Speaker 1: You're listening to a MoMA Mea podcast.
Speaker 2: Mama Maya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 1: It's a critical election.
Speaker 3: I think that what happens in Australia for the rest
Speaker 3: of this decade will either set us up for the
Speaker 3: decades ahead or or just tread water and what the
Speaker 3: world go past us. It's a fast moving world and
Speaker 3: one of the things that we've had to deal with
Speaker 3: is what I regard as a decade of inaction on
Speaker 3: areas like climate change, gender equity, education, health, so many
Speaker 3: areas where we've had to repair what I regard as
Speaker 3: damage or in some cases just deal with inaction.
Speaker 4: You're listening to us episode of No Filter. I'm your host,
Speaker 4: Kate Langebrook. Soon Australian women will face a significant decision
Speaker 4: in the coming weeks. They will help choose the next
Speaker 4: Prime Minister. And it's a big election in a world
Speaker 4: that feels uncertain, with many concerned about their future, their
Speaker 4: immediate and their children's. Because our mission here at Mamma
Speaker 4: Maya is to make the world a better place for
Speaker 4: women and girls, we have invited both Prime Minister Anthony
Speaker 4: Albanezi and the Opposition leader Peter Dutton onto No Filter
Speaker 4: to speak directly to you. Today's episode is with a
Speaker 4: man who's been in the driver's seat of Australian leadership
Speaker 4: for the past three years. He'll open up about the
Speaker 4: personal toll of politics, handling the public perception of himself,
Speaker 4: who his friends are, and how he's scheduling in his
Speaker 4: wedding preparations. No other Prime minister has ever had to
Speaker 4: do that. Here's my conversation with Prime Minister Anthony ALBANSI. Oh,
Speaker 4: mister alban easy, although I feel I'm on Australian if
Speaker 4: I don't say.
Speaker 2: Albow, absolutely welcome to No Filter.
Speaker 1: Good to be here.
Speaker 4: Last night I was actually listening to the last No
Speaker 4: Filter you did, which you did with Maya.
Speaker 1: It was a while ago.
Speaker 4: It was a while ago, it was before you were
Speaker 4: Prime minister. It was so extraordinary that I'm just going
Speaker 4: to say to listeners just go back and have a
Speaker 4: listen to it. Your life story, which I kind of
Speaker 4: knew in an you know, in a brief version.
Speaker 2: I knew about your mom and you growing up.
Speaker 4: In social housing and Da da da, but the story
Speaker 4: about your dad and never knowing your dad and thinking
Speaker 4: that he was dead and then you going to Italy
Speaker 4: after your mother's passing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it was I was told in detail with
Speaker 3: Maya that would have been before the twenty twenty two election.
Speaker 2: Yes, and you were the leader of the opposition, I.
Speaker 1: Was, indeed, and now you're much better job, I was.
Speaker 2: Do you think this is better.
Speaker 3: Because you can do things? Being Prime Minister is an
Speaker 3: incredible privilege. I sat down with some of my staff
Speaker 3: today signing approvals for funding various programs.
Speaker 1: You can really make a difference.
Speaker 3: And that's why I'm a member of a party of government,
Speaker 3: is that you can make change.
Speaker 2: Well, my brother is a politician, and he's a liberal
Speaker 2: politician in Queensland and they, as you will know, spent
Speaker 2: just I think eight years in opposition.
Speaker 1: They spent most of the last three decades in opposition.
Speaker 4: When he's a lot happier now. I noticed that about him.
Speaker 4: He's a lot happier now and as a result of
Speaker 4: I think his engagement with his branch of politics. I've
Speaker 4: kind of stayed out of politics and not really like
Speaker 4: a lot of people, not had the time or the
Speaker 4: inclination to dive deep into it.
Speaker 2: But this is a very important election.
Speaker 1: It's a critical election.
Speaker 3: I think that what happens in Australia for the rest
Speaker 3: of this decade will either set us up for the
Speaker 3: decades ahead or just tread water and what the world
Speaker 3: go past us. It's a fast moving world and one
Speaker 3: of the things that we've had to deal with is
Speaker 3: what I regard as a decade of inaction on areas
Speaker 3: like climate change, gender equity, education, health, so many areas
Speaker 3: where we've had to repair what I regard as damage
Speaker 3: or in some cases just deal with inaction which was there.
Speaker 4: Or sometimes issues that didn't exist.
Speaker 3: And that's true, and then you get things coming at
Speaker 3: you that you didn't anticipate. No one thought there'd be
Speaker 3: a land war in Europe that this week passed three
Speaker 3: years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that's had
Speaker 3: an impact on global inflation along with that long tale
Speaker 3: of COVID. People didn't anticipate when we're elected in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two that there would be this global inflationary spike
Speaker 3: that impacted every economy in the world.
Speaker 4: And there's so much stuff going on at the same time.
Speaker 4: And you mentioned in COVID, but I think as a politician,
Speaker 4: you probably have a very clear sense of this that
Speaker 4: people's relationships and how they feel about politicians is quite
Speaker 4: different post COVID.
Speaker 2: Because it was such a brutal time for.
