HOST: The Prime Minister is on this morning. Good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be with you.
HOST: You're calling up to talk about, I guess was it late last night you sent a letter just to your British counterpart, just sort of saying that you back any plan to remove the former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor?
PRIME MINISTER: We did. I think these are pretty serious allegations and Australians have – His Majesty, King Charles is our head of state, and then there's a line of succession. But I reckon that people don't want this bloke in a line of succession to be our head of state. And people have different views about the republic, I'm a Republican, but we have a system in place. But it is completely unacceptable. He's been denied his title of prince, that's been removed, but it's about time as well that we removed him from the line of succession. That requires not just the UK to lead on this, but all 14 realm countries, that is, countries that have King Charles as their head of state, to agree. The last time this happened was when we allowed, changed the laws more than a decade ago so that girls could be in the line of succession, not just boys. And that was a good change. And it'd be a good change to remove Andrew completely from that line.
HOST: Well, I mean, Buckingham Palace has actually effectively ruled out, I guess, that he would be in line to it. But you're saying in a very, I guess formal statement, you want to see the King support the fact that he is off the line of succession?
PRIME MINISTER: That's right. Look, the King has, I think, responded to what is a difficult situation with a younger brother having issues with the law. He said that the law should take its full course. There must be a full, fair investigation of all of this, but this requires essentially government, the UK government and all the governments of the realm, to take this action. And I think it is appropriate to send a signal that this guy's actions across a range of issues, he's been -- the allegations of course, go to handing over of documents, but also go to the seedy parts of the Epstein issues that are raised and the extraordinary linkages which are there, that I think just disgust people.
HOST: He of course denies any wrongdoing there, but he did settle and give some money to Virginia. I mean, I would've thought at that point that would've been a time for the Royals to put their head up and say, we're actually going to take him out then. Sorry, take him off the list. As you said, I would've thought that that would've been a reason to go, actually, this has got to be dealt with.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, a range of actions have been taken, but I think this is the completion of the process really, I think needs to occur. This guy's led an incredible life of privilege and he quite clearly has abused that privilege in a range of ways that are completely unacceptable. Now, there'll be legal processes there and that should take its course, but while that's going on, I just don't think that he should be still on the line of succession to be our head of state. After all, it's the way that the system works. So therefore, I think it's appropriate that Australia express a view. I've done that. In order to act as well, we'd need all the states and territories to act. So, I've also written to David Crisafulli and other premiers and chief ministers saying that we would require their support. I'd be very confident of getting that.
HOST: On a happier note, Mr Prime Minister, we have to thank you for your hand, wielding your power in our journey to get Ed Sheeran, he popped out over the weekend. So, thank you for --
PRIME MINISTER: Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, I did send a message through his promoters that it would be a good idea. Hopefully that had an impact there.
HOST: Geez, you write a lot of letters a day, don't you?
HOST: I think the threatening to cancel his visa was a nice touch. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. We appreciate that.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I've never met him, but by all accounts, he is a lovely fellow. So, good on him.
HOST: I guess – I’m getting back to it. There is going to be a thorough investigation and I guess a lot of the British public is concerned about who was covering it up and who needed to be able to, I guess, keep it under wraps. If it was discovered that the King did know about it, would you support him moving aside?
PRIME MINISTER: I think there's no evidence of that. The King, I think, has responded really appropriately to this action. Pretty difficult when your brother has been engaged in activity for you essentially to do what he has done, which is to say, 'fair cop, he should face the full legal processes and that's entirely appropriate'. I think it's important here that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he's now known, face that full consequences of his actions, which are really serious allegations. There's the issues of abuse that occurred around the Epstein issues that have been raised. They clearly need full and proper investigation, but there's also that handing over of documents which are confidential, which, who knows how they were used. I mean, this circle of privilege that Epstein engaged in with his private island and everything else that he was dealing with are pretty extraordinary. And I think that Australians have followed it because we're linked up with the royal family, and I think that's why it's important Australia express our view, which we have done very strongly.
HOST: Is this the start, you mentioned at the start that you are a Republican. Would you say that this is the start of Australia going down that line?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, look, I haven't changed my view for a long period of time. I have always had a view that Australia should have our own head of state. We had a referendum of course back in the nineties. It's really hard to change our Constitution. That's the truth. People tend to, if in doubt, vote no to almost everything. I think the figures, something like eight out of 48 have been successful. So, we don't plan any further referendums at this stage. I think it would require really a lot of momentum from the ground up before that occurred. And my priority is dealing with housing issues, cost-of-living issues, dealing with opportunity for young people, and that's my priority at the moment.
HOST: At this stage, they might collapse themselves and we'll be free of them anyway, so, you know.
PRIME MINISTER: We will wait and see how all that goes. But certainly, a range of countries around the world, we are down to 14 that have the King as their head of state. It used to be many more.
HOST: Yeah, Commonwealth Games are getting quicker.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they can still participate in the Commonwealth -- we can still be part of the Commonwealth. Of course, countries like India are still part of the Commonwealth, but they have their own head of state.
HOST: Well, great to talk to you this morning. I appreciate you coming on Prime Minister, always great to chat.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you guys. Have a great day. Thanks.