weeks since we launched the campaign here in Perth, so we've been able to, I think put out those positive policies. Today, we have a health announcement about better infrastructure in hospitals here to take pressure off of waiting lists for surgery. And I think that then we go to childcare. For three years I've been running on the need for cheaper childcare. We've got to take pressure off family budgets. And of course, we've had a bit of controversy over whether the poorest paid workers in Australia deserve to keep up with the cost of living by not having a real wage cut. And I think that they do deserve $1 a week, $1 an hour, sorry, from $20.33. People are doing it tough out there. And I think one of the things that's coming through to me about the campaign is that when you look at my opponent’s slogan about things not being easy, people are saying to me, things aren't easy right now, we're doing it tough. We want a government that understands that, and that's in touch with that.
 
ALBANESE: Well, speaking of slogans, and I think it's fair to say that you've had a theme running through your campaign, we were tipped off to this to our rumour mill segment, actually, earlier this morning. I'm going to play you an ad, it's one of your ads Mr. Albanese, we do have to play it in full because on the radio, it's got to have that little disclaimer at the end. So just have a listen to this, if you will…
 
ALBANESE: Sure.
 
CLIP: Going to Hawaii when half of Australia was burning was a mistake. I don't hold a hose, mate. Not making sure we had enough vaccines and rapid tests was a mistake. It's not a race. It's not a competition. No one gets it right all the time. But Morrison makes too many mistakes. Next time something goes wrong. Do you trust him to make it right?  that's not my job. That's not my job. It's my job to do that. Authorised by P. Erickson, Australian Labor Party, Canberra.
 
HOST: Mr. Albanese, I think it's fair to say that...
 
ALBANESE: Was that a free ad, we just got there? Paul Erickson will be wrapped.
 
HOST: I think it's fair to say that the ‘it's not my job’ line from the Prime Minister, you have dined out on but I think it's reasonable to ask you in return. Do you believe it's the job of a Prime Minister to get frustrated with state premiers? Is it the job of a Prime Minister to tell Australians how to spend their money? And is it the job of a Australian Prime Minister get frightened by big issues like the pandemic? Are they reasonable questions I could ask you this morning?
 
ALBANESE: Look, it's the job of the Prime Minister to deal with the challenges that Australia faces and not to constantly just blame someone else. What we saw again, on Saturday, was the Prime Minister saying ‘oh, well, the health department gave us the wrong advice, it was the health department that got it wrong’. We were saying, we were crying out, the rest of the world was out there doing deals to get the vaccines, doing deals. Pfizer approached the government, remember that? Pfizer approached the government and were basically told, you know, well, it's not a race was the view. And because of that, we fell behind the rest of the world. And because of that, the health outcomes were worse. And importantly, the economic outcomes were worse as well.
 
HOST: But there is a reason I ask because it is fair to say context matters. And we heard that ad, we heard it in its entirety. And very clearly, it's not my job. It's not my job. It's not my job runs three times. Now if we look...
 
ALBANESE: He said it many more times than that!
 
HOST: If we look at where it's come from, though, Mr. Albanese, here's the first instance. When he was asked if he gets frustrated with premiers.
 
CLIP: Why haven't you personally lost patience with Dan Andrews? Because that's not my job. My job is to keep focused on the challenge that I have to protect Australians every single day.
 
HOST: The next time was when the Prime Minister was asked whether he should be telling Australians how to spend their money,
 
CLIP: It's their money. It's their choice. I'm never going around telling Australians how to spend their own money. That's not my job.
 
HOST: And the third time he was asked, do you get frightened by big issues like the pandemic that we're in at the moment.
 
CLIP: Are you frightened? It is not my job to do that. Are you overwhelmed? Not at all.
 
HOST: Now, we'd have to agree, wouldn’t we, that those grabs have been used out of context in, in that ALP advertising material? Is that a fair comment, Mr. Albanese?
 
ALBANESE: No, whenever confronted with challenges, Scott Morrison has consistently said that ‘that's not my job’. He has sought to blame premiers. He has sought to defer responsibility over and over and over again. The two phrases that he used over and again is ‘that's not my job’, and ‘it's not a race’. And then he complains, he complains because that's his, that's his default. When confronted with why hasn't something happened, his default response is always that's not my job.
 
HOST: So you stand by the fairness and the integrity of that ad because much of this election campaign has been about fairness and integrity.
 
ALBANESE: Absolutely, we do. He has said it consistently, over and over and over again. Not just on those three occasions on multiple occasions, and he consistently when confronted, I'll give you another example. The Clive Palmer court case against Western Australians, where the Commonwealth joined with, basically on the side of Clive Palmer at costs to taxpayers. And when asked about that repeatedly in Parliament, he says ‘oh, well that was, no, we withdrew it but didn't happen, we didn't support the court case’. Well, he did. He did and it was only when there was public pressure, did he withdraw. This is a Prime Minister who consistently refuses to take responsibility.
 
HOST: Mr. Albanese, good luck on Saturday, we hope to be able to speak to you, in footy speak, from Sunday onwards if you are the next Prime Minister of this country. We appreciate your accessibility throughout the campaign and we wish you all the very best on Saturday.
 
ALBANESE: Can I can I thank you for the engagement that we've had not just during the campaign but over the three years and I did commit to come to Perth 10 times a year as Opposition Leader. Closed borders meant that wasn't possible but as Prime Minister I intend to be a very regular visitor if I have that great honour.

ENDS