MATT GRIFFITH, HOST: Well, it's not often we get to say this, but the Prime Minister of this great nation is in studio with me. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, hello, good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G'day. Wonderful to be here in Albury.
GRIFFITH: Well, you certainly bought the rain with you, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure did. We were up in the air flying in when the rain was clearly thundering down. When we eventually landed after going in circles for a little while, you could just see the amount of water that was around. So, I know you need rain and it's good for the dams, but probably want to spread out over a longer period of time.
GRIFFITH: Exactly, exactly. So, what brings you to the region?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I make sure I get out and about to the entire country. I was in Griffith during the first term opening the big sports facility there. Obviously, there's a by-election coming up here with Sussan Ley resigning after she was replaced, I think pretty brutally by the Liberal Party. And so, it was an opportunity to come and talk to locals. I met local supporters at the Soden's Hotel last night and then ran into people including Vicky, who was having a birthday and talked to a bunch of people there about what issues they saw as being Federal issues. And it was very friendly. It was a great opportunity to engage. And also, I wanted to visit the Urgent Care Clinic that I will, in a little while this morning. It's been a huge success where - they've been successful right around the country. There's one in Shepparton and one in Wagga, one here. And it's making an enormous difference, taking pressure off the emergency departments of hospitals. And that together with what we've done on bulk billing which has seen the number of Urgent Care Clinics, the bulk billing, fully bulk billing clinics in Farrer has gone from just nine up to 27 in just a few months. So, it's really working, that incentive for doctors and clinics to be bulk billing.
GRIFFITH: Yeah, it's terrific. The Urgent Care Clinics are great as well. There's one here in central Albury.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, I'll be visiting that after I speak to you. There's two million Australians have got the care they need with just their Medicare card. It's made such a difference -
GRIFFITH: Yeah, it really has.
PRIME MINISTER: And the satisfaction rate is extraordinary. One in three as well have been kids you know, people falling off bikes or skateboards or sporting injuries on a weekend on the netball court, or on the footy field. And so, they're able to get that care without waiting at a hospital, while more acute and life-threatening cases jump ahead, quite understandably, ahead of the queue.
GRIFFITH: All right, we're going to talk a little bit about health in relation to the Border. I'm going to try and be a little greedy and just focus 100 per cent on us here on the Border -
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
GRIFFITH: Because it isn't that often that we get the Prime Minister here. So, I mean, but let's just talk for a second or two about Farrer. So, I mean, it's been held by exactly two politicians in 40 plus years. You had the great Tim Fischer, rest in peace -
PRIME MINISTER: That's right.
GRIFFITH: And then Sussan Ley for more than 20 years. It's obviously not a Labor stronghold here. Will you be throwing somebody into the mix?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we'll wait and see. That decision will be made by the party organisation. But traditionally governments haven't stood in by-elections. We didn't stand in the Cook by-election when Scott Morrison pulled the pin as the local MP. It's unlikely - Labor has never held Farrer. We're waiting and seeing though. Sussan Ley hasn't resigned yet. I think the big question is will the Liberals and the Nationals put One Nation last here? What are they going to do? Because that represents a real issue for them of whether they're going to take them on, or just be One Nation lite.
GRIFFITH: Yeah, well, I was going to ask you about that. I mean, obviously the rise has been meteoric, and we have seen it in the past as well, but there's now a clear division and as you were saying, kind of One Nation lite. I mean, potentially the Coalition is kind of stuck in the middle if we look at, say the left being Labor and the right being One Nation. But do you think that both One Nation and the people who support One Nation - and I would suggest that there'd probably be more people supporting One Nation here than the Labor Party - do they have a point? Like, do you look at what they're saying and the people who support them as well, everyday Aussies and go, 'you do have a point'?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, I draw a real distinction between One Nation's leaders and people's right to exercise I think frustration is what's going on, frustration in two areas. One, a real frustration with cost of living pressures that are on people and people looking for solutions. People being disillusioned with the system, if you like, and the way that it works. The issue though, is that One Nation don't really present any solutions. They amplify grievance and problems, but they don't put forward practical solutions. I think the problem as well that, the second element is the Coalition have been in such disarray. The Liberals hating each other, the Nats hating each other, the Liberals and Nationals splitting twice already, their sacking, the removal of Sussan Ley who'd served this electorate for 25 years in such a brutal way. She didn't even get to have a Budget Reply. And I don't know that that's happened before. I think for many people, they look at, okay, the Liberals got, had a woman leader and they didn't give her a fair go.
