An impromptu call out of the blue, just to have a chat and say ‘hi’, it’s our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Hey, how you going?
JACKIE O: How you going?
PRIME MINISTER: How are you enjoying the Olympics?
JACKIE O: Oh, you’re not allowed to say that word. You’re gonna get censored.
PRIME MINISTER: I am allowed to say that word!
COOPER JOHNS, HOST: You just told the Prime Minister he can’t say the ‘O’ word.
JACKIE O: Well, I don’t know, honestly. Like, we’re not allowed to say the ‘O’ word. It is the weirdest thing. We get legal letters because of rights. And so we have to refer to it as the Games. Are you pardoning us?
PRIME MINISTER: They can get over themselves. Australians are allowed to talk about the Olympics and the Paralympics, which are coming up.
JACKIE O: Thank you!
PRIME MINISTER: It’s an important thing and no one owns it. The whole of Australia owns our Australian team. Another gold medal for the Aussies is fantastic.
JACKIE O: I know. So, do you ever get up, like, at all hours to watch it, or are you like, what are you watching with the Games? I still am afraid to say it, so I’m saying the Games.
PRIME MINISTER: I do love, the swimming’s great. I watched the 1500 metre heats last night, which were pretty interesting. I like the slow races where you can really get into it. You can see someone, you know, either one of the women or men, really, really trying to catch up. Last night was terrific, but early mornings as well. There’s been a couple of early mornings. I watched the hockey was terrific. I watched the basketball. We didn’t do so well with the basketball overnight, but.
JACKIE O: No, we didn’t.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s just a great time and a celebration of the world coming together at a time where there’s so much conflict in the world.
JOHNS: Were you thinking of ever going over Albo?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, I’d be pilloried, I think, if I did that, I’m happy to just watch it on TV. I did get an invite from President Macron, who’s very proudly hosting the Games over there in France. But it looks fantastic and Paris is such a wonderful city, of course. It’s a great experience for those Australians who are getting to go. Anika Wells is, of course, our Sports Minister, as well as Aged Care Minister. She’s a very fanatical supporter of Australians when they’re competing on the sporting field. I reckon she was a bit nervous, though. Over the weekend we had a reshuffle and she was a little bit nervous that maybe I might name myself as the Olympics Minister or the Sports Minister and head over there and she’d have to come back. But she was quite relieved to be able to stay there. She keeps sending me photos, though, which is a little bit annoying of her, by the pool there with Ariarne Titmus’ family all having hugs and everything. You know, it’s rubbing it in a bit.
JACKIE O: Exactly. And yeah, you should be over there. What’s so important here? What’s going on at the moment? If you can call through for a bit of a have-a-chat, surely we’re not that busy in the country right now.
PRIME MINISTER: There’s always so much to do, but it’s always good to have a chat with you and importantly, through you to your listeners. We, of course, have been doing a fair bit to try to make a difference on cost of living. All of your listeners will have got a tax cut, they’ll all get $300 energy bill relief. And over the next couple of days we’ve got some other further exciting announcements.
BROOKLYN ROSS, NEWSREADER: You know what, Jackie? Prime Minister, thank you for calling on. But you know what, Jackie? When the Prime Minister calls in randomly, you know an election is not far off and you’ve done the reshuffle now, Albo. When are we going to go to the polls? Have you decided yet?
JACKIE O: Announce it now.
PRIME MINISTER: No no, but I reckon – announced live on KIIS! I reckon that three years is too short. So, I’m not about to drive to see the Governor-General very soon.
ROSS: But it will be, what six months?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, it has to be before May next year. Well, actually, it can be as late as September, but then we would have to have a Half Senate Election in-between time. And I don’t think people want two elections. I think people are quite happy to vote just once. And so it’ll be sometime between now, I guess, and next May.
JACKIE O: Have you got everyone dropping off like flies at the moment from sickness? Because Kyle’s sick. Everyone’s been sick.
PRIME MINISTER: You sure he’s not at the big ‘O’? We’ll call it that.
JACKIE O: The big ‘O’. Yeah, just to be safe. Okay.
PRIME MINISTER: Just to be, with the legal issues you’re worried about. Maybe he’s in Paris.
JACKIE O: Yeah, no, he’s apparently stuck in bed at the moment. Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I had it a couple of weeks ago. I tell you, it can really knock you around.
JACKIE O: Sorry. Coops is here. Do you know Cooper Johns? He’s Matty Johns’ son. Nephew of Andrew Johns.
PRIME MINISTER: I do. How you going?
JOHNS: I’m good, Albo, I just wanted to ask you a question. Have you – if you just said you’ve been sick a couple weeks ago, who do you have to tell that you’re sick? Like, do you report to anyone to say that you’ve been sick?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I just have to keep going. The problem is the old diary is so tight and packed that every day there’re things in there. So, I just, I just kept ploughing through, but I wasn’t real good. And then I unfortunately got into trouble because I gave it to Jodie as well. So, she then got sick afterwards. Yeah. You just have to plough through. It’s one of the difficulties with this job is looking for a gap where you have a couple of quiet days, but it’s a great privilege. And yesterday I was in – yesterday I did a fantastic thing out in Oran Park in southwest Sydney with the Shepherd Centre. They do this amazing work, not for profit, helping young kids, very young kids with cochlear implants and giving them the same opportunities that children born with perfect hearing get. It’s just amazing what they’re able to do. And it was so lovely talking to these beautiful young children and their parents and the wonderful experts, audio experts and others who are providing that support for these families. It was really uplifting. And that’s one of the great things about my job, is that you get to see the best of Australia and people really helping each other out. It was awesome.
