Radio interview - Mix 106.3

NIGE JOHNSON, HOST: For the last four minutes or so, the Prime Minister of this country has been sitting on hold listening to the Hoodoo Gurus as a direct result of stuff that we've done here in this room.

KRISTEN DAVIDSON, HOST: Yes.

JOHNSON: That freaks me out just a little bit, but let's hope he stayed on hold.

DAVIDSON: Good morning, everybody.

JOHNSON: And a very good morning to Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Good morning, sir

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning to you. Well, I'm actually old enough to have gone a number of times to their residency that they had on Friday nights at the Strawberry Hills Hotel in Surry Hills.

JOHNSON: Told you, Kristen.

PRIME MINISTER: The it changed its name to the Southern Cross Hotel and they were called then Le Hoodoo Gurus.

JOHNSON: Le Hoodoo Gurus. How very avant and exotic.

PRIME MINISTER: There you go, a fun fact from the Prime Minister to start your morning.

JOHNSON: Well played, sir.

DAVIDSON: We appreciate it. And I know, look first of all, apologies because I'm about to break all of the rules. I know you're here to talk shop. I know that we're here to talk about the almost $250 million that's being injected into the AIS's facilities in Bruce, which we're very excited about.

JOHNSON: We will get to that.

DAVIDSON: Can I start with, how are you? Are you all good? How's Jodie? How's the wedding plans?

PRIME MINISTER: I'm very good. Wedding plans are, sort of getting there, I guess. But the difficulty is just finding a date. This week I've been in Rockhampton, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, I'll be in Launceston tomorrow. So finding a gap in the diary is the big challenge that we're finding. But we're both very good and we're both very happy.

DAVIDSON: Great

JOHNSON: That's all that matters.

PRIME MINISTER: Toto is still very pleased as well. She's just here causing me issues here because she wants to go outside, but -

JOHNSON: Let her out.

DAVIDSON: That's all right, we can wait, we've got time.

JOHNSON: Yeah, yeah.

PRIME MINISTER: Exactly. The Lodge is a little bit bigger than her backyard in Marrickville, I've got to say that.

JOHNSON: That's a fair point. All right, well, don't let her out then. All jokes aside, the AIS, my big question, I mean the funding is rolling in. Have we, the Olympics are in eight years in Brisbane. Have we left enough time, Albo, to breed this generation of super athletes that I'm imagining, you know, like Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV with the mouthpiece on and the people in lab coats writing stuff down while he jogs on the treadmill? Is that what we're talking about here?

PRIME MINISTER: The full bit.

JOHNSON: Yeah.

PRIME MINISTER: What we will be doing is making sure that we maximise the potential of our athletes. And that's what the AIS was there for. The truth is it was under invested in, it was run down.

DAVIDSON: Yeah.

PRIME MINISTER: And so we did a whole inquiry. That inquiry found that the best location for a national institution was, guess where? The national capital.

DAVIDSON: Thank god. Take that Queensland.

JOHNSON: Yeah.

PRIME MINISTER: That's why we're investing, well it's funny, sometimes when they pop out the figures, we can't say $250 million. It's $249.7 to be precise, million dollars for the upgrade.

JOHNSON: Yeah Kristen, come on, settle down will you?

PRIME MINISTER: But it will really just be a first-class facility, as good as we would expect Australia to have. A multi sports dome providing an all-weather, multi-sport indoor training facility, a new high-performance training and testing centre, as well as accommodation facility as well.

DAVIDSON: And then there's an extra 10 mil on top of that for the Bruce Precinct, is that right?

PRIME MINISTER: There is, yeah. We need to do a proper plan for the Bruce Precinct and we'll do that in partnership with the Barr government and the ACT. That is really important.

DAVIDSON: Okay, good.

JOHNSON: Excellent. Look we, you know, we want to remain obviously, very dignified this morning that, you know, all of the funding is coming into the AIS and that the AIS is staying in Canberra. But, you know, we wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't.

JOHNSON: We're sticking it to the Queenslanders.

DAVIDSON: Well, I was going to phrase that a bit different. We do remember one particular Queenslander who had this to say, in regards to Canberrans,

STEVEN MILES, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: I think everything should move from Canberra to Brisbane. Canberra is an awful place. Who'd want to go to Canberra? Why would we send our best athletes to Canberra when they could be here in Queensland, experiencing the superior weather here, the great lifestyle and of course, the fantastic economy, which means that they can have jobs for those who are still working too.

