For a prime minister being asked about his sex life on air, Anthony Albanese was remarkably relaxed.
“I don’t mean to pry here,” began radio provocateur Kyle Sandilands that morning in November last year, happily prying. “But when you’re staying at the White House with your other half you’ve got to...”
Albanese has been asked about everything from whether US President Joe Biden is a robot to pop culture and his tennis game on FM radio.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
“Christen the room,” Sandilands’ co-host Jacqueline ‘Jackie O’ Henderson interjected.
Albanese, who became so riled this week with ABC host Patricia Karvelas’ focus on tax and housing he took a dig at the media’s “not terribly clever questions”, seemed comfortable with the KIIS FM pair. “What goes on tour, stays on tour,” he said, laughing.
This is not the Albanese of Parliament House press conferences.
While US politicians are spreading their messages via influencers, social media and email newsletters, Albanese has turned back time to a period where radio was supreme and gone further than his predecessors by calling in to FM shows. As Hit FM West Australia’s Allan Aldworth said in February: “We feel like we’re mates.”
That comes with some inanities.
“What’s your favourite snack, Mr Prime Minister?” asked Woody Whitelaw of KIIS FM in June last year.
“I do like a chicken Twistie, I’ve got to say,” Albanese responded.
A month earlier, Albanese had been asked on Nova FM about whether his plane came with a jacuzzi or was known as “Bogan Air”.
“No, none of that,” he said.
Melbourne radio hosts Fifi Box and Brendan Fevola wanted to know about Albanese’s ablutions in January. “Are you a ‘get in the shower and just obviously wash, then get out’ or do you like a long, lazy shower?” Box asked.
“No, I’m sort of very much, get the job done,” the country’s prime minister replied.
“We all like to get the job done, big fella,” Fevola said.
And the strangest of the lot, from Sandilands again last April: “What’s the go with aliens?”
Not much, was the essence of the prime minister’s reply.
“I can assure you of this, there are no secret briefings given to the prime minister of Australia about aliens being in our midst,” Albanese said.
These questions are the price to pay for appearing relatable to the disengaged and – even on Sandilands’ show – getting frequent chances to boost his policies.
This masthead had already dubbed Albanese the “FM PM” in June last year. That was when he was riding high in the polls and had relatively few policy battles to dog his traditional interviews. The country’s rejection of the Voice ended that honeymoon, yet the prime minister’s FM refuge remains, more important than ever.
“I see how you’re going around talking to FM stations these days,” Triple M Brisbane host Greg ‘Marto’ Martin said in January. “Never happened previously because that’s where the listeners are.”
“Absolutely,” Albanese said.
Marto knows why: “We ask easy questions about rugby league.”
With James Massola.
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