Every idea starts with a problem. Warby Parker's was simple. Glasses are too expensive. So they
set out to change that. By designing glasses in-house and selling directly to customers,
they're able to offer prescription eyewear that's expertly crafted and unexpectedly affordable.
Warby Parker glasses are made from premium materials like impact-resistant polycarbonate
and custom acetate. And they start at just $95, including prescription lenses.
Get glasses made from the good stuff. Stop by a Warby Parker store near you.
Bombas makes the most comfortable socks, underwear, and t-shirts.
Warning, Bombas are so absurdly comfortable you may throw out all your other clothes.
Sorry, do we legally have to say that?
No, this is just how I talk and I really love my Bombas.
They do feel that good. And they do good too. One item purchased equals one item donated.
To feel good and do good, go to bombas.com slash ACAST and use code ACAST for 20% off
your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash ACAST and use code ACAST at checkout.
I'm Mark Boris and this is Straight Talk.
I know you've come in today to announce the date of the election, so Prime Minister,
welcome to Straight Talk. Great to be with you, Mark.
We do know the story that, you know, you grew up in public housing, single mum.
Anthony Albanese, what's valuable to him?
If I can sum it up in two phrases, no one left behind, but no one held back.
Cost of living is obviously at the top of the list. I think it was 1.2 million
new homes over a period of five years.
It's not tracking great.
What do you think about that?
They come at you from every direction for any little thing.
Why does Anthony Albanese do that?
You know, I'm here because of sacrifices that she made.
One of the things that drives me is repaying.
So the most important question for the whole economy and for a whole of Australia,
how is sales going to go this year?
Prime Minister, welcome to Straight Talk.
Great to be with you, Mark.
Well, it's been a long time getting together.
By the way, when I was walking up to the studio just now, I got a photo of something,
which I've got to show it to you because you'll probably have a laugh.
And, you know, fun fact while you're getting that together.
Is that your car?
No, but it could be.
It's got a South Rabbit O's.
I thought maybe the Prime Minister parked his car out the front.
They won't let me put a sticker on C1.
Apparently that's against the rules.
Well, I thought, my God.
He's in our territory.
I mean, this is an eastern suburbs area, mate.
So the most important question for the whole economy and for a whole of Australia,
the voting Australia, is how is sales going to go this year?
They're going to go real well.
The great man is back, Wayne Bennett, in Wayne we trust.
And if we can just get our players on the field, you know, Campbell Graham,
not a minute last year.
Cam Murray's out for the beginning.
But at one stage, you know, I was waiting for,
you know, I was waiting for, you know, I was waiting for, you know,
your mate Nick Pappas to bring us up and ask us to play halfback
because we were really struggling for a while there.
Of course, you've got that young kid now from the UK.
And that will be good with Cody Walker going back to 5'8",
I think, where he's much preferred position.
And it's a great team if we can get them on the field.
So I just want to ask you about it because, like, a lot of people,
for example, in other states probably don't understand rugby league.
But they definitely understand if they're AFL fans,
they understand the importance of being part of a tribe and a club.
How important is Souths and rugby league to you as a person?
Like, where does it fit into your life?
I mean, you've got a busy life, you're prime minister,
you've got a million things you've got to do.
You've got your partner, Jodie.
You've got other things going on in your life.
But where does football and Souths fit into your life?
I think it's about identity.
I remember when Souths were kicked out of the comp for a couple of years,
some people said,
oh, yeah, you should just follow another team.
And to them, I said at the time, I was on the board of Souths at the time.
I said, you don't understand.
This is about who you are.
It's about your connections.
I mean, I came out of the womb with a cardinal eye and a myrtle eye,
red and green, and my grandparents supported Souths.
My mum supported Souths.
It was just what you do.
And it's the way that you relate to your mates that you grew up,
with some of my earliest experiences were sitting on the hill there at Redfern.
And that's what team sports about.
So it doesn't matter whether it's Souths or Carlton or Collingwood or whatever team in the AFL.
You can say Roosters.
You can say Roosters.
I know it's a hard word to say.
You've got to draw the line somewhere.
It's a very hard word for you to say.
But for people from interstate, Souths and the Roosters have this rivalry that goes back a long way.
I played juniors in the East Comp there because I went to St. Mary's Cathedral.
So we used to play.
We came third every year because every year it was Marcellin and Bondi United always made the grand final.
And we would make the final and get knocked out every year.
We could never beat either of those teams.
Marcellin had a fellow called Darren McCarthy as their best player.
He was the best player in the Comp.
Bobby McCarthy, a legend.
He played with over 200 games for Souths and a great player.
His son, Darren, was a great player too.
And I tried to tackle him once.
He just ran straight over the top of me.
He was twice the size of everyone else in the Comp at that time.
With St. Mary's Cathedral.
Now, I remember when I grew up out in the West, but I remember my mother got me to learn to play piano.
And I played piano.
I played piano most of my life.
And my mother tried to get me to go to St. Mary's because it was a music school, as I recall.
There was the choir.
They had a choir.
Were you part of that?
Did you win some sort of or were you a musician or a singer or something along those lines to go to St. Mary's?
My mum had me try out for the choir and I wasn't successful.
And so I enrolled.
It was the local school, basically.
I say I was raised with three great faiths.
South Sydney, the Labour Party and the Catholic Church.
And if you went through the Catholic system, I went...
In primary school, I went to St. Joseph's at Camperdown, which is a very little school.
Lovely school that's now a childcare centre.
It went to year four.
And then you had to go through a whole series if you were in the Catholic systemic system.
You went to St. Joseph's in Newtown for year five and six.
And then St. Thomas.
St. Louis for seven to ten.
And then Christian Brothers, St. Louis, 11 and 12, if you went through.
I grew up in Pyrmont Bridge Road, Camperdown, where the bus outside the children's hospital went straight to the city.
So St. Mary's went from year five right through to year 12.
So mum sent me there.
And in year six, I was going to be taken away from the school because my mum...
My mum couldn't afford school fees.
And they had Brother Simpson, who was in charge of the primary school there, brought us in, myself and mum,
and was asking why I was going to leave and not go back into year six.
And mum said that, you know, she just couldn't afford school fees.
And so they said to my mum, look, you know, he's a good student.
Just pay whatever you can when you can.
And so I got to go essentially free, which the Catholic school system does for a lot of disadvantaged kids.
