KYLE SANDILANDS: The Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese. Good morning, Albo. How are you?
JACKIE O HENDERSON: Good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning and welcome back. I'm very well.
SANDILANDS: You in Canberra today because Parliament starts or you're at Kirribilli, where are you today?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I am in Canberra and it was a very cold weekend here, I've got to say. But at least we didn't have that devastating rain that has really impacted so many people in Sydney and the central coast.
SANDILANDS: Oh, landslides and everything. People were evacuated out of caravan parks. Like things were, there was a lot of water.
PRIME MINISTER: It's been a tough time. Over the past couple of weeks I've been looking at, dealing with bushfires in Victoria, dealing with floods in far north Queensland. I went up to Clermont as well with the floods there in central Queensland. It's been such a tough time.
HENDERSON: Yeah, we get it. We really do go through it around this time of year, don't we?
SANDILANDS: We're still fighting in like some of these towns up in the, in the top end, territory. Still a little bit lawless. Are you across that? Is that a more state and territory issue or, I suppose you'd be aware?
PRIME MINISTER: Aware of it. But more state and territories are responsible for those things. I also saw a thing last night, I've got to say, with these large numbers of teenagers on e-bikes on the wrong side of the road and yeah, I mean it's a lack of common sense with some of that going on.
HENDERSON: You don't drive anymore do you? Like someone's always -
SANDILANDS: He's not allowed to drive.
HENDERSON: You're not allowed to drive.
SANDILANDS: Not while your Prime Minister.
HENDERSON: Do you miss that?
PRIME MINISTER: I do a bit, I've got to say. The thing I really miss is the freedom of just being able to catch up with a mate for a beer at a pub, by myself.
HENDERSON: Oh, right.
SANDILANDS: What happens if you and Jodie have an argument? Like, you can't even storm off in the car. Like you, you got to -
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we don't have arguments. This is just one long honeymoon.
HENDERSON: Of course, like, yeah, you wouldn't even be aware because us on the roads, right, we are navigating these e-bikes left, right and centre. Everywhere.
SANDILANDS: It's not an issue to me. If the kids want to yahoo around on the e-bike.
HENDERSON: But you have to be so careful because those kids are, like, you know -
SANDILANDS: You can't have them too powerful. But I remember, Albo, back in the '80s, me and my brother would pull dad's Victa mower apart and attach the lawnmower engine to the BMX. And gee, we got in trouble back in the day. But now -
HENDERSON: Now it's all good. They are fun, though. Hey, can I ask -
PRIME MINISTER: Now you can go buy one like that.
SANDILANDS: I know I've got two of them.
HENDERSON: What do you think of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, now the second most popular party behind Labor?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, it's a worry because they can appeal to grievance, but they're a pretty divisive lot. And I think it's a worry. I'm a believer in, here you go, I'll say something nice about the other side of - I'm a believer in mainstream politics and that the parties of government, it's important. Served this country pretty well. I look at overseas where you have a real fragmentation and, you know, you might have five or six parties in government and it's unstable. Italy, of course, was famous for a while there, changing governments every year. And so, I mean, it's a reality that the Coalition in particular have to deal with. I think that they need to stand for some positive things as well.
SANDILANDS: Yeah, well, she's over there, Pauline, and she's got Barnaby there as well now. And by the way, I heard Donald Trump asked you directly to be a part of the Board of Peace for Gaza. Is that something you're going to consider or is that?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, look we'll consider anything that is put forward. President Trump, of course, I've had a pretty good relationship with. But there are some areas of disagreement as well, obviously -
SANDILANDS: You've got to be careful when you disagree with Trump because, you know, you don't want tariffs and all this. It's quite the dance you're doing there. But you've done quite well. Like you had a great successful meeting with the President and his team at the end of last year.
PRIME MINISTER: We did -
SANDILANDS: You couldn't have had a better trip, I feel.
PRIME MINISTER: No, it was terrific. And I deal with people respectfully. And where there's area of disagreement, sometimes you just got to put them aside and work on what you agree on and your common interest. And with the United States, we have a common interest on security issues, on critical minerals -
SANDILANDS: What do you think of that Greenland thing? He wants Greenland. Should they, should they just give it, give it to him, or not?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, I think our position is that it's up - it is a sovereign state and we support, you know, that's a matter for the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark.
