KYLE SANDILANDS, HOST: Ladies and gentlemen, the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese. We're just connecting to him now. But I did hear Russell Crowe, legendary actor, a friend of the show, we love Russell, on with Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan says ‘what's wrong with Australia? What's going on there?’ As if we've, something's going wrong down here. We love our life in Australia. It's a most magnificent country ever. We're away from a lot of the rat bags. And Russell said something really lovely and spot on, I think, about our Prime Minister, Albo. I just think he hit the nail on the head. Here's the Joe Rogan, Russell Crowe chat about Albo.
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JOE ROGAN: What is wrong with the way Australia's run?
RUSSELL CROWE: Well, we're a little bit lucky at the moment. We have a Prime Minister who's very much motivated by trying to help everybody. He's a good man, and he's doing his very best and he's, you know, working extremely hard. But, you know, like just the way things are reported, whatever, you know, just haters on every corner. He arrives off a plane the other day. He's just come back home from some very successful international meetings where he's established various trade things and, and opportunities and situations for Australia. Gets off the plane wearing a Joy Division T-Shirt, big band from his youth. And he's just a relaxed character. He's been wearing a suit and tie for weeks on the road. Just walking off Australia's version of Air Force One in the Joy Division T-Shirt. So, the member of the Opposition wanted to point out that Joy Division is a Nazi term and comes from a section of a particular camp where the women were prostituted. And that's why it was called the Joy Division. And it's like, okay, what's the point of that, right? We all know it's a band name. Well, what are you ### talking about? You know, this whole stupidity. And that's what you're facing all the time. That Prime Minister just worked his arse off on behalf of the country and successfully achieved a bunch of things and should be patted on the back, not pushed down the stairs.
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SANDILANDS: I totally agree with - when I heard that from Russell, I started clapping and I was just here by myself, so it looked a bit weird, just me clapping. Russell couldn't hear. But that is exactly the guy Albo is. I don't even agree with Albo politically on every single decision they make. But what I do like about our Prime Minister is he is here to serve everyone in Australia. Not just the people that he agrees with, or I agree with, it's everyone. And I think that was great of what Russell said about time he got patted on the back for the great achievements rather than every time you turn on the news, someone's having a whinge. And it's always the loser. Whoever lost the election is always on complaining about something that no one can –
JACQUELINE LAST, HOST: Of course.
SANDILANDS: You’re the loser.
LAST: They’re always going to try and nitpick everything they can.
SANDILANDS: Let the winner shine.
LAST: Well, Albo joins us on the phone. What did you make of what was said, Prime Minister?
SANDILANDS: Prime Minister, good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G'Day. Well, they were very generous comments, weren't they? And Russell Crowe, you gotta love that voice. That's one of the things about Russell Crowe.
SANIDLANDS: I know.
PRIME MINISTER: It's so distinctive and, you know, he's a great guy and it was very good of him. He didn't obviously have to do that. And I wasn't aware that he'd done it till it popped up on my feed. Someone drew it to my attention and sent it to me. And I just sent him a text message to say thank you for your generous comments.
LAST: Now you, you've texted Kyle before, obviously now I'm hearing you're texting Russell. Who else are you texting that we don't know about? Do you have like a Black Book of celebrities in your phone, I feel?
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly. Well, there's a few people in my phone, you know.
LAST: I wouldn't mind a text every now and again, you know.
SANDILANDS: Well, he doesn’t have your number, Jackie.
PRIME MINISTER: Send me your number, Jackie, and you never know.
LAST: But how do I send it? I don't know your number. Can I get it off Kyle?
SANDILANDS: Jackie, pass it to me, I'll pass it to Albo.
LAST: I'll give it to you now, Kyle.
PRIME MINISTER: Kyle will give it to you.
SANDILANDS: Hey Prime Minister, by the way, what Russell mentioned there, fantastic series of overseas, all the complainers, ‘oh, oh, he hasn't met Trump’. Like, as if he was going to go to a date to the prom with Trump. No, you'd spoken to Trump many times on the phone. You don't have to rush over and kiss the ring every time. You've got a country to run. You’ve got a great relationship with the United States. You nailed the trade thing. You've done that great stuff up in New Guinea. You've been busy. You've been in Asia. The round robin. Successful on every aspect, correct?