Speaker 3: Many, Australians showed incredible discipline. I've got to say at
Speaker 3: that time overwhelmingly they responded to the health advice by
Speaker 3: getting vaccinated. They responded to some of the restrictions that
Speaker 3: were there by accepting them and complying with them.
Speaker 1: But it was a tough time. Oh.
Speaker 3: People understood that they needed to, for example, get vaccinated
Speaker 3: in order to protect their health. And Australians also have
Speaker 3: this sense of looking after each other, and people understood
Speaker 3: that if people said, oh, well, don't worry about the.
Speaker 1: Restrictions, I'm going.
Speaker 3: To go visit the age care home unvaccinated, not worry
Speaker 3: about the implications, that's not the Australian way. Australians did
Speaker 3: really look after each other during that period. I was
Speaker 3: opposition leader and we had to respond in a way
Speaker 3: that was constructive. We said to the then government, the
Speaker 3: Morrison government, that even where we disagreed with specific policies,
Speaker 3: we disagreed with people taking this super out.
Speaker 1: We said that is a.
Speaker 3: Mistake that will lead to less retirement and for people.
Speaker 3: But we also said we were going to not allow
Speaker 3: the perfect to be the enemy of the good, so
Speaker 3: we moved our amendments. When the amendments weren't carried, we
Speaker 3: allowed the legislation to pass.
Speaker 1: Now that required us to put aside.
Speaker 3: What historically in Australia is a partisan, competitive, adverse aial system.
Speaker 3: So we voted for all of that, and that was
Speaker 3: the right thing to do. It saved life.
Speaker 4: That you say competitive and adversarial environment, I think a
Speaker 4: lot of Australians don't necessarily believe that, and believe that
Speaker 4: there's more of a UNI party than they would like
Speaker 4: to believe.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's right.
Speaker 3: There is certainly areas of agreement and that's a good thing.
Speaker 3: Australians also have conflict fatigue. I don't think they want
Speaker 3: to see a politicians yelling at each other. I don't
Speaker 3: think they want to see the polarization that we see
Speaker 3: in the United States. They want people to be able
Speaker 3: to have respectful disagreement and dialogue. That's something that I
Speaker 3: try to do, but it is it is hard because
Speaker 3: I think in canber for example, over cost of living
Speaker 3: pressures the opposition of chosen to vote against all of
Speaker 3: our costs of living support.
Speaker 4: It's interesting because I think the personal is political, and
Speaker 4: much of your politics is influenced by your past experience
Speaker 4: and your growing up and even the way that you
Speaker 4: navigate the world. Like what that means, I think is
Speaker 4: that you can be seen as slightly populist, and that's
Speaker 4: seen as maybe being weak. And yet when I look
Speaker 4: at the list of policies that have come about under
Speaker 4: your leadership, they're quite extensive. How do you feel about
Speaker 4: your the public perception of you.
Speaker 3: Well, Kindness isn't weakness. Kindness is a strength, is a
Speaker 3: value that I have. It is how I was raised.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that's happened from some sections
Speaker 3: of the media is that they confuse words and actions.
Speaker 3: You show you are strong through your actions, not by yelling,
Speaker 3: not by using language which is about conflict. And if
Speaker 3: you look at what we have done in taking on
Speaker 3: powerful vested interests, in pursuing changes that are pretty gutsy,
Speaker 3: no one in mainstream media came out when we said
Speaker 3: I'm going to change the tax cuts that have been
Speaker 3: legislated in order to take money off people at the
Speaker 3: top end and redistributed, so four and a half thousand
Speaker 3: dollars you will get instead of nine thousand dollars. Yes,
Speaker 3: but we're going to give it so that low income
Speaker 3: and middle income Australians who are hurting more than high
Speaker 3: income Australians get a tax cut. Front pages of the
Speaker 3: papers that we expected were strident, shall I say in
Speaker 3: their language personally abusive. That was a gutsy call and
Speaker 3: we're making that like it was a broken promise, and
Speaker 3: we did change our position. I went to the National
Speaker 3: Press Club and changed our position. I'm someone who has
Speaker 3: spoken at the National Press Club ten times as Labor leader.
Speaker 3: Peter Dutton's score is zero. It hasn't been near it.
Speaker 2: Coming up after.
Speaker 4: This break, the PM tells me what labor has done
Speaker 4: over the past three years and what's next on climate change,
Speaker 4: economy and the gender pay gap.
Speaker 3: Well, what we are doing is taking serious action or
Speaker 3: climate change. We have worked through forty three percent target
Speaker 3: by twenty thirty, and not just an objective, but a
Speaker 3: vehicle to get there through We've got the safeguard mechanism
Speaker 3: that take the largest emitters. There's more than one hundred
Speaker 3: institutions place, so Tommago smelter or minds and they have
Speaker 3: to reduce their emissions over time or else there's a
Speaker 3: penalty for them to do. So we've got a capacity
Speaker 3: investment scheme that is working with industry on that transition
Speaker 3: to get there. And so we haven't done what the
Speaker 3: previous government did, which is set and forget that saw
Speaker 3: four gigawatts of energy leave the system and only one
Speaker 3: be created. We've approved enough renewable projects, for example, to
Speaker 3: power eight million homes in Australia in just we haven't
Speaker 3: been in government for three years yet, so we have
Speaker 3: made sure that we're working on that. You can't do
Speaker 3: it overnight because you will lose support for climate change
Speaker 3: action if someone walks into a room and flicks the
Speaker 3: light switch and the lights don't go on. So you
Speaker 3: need that transition and that's what we have been doing
Speaker 3: and been doing it i think effectively after that decade
Speaker 3: of inaction, and we've worked with industry and the environment movement.
