‘Shake my head’: Albo’s blunt ScoMo call

The Prime Minister said the former Liberal leader did not have a “respectful relationship” with him and that he much preferred working with Peter Dutton.

“Here’s the scoop. You’ve asked me about Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton. I get on much better with Peter Dutton than I did with Scott Morrison,” Mr Albanese told 3AW’s Neil Asks Why podcast.

“You didn’t like him much,” Mitchell responded.

“Scott Morrison? No. He, I think, didn’t have a respectful relationship. I had one meeting in his office, which was on the first day that parliament sat in 2019,” Mr Albanese said.

He said he thought Mr Dutton was a more decent man.

“Peter Dutton and I can have conversations that leaders need to have between each other, from time to time, and I (try) to keep him in the loop about a range of things that governments do,” Mr Albanese said.

“I’m able to have a sensible conversation.”

Asked about Mr Albanese remarks on the Today show on Tuesday morning, Mr Dutton joked the endorsement could be the “kiss of death”.

“We will see. I am sure he’s being nice. I have a good relationship with the PM,” the Opposition Leader said.

It’s not the first time Mr Albanese has offered up kind words for his sparring partner.

When Mr Dutton was elected to the Liberal leadership following the Coalition’s bruising election loss, the Prime Minister told Sky News that Mr Dutton had “never broken a confidence that I’ve had with him”.

On if Mr Morrison would replace Billy McMahon as, in the words of former political editor Laurie Oakes, “the worst prime minister” we’ve ever had, Mr Albanese gave his own interpretation.

“Well, was he the worst prime minister or treasurer or health minister or industry minister or science minister?” he joked.

“I think a failure to acknowledge that was just wrong.

“A failure to acknowledge there’s anything wrong with robodebt as well, I just I shake my head,” he said.

Mr Albanese also offered his opinion on his Labor predecessor Bill Shorten (“good bloke”) but declined to give an insight on what he thought about Donald Trump.

“I’m not going to comment about any candidate in another election,” he said.

Mr Albanese said he considered walking away from politics altogether in order to save his marriage to former NSW deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt.

“She wanted to take a different direction in her in her life. And that came as an incredible shock to me … I was not in a great state, that’s the truth, for a little while afterwards,” he said.

“I did suggest, certainly, I was more than willing to not run at the 2019 election.

“She said that wasn’t it. It was just the way that it was. She had made that decision. And it took me a little while … to come to terms with it.”

Mr Albanese said a trip to London, Portugal and Lisbon following the break-up allowed him to clear his head and recommit to politics.

“I had to come to terms with, not trying to understand the decision which the person who I thought I would spend the rest of my life with had made a different call, but just accepting it,” he said.

“It was doing my head in to try to understand because we hadn’t had an argument, there was no one else involved.

“I just had to accept it. Once I did that, I was much better off.”

Originally published as Anthony Albanese reveals he doesn’t like Scott Morrison very much