When Anthony Albanese became Prime Minister, his phone pinged with a message from a childhood mate saying she was in Canberra.

"Eight of them had come from across the country because their mate who grew up with them in public housing in Camperdown was becoming Prime Minister," Albanese told Mamamia's No Filter podcast. "They ended up coming to dinner at The Lodge that night. It was absolutely one of the best things that has ever happened to me, that feeling of connection with where I'd come from."

It's a story most of us know by heart — Albanese growing up in public housing in Sydney's inner-west, raised by a single mum on a disability pension.

But it's this connection to his roots, he tells us, that makes his campaign different.

"I want Australia to be the land of opportunity where your trajectory in life should not be dictated by your postcode of where you were born or the circumstances into which you were born," Albanese said.

We sat down with the PM to cut through the political spin. After all, eight in 10 of Mamamia's audience say they're the key decision-makers in their households. And with recent polling showing almost half of voters are still undecided, every vote counts.

Listen to Anthony Albanese on Mamamia's No Filter. Post continues below.

'We look like Australia. They look like a bunch of blokes.'

The PM's pitch to women is straightforward: economic equality is central to everything, not just a box to tick.

"It's at the core of what we do, in economic policy, in social policy," he said. "We have a record of achievement in our first three years, but we recognise there is more to do."

Albanese is quick to draw the contrast between Labor and the Opposition when it comes to gender balance. His government's frontbench has more women than men for the first time ever. Labor's federal caucus is 52 per cent women, compared to the Liberal Party's 30 per cent.

"If you look at one side of the parliament, we look like Australia," Albanese said. "The other side looks like a bunch of blokes, a bunch of Anglo Celtic blokes."

He chairs a cabinet with a gender balance that influences policy decisions.

"It means that gender isn't an add-on… it's just what we do in every cabinet submission," Albanese said. "You get a stronger outcome when you're mobilising the talents of all of your people, not just half."

Watch: Anthony Albanese on his promises for women's health. Post continues below.

What has Labor actually done for women?

Having women in power makes for great photos, but how does Labor actually stack up on the issues that matter?

The government has rolled out some key policies aimed at improving gender equity — paid family and domestic violence leave and increased funding for community legal services are amongst them. Albanese has also pledged to keep chipping away at the gender pay gap.

"We changed the Fair Work Act so that gender pay equity is a consideration of the Fair Work Commission. So, we've had three increases in a row, substantial lifting up the minimum wage," he said.

He couldn't resist criticising his predecessors: "During the last campaign… the Morrison government said the world would fall in and the economy would be ruined if we gave people an extra dollar an hour… We did that. We provided considerable increases: 15 per cent for child care workers and early educators, more than that for aged care workers. Those systems were ready to collapse, and it is feminised industries that had fallen behind."

There are also plans to add superannuation to paid parental leave and boost women's health support. The government has increased Medicare funding for reproductive health services and committed $23.7 million over four years to the Jean Hailes Women's Health Foundation for research into endometriosis, perimenopause, and menopause.

Prime Minister has made his pitch to Mamamia women. Image: AAP.

But despite these advances, Labor faces its most significant challenge in addressing what Albanese himself called Australia's "national crisis" of domestic violence. After 28 women were killed in just the first four months of 2024, the PM made this declaration at a rally in Canberra. But many are asking: has his government's response matched the urgency of his words?

Initiatives such as the Leaving Violence Program, which provides financial support to women fleeing abuse, and paid domestic and family violence leave are important steps in the right direction. But frontline workers and advocates are crystal clear — much more needs to be done and quickly.

As RMIT University Family and Sexual Violence Professor Anastasia Powell wrote for The Conversation: "For years, specialist support services, community legal services, therapeutic responses and men's behaviour change programs have been saying they can't keep up with the demand."

"We must hold governments to account to ensure that the promised funding is delivered where it is needed — and soon."

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A post shared by Anthony Albanese (@albomp)

The cost of living crunch.

Let's talk about what's keeping us all up at night: making ends meet. More than six in 10 of Mamamia's audience say they've felt more financially stressed this past year than ever. And when asked about our financial comfort? Only 41 per cent of us can honestly say we're doing okay.

The Albanese government has copped plenty of flak over the cost-of-living crisis. And fair enough — we're all feeling it when we pay our rent or mortgage, watch our wages barely budge while prices soar, and nearly have a heart attack every time we hit the checkout at Woolies or Coles.

When we pushed him on this, Albanese acknowledged Australians are doing it tough and hinted that more cost-of-living relief might be coming in the weeks ahead. He seemed particularly keen to remind us about those tax cuts his government pushed through last year, which reshaped the stage 3 tax cuts a year ago so they delivered "a tax cut to every taxpayer" rather than just the highest earners.

"We need to remind people that was a conscious decision," he said. "People who are on that first tax level weren't going to get a scent and people on middle incomes were going to get far less.

"We now have the economy growing, wages growing, inflation falling, interest rates starting to fall as well. We've navigated what have been really turbulent seas, but we've had our eye on that horizon of the objective of how do we build a fairer society as well because a fairer society is a stronger one."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Anthony Albanese (@albomp)

Albanese isn't shy about needing more time to fulfil his vision.

"Before the last election, I said you couldn't change the country to what my vision was for it — a fairer, stronger country — in just three years. You needed multiple terms to entrench it," he said.

And he's hoping you will give him that chance when you head to the polls.

Looking ahead, he outlined concrete plans.

"We are not just saying what we have done. We're saying we'll reduce student debt by a further 20 per cent on top of the $3 billion we've cut off student debt. We'll have free TAFE there permanently. We'll have cheaper child care… getting rid of the activity test that really penalises particularly women in advantaged positions will do that. We'll have a billion dollars for childcare infrastructure."

He also highlighted Medicare changes: "Tripling the bulk billing incentive for everyone, not just for concession cardholders, will particularly advantage women and people who will make a judgment for themselves or their families."

Making sure you can see a GP for free. Fifty more free Medicare Urgent Care Clinics. A record investment in women's health.

Ahead of Cabinet today, I spoke about the work we have been doing to make Medicare stronger. pic.twitter.com/RVwhPxevFQ

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) March 3, 2025

So, what's your vote worth?

Our chat with Albanese made one thing clear: he's betting on Australian women seeing his government as one that gets our lived experiences, from childcare nightmares to healthcare costs, from workplace inequality to personal safety.

For Mamamia's audience, the choice comes down to who we believe will deliver actual change on the issues that impact our daily lives.

Recent polling shows Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's net approval rating at minus three (41 per cent approval, 44 per cent disapproval), marginally better than Albanese's minus eight.

Despite this, more Australians still believe Labor would be better, or at least no worse, than the Coalition at delivering cost-of-living relief, higher wages and safeguarding Medicare.

Meanwhile, almost half of the 1,150 people surveyed in the recent Essential poll are undecided or may change their vote, making Albanese's pitch to women voters absolutely crucial.

If he secures another term, Albanese has promised to sit down with Mamamia again next year — giving us the chance to hold him accountable for everything he's promised Australian women.

What's going to decide your vote in the 2025 federal election? We want to find out what actually matters to you when it comes to deciding what to do with your vote, not what everyone else tells you matters. Be as honest as you like, we can handle it.

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Feature image: Mamamia.