Speaker 3: What I'm focused on is what I can do as
Speaker 3: Prime Minister who was elected in twenty twenty two, and
Speaker 3: what we can do is make sure that we look
Speaker 3: after Australia's national interests, that we have an economy that's growing,
Speaker 3: which we've got, We've got real wages growing five quarters
Speaker 3: in a row. We took on big companies like BHP
Speaker 3: objected to our same job, same pay legislation.
Speaker 1: I've met young people in that.
Speaker 3: Industry and others who are earning thirty four thousand dollars
Speaker 3: a year extra in their pockets as a result of
Speaker 3: the same job, same pay legislation. Workers at quantas, the
Speaker 3: same thing has occurred. So we've been prepared to do
Speaker 3: that in order to make sure that people are looked after.
Speaker 3: So we now have the economy growing, wages growing, inflation falling,
Speaker 3: interest rates starting to.
Speaker 1: Fall as well.
Speaker 3: We've navigated what have been really turbulent seas, but we've
Speaker 3: had our eye on that horizon of what's the objective
Speaker 3: of how do we build a faires society as well,
Speaker 3: because a fairer society is a stronger one.
Speaker 4: Correct, and particularly when it comes to women and girls,
Speaker 4: and that seems to be an area if we can
Speaker 4: be referred to as an area that's.
Speaker 1: More than half the population.
Speaker 2: Well that's right, but often not treated like that. And
Speaker 2: so just some of the.
Speaker 4: Policy at a policy level, you know, paid parental leave,
Speaker 4: the superannuation to be added to paid parental leave, policy
Speaker 4: changes in regards to contraception and support for menopause and indo,
Speaker 4: I wanted to ask you about to that end and
Speaker 4: apropos of your mum, whose experience we know about with
Speaker 4: the rheumatoid arthritis and often she was incapacitated and unable
Speaker 4: to work. And there are a lot of predominantly women
Speaker 4: in Australia who end up being cares. Yeah, you know
Speaker 4: we were talking earlier. Was you were really paraphrasing Rihanna?
Speaker 4: All of my kindness is taken for weakness, but that's
Speaker 4: what happens to women who are cares. Is there any
Speaker 4: plan to perhaps provide superannuation which I know will happen
Speaker 4: as part of paid parental leave from July this year? Rant,
Speaker 4: Is there any plan for that to happen for cares
Speaker 4: so that these women we know that there's a big
Speaker 4: issue with homelessness, particularly for older women, so that they
Speaker 4: are not punished for having done God's work or some
Speaker 4: might say government's work.
Speaker 3: As second term agenda will be just as big as
Speaker 3: our first. But in our first term, as you say,
Speaker 3: we've had one of the first pieces of legislation was
Speaker 3: ten days paid domestian family violence leave. We introduced permanently
Speaker 3: now the leaving farllance payment. We've had more than the
Speaker 3: funding for five hundred community workers and Amanda Rishworth, our Minister,
Speaker 3: got the final sign off for every state and territory
Speaker 3: for our Joint Agreement on dealing with Domestic Violence that
Speaker 3: came out of the National Cabinet. Now that's a comprehensive plan.
Speaker 3: It deals with increased funding for emergency accommodation. We have
Speaker 3: had half a billion dollars of additional funding for community
Speaker 3: legal services that often are used by women to provide
Speaker 3: them support. In our first budget we had something that
Speaker 3: was dear to me was a single parenting payment and
Speaker 3: so the child used to be eight now it's fourteen,
Speaker 3: and some has identified in her report that that was
Speaker 3: a really important manner. We've had all fifty five recommendations
Speaker 3: of the Risks at Work Report done by Kate Jenkins implemented,
Speaker 3: and that included legislating that employers have a responsibility to
Speaker 3: provide safe workplaces where that is possible, but an obligation
Speaker 3: for them to give consideration to that, something that was
Speaker 3: resisted by some of the employers were reduced the gender
Speaker 3: pay gap to a record load.
Speaker 1: That's not by accident.
Speaker 3: We change the Fair Work Act so that gender pay
Speaker 3: equity is a consideration of the Fair Work Commission. So
Speaker 3: we've had three increases in a row, substantial lifting up
Speaker 3: the minimum wage.
Speaker 1: During the last.
Speaker 3: Campaign, the then government, the Morrison government, said the world
Speaker 3: would fall in and the economy would be ruined if
Speaker 3: we got an extra dollar an hour. Who were working
Speaker 3: their guts out the heroes of the pandemic, you know,
Speaker 3: our cleaners and real tail workers.
Speaker 1: So we did that.
Speaker 3: Were provided considerable increases fifteen percent for child care workers,
Speaker 3: early educators, more than that for age care workers. Those
Speaker 3: systems were ready to collapse. And it is feminized industries
Speaker 3: that had fallen behind. Because why do you think that
Speaker 3: is because women who are working and it is largely
Speaker 3: a feminized workforce in the age care sector, aren't going
Speaker 3: to go Now I'm going to leave maybson bill on
Speaker 3: their own and not going to work.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take industrial action.