So it's just myself and mum there at home.
It's interesting, Primus, you said something about one of the things that you got out of your family or growing up is God.
And actually, interestingly enough, we just had the U.S. inauguration,
and Trump often speaks about God.
And God seems to be...
Or religion, maybe not so much religion, but belief systems have become okay to have all of a sudden.
You know, not all of a sudden, but it's just become more popular.
How important is, to Anthony Albanese, how important is spirituality and a belief system?
I tend not to talk too much about it, but it's about who you are.
Being raised, I think, with Catholic social justice principles.
We're here in Darlinghurst.
And we used to go down and help at St. Vinny's and do...
Or Matthew Talbot.
We'd go and help at Matthew Talbot as volunteers.
That was a part of going to that school system, is teaching your values about looking after the underprivileged.
During the last election campaign, I spoke about not...
Leaving people behind.
And that was a part of it, that Catholic social justice principles are really important to me,
looking after each other.
The fact that there's something other than just individualism, if you like,
is a part of my core belief system.
I mean, I know you've come in today to announce the date of the election,
but obviously there's an election coming up because this is an election year.
People want to know...
About your values, apart from your policies.
This is not a presidential-style election, as you know.
But it's sort of becoming a little bit that way.
For some reason, you know, we're looking at the leader and people will be saying,
well, why will I vote for that party or my local member based on that leader?
Because a lot of people don't know much about their local member.
But the leader's in the media all the time.
So, what are the...
What are our leaders' values?
And I don't know.
I know it's a private thing, but can you give us a bit of a sense of...
Social justice is a great start, but can you give us a sense of what are the values that you live by?
I mean, they're important.
Not just policies, but...
Anthony Albanese's...
What's valuable to him?
I think if I can sum it up in two phrases,
no one left behind, but no one held back.
What does that mean in practice?
It means making sure that the disadvantaged people are looked after who are vulnerable in society as well.
I do think that is important.
We judge society on that.
So, I've just been at the opening of a new social housing dwellings,
61 apartments in Marrickville in my electorate.
I grew up in public housing.
That's really important.
But it's connected.
It's connected up with the second lot of no one held back either.
We need to value aspiration.
My story is one of aspiration,
one of someone who my mum wanted a better life for me
and to make the most of opportunity.
And I think that government can play a role in creating the circumstance
where people can have a better life,
have a better standard of living,
get an education,
thrive for a better standard of living.
I know a little bit about yourself, Mark.
We've known each other for a little while now.
You're a Western suburbs boy in Punchbowl, I think.
You did extremely well.
That's important that we value that.
We want people to succeed in life.
We don't want to be satisfied with just where we are.
And that's a normal human aspiration.
I think that is part of the reason why people come to Australia
is they want a better life for themselves
and importantly for their children as well.
So that's interesting that your mum wanted something better for you.
And we do know the story that, you know,
you grew up in public housing, single mum.
So I won't dwell on that too much.
And I, by the way, what I would do want to ask you though,
on that regard, in that regard is,
do you ever sit back and say, wow,
I grew up a single mum, social housing,
and here I am the prime minister of the country?
I mean, that is, in terms of aspirational,
I mean, that's a pretty big call.
And were you a kid saying one day I want to do something better?
I certainly thought to myself one day I want to do better.
My mum was an invalid pensioner.
She couldn't work, crippled up with rheumatoid arthritis.
And we had very limited income.
I think if you had of asked a 14 or 15-year-old me,
it would have been I want a secure job.
One day I want to own my own home and I want to live a better life.
But I certainly didn't have the destiny thing.
I didn't walk around saying I'm going to be prime minister.
And even when I went into politics,
I didn't go into parliament thinking that I would be prime minister.
It's absurd for someone from my background to think that.
You don't get beyond your position.
Especially in the Catholic environment too, by the way.
There's a bit of that.
Don't get ahead of yourself.
Don't get ahead of yourself is a really important thing.
And so I didn't do that.
But it says something great about this country that the son of a single mum,
you know, an invalid pensioner,
or disability support pensioner would be called these days,
who grew up in public housing, can be prime minister of Australia.
And there are lots of moments where you're on the south lawn
of the United States White House when you're addressing that scene
that you've seen in so many movies where it's a wow moment.
It is a very big deal.
And I certainly don't.
I take it for granted every single day when I drive into Parliament House.
There's a courtyard that you'll see prime ministers do the press conferences in.
The car drives inside the building at Parliament House there.
It's a part of security measures.
But I get dropped off.
And every day when the car goes through inside the building,
if you like, outside into that courtyard, I pinch myself.
It's a great honour and a great privilege.
Do you know that, and you probably know this because I'm sure you've got advisers
around the place, but you are, one of your strengths is you're very relatable.
And, you know, you don't, you can, you tell the story well,
but you're very relatable as an individual.
I mean, I'm getting that sense talking about it.
And Australians love that sort of stuff.
I mean, you know, because we're going to be able to relate
to the person we want to lead the country.
Not necessarily the person we want to lead the country.
Not necessarily the person we want to lead the country.
Not necessarily from party to party.
But whoever the dude is, or female, woman, who's going to lead this country,
we want to be able to relate to that individual.
And you come across as very relatable, have relatability.
Where did that come from?
How did you, were you always that kid, you know, good at that?
Or did you sort of learn that process through the years being, you know,
starting off as a parliamentarian in early days or starting off
in the political scene early days?
Where did you get that from?
Not too long ago.
Running a business looked a lot different.
A good location and a solid reputation were enough to keep a customer base happy.
No websites, no social media, no SEO, just old school networking and persistence, of course.
But times have changed.
In today's digital world, your business needs more than just a great product.
It needs visibility.
That's where Squarespace comes in.
Whether you're just getting started or expanding your brand,
it's the all-in-one platform that makes building and managing your online presence simple.
Print AI, creating a professional, customized website takes just a few clicks.
Plus, powerful tools like automated client invoicing, online courses,
and memberships help you generate revenue effortlessly.
So you can focus on growing your business instead of juggling logistics.
Head to squarespace.com forward slash mentored for a free trial.
And when you're ready to launch, use offer code mentored, M-E-N-T-O-R-E-D,
Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain.
Running a business, I've learned that every missed call is a missed opportunity.
Before my team found OpenPhone, it was chaos.
