: Just hold on the line, this doesn’t happen very often. The Prime Minister of Australia joins me, Anthony Albanese. Thanks very much for your time today.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G’day, how you going?
ADSHEAD: You probably know the Lord Mayor of the City of Perth. He’s running as a Liberal candidate, by the way.
BASIL ZEMPILAS, CITY OF PERTH LORD MAYOR: I’ll say good morning, Prime Minister, and leave you with Gary. Welcome to Perth.
PRIME MINISTER. So, I’ve interrupted him. Hello, Your Worship. How are you?
ZEMPILAS: Nice to have you in Perth, Prime Minister. Here is Gary Adshead.
ADSHEAD: Nah, you’re right, Baz, you can stay there for a sec. I’ve just got to put some questions to the PM. Obviously the childcare pay rise, is it being well received, do you think? Because obviously, you know, taxpayers will fund it in the end. Being well received, overdue?
PRIME MINISTER: It sure has been. I think that everyone with a little one in child care knows how hard the educators work and knows that it’s not just child minding. It’s caring. It is giving an early education to our youngest Australians. I was just at a centre with Tania Lawrence in Dayton. There they were learning about the letter ‘L’ and the letter ‘U’, with a whole lot of little blocks about how to do that. There were young ones, three-years-old, practicing doing their letters, as well as having a bit of fun and learning that social interaction. The truth is, if we didn’t do something about wages, then people will continue to leave the sector. If people leave the sector, that’s bad for them. But it’s bad for our whole economy because the workers who might work at your studio there at 6PR wouldn’t have anywhere to drop their little ones off before they go to work. It would damage the entire economy. This is necessary, a 15 per cent pay increase, 10 per cent this December, 5 per cent the December after.
ADSHEAD: I’m sure for the people that work in that sector, it’ll be very, very welcomed as they head towards Christmas this year as well. Did you tell them that ‘L’ stood for Labor or Liberal? By the way, Prime Minister? Which one?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it obviously stands for Labor. There aren’t too many genuine small-l liberals left in the Liberal Party these days. It should be ‘C’ for conservative.
ADSHEAD: Now, can I ask you, just in, you know, when you-
PRIME MINISTER: First of all, I was hoping I’d get a rise out of Baz on that one.
ADSHEAD: He’s there. Don’t worry, I’m trying to contain him.
ZEMPILAS: I was going to say, ‘L’ for Liberal or Labor and ‘U’ would have been for union Prime Minister, was it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I tell you what, the union who’ve represented the workers in early education, who look after our youngest Australians, they’ve done a great job in campaigning respectfully. One of the reasons why feminised industries, of course, have been underpaid, our nurses, our aged care workers, our child care workers, is that they’re dominated by women. They care about the people they look after and they don’t want to undertake industrial action. What that shouldn’t mean, though, is that they’re underpaid. That’s why this is an issue of justice as well.
ADSHEAD: All right. Hey, PM, you know, whenever you come to WA, I don’t know if you’ve had any questions this morning at the press conference, but it’s always about how many times you come to WA. Will you come more times than Peter Dutton? Have you been asked that one yet today?
PRIME MINISTER: I did, and I’m on 22 not out. I pointed out that that is more than the three previous ‘L’ for Liberal Prime Ministers combined over almost a decade. So, as you know and Basil knows, I’ve been coming here about ten times a year for a couple of decades now and I always enjoy spending time here. I’m bringing the entire Cabinet back for the fourth time in September. On September 2, we’ll have a meeting here. We’ve had Cabinet meetings, not just in Perth, but in Port Hedland as well. It’s a great state that helps drive our national economy. In order to understand the west, you’ve got to actually come here and spend time here. I’m looking forward to being back here then. And, of course, back again for Telethon. I think that’s later-
ADSHEAD: You and Basil have that much in common.
ZEMPILAS: I’ve got to say that the Prime Minister has been a great supporter of Telethon. The high office of Prime Minister is something that everybody should acknowledge, should respect and should admire. I do admire the Prime Minister greatly for being as available as he has been for so many important causes. Nobody should criticise that.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Basil.
ADSHEAD: Wow. Maybe you could switch?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve got to say, the whole of the west, should be proud of Telethon. I do a lot of charity. I was on a sister radio station, I think, of yours in Adelaide earlier today. I got stung for $100, I was happy to give for a charity. There’s nowhere that does it like Western Australia, like the Telethon here. It is just something the whole state should be proud of.
ADSHEAD: Well said.
ZEMPILAS: Good on you, PM.
ADSHEAD: Hey, last question, Prime Minister. Collie, do you reckon you need to get down there and ask them what they think about nuclear energy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the bloke who wants to give him a reactor didn’t bother to go. I do notice that. It is pretty extraordinary, given he was here for a few days. I think that the idea that we will have nuclear reactors sometime in the 2040s – it’s the most expensive form of new energy, still too costly, too slow. That’s why Peter Dutton hasn’t bothered to put any costings on it. It’s just a fantasy. But it’s a fantasy that will cost us because it will deter investment in areas that we need.
ADSHEAD: All right, well, I really appreciate you coming on and going through the child care stuff. Very important, it is indeed. It’s a first for me to have a Prime Minister on with a campaigning Liberal candidate. So there you go, PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you, Gary. And good on you, Basil.
ZEMPILAS: Good on you, PM.
PRIME MINISTER: I look forward to Telethon.
ZEMPILAS: I look forward to it. Thank you.
ADSHEAD: All right, obviously, the first election debate just took place.