Speaker 3: There's a different circumstance that they're in compared with a
Speaker 3: construction worker or a warfee. And hence that over a
Speaker 3: period of time had had an impact on the wage differentials,
Speaker 3: which had a real gender basis to them, and so
Speaker 3: the care sector had fallen behind. When we were lasting government,
Speaker 3: we fixed an award for sex for social and community
Speaker 3: service workers, again largely feminized, and that was one of
Speaker 3: the last things that we legislated in the Gillard and
Speaker 3: Rudd governments in twenty thirteen. But child care and age
Speaker 3: care had fallen behind.
Speaker 1: Age care was in crisis.
Speaker 3: People were leaving the sector because you could earn more
Speaker 3: stacking shelves than you could. Know, it's tough work lifting
Speaker 3: elderly people, caring for them.
Speaker 1: It's tough, not.
Speaker 3: Just physically and emotionally. They become their best friends. So
Speaker 3: all of those measures that we put in place, our
Speaker 3: tax cuts, by the way, by taking the tax cuts
Speaker 3: off the top end and redistributing them, that had an
Speaker 3: annoy almost benefit for women and young people because they
Speaker 3: got more in their pocket.
Speaker 1: It's as simple as.
Speaker 3: That, you know, speaking all of those measures speaking of really.
Speaker 2: Important, they are important.
Speaker 4: Okay, So all of those achievements, why aren't you a
Speaker 4: hitting the polls?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: Why is that?
Speaker 1: Governments around the world.
Speaker 3: It's a diffult time with cost of living pressures and
Speaker 3: I think for some areas on tax cuts, we need
Speaker 3: to remind people that was a conscious decision and people
Speaker 3: who are on that first tax level weren't going to
Speaker 3: get a scent and people on middle incomes we're going
Speaker 3: to get far less. Will remind them of that, will
Speaker 3: remind them of wages.
Speaker 1: People are under pressure, so.
Speaker 3: They are all of all of those measures we will
Speaker 3: be talking about in coming weeks and months. And at
Speaker 3: the moment people judge the government or perfection, this election
Speaker 3: is about labor led by me, imperfection. Absolutely, governments are
Speaker 3: perfect and a coalition led by Peter Dutton, a labor
Speaker 3: government that is more than fifty percent women in our
Speaker 3: caucus first time ever.
Speaker 1: That's diverse as well.
Speaker 3: That reflects if you look at one side of the
Speaker 3: Parliament we look like Australia. The other side looks like
Speaker 3: a bunch of blokes, a bunch of Anglo Celtic blokes largely.
Speaker 3: And our cabinet chair, a cabinet that has eleven men
Speaker 3: and eleven women senior strong women in senior positions, Pennywon,
Speaker 3: Katie gallaher, all of those people are so strong and
Speaker 3: that has an impact on policy, on what we do
Speaker 3: because there's people who are connected up with those communities,
Speaker 3: and it means that gender isn't an add on, isn't
Speaker 3: like a nice to have a curiosity. It's just what
Speaker 3: we do in every cabinet submissions. What is the gender
Speaker 3: impact now, Peter it doun't's talking about sacking thirty six
Speaker 3: thousand public servants, talking about reflecting what's going on in
Speaker 3: the US as well with this attack on diversity and inclusion.
Speaker 2: Well, this is interesting.
Speaker 4: Do you think that appetite that's manifested in America will
Speaker 4: be reflected here?
Speaker 3: I think we're a very different societ and we need
Speaker 3: our Australian values to be reflected. There was criticism of
Speaker 3: the government of me when I appointed Sam Mouston as
Speaker 3: the Governor General of Australia and the second woman to
Speaker 3: be appointed. Sam Moston is an incredibly qualified, accomplished woman,
Speaker 3: the first woman to be an AFL commissioner, someone who's
Speaker 3: the daughter of a senior Australian Defense Force person her
Speaker 3: dad and grew up in that Defense Force environment.
Speaker 1: So I was aware of that aspect of the job.
Speaker 3: Someone who's been on the Business Council of Australia executive,
Speaker 3: been on multiple boards of Transurban and virgin and a
Speaker 3: whole host of major ASXST did companies. She's someone who
Speaker 3: is incredibly well qualified. But it was why are you
Speaker 3: appointing someone again from the a former bloke from the military.
Speaker 4: Or not a former bloke still a blow it's still
Speaker 4: a bloke, but formerly from the military, imagine, And.
Speaker 1: I'm really proud that we did that.
Speaker 3: I'm proud that we have appointed women to senior positions
Speaker 3: across the whole range of areas.
Speaker 1: You know, the head of the Productivity.
Speaker 3: Commission across a range of areas, women's in charge of finance,
Speaker 3: and that is reflected in our government. You get it's
Speaker 3: not tokenism. You get a stronger outcome when you're mobilizing
Speaker 3: the talents of all of your people, not just half.
Speaker 4: That's not all of my conversation with Prime Minister Anthony
Speaker 4: Albanezi after this short break. We talk about his meat
Speaker 4: with Jody, his partner, how the wedding plans are going,
Speaker 4: which no other Australian Prime minister has ever planned a
Speaker 4: wedding while in.