Personal numbers for customer calls, missed messages,
no visibility into who followed up or didn't.
Now we've got a business phone system that keeps up.
With OpenPhone, our whole team can call and text from a shared number,
assign follow-ups, and track every conversation with call transcripts and summaries.
Whether it's after hours or we're just busy,
AI steps in to handle calls, answer customer questions, and capture leads.
Our phones are covered 24-7 and we never miss a beat.
OpenPhone starts at just $15 a month and they'll even port over your existing numbers for free.
Over 60,000 businesses are using OpenPhone and now I get why.
Try it out and get 20% off your first six months at openphone.com slash tech.
That's openphone.com slash tech.
No missed calls, no missed customers.
I just try to be myself.
I think not having that sense of destiny helps.
So there's not a sense of...
Entitlement, you mean.
Yeah, a sense of entitlement.
You know, I don't take it for granted.
And I also understand the responsibility that I have in having this privilege.
Something that happened on the first day of parliament,
before parliament comes back after any election,
there's a service at the war memorial.
Yeah, as prime minister.
You give a speech about a fallen veteran.
And it's a solemn ceremony paying respect to the men and women
who've given their lives to defend and to create Australia.
It's a good occasion.
I got back in the car to go to the lodge.
And I got a text message of a photo of me from a mate of mine,
Cherie, who I grew up with in public housing in Camperdown.
And it was a photo taken from the balcony there at the war memorial.
And I texted her saying, are you here?
And she texted back saying yes.
And so I rang her.
And what had happened was that eight of...
Eight of the people who I grew up with in Camperdown
in this sort of little public housing estate
that was across the road from the children's hospital,
surrounded by the Western's Biscuit Factory and McNulty's Foundry
and all this industrial area.
So it was just one block of housing and a long way to the next home,
private or public, anywhere around.
They had got together.
One of them, Clayton's now a wharfie in Frio.
Wendy lives in Melbourne.
Donna's in the eastern suburbs.
They're all South supporters, by the way.
They had travelled.
One of the things social media can do is keep people connected.
They'd all decided their mate, who they grew up with
and I've kept in contact with them, was becoming Prime Minister of Australia.
And they all travelled to Camperdown.
Very proud moment for them.
It was so uplifting.
I had them all round to dinner at the Lodge.
So the night before I went through the formal process of the Parliament,
I'd been sworn in by the Governor-General, of course, earlier,
but that process of the first day of Parliament as Prime Minister,
they were all there.
And the night before they had dinner at the Lodge.
And I can't think of anything better about our country
that people, you know, all good people, humble people, hardworking people,
are with themselves and their partners there at the Lodge.
It was such a really important moment for me, one of the moments of my life.
So it's interesting, as I was listening to that, I thought to myself the difference
between what you're relating to me as a really important moment, which it is an important moment,
especially to be able to enjoy the moment or absorb the moment with some friends of yours
that, you know, you went to school with, lifelong friends and family too, I guess.
But then I go, I watched the inauguration of Trump, a night or so ago,
and he surrounded himself with all the megastars.
And it's a different style.
He's a totally different style to you.
I know him, I knew him during the apprentice period, reasonably well.
It's a different style of person.
And then I look at Australians compared to Americans and I wondered to myself, and I just wondered,
because I don't know, are Australians more interested in relating to their leader
as a good person who has good values, who remembers, let's call it the, I don't want to say smaller people,
but people who he grew up with, aren't famous, but famous to you, but not famous generally.
Is it better to be that person from an Australian point of view, an electoral point of view?
Do we want that or do we want someone more like Trump who surrounds himself with
Zuckerberg and, you know, et cetera, et cetera, Musk, et cetera?
What do you think about that?
Do you ever think, because, I mean, you must watch all this stuff yourself.
Do you ever go through the process and say, well, I'm Anthony Albanese, I'm me, I can only be me,
I can't be someone else, but I do want to win the election for my party.
Do you think to yourself, do I have to perform a bit differently?
Do you ever think that to yourself?
I think Australians can spot someone who's trying to be something that they're not.
So you've got to be yourself.
Yeah, if you think about the language that we use, we say he's fair dinkum or she's fair dinkum.
We say, you know, keep it real.
A lot of our phraseology is about that.
It's indicative of maybe what people want.
Yeah, we relate to each other very directly as well.
You know, we stir each other up.
We have a different sense of humour.
You know, we can have a crack at each other, our mates,
without causing offence.
But I think we as well have avoided some of what's occurred in the United States
is anger and polarisation.
Yeah, one of the things I'm trying to do as Prime Minister, I hope,
is appeal to people's better angels as well, not appeal to division.
And I think that's really important for who we are,
that we keep that.
Social cohesion here.
You know, we're a multicultural nation and we have people of different faiths,
different backgrounds, different views.
We've got to be able to be respectful and have that dialogue without the anger
that we see in some of American politics and indeed politics around the world,
I think, has been exacerbated.
I think we've got to be able to be respectful and have that dialogue without the anger
that we see in some of American politics and indeed politics around the world.
You know, people will say things on social media.
I don't look at the comments.
They'll say things that they would never say.
Yeah, to your face.
And they do it anonymously.
Do you feel any, do you feel as it was around right now, you know,
I must admit I watch Paul Murray, but I also listen to the ABC in the morning,
so I try to balance things out.
And I watch him and, of course, you know, last night I was seeing the polls.
There was a poll came through last night.
And it sort of is sort of indicating globally, Canada, United States,
some parts of Europe, not yet UK,
but Islam is having a bit of a tough time at the moment.
Do you ever think to yourself, do you feel to yourself,
and I'm sure you've got advisors,
but there could be a movement against what Labor, your party,
has stood for over the past number of years and more going towards the right
put you at a disadvantage relative to your polling, for example,
where, you know, Dutton's sort of close and the coalition's above.
Do you feel as though you're sometimes pushing against a tide?
A few years ago the tide was in your favour.
And you can't control tides.
These are things beyond your control, people's general feelings.
But do you feel as though that could be occurring?
And if so, what do you do about it?
How do you manage yourself?
How does Anthony Albionese get up and say, right,
I don't care what the momentum is, I'm going to attack this?
I think you have to deal with things that you can change.
So one of the challenges that we've had to deal with in government
is global inflation.
Now, that peaked overseas, a double digit in the UK.