GRIFFITH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Time is going to run out really quickly. So, I did want to ask you about health, as I said, in relation to the Border, and that is about our hospital rebuild. There's been a massive issue of contention here, mainly because sometimes we feel like the child of divorced parents on the Border between New South Wales and Victoria -
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, sure.
GRIFFITH: And, you know, we're at the mercy of, of both of them, you know. So, I mean, at the moment we don't feel like we're going to get much more money out of Victoria, for example, and New South Wales are locked in. Basically, there's an issue around the Greenfield rebuild or rebuild at the new hospital Greenfield site or the rebuild at the Base hospital. Is this a case where in a Border community, the Federal Government can actually get more involved? Because it's bloody difficult dealing with two State Governments.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. I understand the pressure that's there, but public hospitals are the responsibility of state governments. And what we are doing is providing $25 billion of additional investment in the Health and Hospitals Agreement over the next five years. That was agreed and finalised only on Friday, was the date in which all the states and territories had to sign up. And they did that. So, that's our responsibility. The other thing that we're doing, of course, which helps take pressure off hospitals, is that primary health care, the Urgent Care Clinic, which is fully federally funded, the bulk billing incentive, tripling it, which is $8.5 billion we're putting in over just four years to achieve that. So, that's our responsibility. We have a federal structure. If you were designing Australia again, you would probably just have two tiers of government, which is what they have in most places, but it is what it is. The colonies came together.
GRIFFITH: Yeah, let's get rid of the states. I've always used to say that to Sussan Ley actually she used to get sick of me saying it. We do, we need to get rid of the states.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm sure you did.
GRIFFITH: Final question, if I could. I have a, a two-year-old, his name's Jamie and I'm trying to groom him to be the Prime Minister at this stage. So -
PRIME MINISTER: Congratulations. How's that looking?
GRIFFITH: Oh, he's terrific. I mean, I'm trying to cut down on, you know, scandals and the like, even at this early age.
PRIME MINISTER: Two years is a wonderful age.
GRIFFITH: It is.
PRIME MINISTER: Cherish every day.
GRIFFITH: Bit somebody at the bloody child care clinic though, and I'm like, if you keep that up, you're not going to be Prime Minister. But, but -
PRIME MINISTER: Legal action is coming.
GRIFFITH: But you know, a lot of people, myself included, we've seen such a massive, rapid change and it, and it is worrying and it is concerning about what the future is going to hold for, for Jamie, who's just two.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
GRIFFITH: Are you optimistic in the future that we've got in Australia in the next 10, 20, 30 years?
PRIME MINISTER: I am absolutely optimistic. There's no country in the world you'd rather be in than Australia. We have everything in the ground with critical minerals, rare earths that's going to power the global economy in this century. We have the best solar resources in the sky as well. We have a great education and training system as well. We have our people with connections with all parts of the world and we're in the fastest growing region of the world in human history. Now, that puts us in a really strong position if we take advantage of it. And we have to be optimistic. Fear is something that is an emotion that One Nation will appeal to. I think hope is far more powerful. And what your young two-year-old and all the two-year-olds and indeed 12-year-olds and 22-year-olds out there really want to see and need - we need to strive to be the best country we can be. We are the best country on earth, I firmly believe that. But we can be even better in the future and that certainly is something that drives me each and every day. I'm really excited about the possibilities. It doesn't mean it's easy. Things like artificial intelligence and these new challenges we need to shape as well. We need to keep on top of new developments in society. That's why we've got the social media ban for under 16s. Social media can be fantastic, but it has a downside. We need to make sure humans are kept in control of these things as well. But you know, this is - I was here last night at Soden's Hotel talking with people in the pub, and I've got to say people were really optimistic and friendly and warm and generous and that's the Australian way, we look after each other and that's a great thing.
GRIFFITH: We'll end on a high. And if Skynet like the Terminator takes over, we're at the other side of the world anyway, so we'll all be fine in our little enclave. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, thank you so much for popping in the studio. It is terrific having you on the Border and having some love from the pollies. I'm sure we'll get more with the by-election on the way as well. But thank you so much for coming down and popping in.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks. Wonderful to be here.