Subjects: Federal Budget 1999: GST, Senator Harradine, surplus, private
health insurance
E&OE.................................................................................................
MILNE:
Welcome, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good to be here.
MILNE:
What are you proudest of in this budget?
PRIME MINISTER:
Keeping all of our promises, without exception, from the last election
every last one of them delivered. Every last one of them. I'm
very proud of the fact that we can hold up the document saying Keeping
Our Promises for a Stronger Australia.' Everything we took to
the Australian people we are implementing in this budget. And there,
of course, are two other things that, in a sense, surround the budget
that we took to the Australian people and the Senate willing will
implement those as well.
MILNE:
We might come to the Senate in a moment and this is a related question.
There's one thing I don't understand about this budget.
You've got a whopping surplus of $5.4 billion. Brian Harradine,
the Independent Senator who holds the balance of power up there in
the Upper House, only required another $100 million in compensation
for families to be satisfied and probably give you his vote on the
GST. Why didn't you give him that extra $100 million?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you obviously know things about his intentions that I don't
and I think it's very unwise to ever sort of pass a sort of a
public observation on what he does in return for this or that. I mean,
he's a person, I've always found, who's committed to
good policy as he sees it. He's not a horse-trader. He's
somebody who has a strong set of attitudes and values, many of them
I share, some of them I don't, but that's in the nature
of politics. But that $5 billion surplus doesn't go a mouldering
in the bank. We use that to reduce our debt. There's a funny
idea around that if you have a surplus then it just sort of stores
up and nothing happens to it. It gets quickly used to pay previously
accumulated debt. And our Labor predecessors did a pretty good job
of doing that over the last few budgets with billions and billions
and billions of debt. But we're using that to pay debt.
MILNE:
So you're saying that the surplus is good for families as well,
that it's not just a...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I'll tell you what it does help to underwrite is lower
interest rates. And every family in Australia is $320 a month, on
average, better off because of low interest rates. I can't think
of a greater gift to Australian families from this Government than
lower housing interest rates. They've got the double whammy.
They've got rising real wages and they've got lower housing
interest rates more money in the pocket for the average family
as a result of good general economic policy. That in a way is the
best thing that this Government has done for Australian families.
We've kept inflation down. We've added to the real value
of average wages. And we've cut housing interest rates. Now,
those three things are really I mean, that is pure gold as
far as the benefits of good economic management are concerned.
MILNE:
Just coming back to Senator Harradine. He says you had a deal and
he says that you welched on it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, he doesn't say that. But, look, I'm not going to get
into a public dialogue about Senator Harradine. I talk to him from
time to time about a lot of things. I prefer to talk to people directly
and not via television or radio programmes. I keep my promises whether
they're made to no matter who they're made to. But
I'm not...
MILNE:
Well, why is he saying, why is he saying that you didn't?
PRIME MINISTER:
Glenn, I'm not going to do what you're inviting me to do
and that is get into a dialogue regarding Senator Harradine.
MILNE:
I'm purely after an explanation because last night he held a
press conference here. He was obviously very angry and he said that
he voted for the original youth allowance bill on the understanding
that there'd be compensation in this budget for families and
he says he's been short-changed by $100 million.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, he didn't say exactly that but beyond that I'm not
making any comment.
MILNE:
Well, can I put to you that he did say: too little too late, nothing's
happening in this budget for families, it's improper what has
happened and I've let families down, I had no idea it would be
tied into the GST package...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that's, with great respect, Glenn, that is not what you
put to me a moment ago and that is why I said...
MILNE:
Well, can I just...
PRIME MINISTER:
No, hang on, we'll just leave it at this, I'm not getting
into a dialogue with you or anybody else about the attitude of Senator
Harradine.
MILNE:
He's certainly chosen to enter into a public dialogue.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that is his right and that's his choice. I choose to handle
things differently.
MILNE:
So will you be seeing him shortly to explain to him the way the budget's
structured and why it's good for families?
PRIME MINISTER:
Glenn, I talk to him about a range of subjects from time to time but
I don't make a habit of disclosing the details of my diary in
relation to him or anybody else.
MILNE:
Your private health insurance initiative if I couldn't
afford private health insurance yesterday, what makes me able to afford
it today even though you've given a 30 per cent rebate?
PRIME MINISTER:
Because you might give it a higher priority. The reason you can't
afford you couldn't afford it yesterday was that you chose
to spend the money on something else in preference to the private
health insurance rebate. Today you are faced with the possibility
that if you want it in 10 years time, when you're perhaps not
as healthy as you are now, it will be more expensive. So, therefore,
you might say to yourself, gee, it's more important to
stop that and go into private health insurance now than to add another
country to my next overseas trip.'
MILNE:
Well, your budget says unemployment is going to stay at around seven-and-a-half
per cent. If I lose my job after July 2000 next year and I have to
drop out of private health insurance, why should I be penalised?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there is a provision which from memory and this is getting
into some of the fine from memory provides for a sort of a
total period of about 24 months of absences due to that sort of situation.
And we think that that can be the basis, providing a bit of a safety
net for that kind of eventuality. But one obviously has to guard against
people who deliberately hit and run.
MILNE:
Well, I was going to say, I mean, if you can drop out every two years...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it will be put together in a way that gives people who are,
through no fault of their own, disadvantaged but at the same time
will prevent any hitting and running.
MILNE:
So you'll be making sure that you can't do that, sort of
drop out every two years and then join...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we're certainly not going to allow a hit and run approach.
On the other hand, you do have to cover genuine eventualities of the
type of which you described. And it will take a little bit of crafting
to get the right mix. But Michael Wooldridge has outlined that there
is a general concept of having that kind of safety net.
MILNE:
Given all the things that you've done for private health funds
to encourage people to join, will you now be putting pressure on them
not to increase premiums any further?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we've already done that. The increases are less frequent
now than they were previously and in most cases they're not as
great. But you cannot hold back market forces and increases that might
occur in the future, in the near future, are the result of the situation
some time ago, before the introduction of the 30 per cent tax rebate,
when there was a steady exodus of people from private health funds.
MILNE:
Prime Minister, we thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Pleasure.
[ends]