: And right now, we have the Prime Minister of the country in the studio. Anthony Albanese, good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Wonderful to be here.
ALDWORTH: We feel like we’re mates. We see you all the time coming over to WA and hanging out with us.
PRIME MINISTER: This is my 18th visit as Prime Minister.
CARLY PORTCH, HOST: Wow.
PRIME MINISTER: I love Perth, I love WA, I’ve been not just here, I’ve been to Port Hedland and Kalgoorlie and Albany and Karratha.
PORTCH: Scoping out wedding venues?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve been everywhere, man.
PORTCH: You were, of course, recently engaged. Congratulations.
PRIME MINISTER: I was, almost a week in.
PORTCH: Wow!
PRIME MINISTER: We haven’t seen each other since, hardly, mind you – I’ve been here.
ALDWORTH: She didn’t want to come with the heat? Wasn’t attracted to the idea of hanging out in WA?
PRIME MINISTER: She works full time, so she takes leave without pay when she has to, but she works full time.
PORTCH: You can’t pull a few strings there?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, no.
ALDWORTH: Actually, as the Prime Minister, can you fix this weather? Because it has been hot. It has been so hot.
PRIME MINISTER: It has been so hot.
PORTCH: That’s quite a loaded question Allan.
PRIME MINISTER: I got here on Sunday and we had a barbecue in Hyde Park.
ALDWORTH: Didn’t even need to turn it on!
PRIME MINISTER: With a whole bunch of shop assistants and talking about our tax cuts and how they’ll benefit from them, and all these families turned up. I thought, ‘They won’t come, it’s too hot’. And there were about 100 people there.
ALDWORTH: Wow.
PRIME MINISTER: And there’s lots of shade, of course, at a Hyde Park. But it was a very, very hot afternoon.
PORTCH: Yeah. Now, I don’t know if you’ve seen the interview that is doing the rounds at the moment with the CEO of Woolies. He’s kind of put his foot in it. You have backed in this Senate Inquiry at the moment about price gouging and the supermarkets. A lot of people are saying that this is very telling of what’s to come, if he can’t even handle a few questions from a journo. I’d love to hear your take on that.
ALDWORTH: Here’s a little bit of it at the end of the interview:
BRAD BANDUCCI, CEO OF WOOLWORTHS: I shouldn’t have said that, Angus. Are we going to leave it in there? If we are…
ANGUS GRIGG, ABC: Well, I mean, we’re on the record. You said it. I mean, let’s move on.
BANDUCCI: Yeah, no, I think I’m done, guys.
ALDWORTH: What an awkward way to end the interview. You’re not going to end our one like that, are you, Prime Minister, please?
PRIME MINISTER: Hopefully not. I think this has always gone better here in the studio. But, look, I think punters out there, your listeners, will know that when they go to supermarkets and they get to the checkout, they often get a shock at what the costs are, which is why we’ve got a full court press essentially – we’ve got a Senate Inquiry, I’ve got Dr Craig Emerson looking at the voluntary code of conduct and whether that needs some adjusting, basically – something beyond voluntary, we’ve got the ACCC, the competition council, having a look at what more can be done as well. I think when farmers are getting less for their products, quite clearly people should be paying less at the checkout.
PORTCH: And pay the farmers more.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, it’s just common sense. We have stood up for customers, stood up for farmers as well, and we think that in this country, of course, we do have a lot of power within the big two supermarket chains. That’s the truth of the matter. Now they play an important role, they employ a lot of people. I was very critical of Peter Dutton essentially saying that 200,000 Australians who work at Woolworths should lose their jobs, which is what would happen if there was a boycott of all the customers. But they need to do the right thing as well. And we’re prepared to change some of the rules if they’re the recommendations that come back.
PORTCH: And what would that look like for an everyday person when they go to the checkout? Like, obviously, the Inquiry will take quite a while at the moment. Sounds like they do have a lot to answer for and they’re not very well prepared, but what are some things that will be put in place to make sure that we are paying lower prices?
