Anthony Albanese Gifts New Zealand PM His 'Favourite Aussie Records'

Like last year, Anthony Albanese, the Australian Prime Minister and huge music fan, gifted vinyl to the Prime Minister of New Zealand. After Jacinda Ardern stepped down from the position last month, Albo met her successor, Chris Hipkins.

"Kia ora and g'day to New Zealand's new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins," Albanese wrote on social media. Albo gifted Hipkins some of his favourite Aussie albums - When Rosie Met Monsters by Thelma Plum, Gang Of Youths' The Positions, and How To Grow A Sunflower Underwater by Alex The Astronaut. 

However, Hipkins didn't give Albo any vinyl in return. Instead, Hipkins gifted the Australian PM a greenstone Pounamu in the shape of a hook, "which signifies good luck and safe travels over water."

Some followers subsequently roasted Hipkins for not participating in the vinyl trade, writing, "Chris did not understand the assignment" and "Albo was hoping for an original pressing of a The Clean record and was disappointed".

Last year, Ardern flew home with Midnight Oil, Spiderbait and Powderfinger albums, while Albanese added Aldous Harding, The Clean, Reb Fountain, and AK79 records to his collection. 

Last week, Albanese and Arts Minister Tony Burke announced the launch of the federal government's game-changing arts and culture policy, Revive.

“[The music sector has] endured a decade in which opportunity wasn’t so much missed as thrown away; capped by the years of the pandemic in which the loss of opportunity was exacerbated by what was a calculated neglect,” Albanese said at last Monday's launch in The Gershwin Room at The Espy.

“Fittingly, our cultural policy for the next five years is called Revive… Revive puts the arts back where they are meant to be – at the heart of our national life. Revive is structured around five interconnected pillars:

• First Nations first – because we recognise and respect the crucial place of First Nations stories at the centre of Australia’s artists and culture
• A place for every story – which reflects the breadth of our stories and the contributions of Australians as the creators of culture
• The centrality of the artist – which supports the artist as a worker and celebrates artists as our creators
• Strong cultural infrastructure - which provides support across the spectrum of institutions that sustain our arts, our culture and our heritage
• Engaging the audience – to ensure that our stories reach people both at home and abroad
  
  

“The arts cannot be left simply to those who can afford to do it. Arts jobs are real jobs.”