PRIME MINISTER: They were a terrific series of meetings. We've got the treaty, the alliance with Papua New Guinea, the first one we've had since 1951, with the United States, indeed. And then the meetings with President Trump. I had three meetings within a month in New York, Washington and then in Korea. So, I've had lunch and dinner with President Trump. I said the whole way along, there was this nonsense suggesting somehow that the Australian Prime Minister should be subservient and somewhat desperate. We'd had conversations that were really positive. We developed a relationship over the phone and then in person, we got on together. I get on with people, and Australia has an important relationship with the United States. And that's my job, to represent the country, not to be unequal in any way with any country. Obviously, the United States is the most powerful nation on earth, but I'm proud of what Australia is. We're the best country on earth.
LAST: We certainly are.
SANDILANDS: Totally.
PRIME MINISTER: And we don't, you know, downplay ourselves. Sometimes I think people look at overseas and say, for a long time, we had to be subservient to London, to United Kingdom, to the motherland, and then the United States. I think that Australia stands on our own two feet. We're proud of the contribution that we make. The US makes a contribution to us, but we make a contribution to them as well. And we're proud of that. And that gives us the capacity to have a voice on the international stage, which is important for Australian jobs and for our economy. And we did some good deals over there about critical minerals that will boost Australian jobs. Our security relationship is important. And then in our region, of course, where we are in Asia, that also is about jobs here in Australia. So, one in four of our jobs depends on trade. And that's why these relationships are really important.
SANDILANDS: They really carried on, didn't they, about the Rudd thing. Jackie and I were talking about it. Remember where they were like, ‘oh, someone asked’ - you were there with Trump and Rudd was there opposite. And they were like, ‘oh, well, what does Trump think about what that Kevin Rudd said about him?’ That was, and you're like, Trump's like, ‘who is this guy?’ And you're like, ‘he's right there’. Gave him up immediately, which I thought was a genius move. ‘There he is, the Mr. Sheen looking guy. There he is’. But that a lot of people say, ‘oh, Kevin Rudd should be removed’. But Kevin Rudd's job as the Australian Ambassador is to do the best for Australia. Now, sure, he probably thought Trump was never going to come back and he made a mistake, like a lot of folks did when they just poo pooed Trump as a crazy man from the past. But you never know what might come back and bite you on the arse from time to time. Do you watch what you say about people because they might boomerang back around?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you know, President Trump wasn't concerned.
SANDILANDS: No.
PRIME MINISTER: And the Vice President, Vice President JD Vance had some colourful things to say as well, it's got to be said.
SANDILANDS: Did he?
PRIME MINISTER: People move on. And so it was fine. It was absolutely fine. Again, people looking for a negative out of what was a very successful meeting and Kevin Rudd played a really important role.
SANDILANDS: He does a great job.
LAST: Now, there's only one month before the social media ban comes into play for any kids under 16. What do we need to know before that happens? How's that going to, how's that going to work exactly? Do you know?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what will happen is that the social media companies will have a responsibility to essentially turn off those accounts. They can be, you know, quarantined if you like, to be turned back on when people –
LAST: But how do we know, like as the social media account, like if that kid then goes and creates a new account, how do we - like, they don't have to provide ID or anything, right? Is it more of just a trust system of the parents ensuring that the kids don't use it?
PRIME MINISTER: There'll be a bit more than that because the social media companies, of course, know so much about us. That's the truth. That's the way the algorithms work. If you're a cricket follower, then you get cricket things pop up on your feed. That's the reality. And we know that that's the case.
But it's also about empowering parents to be able to have those conversations with their young ones. One of the things that we want to do is to also make young people themselves engaged in this. And I had a young girl from Tasmania, Flossie or Florence, come into Parliament House last week. She's 12 years old. And what she'd done with all her peers is get them to write down what they could do instead of being on their devices. They could be listening to the radio, they could be playing sport, they could learn a musical instrument, they could be talking to their friends. Everything that they could be doing instead of being constantly connected to social media.
SANDILANDS: I agree. That’s a great idea. Remember we used to do that, Albo. Remember that, like, as kids, we would get on a bike on Saturday morning and ride off to our friend's house to get there by lunchtime to realise no one was home, and then ride all the way home. And that was the whole day finished. You were finished for the day.