We've had recessions around the world in advanced economies.
New Zealand is still in a recession right now,
So you need to worry about what you can control.
If you try to think that you have power over everything that happens
in the global economy, you'll just, it would cause such frustration.
You'll end up not being able to be as effective as you can if you say,
okay, how can we make a difference?
So with global inflation,
our challenge has been how do we get inflation down without just putting,
you know, helping people at the same time with cost of living pressures
that we know are on there.
And so some of the economists would tell us you can only get inflation down
if people are thrown on the scrap heap and unemployment rises.
That's not a Labor approach.
Our approach will not leave people behind.
Can we talk about that, Prime Minister?
And I think that's an important point.
Like, you know, cost of living is obviously at the top of the list.
You've obviously done your surveys and polling.
You know what's important.
As I see the surveys, cost of living is one of the most important ones.
Environment used to be.
It's sort of dropped a few down and cost of living, you know, through inflation.
And you made a really important point, Labor's policy relative to inflation.
So generally speaking, when you have high interest rates for a long period of time,
traditionally, both in Australia and other parts of the world,
unemployment tends to suffer.
In other words, the unemployment rate tends to rise.
But, you know, Labor is about looking after one of its major constituencies
is the, let's call it the working class or people with jobs.
And you've managed and, you know, your treasurer, Dr. Jim,
has managed to hopefully do the perfect.
scenario, get interest rate reductions.
They're not here yet, but get interest rate reductions,
but at the same time without the Labor market suffering.
So, you know, unemployment is around 4.1.
I do know that the RBA would like to see, not would like to see a bigger number,
but expect to see a bigger number based on modelling of about 4.5, 4.6.
But no one ever lands exactly where they want to land.
That's either a lot more, maybe five or a lot less,
but that's not the case.
But that's a hard one to manage.
I mean, and the RBA is an independent body.
You as the government, you know, treasury comes under you,
you as the government don't want to see people put out of their jobs.
How hard has it been over the past period to manage that policy?
In other words, make sure unemployment does not kick up to 4.6, 4.7
or closer to five, which by the way is a long-term average.
I mean, even blokes like Stephen Koulis is a good mate of mine.
Kuki and I have a bit of fun every month.
And he was Julie Gillard's leading economist advisor, economic advisor.
Even Kuki says to me, mate, unemployment's got to get beyond 4.5 in a modelling sense.
You know, the so-called non-accelerating inflation run of unemployment,
the NAIRU, has to be above 4.5 in order for us, for the Reserve Bank Board,
to be convinced that it's time to reduce interest rates.
How do you play the game?
And do you sit down and talk to Jim like daily?
I mean, what's the dynamics of this stuff?
Well, it's just like landing a 747 on a helicopter pad.
Trying to get inflation down whilst keeping employment strong,
whilst looking after people with costs of living relief.
Can you do all of those things?
The stats are pretty good.
Yeah, inflation's got a two in front of it.
Unemployment's gone from 3.9 to 4, but that's pretty good.
We've got real wages growing.
And we've created 1.1 million jobs since we came to office.
Those statistics are remarkable.
And there is nowhere in the world you would rather be than Australia having those stats.
So sometimes economic theory doesn't,
doesn't play out in practice because it's important that an economy works for people,
not the other way around and that we don't take people out of the equation like those stats.
So stats are more important than the people.
People are what matter.
So if you talk about, oh, well, 4.1, 4.5, what difference does it make?
Well, that means a couple of hundred thousand people losing their job
and people being worried about putting food on the table.
You know, it can make, you know,
it's a real difference.
It's, it's there.
And so we've been determined to design cost of living relief in a way that has put that
downward pressure on inflation.
So cheaper childcare helps boost workforce participation because women are more able to
stay in work or work an extra day or two whilst keeping costs down for people.
Free TAFE is giving people skills that they need for
their first job as an apprentice or retraining for a new job whilst giving them cost of living relief.
Our energy bill relief has made a difference,
putting that downward pressure at a time where because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
there's all the pressure the other way around.
And importantly as well,
when you keep people in jobs,
that has an impact,
fiscal policy to use the economic term.
You're getting more revenue because people are paying taxes,
rather than getting more money.
Rather than you paying welfare to people.
So we produced two budget surpluses and we've cut debt by some $80 billion as a direct result of what we have done.
I'm really proud that we essentially have got those measures right.
It has been difficult.
It's meant we haven't been able to do everything that we could,
but it does mean that when something comes before,
the cabinet or before the budget committee,
which is called the expenditure review committee,
not just is this worthwhile because there's lots of worthwhile things.
What impact will it have on inflation?
What impact will it have on jobs?
And the shorthand is what's the impact on people?
And we know that inflation hurts the poor more.
If you've got less money in your pocket,
it has a bigger impact.
So we know that there's an equity issue here as well.
So I think we've got it.
If you had have said to me,
would you take something where inflation was down,
employment was up,
real wages were up,
and you had a better fiscal policy,
better budget outcomes,
would you take all of that?
I'd say you bet I would.
but those things are rarely available all at once.
Which is why it's remarkable that we've been able to get to that point.
Now we know that there's more to do and we know there are big challenges as well.
And one of the things that government has to do though is to deal with immediate
challenges that come before you that some of which you're not expecting.
No one was saying in the 2022 election,
that the land war in Europe between Russia and Ukraine would still be going in 2025.
that just wasn't what all the intelligence was suggesting.
So you've got to deal with those things that have occurred.
But always keep your eye on the longer term.
One of the things I say is that,
we're navigating turbulent seas,
but you've got to keep your eye on the horizon,
which is what we've tried to do with things like aged care reform,
and other things like that.
The biggest reform this century that we're delivering to make sure that the system's sustainable.
when we were elected,
it was described with one word of neglect.
So we had to do that childcare reform.
How do we make sure that every child gets access to early learning if they choose to do so,
if families decide to go down that road?
So always having our eye on those bigger reforms,
the longer term things.
You can't build major infrastructure overnight.
Sometimes you need to make decisions that you won't get to see the outcome of.
That's important as well while you're dealing with those immediate pressures that you confront.
It's one of the big cost of living issues,
is for those people who borrowed during COVID period,
1.99% in some cases,
but in other cases,
They're now paying 6%.
because the interest rate was so low,
they could borrow a lot more than they can today,
because they're assessed differently.
Now they're paying a lot more money.