DAVIDSON: Yeah Prime Minister, I mean, we would never rub it in. Never. But I do -

PRIME MINISTER: Who knew that state premiers could be parochial? I assure you, when they gather around the room at the National Cabinet, what I have is eight parochial men and women who all have those views. And Andrew Barr, let me tell you, is relentless. And he's standing up for the bush capital here, Australia's largest inland city. And it's just that it is a lovely place. And I think one of the things that I find is that people who come and visit me here or people who I'm engaged with, saying, 'Oh, so now you spend most of your time in Canberra'. Go, 'Yeah, I was really surprised I came, I spent a bit of time there and it's fantastic'. Which it is.

DAVIDSON: Do you have a favourite spot, a favourite restaurant that you take people to when they come to visit?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's a bit. It's a bit hard to get out and about, I've got to say, these days. But I do recommend a range of restaurants. You know, Molto and Italian and Sons. There's some fantastic Italian restaurants.

JOHNSON: It is.

PRIME MINISTER: Kopi Tiam, Chairman and Yip, there's just so many here. And the good thing about, one of the things I say is the restaurants are just as good as Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane, but cheaper, better value.

JOHNSON: Yeah, definitely.

DAVIDSON: I love it.

JOHNSON: And look, if Steven Miles is listening, my thoughts on Brisbane.

PRIME MINISTER: He probably is.

JOHNSON: My thoughts on Brisbane, all jokes aside, I think it's a lovely place.

DAVIDSON: Yeah.

JOHNSON: I really do.

PRIME MINISTER: Good on you.

JOHNSON: It's a beautiful city.

PRIME MINISTER: Go above the fray. Which it is, I think that -

JOHNSON: But so is Canberra.

PRIME MINISTER: It is. And cities are all different.

JOHNSON: They are.

PRIME MINISTER: I'm looking out the window here and the colours of autumn that come about in Canberra, it's just a beautiful time of the year. And you don't get that in the eastern capitals.

JOHNSON: No, you don't.

PRIME MINISTER: I'm a Sydneysider my whole life. But this city has so much going for it and that's why so many people are moving here as well. This is a city that is growing, which is why the funding that we've got in the budget as well, for the Light Rail for Stage Two B -

JOHNSON: Oh yeah.

DAVIDSON: We need that.

PRIME MINISTER: Will be really important as well. There's $50 million in there in the Budget as well to look at the design work to extend it to Woden.

JOHNSON: Thanks for that, man. Appreciate it.

DAVIDSON: We've got to.

PRIME MINISTER: You see the benefit of planning here in Canberra when you get out and about and walk around. And certainly in the lead up to Kokoda, I didn't do as much training as I intended to do. But going up Mount Ainslie and Mount Taylor and the other fantastic spots as well, you can be, essentially if you're in Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane and wanted to go for a walk like Mount Ainslie, you'd have to drive for over an hour or two in order to get somewhere.

JOHNSON: And the humidity, oh god. In Brisbane, oh it'd be awful. It truly would. Prime Minister, as much as I'd love to sit here and chat with you all day, we really do have to wrap things up because we're doing this boring commercial radio stuff where we got to get other things done.

DAVIDSON: Play Ed Sheeran. But I just -

PRIME MINISTER: What are you going to play now?

JOHNSON: Sorry, say that again.

PRIME MINISTER: Who are you going to play now?

JOHNSON: Young MC's up next. Bust A Move. I can only assume you're a fan, sir.

PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, that's not on my playlist.

DAVIDSON: Is there a song that's on your playlist?

JOHNSON: What would you like to hear, sir?

PRIME MINISTER: Just being honest here, you need to follow up Hoodoo's with something like Chisel or something of that era.

DAVIDSON: You tell us, what's a Chisel song that you love?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, Flame Trees. Nothing better than that.

JOHNSON: Consider it done. For the Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: A request.

JOHNSON: Yes, a live request for Anthony Albanese. It'll be on for you next, sir.

DAVIDSON: Yeah.

PRIME MINISTER: Cheers.

JOHNSON: Have a great day.

DAVIDSON: Bye.

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