Off the Record: Behind the scenes of Albo’s trip to Albany

Between the Advertiser reporters, ABC staff and a freelance photographer shooting for AAP, there were probably 10 of us media types gathered on Frederick Street on Thursday.

By Albany standards, that a full-blown media throng.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was due to arrive at 11am having flown direct from Canberra that morning.

Off the Record had only found out about his visit the previous day, just in time to squeeze the story into Thursday’s Advertiser.

“ALBO DROPS IN ON ALBANY” screamed our hastily put together front page, featuring a photo of a happy Mr Albanese with his Macleans showing.

It seemed the PM liked the front page — or perhaps more specifically, the choice of photo — because he shared it with his 243,000 Instagram followers the next morning.

Ahead of his arrival, one of his communications staff members had dropped into the Advertiser office to pick up a few copies for posterity.

But OTR digresses.

Back to the media throng on Frederick Street.

You might wonder what sort of car the PM would arrive in — a Rolls Royce? Bentley?

Try a maxi taxi.

Once he had alighted the people mover, the formalities began.

Mr Albanese was in Albany to announce a $2.4 billion nationwide NBN upgrade, with funding to be confirmed in Tuesday’s Federal Budget.

After the announcement, he was bombarded with questions — most of which had come to the local reporters via their Canberra-based counterparts.

Opportunities to grill the PM are valuable, particularly with a Federal Budget looming, so there was plenty to get through.

But the question of most interest to OTR came after the press conference.

Credit must go to ABC radio presenter Tim Wong-See for having the guts to ask the question that no one else would touch: What did the PM think about Albany having no traffic lights?

A city of roundabouts, Albany is the most populous city in Australia without a set of traffic lights.

“I think there are many things that Albany has to offer as a regional centre and one of the things that we saw I think during COVID was people really appreciate living in the regions,” Mr Albanese responded.

“We saw people move out of our capital cities right around the country.

“One of the things that the NBN and what we’re doing today is about is facilitating decentralisation.

“If you can have the same access to markets and to business opportunities, to education and health services living in a region rather than living in the centre of a city, then one of the advantages that you have is the ease in getting around and a real sense of community.

“(That is) why we’ve seen that move towards living in our regions, particularly among young people.”

In the spirit of roundabouts, that answer from the PM had OTR’s head in a spin.

For full coverage of the PM’s time in Albany, see pages 4-5 of this newspaper.