SANDILANDS: Queen Mary being Australian, shouldn't we buy in?
PRIME MINISTER: Queen Mary is coming here.
SANDILANDS: Yeah, when?
PRIME MINISTER: She'll be, she'll be here - I'm not sure that we're publicly released the dates, but it's quite exciting. Queen Mary and King Frederik.
SANDILANDS: Yeah, and how fancy. I love these two.
PRIME MINISTER: I know that Jodie's very much looking forward to that visit here, let me tell you.
SANDILANDS: Oh, yeah. Now, are you going to invite us around? Me, I'd love to bring Otto around to meet the King and Queen.
PRIME MINISTER: Drop around, drop down to Canberra and -
SANDILANDS: Oh, it's going to be down at The Lodge, is it? It's quite the effort to go -
HENDERSON: Yeah. How often do you go to Kirribilli?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I spend a bit of time there. When I'm in Sydney, I stay in Kirribilli, but primarily our home is here at The Lodge, which is much quieter. Doesn't quite have the views of Kirribilli, of course -
SANDILANDS: Would you ever consider Airbnbing Kirribilli out just for the, you know, to make a bit of coin back?
PRIME MINISTER: It'd do pretty well. We'd get the budget in a surplus I'd imagine.
SANDILANDS: Imagine New Year's, because you're paying like $60,000 for penthouse apartments in New Year's Eve on Sydney for the one night, minimum night stay five nights, by the way. These are big, big money.
HENDERSON: Imagine how much you'd get at Kirribilli with all those lawns overlooking the Harbour.
SANDILANDS: Do you get the, do you have groundskeepers at Kirribilli, or do you get the Jim's Mowers in? What are you doing there?
PRIME MINISTER: They have, it's a contractor comes in and they look after the grounds of there and of Admiralty House next door, which is where the big grounds are. Everyone thinks that Kirribilli House is what is actually the Governor-General's residence next door.
SANDILANDS: Could you swap?
HENDERSON: Well, when you're doing a little boat ride on the Harbour, you see the Governor-General's house and you go, 'oh, that's got to be it. Like, that's got to be where the Prime Minister'. But no, it's on the left.
PRIME MINISTER: No. It's the servant's quarters next door.
SANDILANDS: Have you ever thought you'd do a house swap? Like really, Prime Minister should be in the big joint, don't you think? Would you bring that up or?
PRIME MINISTER: I have joked about that, but let me tell you that these houses are both substantially, substantially better than anything that I grew up in. So, I'm very happy and very fortunate indeed each and every day when I wake up here and there's a little fluff ball here. Toto's very keen on -
SANDILANDS: Running next door -
PRIME MINISTER: On the grounds here.
HENDERSON: It'd be a dog's dream.
PRIME MINISTER: She does go next door sometimes if she's in Sydney, but here at The Lodge, there's bunnies at The Lodge and that drives her crazy, so she chases the bunnies around.
SANDILANDS: One quick thing here about the, the whole Bondi thing. We've been across it, we've chatted about it this morning. It's horrific, the whole situation. I know you're doing your very best to try and balance all of this out for everyone to calm down, but I did notice the change to the gun laws. Now, let me just tell everyone from experience, I tried to register some weapons at the end of last year and get the licence, everything renewed. And I was told that I wasn't allowed to have a firearm because of Bruno, my manager's, mental health, and also that I knew people that had been arrested before for gun possession. So, I wasn't allowed one, which I think is fine. Right. Like, yeah, they don't want it. They could - and their reason was, 'oh, Bruno could be mental and shoot everyone'. Or maybe I'd loan a firearm to friends that have been, that have had offences before. But how did this guy, how did this alleged shooter and the father have all those weapons, and no one sort of joined the dots? If they know that I can't have a weapon because my mate got done for gun crimes and Bruno's mental, surely your dad can't own guns if you're on a ASIO watch list? Where was that big, how did that all fall apart? Just that one bit there?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's right. There was an investigation in 2019 into the son and it certainly should have been picked up. And one of the things that we've put to the states is that someone who isn't a citizen shouldn't be granted a gun licence. And certainly, part of the laws that will go before the Parliament tomorrow will mean that non-citizens can't import weapons as well. At the moment, there's no restrictions there.