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly. Well where I grew up, there was a lot of concrete where I grew up in Camperdown. And there was one little grassy area in between a big block of flats, Johanna O’Dea, for anyone who's aware of that area in Camperdown. And the kids would go down there on a Sunday morning and you'd be kicking the footy, or playing cricket, or just sitting around chatting or mucking around. Some things that I wouldn't fess up to even all these years later.
SANDILANDS: Smoking cones.
PRIME MINISTER: And we would engage and you'd know that one, you had to be home for lunch and two, when it got dark, you had to go home and have dinner. And it was simpler times, of course, but we managed to communicate and managed to get on, and it was a pretty good way of building relationships with people. And some of those kids that I played with at that age are still friends of mine all these years later.
LAST: So, just going back to that, like, you know what, what they're going to do to ensure the kids don't go on it. Are you saying that they'd be able to recognise maybe the device they're using and, and you won't be able to set up a new account and budge it?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
SANDILANDS: There's no, there's no way around it.
PRIME MINISTER: That's right. And we're not saying it will be perfect, right. Just as a ban on alcohol for under 18s. You can't go into a pub and order beer.
SANDILANDS: Sure, yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: The truth is, every now and again, chances are last weekend there were some breaches of that. Doesn't mean that society doesn't say that's what the rules should be.
SANDILANDS: Sure. You’re right there.
PRIME MINISTER: And that's what this is about.
SANDILANDS: Plus this is saving kids’ lives, right? This is stopping kids being relentlessly bullied, giving them a space where they can come home and have the safety of the family nest where they're not into, where people aren't getting into their head and encouraging them or bullying them. A lot of kids have killed themselves over this bullying and the parents unaware.
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly.
LAST: Yeah. It'd be a great benefit to get them off it. I agree.
SANDILANDS: And we're the first to do it which is magnificent because we were last to allow the gays to get married. That was a national embarrassment.
LAST: The world is watching, aren't they?
SANDILANDS: But this, we’re the first. You know, I think it's great.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the world is watching, but it's also acting. Denmark, New Zealand, a bunch of countries are coming on board with this saying, ‘yes, we agree that something's got to be done here’. Because this is, importantly, a campaign that hasn't come from the Government, it's come from the grassroots. It's come from parents who've lost their young son or daughter, and who've taken that trauma and channelled it into trying to make sure that other parents and other families don't go through the loss of a young one. It is quite inspirational some of the work that parents have done on this. And it is about empowering them and enabling them to say to, you know, a young Kyle, ‘well, you know, you need to stay off your device’. And Kyle says, ‘well, but you know, Jackie's on Instagram and on X and on all these things’. And saying, ‘well, Jackie's not going to be allowed to be either'. So, how about we all just engage instead of sitting around on, solely on devices, you actually communicate.
SANDILANDS: It's a miserable land anyway, sitting there looking at that bloody phone all day. It's mind numbing. We are addicted to these phones, not just the kids, adults. It's a mind numbing situation. I know you haven't got much time, Prime Minister, but I just wanted to get a little comment about John Laws' passing. Did you have much to do with Lawsy?
PRIME MINISTER: I did. He was a legend, of course. I had many conversations with him over the last, I think four decades, even back to before I was in Parliament. And he also was a fantastic company off air as well.
SANDILANDS: Oh, yeah, great stories.
PRIME MINISTER: I had a few lunches with him. And he was someone who was an authentic voice of Australians. He was a patriot. He loved Australia.
SANDILANDS: He did.
PRIME MINISTER: He talked Australia up just as you guys do, and that's a great thing. And that's why people trusted him, they respected him. They followed stations with him as well when he changed channels.
SANDILANDS: That’s right.
PRIME MINISTER: And he's someone who was on top for such a long period of time and you know he was a legend. A great voice, of course, as well.
LAST: Yeah, he really was.
SANDILANDS: He'll be sadly missed. Prime Minister, you've got a big day ahead. One month away until the social media ban for under 16s. And once again, congratulations, not just from what Russell said, but for all of us because you were, you did remarkable things and I really don't think watching the news, you got enough of a pat on the back. I know you don't survive on pats on the back. You do this for love of country. You are the Prime Minister. And I just think it's about time someone gave you a proper nod like you, you got our back and, and that's your job. And, and you're the greatest at it. Thanks very much for your time this morning.
LAST: Thanks, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, guys. Give Jackie my number.
LAST: Yeah, Kyle.
SANDILANDS: Yeah, yeah, I'll get right on it.
LAST: Yeah, sure you will.