: Well, as I said, we received all sorts of calls over the course of the week, randomly throughout the program, and perhaps none from higher office than our next guest, the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese. Prime Minister, good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G’day guys. Should we be with you? I like the, you know, really puffed up intro there. ‘Perhaps’ none from higher office. Maybe there’s a – I don’t know. Is there some news I need to know about?
GOODINGS: Oh, we had the Governor. I’m not sure in terms of the Commonwealth, you know, where that sort of fits, you know, the King’s representative here in South Australia. So, I didn’t want to sort of start –
PRIME MINISTER: There is that Constitutional Monarchy stuff.
GOODINGS: Yeah, that’s right.
PRIME MINISTER: That we do have to deal with.
DAVID PENBERTHY, HOST: Yeah, we don’t want to deal with it in 1975 or anything like that. It’s a time of political upheaval here in South Australia. We’re looking for a new Opposition Leader at the moment.
PRIME MINISTER: What’s going on over there? Yeah, someone told me that the Opposition Leader, they named him, had resigned and I said, ‘who’s he?’ yesterday. So, perhaps that explains why.
GOODINGS: Part of the problem, I reckon.
PENBERTHY: You know, seriously, could you name the former South Australian Opposition Leader? Can you name him?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t have a clue. It still don’t. I just know he’s gone.
PENBERTHY: Hey, PM. Obviously it’s big week here for us at 5AA, raising lot of money for two very important organisations, the Hutt Street Centre and Catherine House. Alan Jones had a bit of a crack at you on our show the other morning.
PRIME MINISTER: He’s like that, mate. You know, he’s come back from the UK and come out of his seclusion. Just to have a crack at me.
PENBERTHY: He said the election is going to be held on March 1 next year. Have you heard a rumour about that?
PRIME MINISTER: My birthday’s on the 2nd, so.
PENBERTHY: There you go. Either be a great birthday or really depressing one.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right. One or the other. A big party either way.
PENBERTHY: That’s right. Now, look, we don’t want to get into any arguments about inflation or anything like that. But do you reckon you could kick a bit of dough in yourself? Not out of taxpayer coffers, but, you know I’m sure every charity in Australia hits you up. But would you be good for, I don’t know, $100 or something, PM?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, that’s fine. Count me in on one condition. That I never, ever, ever have to see you in lycra.
PENBERTHY: It’s a bit late for that.
PRIME MINISTER: I can’t see you, mate, that’s the way radio works with the phone. I can’t see you. That’s a good thing.
PENBERTHY: Don’t get on the live stream. And, yeah, also, you probably left it too late to avoid the hideous spectacle of seeing Will Goodings doing gymnastics.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, thank goodness for that.
GOODINGS: Yeah, some things can’t be unseen, Prime Minister. Probably best to avoid that one, I would have thought.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m surprised you’re not doing it with your undies on your head.
GOODINGS: Don’t worry, that’s probably next year’s humiliation for us.
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll be in Adelaide on Sunday. So, will it still be going or should there be a risk factor? Should I –
PENBERTHY: No, you’ll be safe.
GOODINGS: No, you’ll be safe. Just stay off social media.
PENBERTHY: That’s right.
PRIME MINISTER: Get my advancers to make sure that you’re nowhere near us, you know, wearing something hideous or doing something particularly silly.
PENBERTHY: Well, we thank you for your support, Prime Minister, and we’ll catch up again on weightier issues soon. But thanks for chipping in. And speaking of the order in which we rank things here in Adelaide, we have to let you go now because we have one of the stars of the Adelaide Football Club in the studio.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I understand the real hierarchy. You missed the opportunity there about the most important person in Australia, surely, is the Crows coach or the Port coach, depending upon what team you support down there.
PENBERTHY: You try to be polite, you know?
GOODINGS: That’s right. You are the Prime Minister, after all.
PRIME MINISTER: I understand the power relationships in our country.
PENBERTHY: Well, thanks for calling in, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: We all know that Wayne Bennett is, in fact, God.
GOODINGS: Thank you, PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Cheers guys.