SANDILANDS: Really?
PRIME MINISTER: So, this has been, has been exposed and needs to be fixed. And what I'm about is making sure that we do what we can to fix it so that something like this can never happen again. We're focused on getting weapons off the street and we are focused as well on what we can do to lower the temperature, stop antisemitism. These hate laws that we have before the Parliament, not all of them will receive support. I think that's unfortunate. But we took the recommendations of the Envoy on Antisemitism and we're about implementing them.
SANDILANDS: Well, that's great. But getting rid of the hate and the belief that you can eradicate another race off the planet, that's the fundamental problem, because you don't just use guns -
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.
SANDILANDS: You can use a semi-trailer, you can use a car, you can use explosive device. There's a million ways to kill people. A million. But the foundation of hating someone where you want to kill them, that is the bit that we need to hyper focus on and eradicate that belief system. It's crazy.
HENDERSON: That's a tough ask, like to do that.
SANDILANDS: Yeah, but, it's a tough job that he's got.
HENDERSON: How do you do that?
PRIME MINISTER: That's it. That's the objective here. Well, that's the objective and that's why it's not just a job for government, it's a job for -
SANDILANDS: Everyone.
PRIME MINISTER: Broadcasters, such as yourselves -
SANDILANDS: Yeah, I agree.
PRIME MINISTER: And all of your listeners too. Love is a more powerful thing than hate. And hate, you know, distorts people, it sends people -
HENDERSON: It does, I know.
SANDILANDS: It's very true.
PRIME MINISTER: It's a very negative force and we need to really reach out. And one of the things that has been quite inspirational is the way that members of the Jewish community have responded to things such as a mitzvah, they're calling upon people to do, which is essentially an act of kindness to honour the victims of Bondi. You know, could be volunteering at a charity, could be donating, could be just checking on a neighbour, sending someone around a meal who's a bit lonely. You know, making sure -
SANDILANDS: Just saying hello and smiling, smiling at people in the street.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, exactly.
SANDILANDS: We're renowned for it around the world. People come here and say, 'Australia's so friendly.' We have a chat in lines and we're lining up at the bank, we smiling at each other. Keep that going. And Prime Minister, by the way, I know Kevin Rudd's about to finish up as Ambassador to the United States. Bro -
PRIME MINISTER: You available?
SANDILANDS: Look, no, yes, I'm always available. Such a prestige.
HENDERSON: Here we go.
SANDILANDS: I'd love it. I only really want that diplomatic passport and the pouch.
HENDERSON: Why, Kyle?
SANDILANDS: Well, because it's a different line at the airport. You're not lined up with everyone else.
HENDERSON: That's the motivation.
SANDILANDS: Yeah, that's right.
PRIME MINISTER: When I think diplomacy, I think Kyle Sandilands.
SANDILANDS: Thank you, Prime Minister.
HENDERSON: Thank you.
SANDILANDS: Welcome back. Great first day back in Parliament. Tell hi to everyone. Oh, and by the way, everyone, tell everyone in Parliament because Pauline Hanson was on a couple of weeks ago, and she said when she walks through Parliament, people don't look at her.
HENDERSON: They don't say hi.
SANDILANDS: Everyone start off with a 'hi, Pauline'. Just a friendlier. Not like -
HENDERSON: Yeah, like, is it really cliquey inside Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I always say hello to everyone.
SANDILANDS: Okay, well, we'll say hi to Pauline for us today.
PRIME MINISTER: Will do.
SANDILANDS: Kindness starts in Canberra, I feel. Thank you, Prime Minister.
HENDERSON: Thank you, bye.
SANDILANDS: Say hi to Jodie, by the way, congratulations on the wedding.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you guys.
SANDILANDS: I texted the Prime Minister during the wedding. Yeah, it was a big day.