The Prime Minister, The Hon Anthony Albanese MP joined Jessica Rowe at the new LiSTNR studio in Sydney speaking about matters from the Voice Referendum to his dog Toto for The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast.

When discussing the Voice, the Prime Minister described its important and why he ‘owns’ being emotional about it.

He said:

“Fear can be a powerful emotion. And particularly when it is combined with some of the misinformation out there. The truth is that this will not change the lives directly of non Indigenous Australians at all, it’s just giving some small proportion, 3 percent of Australians who are Indigenous, the opportunity to be heard.

There are some people who have said to me, ‘Gee, you know, it’s a risk having a referendum.’ Which it is. There hasn’t been one this century. And I say, well, if not now, when? And if not me, who’s going to do it? So, of course, it’s a risk and that’s one of the things that is driving, I think, some of the opposition and some of them have said it very explicitly, that they see it as an opportunity to damage me or damage the government by campaigning for no, which is unfortunate because it’s not about me or the government, it’s actually about something.

It’s far bigger. It’s about who we are as a country and whether…we will wake up on October 15, as we did after the Apology, and feel better about ourselves and feel a bigger country or whether we’ll shrink in on ourselves and be frightened of making a change. We need to do better.”

The PM also discusses how his Catholic upbringing, how almost losing his life in car accident has changed the way he does politics and his happy places: playing badge comp tennis, time with his dog Toto and with his friends.

The special episode will be released tomorrow, Wednesday September 20.