Speaker 2: Office, and also his dog Toto.
Speaker 4: Against this backdrop of the work that you have to
Speaker 4: do and that you chose choosing to do. Your personal
Speaker 4: life was also evolving at that point. I'm interested in
Speaker 4: how those two things run concurrently. And you've spoken before,
Speaker 4: and you've spoken quite publicly, and it's an experience that
Speaker 4: a lot of Australians share with the end of a relationship,
Speaker 4: a significant relationship, Your wife, Carmel, and how you had
Speaker 4: to pick yourself.
Speaker 2: Up from that? Was New Year's Day?
Speaker 4: You said, did you say New Year's Day?
Speaker 3: Well, that was a decision that she made and I
Speaker 3: had to come to terms with that and just accept it.
Speaker 3: She made a decision that she wanted her life to
Speaker 3: go in a different direction.
Speaker 1: I accepted that.
Speaker 3: I went away to the UK and to Portugal for
Speaker 3: a couple weeks before the twenty nineteen election, and it
Speaker 3: was quite good to just spend some time with myself.
Speaker 2: And how was yourself came back at that time?
Speaker 4: Were you?
Speaker 3: Oh, Look, it was a difficult period because it wasn't
Speaker 3: expected and always difficult, of course, and we had spent
Speaker 3: thirty years together. But I came back, threw myself into
Speaker 3: the twenty nineteen campaign. We were expected to win and
Speaker 3: of course weren't successful, and then I was elected unopposed
Speaker 3: as Labor leader. So threw myself very much into that
Speaker 3: as well. It was a diffult time for the Labor
Speaker 3: Party because there was this expectation that Bill Shorten would
Speaker 3: win that election. You just pick yourself up and dust
Speaker 3: yourself off, and you move on. And so I threw
Speaker 3: myself into being Labor leader, into resurrecting the Labor brand
Speaker 3: and to making us competitive at the twenty twenty two election.
Speaker 4: And I remember, actually I think we had you on
Speaker 4: the project, yes, and it was the first time I'd
Speaker 4: seen you in quite some time, and make you look sharp,
Speaker 4: and you look like you were ready. It was kind
Speaker 4: of like Rocky, you know what I mean. It looked
Speaker 4: like you'd been training for this. Because there is the
Speaker 4: the physical must have such a toll taken on it.
Speaker 4: Obviously there's the mental, the emotional of what you're doing.
Speaker 4: But just the hours that you're doing.
Speaker 1: Oh, it does.
Speaker 3: But I'm someone who's never been frightened of hard work.
Speaker 3: I do laugh at the moment where people will write
Speaker 3: outcles saying mister Albanezi has been to five states in
Speaker 3: three days or something. I've been doing that for years.
Speaker 3: I have a strong work ethic. I get adrenaline, I
Speaker 3: enjoy engaging with people. Someone who doesn't just go into
Speaker 3: protected environments.
Speaker 1: I walk through shopping centers.
Speaker 3: I engage in environments where you don't know what's going
Speaker 3: to happen, things can go wrong. I like nothing better
Speaker 3: than attending an event like the Lunar New Year Festival
Speaker 3: in box Hill or different events you engage with people.
Speaker 4: Are there times when because I know that's a thing
Speaker 4: also particularly probably in every political party, but with Labor,
Speaker 4: sometimes he's a the perception that there's not real world
Speaker 4: experience and that you've you know, so have you when
Speaker 4: was the last time that you were exposed to people
Speaker 4: and you went, oh, that's a good idea, or I
Speaker 4: haven't thought of that, or that's changed my mind.
Speaker 3: All the time, I get out and about and engage
Speaker 3: with poople all the time, whether it's walking around. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was indeed. So there I was at a dinner
Speaker 3: in Melbourne and someone sledged me when introducing me about
Speaker 3: being a South Sydney supporter. And there's this whole thing
Speaker 3: about a random souseperson who's everywhere anywhere in the world
Speaker 3: you go, there'll be someone wearing a Bunnies jumper, even
Speaker 3: at the Wimbledon tennis or at the goal for Russell
Speaker 3: Crowe exactly, and so I said, oh, there's always a
Speaker 3: random south person here, and Jad yelled out up the
Speaker 3: rabbit os and so I went around and talked, went
Speaker 3: around the tables, meeting people as I do, getting that engagement,
Speaker 3: and there I met Jody. And then there was another
Speaker 3: event a couple of weeks later, and Jody was there
Speaker 3: again by coincidence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was she? She was there for work?
Speaker 3: Yeah, at the time, she was working for a superannuation outfit,
Speaker 3: and so she was there for work and I was
Speaker 3: there for work. And we said hello again. And I
Speaker 3: realized then that she was living in Sydney. She lived
Speaker 3: in my electorate at Stanmore and I was living at
Speaker 3: Marrathon and so she sent me a message and we.
Speaker 2: You've got to meet. Cute story.
Speaker 3: We caught up for a drink at Young Henry's Brewery
Speaker 3: there in Newtown on a Friday afternoon after work.
Speaker 2: Did you have security with you?