So a lot of people who have mortgages would be saying to prime minister,
my biggest cost of living outcome is my mortgage payments,
or someone who might be affected by increases in rents as well.
You're either renting or you're paying a mortgage,
Well, you might live with mum and dad,
but generally speaking, one or the other.
And given that the Reserve Bank meets in maybe three weeks.
February 18, correct.
Yeah, very focused.
And then the half yearly or the December numbers,
half year or yearly numbers,
December numbers is going to come out in a couple of days from this interview.
That is inflation, growth, GDP, unemployment, et cetera.
Can you give us a sense of where?
I mean, I know that they're independent and you don't get to see the ABS stats before anybody else.
Everybody gets to assume at the same time.
I get all that, but, you know, you're talking to the Reserve Bank.
You know, you got Jim there, must be talking to Michelle Bullock, the governor.
You know, I know they're independent, but there must be discussions.
Hey, are you getting a sense for Australians that we're going to get some relief on interest rates soon?
Well, certainly when you have interest rates,
of course, impacted by inflation is the big driver.
And when you have inflation, had a six in front of it when we were elected,
it's now got a two in front of it.
All of this, different indicators of inflation, they're all heading in the right direction.
We'll wait and see what the figures show this week.
They're the quarterly figures come out, but the month-to-month figures have been very good,
and the last quarterly figures were good also.
In my view, we've done our bit.
Now, the Reserve Bank are independent, but obviously people do want to see a decrease.
And it's something that we're doing our bit to create the circumstances where the independent Reserve Bank can save.
Can you argue the case with it?
Can you say, listen, listen, Michelle, we get it, but, you know, we looked at the numbers and everything's heading in the right direction.
Do you get a chance to argue the case?
The Reserve Bank board meets over a couple of days, and we're very important at keeping the lines separate.
Of course, the Reserve Bank, I think, I can say this, made a mistake when they said that the cash rate would stay at 0.1 until 2024.
That clearly wasn't the case.
It didn't happen.
Interest rates started to rise.
Interest rates started to rise under the former government and then kept rising.
The inflation figures in that March 2022 quarter, before we were elected, were 2.1% in that quarter, just one quarter.
Now, you multiply that by four and you get a diabolical outcome.
The December number 7.8, so yeah.
And then the March 2022 budget, of course, predicted a $78 billion surplus.
There's a whole lot of cash splashes involved in the last budget of the former government.
Now, we had to turn that around.
We turned that $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus.
That was hard work.
And Jim Chalmers and Katie Gallagher, the finance minister, deserve a lot of the credit for that.
A lot of hard work was done to make sure that we turned around the ship.
If you like, to make sure that government budget policy was taking pressure off inflation, not putting it on.
And that has shown up in the fact that you've had that fall in inflation down to having a two in front of it.
We await, there'll be a lot of attention on the figures.
But I certainly understand how important this is for us.
This is for people because people tell me.
And also, when you look at the consumer confidence as well, one of the things that gives me heart is all of the big four banks and others as well do.
There was an essential survey yesterday that speak about, do people think things are going to get better?
And that has turned around remarkably.
It's very positive.
Some of that might be coming out of the summer.
Australians tend to be more upbeat.
And it's a great place to be, of course, at this time of the year.
But also, I think people can see the difference that it is making.
And one of the things that's made a real difference as well.
This time last year, I went along to the National Press Club and announced what I think is the gutsiest call I've made as prime minister.
To say the tax cuts that we're going to benefit primarily people like ourselves.
We're going to change that.
And we're going to make sure that everyone gets a crack.
Every Australian taxpayer gets a tax cut.
It was criticized massively at the time.
But it was the right thing to do.
And what that has done, together with wages now increasing more than inflation, is it means more dollars.
More dollars in people's pockets at a time when they have needed it.
Now, has that solved all of the issues?
Are people still under pressure?
But it has made a positive difference.
And had we not done that, then people would have been worse off at the time that we're speaking right now.
I know you can't say this because you don't know.
And you don't have any inside information.
I get it because, you know, they're an independent body.
But what do you reckon?
You reckon in February we're going to get a rate reduction?
By the way, anybody says you don't go betting on this on the stock market or whatever it is.
But how do you feel?
I mean, what's your sense?
I can't even speculate on it.
What I can say is that the inflationary situation is a lot better than the one that we inherited.
And so, we know that people are under pressure.
Because of interest rate increasing, particularly people who made a decision based upon advice from the RBA governor at the time.
And, you know, we've done what we can to turn that around.
And we've done that while keeping the economy growing as well.
So, interest rates, by the way, have started to decrease.
In the United States, in Canada.
But they're still higher than they are here in most of those places.
So, and I guess...
Because they went much higher because inflation was worse.
And they also started putting their rates up a lot earlier than us.
Yeah, that's right.
We clearly, I think that without being critical, of course, of the Reserve Bank, quite clearly,
if you look at what was happening...
...around the world, our interest rates stayed at that 0.1 level for a long, longer than they were overseas.
Even though inflation was rising, including here in Australia.
So, if we just talk about cost of living, and obviously a big cost of living item is rent.
And rent comes down...
The amount of rent someone can charge comes down to the amount of property that's...
Well, it comes down to...
Well, it comes down to the supply and demand game.
There's a lot of demand.
We've had a fairly big growth in terms of immigration or Australian's population generally,
largely driven by immigration, relative to the amount of properties that are available for rent.
And landlords are probably paying higher interest rate anyway on their mortgages,
so they've had to put their rent up because they could.
There's a lot of people out there doing it tough when it comes to the rental.
And it seems to be the only solution for that has to be more housing.
Affordability is correlated to the amount of supply of property relative to the amount of demand for the property.
And you did announce, or the government, your government announced maybe a year or so ago,
because I remember it was at the AFR Property Summit, I was one of the speakers,
and they talked about the, I think it was 1.2 million new homes...
...over a period of five years, I think.
Up to 2030. Okay.
So it's not tracking great.
What do you think about that?
So what are you going to say to Australians who are thinking about voting for Anthony Albanese or his party?
What are you going to say to them in terms of where you think rents are going to go?
Working in the money market, you learn pretty quickly that good platforms matter.
Whether it's trading, banking, or managing your portfolio, if the tech behind it isn't solid, it shows.
SwiftX is a crypto platform designed with that same mindset.
