The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, joins me now. Good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be with you.
MACDONALD: Yeah, good to have you. Your response to the news from Joe Biden?
PRIME MINISTER: I think today’s the day to pay tribute to President Biden and his extraordinary career. Of course, he’ll continue as President until January. But he has been a great friend of Australia and together we’ve achieved the AUKUS arrangements, increasing our security in the Indo Pacific, but also we’ve improved the economic relationship and trade. We’ve worked together on climate action. I think the Inflation Reduction Act is the most significant piece of climate legislation that there’s been passed anywhere in the world. And President Biden has been a great leader of the international community in the cause of supporting democracy, supporting human rights, in particular his support for Ukraine in its struggle against the illegal and immoral invasion of Russia.
MACDONALD: Last time I spoke to you, I think it was about six months ago, you said that the last time you’d seen Joe Biden he was really fit and strong and sharp still. Do you think he’s declined since then?
PRIME MINISTER: I think people will make their own judgement on that. Importantly, President Biden has made a decision that’s consistent with what he’s done his whole career, which is he hasn’t put himself first, he’s put his nation first, and his view of what is in the interests of the United States of America. And this is a big decision, a big call for him to make. He, of course, was successful overwhelmingly in winning the primary votes, which is the system they have in the US. So unless he made the decision himself to step down from his candidacy, then he would have contested the election in November. He clearly has made a decision that it is in the interests of his nation for that to not occur and for there to be another candidate. He, of course, has endorsed Kamala Harris. We’ll wait and see what the Democratic Convention decides when it’s held in a few weeks’ time. But what is clear is that there will be a new president of the United States come next January.
MACDONALD: Prime Minister, have you met Kamala Harris? How do you think you’d work with her if she indeed gets the nomination and wins the election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’ve met with her on a number of occasions at the G7 meeting that was held in Japan. I’ve met with her at the APEC meeting in Thailand, but also I’ve met with her in the United States when I visited there, including the official state visit I made last year. She, of course, will follow very much in the pattern of policies that Joe Biden implemented as President. She’s been a strong Vice President. She’s a good friend of Australia. She’s someone who is very committed to social inclusion, in particular to gender equality as well, which will be a major issue in the US election in November.
MACDONALD: Have you spoken to Joe Biden or sent him a message this morning?
PRIME MINISTER: I have sent President Biden a message on behalf of Australia wishing him and Jill Biden all the very best. Also wishing a speedy recovery from COVID that he’s dealing with at the moment as well. I think most of your listeners, unfortunately, a majority, probably have been through a Covid experience or two. I’ve been through two myself, and it’s not a pleasant thing. And certainly we wish him all the very best for a speedy recovery.
MACDONALD: Yeah, he can’t win a trick at the moment. Must be feeling very vulnerable.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s been a difficult time, but President Biden has governed at a time where the global economy was still recovering from COVID and the supply chain issues, which had a long tail and still have a tail to them. In addition to that, the global inflation that was spiked as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and energy prices increasing globally. He’s dealt with that and he has seen the United States through that without having a big recession that was predicted by many economists as would happen globally. He’s seen employment grow, he’s seeing wages growing, and he’s seeing a transition to clean energy as well, a transformation as part of the global transformation to net zero. So he has been a very effective President in my view during his time, and he can be really proud of the legacy that he’ll leave.
MACDONALD: And yet Kevin Rudd, the ambassador to the United States, has been at the Republican Convention telling people to just calm down about concerns about a Trump presidency. You mentioned the Inflation Reduction Act and renewable energy, that will be torn up if President Trump wins and drill, baby drill. So,we’re having a changing conversation, obviously, around that possibility.
PRIME MINISTER: Well the relationship between Australia and the United States is a relationship between nations. And we deal with whoever the American people elect, just as the United States deals with whichever government Australia elects. We, of course, went through a period of instability for a long period of time where we had changes of leaders here. The United States survived the relationship through that. And the relationship between us is a relationship between peoples and based upon our support as democratic nations.