Speaker 1: Do you have to?
Speaker 3: No? No, it's opposition leader.
Speaker 1: I chose, so you were just yourself. I chose not to.
Speaker 1: And were you nervous?
Speaker 3: I was there not really because I just thought it
Speaker 3: was a catch up. Enjoy Company with people, and I
Speaker 3: just thought it would just be a beer and I
Speaker 3: actually was talking to the young Henry's guys are quite
Speaker 3: big with beards, and Jodi thought, oh, you know what's
Speaker 3: going on because you walked in and I was already there.
Speaker 3: And so we caught up for a drink and ended
Speaker 3: up having a drink became dinner that night, good date
Speaker 3: and then yeah, and then we caught up again. But
Speaker 3: it wasn't it didn't start off as a date. That
Speaker 3: started off as just catching up for a beer afterward.
Speaker 4: It didn't start as a date. But that's a date.
Speaker 4: But that's the way to go.
Speaker 3: Into it, absolutely, and we talked and engaged and it
Speaker 3: was it was very pleasant. So then we caught up
Speaker 3: a few weeks later.
Speaker 4: And then at what point did you because that's a
Speaker 4: big thing for her to take on.
Speaker 2: And then you became prime minister. Yeah, which no, girlfriend's
Speaker 2: hating that.
Speaker 4: I don't know, No, I don't think so we might
Speaker 4: go like, oh my god, it's not what I expected,
Speaker 4: but secretly we're like, oh my god, it's the prime minister.
Speaker 2: And she sort of grew into that role of being your.
Speaker 1: Like your form me and my partner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, your partner.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we and the relationship because of COVID as well,
Speaker 3: speaking of COVID restrictions for a while there there were
Speaker 3: months where we didn't see each other, right because I
Speaker 3: was in canber and couldn't go to s as well,
Speaker 3: So that slowed things up a bit as well.
Speaker 4: And then when Nathan, when was the first time Nathan,
Speaker 4: your son met her met her?
Speaker 3: I guess probably a couple of introduced.
Speaker 2: Because that's so significant.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they get on. They get on very well.
Speaker 3: Nathan's grown into a fine young man. And Nathan and
Speaker 3: his mum and I get on.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 4: And she was very supportive of you in your election
Speaker 4: campaign Jody.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, she was out there, not front and Senna,
Speaker 3: you know, she works full time, she has her own
Speaker 3: professional career. She's an accomplished professional woman who has a
Speaker 3: very much her own identity, in her own values and views.
Speaker 3: And so she though at the campaign launch and at
Speaker 3: those events, she was there. And then of course post
Speaker 3: that her life is I think not what she would
Speaker 3: have anticipated five years ago.
Speaker 2: No, I'm sure. And now you're getting married.
Speaker 3: We are, and I came to the realization, you know
Speaker 3: that this is someone that I wanted to spend the
Speaker 3: rest of my life with and so we never discussed
Speaker 3: marriage before I proposed in did she know that.
Speaker 1: She at all?
Speaker 4: Not at all, even though it's a Valentine's Day proposal.
Speaker 1: Didn't didn't see it coming, she says.
Speaker 3: So she says, well, no, but I think that, yeah,
Speaker 3: we were obviously very committed to each other, and we
Speaker 3: made that commitment earlier on and you don't, of course
Speaker 3: need a legal bit of paper to make that commitment.
Speaker 1: But I think.
Speaker 2: There is something about marriage.
Speaker 1: That there is you want to make.
Speaker 3: That public decoration in front of your close family and friends,
Speaker 3: and who.
Speaker 1: Are you to do?
Speaker 2: Who are your like? Who's your best friend?
Speaker 1: Aside from Jody?
Speaker 2: Now, aside from who's been displaced.
Speaker 1: By Jody, Well, no one's been displaced.
Speaker 3: I have a range of relationships with men and women.
Speaker 3: Some of my colleagues I'm really close to Penny and
Speaker 3: Katie Richard and Mark Butler, a whole range of people.
Speaker 3: But I have friends that I have had since I
Speaker 3: was a little kid. On the day in which I
Speaker 3: became Prime Minister formally in terms of the parliamentary sense,
Speaker 3: the first day of Parliament, they have an event at
Speaker 3: the War Memorial the day before on the Monday sunset service,
Speaker 3: and there there were I got a message from someone
Speaker 3: I grew up with with a photo and she was
Speaker 3: clear there Sharie, a friend of mine, and she sent
Speaker 3: this message. I was like you in Canberra and a
Speaker 3: bunch of my friends, the old housos who I grew
Speaker 3: up with in Campadown had come down to Canberra from
Speaker 3: all over Australia. Now Clayton's a warfie in Fremantle, Wendy from.
Speaker 1: Melbourne people had come.
Speaker 3: There were eight of them had come because their mate
Speaker 3: who they grew up with in public housing in Campadown
Speaker 3: was becoming the Prime Minister.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 3: They hadn't told me about this. I just connected, you know,
Speaker 3: we keep in touch with each other. And so they
Speaker 3: came to dinner at the lodge that night and it
Speaker 3: was absolutely it was one of the best things that
Speaker 3: has ever happened to me in my life, was that
Speaker 3: feeling of connection with where I'd come from. We've got
Speaker 3: pretty good odds on the son of a single mum
Speaker 3: out born out of wedlock there in Campdown, who grew
Speaker 3: up in this little public housing community. It was city
Speaker 3: Council when I was younger and then got transferred over
Speaker 3: to the State Department of Housing and.