It's not just another exchange.
It's a proper platform built with the user in mind, an intuitive interface, real security measures,
and an actual customer support you can talk to.
They've taken what can be a pretty overwhelming space and made it accessible to the everyday punter.
Whether you're taking your first step into digital assets or already have some skin in the game,
SwiftX makes the whole experience smoother.
So if you're looking for a crypto platform that is built to work for you, not to confuse you,
check out SwiftX SW1.
s-x-s-w-y-f-t-x dot app forward slash markboros for more info.
There's no manual for motherhood, and that's okay.
At Little Bellies, we believe in simple, wholesome goodness.
Our delicious, organic snacks are created for every age and stage,
made with simple ingredients you can trust.
We do what's natural so you can too,
as your little ones grow naturally and play through every major milestone.
Check out our full range of organic snacks at littlebellies.com.
Little Bellies, do what's natural.
Well, we think that the latest figures show a much improved situation.
In terms of supply?
In other words, not power.
Compared with what was going on.
Supply is the key.
Yeah, so I might just put that in context, Prime Minister.
What you're saying is the rate of growth,
the rate of growth of rents is not growing at the same pace
it has been growing over the past couple of years.
But nonetheless, it has grown quite a lot.
Relative to wages, for example.
Absolutely, and that's put pressure on people.
That's why we've had the two increases of rent assistance
in the last two Budgets that have increased rent assistance by 45%
is what we have done.
It's means tested, that rent assistance.
It's not the most vulnerable, but that's why also we've got
our $32 billion Homes for Australia plan.
So this morning, two elements of that.
This morning I was in Parramatta, announced $58 million of projects
in New South Wales.
It's about infrastructure that facilitates housing being built.
So sewerage, transport corridors, energy connections as well.
So it's a very successful result or help for 25,000 additional homes
In other words, developers can see they should go and build more housing
because the infrastructure is there.
Because the infrastructure is there.
But also we have had three major elements.
One, increased funding for social and affordable housing.
So our Housing Australia Future Fund today, I was also then after Parramatta,
I was in Marrickville.
61 new homes which are either social housing or affordable housing
for essential workers being done by St George Community Housing.
Amazing medium density development, real quality in places
where there were three terrace houses.
So you knock three over, you build 61.
Chris Minns is doing, I think, a great job in addressing in a real way
with people the honest truth, which is we need more density.
That doesn't mean inappropriate development.
It means quality development, medium density where it is appropriate.
And this housing development I was at today is on Addison Road, Marrickville,
across the road just about from the Vic on the Park Hotel next to a bus line.
You can walk to a train line close to all amenity.
The people there were wrapped.
I met Lucy who has two kids.
She has suffered from having to move every year as a private renter.
She now has the security of a roof over her head that is permanent.
And she was just, her life had been changed by this.
And that is important.
But secondly as well, our build to rent schemes.
It was delayed in the Senate.
How do you give incentives to property?
Developers to build private rentals.
And we worked on that with the property council,
with the master builders and others to make sure that we got that right.
That passed the Senate finally, was held up over a period of time.
So that's important.
So social housing, private rentals, but also home ownership.
Now one element of that is getting interest rates down,
getting inflation down.
The other element is our health care.
We've got a health care scheme that's been developed
to buy scheme that will help 40,000 people through shared equity.
So instead of, to put it simplistically,
if you have a property that's worth a million dollars
but some of that shared equity or ownership is owned by the government.
In other words, they put in 40%, you put in 60%.
You have to borrow less.
You just need a 2% deposit.
And if you want, either the government gets its return back
when the property is sold or you can buy back the government share
if you're in a financial position to do so down the track.
Now that's operated really successfully in Western Australia since the 1970s.
So we think there are a range of solutions to this.
You can't click your fingers and solve it overnight.
You've got to be honest with people.
But that's why that infrastructure development's important.
Supporting homeownership's important.
But also private and public rentals as well is absolutely critical.
But it's all about supply,
which is why we're working cooperatively with state and territory governments.
So we've put a target for each of the state and territory governments,
a pot of money at the end, an incentive.
If they reach their targets, they get the share of the billions
of dollars that were put on the table from the Commonwealth.
Because Harry Triguboff was sitting right in the very chair
just before Christmas launching his new book.
A great guy, Harry, one of Australia's icons.
And I said to Harry, like, how do we solve this problem?
He just said, you've got to talk to all governments,
premiers, prime ministers and mayors.
Yeah, absolutely.
And he said, we just need more property.
And he said, we need more high-rise.
He said, because we don't have enough land.
You can't just keep building houses.
We'd all love to have a house.
Everyone wants a backyard.
Everyone would love that.
But, like, given Australia's topography and geography,
it's a difficult thing to do.
We've just got to have more density.
And Harry is sort of somewhat exasperated in major cities like Sydney.
He doesn't do anything in Melbourne.
Not a lot in Brisbane anymore.
But he loves the Gold Coast because there is a council there,
He's pro-development.
Is it frustrating as prime minister to have
to navigate all the agendas at the other levels of government,
which actually are the ones that ultimately prove things, you know,
right down to the city council here in Sydney, for example?
You know, it's, you know, our mayor, city mayor,
gets voted in on a certain mandate.
And her electorate says we like what we currently got.
We don't want any more.
So she's got to do what the electorate says.
It may not necessarily be what you would like to see
or what Chris Minns would like to see.
Therefore, that sort of, it's a bit like the interest rate discussion.
You know, you've got too many factors you've got to try and weigh up.
Too many people you've got to please.
Is there a sort of a defect in our process in Australia that, you know,
unlike America, you're somebody who just put out executive orders,
the PM has to sort of play the game with every level.
And it happened during COVID too.
And it's happening right now with the problem with the anti-Semitism.
You have to, last night, yesterday afternoon, you called everybody in.
Let's have a national discussion about this.
Is that frustrating?
Look, if you were designing Australia again,
I don't think you'd have three tiers of government.
My idea would be two tiers.
A Commonwealth government, a national government,
and a regional government.
But it is what it is.
You have to deal with it.
But you do get different responses as well.
Years ago, there's a development in Marrickville right on the station
called Revolution Apartments.
It's in the old Marrickville RSL site.
And I had a group of people come to see me.
And they were totally hostile to the development.
And I said to them,
what better location is there for medium density?