PRIME MINISTER: You know one of the things that is happening, I reckon, and last night will add to it – the Four Corners program – is there’ll be pressure on the supermarkets to do the right thing, so there’ll be even before there are recommendations. I mean, they know that public opinion matters to their business and I think that the pressure has built over a period of time, post COVID, on these issues, and there’s been exposure of a range of little tricks that are done too – so called markdowns that aren’t really markdowns. One of the things that the ACCC is looking at as well is how incentive programs, whether they actually benefit consumers, all of these things that are built into the market today.
ALDWORTH: Yeah, absolutely. Now, to change the pace, but a question that Carly was very curious about. You’re just been engaged. Congratulations on that.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much.
ALDWORTH: Wedding venues, WA. You’re here so often!
PORTCH: Yes, you were in Margs recently. Were you getting some inspiration?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s a beautiful spot, I got to say. We hung out at Smiths Beach down there.
ALDWORTH: Lovely.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s just superb, and it was a quiet time because it was just before school holidays.
ALDWORTH: That’s when you want to be there, not during school holiday.
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely beautiful.
ALDWORTH: So, wedding venue in WA?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we haven’t had a chance to talk these things through.
ALDWORTH: It’s just Carly and I need to figure out a plan, if we’re going.
PORTCH: Because obviously we’ll be invited, right, Albo? You’ve been here 18 times.
ALDWORTH: Absolutely.
PRIME MINISTER: It is very, very possible that you’ll be invited. I’ll leave it there.
ALDWORTH: Okay.
PORTCH: Okay, I’ll take it from there.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s possible that 26 million Australians will be invited and then we’ll cut down that list.
ALDWORTH: Start there and you start cutting. Yeah. I’ve had a wedding, I know how you do that planning. Well, if you need someone to MC, I’m available as well.
PRIME MINISTER: Very good. I was potentially going to DJ myself.
ALDWORTH: Oh no, you’ll DJ, I’ll just MC.
PORTCH: Of course, you are a DJ, Albo. We’ve seen that in the past as well.
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.
PORTCH: I actually saw your Spotify playlist this morning as well. I didn’t mind it. Some good…
PRIME MINISTER: ‘Didn’t mind it’. That’s not a big rap. You tolerated it.
ALDWORTH: Albo, that’s coming from Carly, I wouldn’t take that seriously.
PRIME MINISTER: Dua Lipa’s on my playlist.
PORTCH: Let’s talk about Taylor Swift for one second, though. You are heading to Tay Tay?
PRIME MINISTER: I am going to Tay Tay.
PORTCH: What is your favourite Taylor Swift song? This has been debated in the office.
PRIME MINISTER: I can’t go past, because when I do DJ particularly at schools, little primary schools – if you want to see a primary school go off, particularly the young girls but young boys as well, just Shake It Off. They just shake it off.
ALDWORTH: I called it!
PORTCH: Shake it off! People were saying Style…
PRIME MINISTER: It’s the hand movements, and everything they do. They do all that.
PORTCH: You’ll be doing that at the concert too, Albo?
ALDWORTH: Incredible.
PORTCH: So, that’ll be the one that gets you out of your seat dancing?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s the go-to song.
PORTCH: Okay, there we go.
PRIME MINISTER: But I really became a fan during the sort of Folklore – Evermore, the two albums that came out.
PORTCH: You’re making our producer so happy right now. That is one way to win votes.
PRIME MINISTER: Because, yeah, I do spent a lot of time travelling. It’s really calming and they’re just fantastic.
PORTCH: They are. I mean, I’m a swiftie through and through. Alan’s a swiftie. I mean, I think everyone’s a swiftie at heart. Peter Dutton – do you think Peter Dutton’s a swiftie?
PRIME MINISTER: Nah, Nickelback, I reckon.
PORTCH: He would be a Nickelback listener.
ALDWORTH: How dare you? I love Nickelback.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, come on, you can’t.
ALDWORTH: I do. I do. All right, I didn’t expect to be shamed this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: It’d be more sort of angry, you know, death metal stuff.
PORTCH: Yeah there’s something going on with him.
ALDWORTH: I’m going to put on some Creed, I’m going to do it, I’m going to teach you a lesson. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – a pleasure as always, and good luck and enjoy the rest of your time in WA.
PRIME MINISTER: Don’t play Nickelback, people will turn off.
ALDWORTH: You’re lucky, it’s not coming up.
