KITCHEN CABINET Season 8
EPISODE 1 OF 6
TUESDAY 21 JULY 8.30PM
Kicking off the eighth season of Kitchen Cabinet, Annabel Crabb visits The Lodge to cook with the 31stprime minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese.
In an unusually frank and relaxed interview, the PM reflects on his 30-year career in federal politics, the issues on which he’s changed his mind in that time and the day in politics he’d least like to live again.
Annabel and the PM also discuss the role of difficult childhoods, the legitimacy of surf ‘n turf and the question of political courage, on which the Labor leader has surprising thoughts.
What would Young Albo think of Prime Minister Albo? Is it an advantage in politics to be boring? What does it feel like to believe until the age of fourteen that your Dad died in a car accident, and then find out that he didn’t? Anthony Albanese as you’ve never seen him before.
It’s time to head back to the kitchen!
ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet with Annabel Crabb starts this July
Join host Annabel Crabb for a brand-new series of Kitchen Cabinet from Tuesday 21July at 8.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
Australian politics in 2026 feels unprecedentedly shouty. The major party vote is fracturing. Independents and protest parties are jostling for the approval of a seriously cheesed-off population. In an environment of accelerating news cycles and shrinking attention spans, the opportunity to speak calmly and at length with political leaders feels like a rare luxury.
In this season of Kitchen Cabinet, Annabel will visit the homes of six very different politicians from the ranks of our 48th Australian Parliament, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, “Teal” Independent Allegra Spender, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, and Labor MP Josh Burns. Together they cook a meal, share a conversation, and - as always - Annabel brings dessert.
“Frankly, politics feels like a food fight right now,” says Annabel, who has been covering Australian politics for 30 years. “Who’d run for public office? I certainly wouldn’t. But that’s why I’m so interested in the people who do run for office. Who choose to be a part of it, rather than fleeing the scene like any sensible person would.
“In this eighth series of Kitchen Cabinet, I’m learning about federal politicians from across the political spectrum in the way humans have learned about each other for millennia - by sitting down to eat together”.
Production credit:
Creator/Writer Annabel Crabb, Director Stamatia Maroupas, Series Producer Madeleine Hawcroft*,* Senior Researcher Carolyn Cage, Commissioning Editor Jo Chichester.
EPISODE 2
TUESDAY 28 JULY 8.30PM
Angus Taylor – the ninth Liberal leader so far this century – has a Herculean task ahead as he grapples with the growth of One Nation and the collapse in the Coalition’s vote. And now he has to cook on camera!
Annabel visits Taylor on the working farm near Goulburn that he and wife Louise – and their two corgis – call home.Digging deep into the culinary repertoire of his jackaroo days, Taylor boldly makes his own damper and opens up about growing up in the country, going to Oxford, losing a parent too soon, and why it is that every time he posts something on social media at least
There are six episodes but only five politicians have been named. I wonder who is guest no.6? 
It’s not who you think it is. 
The sixth episode is yet to be filmed.