MACDONALD: I want to ask you about the CFMEU. There’s calls this morning by the former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull to bring back the Building and Construction Commission. Is it needed, given the depth of the issues we’ve been hearing about over the last week with the CFMEU?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it didn’t do real well, did it? This commission was in place while John Setka was increasing his power in the CFMEU. None of this was exposed by the ABCC and it was occurring while it was in place.
MACDONALD: Why wouldn’t you then, could you have, instead of abolishing it worked to strengthen its powers then?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the powers that are there, if crimes are committed, like in any workplace, like in any part of society, are there be dealt with by police and law enforcement authorities. The Fair Work Ombudsman is there also to ensure that industrial relations laws are upheld in a fair way. And the truth is that the ABCC was not effective, didn’t achieve any of the objectives which was in place. And that’s why you have Bill Kelty, as the former secretary of the ACTU, support what we have determined to do, which is to put in administrators to make sure that there is a clean-up of the industry, to make sure that you don’t have criminal elements infiltrating the union or indeed the industry.
MACDONALD: And can the independent administrator do that? Or do we need a police task force, which Zoe Daniels been suggesting to give it more teeth?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, police do their job.
MACDONALD: But a special police task force to focus on criminality.
PRIME MINISTER: They do their job as they should. And what we will have, though, as administrators with the power to determine who’s employed by the union, to determine what the union does, to make sure that it is cleaned up once and for all. And that is the appropriate body. I mean, there’s a range of suggestions come up because everyone wants to have their own particular idea. Now, it’s not surprising that Malcolm Turnbull says that what he did while he was Prime Minister should be done again. But the truth is that if it worked, we wouldn’t be talking about this issue today.
MACDONALD: And with talk of strike action, do you have the power to stop any strike action if the union tries to flex its muscles?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I tell you what would lead to a flexing of muscles would be the suggestion by Peter Dutton that there be deregistration which would allow the union to continue to operate with all of the people who are the problem still in place and without new regulation because they would be an unregistered organisation – that would be a recipe for chaos. What we have done is put in place the strongest possible measures. We’ve done it very swiftly and we’re confident that it will stamp out corruption and stamp out inappropriate activities.
MACDONALD: And will there be an impact on Labor with less of the donations from the union?
PRIME MINISTER: Well so be it. We won’t be taking donations from the union. The union won’t be in a position of being affiliated and involved in NSW, in Victoria, which extends through to the Tasmanian and the South Australian branches as well. But we’ll take appropriate action in the national interest. It’s always Labor governments that have to clean up the mess. The Coalition presided over 10 years in which they had the ABCC implemented and all the hairy chested rhetoric about tough cop on the beat. Well we’ve seen where that ended up. We had a royal commission that called Bill Shorten to give evidence for two days and Julia Gillard as the former Prime Minister to give evidence about things that happened decades earlier but didn’t bother to call John Setka or any of the people who are a problem in that union.
MACDONALD: All right, final question. You’ve been very busy. Meredith wants to know how the wedding plan’s going and if you’ve set the date?
PRIME MINISTER: We have been busy. I’m supposed to be on leave at the moment, the first Monday I’ve had days leave, I think, all year –
MACDONALD: And it didn’t work out for you because of Joe Biden.
PRIME MINISTER: Indeed. So I’m off to do a press conference this morning. So it is a busy time and my priority at the moment is dealing with cost of living, has been getting those tax cuts through to people, getting the $300 energy bill released through to people – and that’s my priority, my first priority. But it is comforting to know that there will be a wedding date set. We will, when there is a, when we can find a gap.
MACDONALD: Well, that’s the tough thing right now. Thanks for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: You need to have a couple of weeks off to make sure that happens –
MACDONALD: Sorry you lost your Monday off. Thanks for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: No worries. Thanks, Sarah.