I think it's probably six or seven storeys high.
And they got additional apartments allowed
by having some affordable housing development in there.
Importantly, they don't need a car space for every flat
because it's right on Marrickville Station.
It's right on Illawarra Road there.
And they said to me,
you have to represent our views.
As a local member.
As a local member.
And I said, I disagree with you.
I support this development.
I support it as well.
There's another site, a Mervac development,
which has won awards on the corner of Marrickville Road
and Livingston Road.
One of our great developers.
For the library there, which has won Australia's Best Building Award.
So you had, it was the old Marrickville Hospital site.
You had appropriate development as it's on a hill.
So as you go down, they got extra height.
So it measures the same at the top,
but it's higher the further down the hill you go.
It's got some open space.
It's got a community facility with a new fantastic library for Marrickville
with a coffee shop underneath.
It's an awesome development.
Again, without being too party political,
the Greens Party on the council have opposed any development.
And what that will do as well is change the character of the area.
My area is gentrifying, as inner areas are,
and you need to have a mix, a social mix as well in terms of incomes.
That's why today's development I think was so exciting having 61 units,
but some of them for local nurses, essential workers as well.
You get that mix there that's important.
And I think that you can have courage from mayors.
You've got courage from Chris Mintz showing leadership in New South Wales
And I, as the national leader, support appropriate development.
You look at Parramatta, where I was today, that has been transformed.
Part of that is quite high density but amazing living.
The people there will have access to amazing restaurants, a heavy rail line,
a light rail line, buses and the new metro.
They're next to Parramatta Stadium to go to events.
They've got the Riverside Theatre.
That community has been developed in a way that has just lifted up the
livability of that city of Parramatta.
And it's meant that big businesses, the ASX big businesses,
are locating there, and that's a good thing.
That means jobs in that community as well.
I'm getting wound up because I know you're on top schedule,
but one thing we have to discuss, or I'd like to discuss if possible,
and you can give it as much time as you think appropriate,
but the anti-Semitism that's currently out there at the moment,
and we've seen quite a number of events, fires, graffiti,
but something people are now starting to push in to say,
look, this is nearly terrorism, nearly.
I mean, I don't know what the actual definition of terrorism is.
A lot of people are putting a lot of pressure on you, Prime Minister,
to be more reactive perhaps in relation to what's going on,
particularly in the suburbs of Sydney and Moorooba,
you know, in South Sydney for that matter.
What do you make of what's going on?
I mean, I can't believe this is actually happening,
but what do you make of what's going on?
No, it's horrific.
And what we're seeing is crimes committed and in some cases, of course,
state police designate crimes.
These issues like the attack on the Adas Synagogue in Melbourne
was a terrorist act.
And the idea yesterday morning having to go, waking up,
and having to go to a childcare centre, for goodness sake,
that had been targeted with an offensive racist slogan
but with a fire being lit.
Is you just, you know, you shake your head and just...
You know, I got on the text message yesterday morning very early.
I had to read it a few times just to come to terms with it
because it's hard to comprehend what takes someone to engage
in that barbaric act.
Now, we have acted from before the Opera House
I was on radio calling for that not to go ahead.
We are a harmonious society, so we've taken a range of actions
from legislating to outlaw Nazi symbols and hate symbols
to setting up a special envoy on anti-Semitism
to providing increased support for security around places of worship
and schools and other community organisations.
To setting up a national student ombudsman as well.
We have established Operation Avalight at a national level
to make sure there's coordination between the Commonwealth,
as in the Australian Federal Police, with state police jurisdictions
and our intelligence agencies, including ASIO.
Now, the Australian Federal Police Commissioner yesterday made public
That some of this, it would appear, the evidence is there clearly,
that some of this is people being paid.
That it's criminal elements, not the people engaged in activity
having a motivation themselves, essentially being paid criminals,
being paid to undertake these crimes, these activities.
But by people in Australia?
By people in Australia or by foreign actors?
Potentially what they've said is that our intelligence agencies
are also looking at the potential that there are foreign actors involved.
Now, there's an ongoing investigation.
I've been briefed about those issues and I'm briefed,
I receive a daily brief, an intelligence briefing, of course,
on issues across the board.
But also we've had specific briefings.
Our National Security Committee have met about this.
I've met with, as well, the input of the heads of state polices.
Importantly, as well, more information has been put out there
over the last 24 hours that I think is important.
Yesterday I stood with Premier Minns after visiting the childcare centre
in Maroobra and the Acting Police Commissioner went through the details.
Forty people have been charged over anti-Semitic incidents.
Many of them are people who have been charged with serious crimes.
They have been, so they've been arrested, charged.
They're in the clink because they've been denied bail.
And another one that has happened just today, just this morning.
That is strong action is being taken now because with police investigation,
sometimes you don't want all the information being out there
and therefore undermining the success of operations.
But the operations are underway.
I can say very firmly that I'm confident, as are the police and authorities,
that these people will be caught, they will be charged,
they will be prosecuted to the full force of the law,
and that is what we need to do.
But we need to do something else as well.
We need to reinforce the need for police
for social harmony and to bring Australians together.
One of the concerns I have with the attempt to politicise some of these issues,
it denies agency of those people committing these crimes.
It somehow says that they are not responsible.
Now, there is no excuse.
You can have different views about international policy.
You cannot bring those disputes here.
In a way, which is hateful.
That is what defines our success as a multicultural harmonious nation.
And anyone seeking to undermine that should be called out on it.
Final question for you, Prime Minister, and I appreciate your time.
It's going to be a pretty tough period, have the next, between here and May.
We're in an election.
You got your new joint up there in Central Coast.
I'll be there for some time.
And, of course, you got your fiancee, Jodie.
And in due course, no doubt, you'll be tying the knot.
Do you ever think to yourself, and you've got your footy team too,
and you've got a good life now compared to what you grew up as anyway.
Do you ever think to yourself, where am I going to get the energy to take this on
because it's just coming at me from every direction, newspapers,
people write stuff about you, then you've got your opposition
who are going to be directing traffic at your way.
Why do you do it?
You're not doing it because it's your job.
I know it's your job.
But you're not doing it because you've got to turn up to the bank
and work to pay the mortgages.
Why are you doing it?
As a private individual, I wonder why a politician would put themselves
through the prime ministership role.
Minister's different.
Local member's different.
