Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently met with incumbent New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, gifting him a trio of records by Australian acts.
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Yesterday (February 7), Albanese shared an image on social media of himself with Hipkins – who succeeded previous prime minister Jacinda Ardern last month after she announced her retirement – at Parliament House in Canberra.
In the photo, he can be seen giving Hipkins vinyl copies of three albums. Those included Alex the Astronaut‘s 2022 album ‘How to Grow a Sunflower Underwater’ and ‘When Rosie Met Monsters – a collected reissue of Thelma Plum‘s first 2013 ‘Rosie’ and 2014 ‘Monsters’ EPs that was released last year.
Albanese also gave Hipkins a copy ‘The Positions’, the 2014 debut album by Gang of Youths – whom he is a noted fan of, attending their hometown gig at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre last year.
“Kia ora and g’day to New Zealand’s new Prime Minister [Hipkins]. Welcome to Australia,” Albanese captioned the post. “I gave Chris some of my favourite Aussie records,” he added, tagging Plum, Gang of Youths and Alex the Astronaut.
Plum reshared the post to her Instagram story, joking that she hops Hipkins “doesn’t mind the swearing”. Alex the Astronaut also posted the photo on her own Instagram. “Just Albo the Prime Minister giving the new New Zealand Prime Minister Gang of Youths, Thelma and my record,” she captioned the post. “No big deal.”
It’s not the first time Albanese has shared records with a New Zealand Prime Minister. In June last year, he met with then-PM Jacinda Ardern, giving her copies of Midnight Oil, Spiderbait and Powderfinger albums on vinyl. In return, she gifted him a handful of records from New Zealand label Flying Nun, including albums by Aldous Harding, The Clean, Reb Fountain and the ‘AK79’ compilation.