Welcome to the show, our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, team. I wasn’t expecting to get that insight into Fev in the shower but it’s a way to start a Monday morning.
BRENDAN FEVOLA, HOST: Hey Albo, it’s a beautiful sight. I’ll give you the tip.
NICK CODY, HOST: The beer drinking?
FEVOLA: Yeah.
BOX: Albo, please tell me if this is too personal a question, because I don’t understand a man sitting in a shower having a beer. Are you a get in the shower and just obviously wash, then get out or do you like a long, lazy shower?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I’m sort of very much, get the job done.
FEVOLA: Yes, get out.
PRIME MINISTER: Get clean, get out, get on with it.
FEVOLA: We all like to get the job done, big fella.
BOX: I get that. Now on to more topical things, last night you were at the Australian Open. Prime Minister, who were you going for? The Italian or the Russian? Medvedev or Sinner?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course, someone called Albanese was going for the Italian. First time that an Italian has won the Australian Open. And I reckon for all Australians with any Italian in their blood would be pretty pleased today. It would have been a big night last night in Lygon Street and in my electorate in Sydney. Back in Leichardt and Haberfield, there’d be people really celebrating into the early hours this morning. But it was a fantastic match. Both players did remarkably well. But Sinner just came home over the top.
FEVOLA: He did. He did. Now, I was watching and you’re cheering, obviously, for the Italian stallion, and I was. I’ve got Italian blood in me. Now, because you’re the Prime Minister, obviously, the Russian and the Italian, would one of those presidents or Prime Ministers see you, would they say, hey, mate, you should have been going for us. Like Putin, would you be bit angry?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t speak with President Putin, given his behaviour invading Ukraine.
FEVOLA: Yeah, I wouldn’t speak to him either.
PRIME MINISTER: I did send Prime Minister Meloni a little message wishing Jannik Sinner all the best of luck. And I think that she’ll be very pleased today.
FEVOLA: Well done. There you go. You sent one leader one text, and don’t send the other one the other one. Bang.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we don’t really have a great relationship with Russia at the moment.
FEVOLA: No, we don’t.
CODY: No.
PRIME MINISTER: Given the fact that we’re supporting the Ukrainians in their struggle. But that’s not personal with Medvedev, I think he carried himself very well.
FEVOLA: He played well, didn’t he?
PRIME MINISTER: He came out of the blocks on fire. It looked like he might run away with it in straight sets, but I think the fact that he’d had so many five set games during the tournament, he just ran out of puff and Sinner just got stronger and stronger. He clearly was pretty nervous. When he’s 22 years old and his first grand slam final. And it was understandable that he was a bit nervy early on, but once he started going for his shots, that forehand and getting his first serve percentage up, he came home pretty strongly.
CODY: Looking to take over for Jim Courier at some point, PM. All across it, all over it. I’ve got to ask, last night, the reception you got when you were welcomed.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN ANNOUNCER: On behalf of Tennis Australia, I’d like to welcome the Australian Prime Minister, the Honourable Anthony Albanese. The deputy Victorian Premier.
CODY: Did you expect that, Albo?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s a bit of tradition in Australian sport, isn’t it?
CODY: It is.
BOX: Now, Prime Minister, we’ve actually got an apology we need to make because we’ve just come back fresh from holidays. So, we were on a break and you were lovely and kind enough to come on our show a couple of weeks ago and we left you in the hands of Josiah. I know when you come on our show, hard hitting politics is usually what you expect from Fev, Nick and myself. And we apologise that when you were left in the hands of Josiah, you were asked about Cavoodles.
JOSIAH SHALA, HOST: What’s your Cavoodle’s name again?
PRIME MINISTER: Toto.
SHALA: Toto. I’ve got Elmo. A play date.
PRIME MINISTER: Elmo, that’s a great name for a dog.
SHALA: Great dog. It is a good name.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Elmo is a great name for a dog. Not only that, but Josiah invited me to his wedding.
BOX: He did, we heard this Albo. We’ve got the moment.
SHALA: I’m having my wedding there later this year, Anthony Albanese. So, that might be a good excuse to come.
PRIME MINISTER: Give us an invite.
BOX: So, are you going to his wedding?
CODY: In Albania?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s not likely I’ll be just dropping into Albania for the wedding, but it was very kind of him to invite me.
FEVOLA: Now Albo, a big week last week. You’re talking, I’m going to talk tax. Now, I do a lot of cashies, so I don’t know if it really affects me.
BOX: Don’t tell the Prime Minister that.
FEVOLA: Do you want to talk about your tax cuts a little bit? Because we’re a bit flat here. We’re going to get taxed a fair bit.
PRIME MINISTER: No well, what you’re going to get with your good incomes is a $4500 tax cut, because every Australian will get a tax cut. Look, so many of low and middle income earners have been doing it really tough and so we have changed our position. We’ve redesigned the tax cut so that every Australian gets a tax cut. That starts from the first rate of $18,200 right up to $45,000. They were going to get not a single cent and we don’t think that’s fair. But the tax cuts are really aimed at middle Australia. So, people on average incomes, which in this country is $73,000 for an individual and $130,000 for a couple, are going to get double, or more than double, the tax cuts that they were going to get.
FEVOLA: What about the higher people? You go up a little bit –
CODY: He just said, Fev. You’ll get $4500 grand tax cut.
PRIME MINISTER: You get $4500 tax cut on July 1, but that’s a good thing. Three million more Victorians will get a bigger tax cut. Eighty six per cent of Victorians will get more than they were going to get prior to this announcement. But everyone will get a tax cut. And if you’re a high income earner you get $4500, is what I get, and Fev you will get, too.
FEVOLA: Yeah, can I get a little, we’re mates –
BOX: Mates rates from the PM.
FEVOLA: Can we get a little bit of special cut?
CODY: A special tax cut for someone that’s won two Coleman medals?
PRIME MINISTER: Just a Coleman medal provision. I could write to the Tax Commissioner and see what he says –
FEVOLA: No, don’t mention my name to the tax man. I don’t want to know –
PRIME MINISTER: I think they might be watching you anyway, Fev.
BOX: Prime Minister, just before we let you go. We do have Eric Bana, he’s coming in the studio in an hour and we couldn’t help but notice he was sitting behind you at the tennis last night. Did you get any goss on Eric? Did he, I don’t know, kick your chair? Didn’t spill a drink over you? Any message that we can pass on to him?
PRIME MINISTER: He’s a great fellow. I’ve met him a couple of times and he likes playing tennis. We had a chat before the match and we had a chat, no doubt you’ll be talking about the follow up to The Dry that he is in. That was sensational.
FEVOLA: Great movie.
PRIME MINISTER: And I think he’s such a great Australian actor who began, of course, as a comedian.
CODY: He did. Full Frontal.
PRIME MINISTER: And we had a chat about his appearances on stage. There was a bar in Canberra called the Private Bin that was pretty rough. So, you might want to ask him about his stand up at the Private Bin.
FEVOLA: Private Bin, sounds great.
BOX: Excellent. Okay, we’ll start there. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, thank you so much for joining us on the show. And we’ll be seeing you at Josiah’s wedding, so that’ll be great.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, have a lovely day.
FEVOLA: Thanks for the special tax cut, mate. Appreciate it.
