MICHAEL ROWLAND, HOST: Mr Albanese, good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Michael. Good to be with you.
ROWLAND: Great to have you on board. Now, it's the last day of campaigning. It has been a long and bruising journey to get to the point where we are with the referendum tomorrow. What is your final pitch to Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: That this is a request from Indigenous Australians to be recognised in our nation's founding document. But secondly, as well, to have a non-binding advisory committee. Nothing to fear here, just being able to listen to Indigenous people about matters that affect Indigenous people. Because we know if we do that, we'll get better outcomes. That is what people will be voting for tomorrow. And I sincerely hope that Australians find it in their heart, but also in their head, to know that we can't just do more of the same and that Australians vote Yes tomorrow.
ROWLAND: What does it say, in your view, about Australia, about Australians, if the referendum goes down tomorrow?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm hopeful that Australians will show the generosity of spirit which is there. There's a poll out today, Michael, that says that it's not front of mind, a first order issue, and that's what we've been saying. For 97 per cent of Australians, this will have no impact on their lives whatsoever. Parliament's not going to change the decision-making power of governments, not going to change, just recognition of the first Australians in our nation's founding document. If not now, when are we going to get around to doing that? Every other former colony has done so. And then the request just to be listened to, so that instead of Canberra making decisions for or either to Indigenous Australians with the best of intentions, will make decisions with that input from Indigenous Australians. Because we know that what's there now is what we're living with. No is now . And it's not working. We have a suicide rate that's twice as high. We have an eight-year life expectancy gap. We have an Indigenous young male being more likely to go to jail than to go to university. An Indigenous young woman twice as likely to die in childbirth as a non-Indigenous woman. We can't just keep doing things the same. And this is a gracious request made by the first Australians for Australians to walk with them on that journey of reconciliation and closing the gap and making a difference. So, the symbolism of recognition in our Constitution, but the practical difference that listening and having that structure and that Voice will make to their lives whilst, of course, not impacting the lives of non-Indigenous Australians. And that's why this is an opportunity to do something for others and Australians. The way that I was brought up was to do that, an act of kindness. Something I spoke about on election night, as well as when I spoke about our commitment that previous governments had said they would do as well and just never got around to it. And what I worry about is if we don't recognise Indigenous Australians on tomorrow's ballot, when will we?
ROWLAND: Prime Minister, let's turn to the Israel Gaza conflict. The first of those Qantas repatriation flights leaves today. How many Australians in that region have registered to get out.
PRIME MINISTER: There’s 220 people will be on the flight today. There's another two flights have been organised. There are 1,600 Australians are registered either in Israel or in Gaza or the West Bank. They have not necessarily, though, registered to leave. They've just registered as being there in the region. Many of them, of course, visiting family or friends in the region with those connections. At this point in time, those three flights haven't been fully allocated yet, but the one today will be full. And Qantas are putting in place the logistics as well to get people from London back to Australia via Singapore. Qantas asked for volunteers who prepared to fly into Ben Gurion Airport there at Tel Aviv. And I can say that they received many times more the people putting their hand up to volunteer to fly into what is a war zone to assist their fellow Australians. And it was just another reminder that at the darkest of times, we see the best of the Australian character.
ROWLAND: That's good to hear about the flights coming back to Singapore and eventually Australia. Who's funding those flights? Is it Qantas? Is it the Government? A combination of both?
PRIME MINISTER: Qantas are providing the logistics. The Australian Government is providing whatever funding is required. But once again, Qantas and its employees are doing the right thing. We're talking as well with other airlines. There's one of the flights that's coming out will be a charter coming out of Tel Aviv in coming days. We're putting in place the logistics and I pay tribute as well to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials. These are difficult circumstances. The logistics here of putting this together and they're working around the clock to help their fellow Australians.
ROWLAND: Just before we move on, and just to clarify, you mentioned 1,600 Australians registering, not necessarily to get out. How many of those are in Gaza? And of those, how do they get out of Gaza at the moment? If they want to?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, there's 19 in Gaza at the moment trying to, they have registered to leave. There is a family, for example, of Adelaide, of four, and we are having discussions with the Egyptian Government about the potential to get them out into Egypt through that southern border. It's closed, of course, at the moment formally, but we are having discussions to try to ensure that Australians can be gotten to safety. We want all Australians to be safe in the region and to be able to leave. Whether they're in Israel or in Gaza. This is a conflict that is having a huge human toll, whether that be in Israel or, of course, in Gaza as well. And we are concerned, of course, about innocent civilians being caught up in this. We saw innocent civilians slaughtered in southern Israel by Hamas which began this conflict on the weekend with that shock attack that occurred. Including those terrible scenes, of course, of over 250 people killed attending a concert. Something that young people do to engage and celebrate life and for people to lose their life in such an appalling way. As well as, of course, those people who were kidnapped, essentially, and taken to Gaza as well. There is no place for this sort of terrorist atrocity to occur, which is why the world has condemned it.
ROWLAND: I want to finish with a bit of good news, of course. I speak about Cheng Lei's return to Australia. It was hard not to be uplifted by those photos of her with Foreign Minister, Penny Wong. She was on the phone to you at the time. Great news for Cheng Lei, great news to her family, honestly, great news for all Australians. In a broader sense, though, does this mean Prime Minister, relations between Australia and China are getting back on track?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we are working at stabilising the relationship. I've said that we need to cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, we have different political systems, but engage in our national interest. And the conversation I had with Cheng Lei, just like the conversation I had with Sean Turnell when we were able to get him out of Myanmar, is moments that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Cheng Lei spoke about her joy at being able to be reunited with her two young children, they're fourteen and eleven, with her partner. This is someone who's a journalist, of course, and we very much support freedom of the press and it was a great moment for Cheng Lei and for her family. I pay tribute to all those Australians, both our Ambassador there in Beijing, Penny Wong, continues to do Australia proud as our Foreign Minister and all those Australians as well who sent messages of support. This was a really trying time for Cheng Lei. I look forward to meeting her at an appropriate time, when she's ready. But it was wonderful to speak to her and the joy in her voice was just amazing. And it has been at a time which has been such a difficult time for the world. That's why I say a little bit of kindness goes a long way. Australians have an opportunity to show kindness tomorrow to the three per cent of Australians who are the first Australians who've been here for 65,000 years. And all they're being asked to do isn't what Pat Farmer did, which is to complete a 14,500 kilometre run around Australia this week. It's just to walk a few metres into a polling booth and write Yes on the ballot paper. And we'll feel better about ourselves as a country on Sunday morning if we wake up with a Yes outcome.
ROWLAND: Prime Minister, thanks for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Michael.