Speaker 1: They'd all come and it was wonderful. I kept connected
Speaker 1: with those people.
Speaker 4: Do you think that that will be possible for like
Speaker 4: Nathan's generation?
Speaker 1: I hope. Yeah.
Speaker 3: He's friends with kids that he went to Dully Public
Speaker 3: School at Dulwich Hill and they went right through what
Speaker 3: I still call Leichhart Hived is now called Sydney Secondary College,
Speaker 3: and then Blackwattell, which is the same school, went through
Speaker 3: with a bunch of close friends and they're still they're
Speaker 3: still his closest group of confidence and they look after
Speaker 3: each other.
Speaker 4: I probably mean beyond that as well. Do you think
Speaker 4: that trajectory is possible for an Australian now to come
Speaker 4: from public housing?
Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I certainly hope. So.
Speaker 3: I want Australia to be the land of opportunity, where
Speaker 3: your trajectory in life should not be dictated by your
Speaker 3: postcode of where you were born or the circumstances into
Speaker 3: which you were born.
Speaker 1: And I do think that's possible.
Speaker 3: I look at the colleagues who've gone into Parliament, who
Speaker 3: are incredibly diverse, and sometimes we romanticize.
Speaker 1: The past of it.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: The truth is that.
Speaker 3: For eighty three years in South Wales, the largest state,
Speaker 3: every single member of the House of Representatives had something
Speaker 3: in common. Eighty three years, every election without exception, Labor, Liberal, Independent,
Speaker 3: They were all men, every single one day.
Speaker 1: Jeanettekee was people to romantic.
Speaker 2: Some people romanticized the presence we had.
Speaker 3: We had very little indigenous representative. We have a First
Speaker 3: Nation's Caucus that has half a dozen people in it.
Speaker 1: Now we have the first two Muslims being.
Speaker 3: Ministers in a national government, ed Husick and Nla from
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two. We have an incredibly diverse parliament. That's
Speaker 3: a good thing. It's a good thing that Penny Wong
Speaker 3: is the Senate leader and someone called alban As is
Speaker 3: the House of Reps leader.
Speaker 2: I've met him, he's all right.
Speaker 3: Well, they were all Anglo Celtic before then. If you
Speaker 3: go back and look at the surnames.
Speaker 4: Also, your name became part of just such an effective
Speaker 4: opposition slogan is life going to get easy under alban Easy?
Speaker 3: What it will do is show the benefit of the
Speaker 3: hard work that we've done in this term. We've turned
Speaker 3: the corner we had inflation with a six in front
Speaker 3: when we were elected. It now has a two in front.
Speaker 3: At two point four. We had real wages had decreased
Speaker 3: five quarters in a row, five quarters.
Speaker 1: In a row.
Speaker 3: That has we have made that. Interest rates started to
Speaker 3: go up before the election. Now they've started to go
Speaker 3: down before this election. So we have made incredible progress.
Speaker 3: The progress that we've made on climate change, the progress
Speaker 3: that we've made on gender equity is substantial. In as
Speaker 3: I said under three years before the last election, I said,
Speaker 3: you couldn't change the country to what my vision was
Speaker 3: for it, a fairer, stronger country in just three years.
Speaker 3: You needed multiple terms to entrench it. We are not
Speaker 3: just saying what we have done. We're saying we'll reduce
Speaker 3: student debt by a further twenty percent on top of
Speaker 3: the three billion dollars worth cut off student debt, will
Speaker 3: have free tafe there permanently, will have cheaper child care.
Speaker 3: The next stage in the shift to childcare reform, getting
Speaker 3: rid of the activity tests that really penalizes particularly women
Speaker 3: in disadvantage positions.
Speaker 1: We'll do that. We'll have a billion.
Speaker 3: Dollars for child care infrastructure. The announcement that we made
Speaker 3: about Medicare and giving tripling the bulk billion center for everyone,
Speaker 3: not just for concession cardholders, will particularly advantage women and
Speaker 3: people who will make a judgment for themselves or their families.
Speaker 1: Can I afford to see a doctor?
Speaker 3: If we move back to what Medicare should be, which
Speaker 3: is free care to visit the GP In this case,
Speaker 3: our objective is ninety percent of the time, that will
Speaker 3: make an enormous difference.
Speaker 1: At the same time, does your GP bult bill?
Speaker 2: Do you get to see a normal doctor?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Do you see a normal doctor?
Speaker 2: Is there a prime Minister doctor?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Get I get to see my doctor?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And grateful they do.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Very for a while there it was impossible to find
Speaker 2: a doctor that.
Speaker 1: Was not built.
Speaker 3: That's right, and that's because pleaded Dutton and froze the
Speaker 3: Medicare for six years. They had a conscious decision. Peter
Speaker 3: Dutton's position was that you shouldn't see doctors for free.
Speaker 1: He tried to.