Prime minister is right on the edge and your target,
you've got a target on you and they're going to come at you
from every direction for any little thing.
Why do you, why does Anthony Albanese do that?
I'm passionate about this country.
And I think we are the greatest country on earth.
But I think this decade will determine
what Australia looks like in 2050.
And we can either seize the opportunities which are there
or we can be complacent and watch the world move past us.
There's nowhere you'd rather be.
We have everything under the ground and in the sky,
best solar resources in the world, but under the ground we have lithium,
cobalt, copper, vanadium, all of these things.
Yeah, that will power the globe in the 21st century.
There's nowhere better positioned to benefit from green hydrogen,
which will be, you know, if we do, when we're much older,
we can do a podcast together.
We can call it two old blokes or something.
Yeah, we can talk about.
How important it is to Australia in, you know, 2040.
We have incredible opportunities.
But the other thing that I have, I think,
that keeps me going, I think when you go up as I did, you know,
my mum, it's interesting, the title of this podcast,
isn't that different from the title of my biography,
which is called Telling It Straight?
Straight Talk, yeah.
And, you know, I grew up with just my mum.
She instilled in me a confidence about, you know,
I could be who I wanted to be.
She was always not very well.
She lived just for 65 years in the one council house that became
then State Department took it over for her whole life there in Camperdown.
She left school before she got any qualifications.
She had scarlet fever as a kid.
She's just someone who wasn't well.
And she was spent at age 65.
She was just done, checked out.
And she, though, had incredible unconditional love for me,
as many mums do, live through their children.
And that gave me confidence, but it also meant that, you know,
I was living, because she was in hospital for long periods of time,
I was living by myself at a very young age, early teens there,
in Camperdown, getting fed by neighbours who helped look after us.
And I'm tough and resilient.
So one of the things that when people throw all sorts of things at you
and, you know, I don't read some of the columnists
and I don't turn on to Sky After Dark is that it's predictable too.
It's just predictable.
So I don't take it personally.
That's as it's like them sitting in a stand cheering for the Roosters
if they're Roosters fans against us.
I don't take it personally.
That's, you know, they're cheering for them.
It is what it is.
It is what it is.
But I know with confidence that what my government is doing is making
a difference to people who need government in their lives,
to make a difference.
But I know also that I'm someone who, because of all of that background
and the experience I have, is able to bring together business interests,
unions, civil society, engage with people across the spectrum,
as comfortable in a pub as I am in a boardroom,
and be optimistic about Australia's future.
And I think that is one thing.
I think that is one of the things that the next election will be about.
Me saying we will provide more cost of living help but will also help build
a stronger future, an optimistic vision, and my opponents being negative.
You can't move forward by just saying what you're against.
And when I was opposition leader,
I had a range of policies out there that we're implementing,
like the Housing Australia Future Fund and Cheaper Childcare
and National Reconstruction Fund for new industries,
all of these things we had out there.
My opponents have a nuclear plan sometime in the 2040s that, you know,
doesn't stack up, which is why no private sector operator will fund it.
And they're saying people will be worse off.
They're calling our cost of living relief a sugar hit.
Australians are better than that.
And I'm confident that during the election campaign,
we will advocate for a second term to build on the foundations
that we've established in our first term.
You know, I have one final, and it'll be very quick,
but what was your mum's name?
If Mary-Anne was sitting here right now talking to her son,
listening to her son, and of course Mary-Anne would always be wishing you
the very best in this campaign, what would you say to your mum?
You know, I'm here because of sacrifices that she made.
You know, people can read the book, but, you know,
my mum made the difficult decision in 1963 to have a child out of wedlock.
She adopted my father's name and all of the neighbourhood
in what was a close-knit neighbourhood were told, as I was,
that my father had died.
And the plan at St Margaret's Darlinghurst was for me to be adopted out,
which was very much a part of what occurred a lot at that time.
Now, there was a nun there.
At the hospital brought me, the young baby, in to her,
and she knew that my mum wasn't the sort of person who would want
to give up her child, would want to avoid it, regardless
of the circumstances that would give her.
And people were placed in, a lot of pressure was placed on people.
Especially in those days.
In those days, in the early 60s.
And my mum chose to keep me and to give me, you know,
we didn't have a lot of money, but we had everything else,
something that's more important, which is that unconditional love
And it's remarkable that she was able to do that.
She, even though she didn't have much formal education herself,
you know, she encouraged me.
She encouraged me to stay on and go to Year 12.
You know, I had to work my way through school and do all that,
everything from Maccas to Grouch Brothers to working as a paperboy
and doing all those things that you do.
And then I started work at the Commonwealth Bank the day
after I did my last HSC exam.
She, you know, she sacrificed a lot for me.
And one of the things that drives me is repaying that.
You know, I've got a responsibility, given the position I'm in,
to work every day.
And one of the things, whatever my critics might say about me,
you won't find anyone who says that I don't work my ass off.
Prime Minister, thanks very much.
Thanks very much.
If you've been listening along for a while,
you'll know I'm all ears.
You'll know I'm all about staying sharp physically and mentally.
As I get older, staying on top of my game means being smarter
with how I support my body and mind day in, day out.
One product I've already added to my routine from the bulk nutrients range
is their NMN Extend.
It's a science-backed blend of 10 powerful ingredients,
including NMN, resveratrol, and hyaluronic acid.
Now, this is designed to support everything from energy and muscle recovery
to skin hydration, joint health, and even mental clarity.
And by the way, I need all those.
Whether I'm powering through a busy week or just investing in my long-term health,
NMN Extend helped me stay ready for whatever's next.
And believe me, it tastes pretty good too.
Head to bulknutrients.com.au and see why NMN Extend
might be the edge you've just been looking for.
Not all that long ago, money was simple.
You earned it, saved some, spent some, and maybe invested in a house if you were lucky.
No apps, no online banking, no thinking beyond what was in your wallet.
But times have changed.
In today's money market, growth can come in many ways,
and the way we think about cash is continuously evolving.
Enter Australia's highest-rated crypto exchange, SwiftX.
Whether you are just starting to explore the crypto market
or are already deep in the game,
SwiftX makes it easy to acquire, sell, and trade digital assets all in one place.
So, if you're someone who's thought about dipping your toes in
the crypto market but isn't sure where to start,
this might be for you.
Visit swiftx.app.com.au to check it out.