It’s a very good morning to a man who can find his way to the odd party or two. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. PM, good to see you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Fantastic to be here, what a great day.
STEFANOVIC: Isn’t it? Just to see the families here, to see friends, you know, our most successful Olympics ever. As PM, what’s that been like for you?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s just wonderful. It’s a proud day. I mean, not every athlete who gets off that plane is bringing home a medal, but every single one of them is worth their weight in gold. They have just done Australia proud and they’ve done their best. Whether they’ve won Gold, Silver, Bronze or just put in a performance, they’ve all done us proud.
STEFANOVIC: You know, what was it like for you? Because I do know you were up late watching the Olympics –
PRIME MINISTER: And up early too.
STEFANOVIC: And up early, yeah. What was it like for you? Can you sum up the experience?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, it’s just awesome. It was fun. What it did was it just lifted the whole country up. It was exciting, it was full of joy. I mean, the moment where, you know, Jess Fox and the whole family jump in because Noemie’s won Gold. I mean, how good is that? You can’t make that up that moment of the two sisters bringing home three Gold between them. But also just, you know, our basketballers. I watched the women’s basketball team –
STEFANOVIC: The Opals –
PRIME MINISTER: The other day, the thing for me that was good was the person off the court. Lauren Jackson, not making it on the court, just so excited for them. I think it’s her fifth Olympics. You know, been around –
STEFANOVIC: She says it’s her final one, but who knows?
PRIME MINISTER: Who knows. I reckon she can keep going.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, for sure. I guess it’s also, I don’t know, we found it inspiring being there as Australians, and you and I are both pretty patriotic people –
PRIME MINISTER: Indeed.
STEFANOVIC: And make no apologies for it. But to see it, to see the sacrifices they make, it goes back to the investments we make here, right?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.
STEFANOVIC: In sport, and the Olympics in Brisbane, and you see the benefits that come back.
PRIME MINISTER: We got approached for the Paris Preparedness Fund, basically. The AOC said to us, we haven’t got enough money for our athletes to go and compete and to do that training in that high level, you know, world events. And so that $20 million that we put in upfront, short term, will make an enormous difference. But the investment in the Australian Institute of Sport will prepare us for 2032 – the joint was falling apart. And what we need to do is to put back into athletes. Most of these people don’t earn a lot of money, they certainly don’t earn the money that AFL or NRL players or cricketers or golfers earn. They do it out of their love for to sport, but also the passion that they have representing Australia and they do something for us. They lift us up. It boosts our entire nation.
STEFANOVIC: It gives us, I guess, a very gentle reminder of Brisbane in eight years’ time, too. And I guess the thing that most people have said to me is, how are we going to prepare for that? It seems like it’s a mess at the moment. I’m not going to dwell on that today. But is the Federal Government going to come to the party? State government in Queensland needs to sort it out. Can we be assured we’re going to be all right?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. It’ll be a cracker. It’ll do Australia proud. We’ve got $3.5 billion dollars we’ve contributed as a federal government, but also the board, Jess Fox is going to be on the board. So what we want to do is to make sure that the athletes themselves get a say in the way that the Olympics are run. There’s a bigger picture thing, to make this point, Karl. At a time when there’s so much conflict in the world, the world coming together, celebrating everyone as individuals is a good thing as well. When you look at what’s going on in the Middle East and in Russia and Ukraine and so many parts of the world, sport is a unifying factor that can be really important.
STEFANOVIC: It’s also, I’ve got to tell you, apart from the athletics and the athletes and everyone involved from a sporting point of view, it’s also a two and a half, four and a half week tourism ad to the rest of the world. So, it’s a great opportunity.
PRIME MINISTER: Of course. Sydney is still developing, is still reaping the benefits from 2000. Melbourne’s still reaping the benefits from 1956.
STEFANOVIC: That’s right.
PRIME MINISTER: And so this will be great for Queensland, but great for our whole country.
STEFANOVIC: I’ve got to go. You’ve got to go more importantly –
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve got to go.
STEFANOVIC: I’ve got the AFP screaming at me and also they want to pay rise if they can, I told the boys I give a shout out.
PRIME MINISTER: Give them an ad –
STEFANOVIC: Go well, welcome them home and it’s terrific to be here. Good on you.
PRIME MINISTER: Great coverage of the games.
STEFANOVIC: Thank you, appreciate it. The Prime Minister, he’s on his way. You going to hit the decks later as well?
PRIME MINISTER: Who knows what’s going to happen.