Speaker 3: Abolish bulk building by having a GP tax every time
Speaker 3: people visited a GP, and indeed at tax every time
Speaker 3: people visited an emergency department as well, and at tax
Speaker 3: on pharmaceuticals. Fifty billion dollars out of the health system,
Speaker 3: out of the hospital system. They did that in their
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen budget and just two days ago Anne Rusten,
Speaker 3: the Health Shadow Minister, said again, well we never said
Speaker 3: that people should see a doctor for free.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, the.
Speaker 3: Basis of medicare is very different from the American system.
Speaker 3: I don't want to see the americanization of the health system.
Speaker 3: I want the Australian system, which is the best philosophy
Speaker 3: in the world, which is that if you need healthcare,
Speaker 3: so that my mum as an invalid pensioner when she
Speaker 3: ended up passing away in Royal Prince Alford Hospital, but
Speaker 3: more than one visit to emergency there when often long confinement,
Speaker 3: often a long time in hospital. Kerry Packer as one
Speaker 3: of Australia's richest people. When he had a heart attack,
Speaker 3: he ended up at Royal Prince Alford Hospital.
Speaker 1: And I as a labor leader.
Speaker 3: When I had a car accident and almost died, I
Speaker 3: was very lucky. In January twenty twenty one, I ended
Speaker 3: up an emergency department in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as well.
Speaker 4: What was the last thing that you and Jodi had
Speaker 4: an argument about? Because I would not if I was
Speaker 4: your girlfriend.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to. We don't. We actually get on
Speaker 1: incredibly well, like.
Speaker 2: He's walked the dog? Or who didn't get milk?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: No, well we both love the dog and Toto's very spoilt.
Speaker 3: Toto is certainly the first dog and she knows it.
Speaker 2: Is Toto going to have a role in the wedding.
Speaker 1: Of course, ring bear, she's got to be the ring bearer?
Speaker 2: Really is she that well trained?
Speaker 1: Oh? She's pretty good. Yeah, No, she's very discipline.
Speaker 3: Knows to walk Toto around Marrickvil and she will never
Speaker 3: ever run off.
Speaker 1: And she's now of.
Speaker 3: Course, had a tiny backyard as bad as big as this.
Speaker 1: Studio in Maryville.
Speaker 3: She's now the backyard yeah, a bit bigger these days.
Speaker 2: Is the backyard going to stay big? Is my question
Speaker 2: to you?
Speaker 3: Well, that will be up to the Australian people. What
Speaker 3: do you think they're going to stand coming months? Well,
Speaker 3: I'm confident that we have not just a record of
Speaker 3: seeing Australia through what has been very tough times, turning
Speaker 3: that around. We have a program for an agenda for
Speaker 3: a second term and our opponents have three policies six
Speaker 3: hundred billion dollars nuclear plan sometime in the twenty forties
Speaker 3: free lunch that all your listeners will pay for but
Speaker 3: won't get up to twenty thousand dollars and cuts to
Speaker 3: pay for all of the above that they won't tell
Speaker 3: you about till after the election. I've never seen such
Speaker 3: a lazy opposition. We had went to the election in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two with cheap of childcare policies, the Future
Speaker 3: Major in Australia Agenda, a whole series of policies, age
Speaker 3: care reform. They haven't done the hard yards and they're
Speaker 3: not ready for government. And my government has been really
Speaker 3: orderly disciplined. I've got a fantastic team.
Speaker 4: You know, this is a forum to speak to a
Speaker 4: large cohort of Australian women.
Speaker 2: What is your pitch to them.
Speaker 3: That we are a government that are defined by in
Speaker 3: part one of our core objectives, not something that's an
Speaker 3: add on, not something that's an afterthought. How do we
Speaker 3: promote economic equality for women and that is something that's
Speaker 3: at the core of what we do, whether it's in
Speaker 3: economic policy, whether it be in social policy. We have
Speaker 3: a record of achievement in our first three years, but
Speaker 3: we recognize there is more to do and my government
Speaker 3: will always be respectful and engaging. And I believe one
Speaker 3: of the key differences between my government and our opponents
Speaker 3: is whether we take gender equity seriously.
Speaker 4: All right, here's a proposition for you, should you win
Speaker 4: the election. I would like to invite you back in
Speaker 4: a year's time so that I can check your KPIs
Speaker 4: done on what you have done for women, policies that
Speaker 4: have been executed that have changed the lives of women
Speaker 4: in Australia. Absolutely, it's a deal, Albow. I don't see
Speaker 4: you in a year's time. See you then, possibly as
Speaker 4: Prime Minister. Possibly is a normy. He's just dropped by
Speaker 4: to say hello.
Speaker 1: Hope, we're both still here in every sense, fantastic, thank you, thanks.
Speaker 2: For having me on self with us.
Speaker 1: My pleasure.
Speaker 4: There's more to Albow's story, and Maya actually sat down to.
Speaker 2: Talk to the PM before he was the PM.
Speaker 4: It's the most extraordinary story of meeting his father for
Speaker 4: the first time when he was in his forties. There's
Speaker 4: a link to that the show notes and if you'd
Speaker 4: like to hear from the Leader of the Opposition, I
Speaker 4: also spoke to Peter Dutton. There's also a link to
Speaker 4: that discussion in the show Notes. I'm your host, kateline Brook.
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening.