HINCH: Mr Rudd, good afternoon.
PM: Good afternoon, good to be back on the program. In fact, I am heading to a Community Cabinet meeting at the moment, up at Emerald and at the Emerald Secondary college.
I am driving up the Pakenham roads, if I break out and lose connection - that is why.
HINCH: Alright, your reaction to the community cabinets, I mean the opposition says they are an expensive rort, but you promised you would do this, I am sure you stand by the idea?
PM: Absolutely. We said before the election that we would do these around the country and the reason is to give access to local communities to all the members of the cabinet.
What we do is we sit down and we actually talk to local community organisations about what they need to build their communities. Secondly, we take questions from the floor, it is part of direct Government.
This is the 12th one we have done in the 18 months that we have been in office. So basically every six weeks or so, whether it is in, you know, north Queensland, Aboriginal communities in Mackay, the southern suburbs of Perth or other parts of Tassie or South Australia, back here in Melbourne, for I think for the second time.
We were in Geelong last year.
We are back in Emerald today. The whole point is to stay connected with the local community. You don't want Governments in Canberra to lose touch with what the community is saying to you.
HINCH: Alright let's get back to the topic. Page one headlines of course today, The Australian, the IMF doubts over speed of recovery. The opposition has been pushing this. You have been saying that these are old figures, they are a month old, but presumably you are using the same figures. The current polls though don't believe that your recovery is going to be as hot as you say, that four per cent annual growth will return next year, and that we're back in surplus by 2015.
PM: Well can I just say that our strategy is clear, it is strong and decisive action to cushion the impact of the global recession on Australia. And our plan is nation building for recovery by investing for our future, supporting jobs, small businesses, apprenticeships today, by building the economic infrastructure we need for tomorrow.
Rail, roads, ports, TAFE colleges like the one I have been at today in Chadstone, here in Melbourne. Now, on the question of this nation building for recovery, we want to lift Australia out of the global recession as rapidly as possible.
And that is why we put together this strategy. The Secretary of the Treasury today, Ken Henry, the Governor of the Reserve Bank Glenn Stevens, both made statements about likely growth in three or four years time, based on what the Government said at the Budget.
Both supported the position which has been put forward by the Government. We believe it is reasonable, and it is based also on the experience of Australia in earlier recessions.
HOST: Yeah, alright ,we will go the budget briefly, the 67 is the magic number here, for the pensions, people are being phased in to 2023, in six monthly instalments over two years, that is being accepted generally, it would appear, but what intrigues me is that, I guess this hunch that come the end of this year, the 67 year old for super, why would you even consider that?
PM: Well we have all things relevant being considered by Ken Henry at the moment, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Henry review of taxation and related matters. We will examine carefully what he says then.
On the question of the eligibility age for the age pension, this was a tough decision.
I was surprised the other day, to see however, Tony Abbott, on behalf of the Liberal Party, saying they would bring it in much earlier. We think the right thing to do is to give people plenty of notice.
We don't begin phasing this until about 2017, it is not fully phased in until 2023. That gives people a lot of time to prepare. Other countries around the world also are increasing the age qualification for the age pension, and the reason is people are living a lot longer and as a result the impact on Government finances right around the world is being blown out by the age pension -
HOST: That is fair and that's understandable. But on super, I mean you seem to me to be developing this anti super ideology. I would have thought the more people that got on to super to become self funded retirees means they never go on a pension, means it would help out the case, and you would be able to pay people on pensions more money. The restrictions on super now and if you're going to say you can't get access to it until you are 67, if that's what you bring in, you seem to be, seems to be the wrong way to go about it.
PM: Well can I say, our attitude to super, like the age pension, is that we the Australian Labor Party in previous Governments brought in universal superannuation arrangements for the first time in Australia's history.
Remember also that most recently, we the Labor Government for the first time in a decade brought about a substantial increase in the age pension, $32.50 a week increase to the single age pension.
These things have been ignored in the past by the Liberals when in Government. In fact on superannuation, let's never forget this. When we brought in universal superannuation for the entire workforce back in the'90's, they said this would be very bad for the economy; well it was an important Labor government reform then. We stick by those reforms, we think it is important for the future of the country and of course from time to time, we have got to make sure that we are doing it absolutely right.
But I have got to say the two pillars upon which our future retirement incomes policy will be built, it will be superannuation on the one hand, we brought it in, and the pension, which we the Labor Government have just increased.
HINCH: OK, the, we have had some callers calling in saying, do you see a time, ever see a time when state Governments would be abolished and we'd come back to a federal system? We'd have a big government in Canberra and then have local councils to boost it?
PM: My attitude to that is that we were put together as a federation more than 100 years ago. And I think what most people around Australia want is to make sure our federal system of government works efficiently and effectively.
You can either have a system where you just play the blame game, that is one level of Government blaming the other for things not being done, or you get down, roll your sleeves up and have a go at making it work.
What we've tried to do in practical areas like, for example, elective surgery waiting lists is to partner with the states, provide additional injections of funding, to provide additional elective surgery procedures which would otherwise not be the case.
The Australian Healthcare Agreement which we signed with all the States and Territories at the end of last year reinvests a huge amount of money into the public hospital system of Australia.
HINCH: Because you said, you did a bit of a Harry Truman, you said if they don't improve everything in health within the next 12 months, I will take it back, I will run it all.
PM: What I said was, by the time we reached the middle of this term, which is around about the middle of this year, we will framing decisions about the future of the health and hospital system.
What we did 12 months ago was commission the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission to examine options for the future management of Australia's hospital system between the Federal Government and State Governments.
The problem now is that, as many of your listeners would be aware, is that you have got the Federal Government responsible for aged care, the State Government is responsible for hospitals, the Federal Government responsible for Medicare and payments to GPs.
Primary health care and preventative healthcare, a complete mixed set of responsibilities and the result is we don't have a total health and hospital strategy for the nation.
That is why we have commissioned this work, we will get it soon and we will be making decisions on the long term future.
HOST: Alright now, Mr Prime Minister, I know you don't have much more time. A couple of quick questions, is it true the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry have 49 staff members employed in media liaison and public relations?
PM: I am completely unaware of that number and what I will do is I will have the minister come on to your program just to confirm what the facts are.
All I can say is the Minister, Tony Burke is a first class minister, spends a lot of his time out there in rural and regional Australia with farmers, and I will have him answer directly that point. I don't wish to mislead anyone on any element of detail there.
HINCH: Alright. And on the case of Anicce Smoel which I know you are on, you are on top of, you are well aware of. But despite some hysteria here on 3AW today, I don't see what the Government can actually do apart from what you have done.
PM: Sorry you dropped out there.
HINCH: The Melbourne mother who has been jailed and now released on bail in Thailand.
PM: Well what we do with all consular cases is to make sure that the relevant Australian embassy is in there as quick as physically possible to provide every level of physical and consular support. That's what is being provided in the case of this person, as well as liaison with the family. And secondly, we also deal directly with the Thai authorities as well to make sure that every thing that can be done is being done.
That's being worked through at the moment. Our officials, I am advised, in Bangkok are doing everything practical on the ground.
It is always hard for families back home, I understand that. Also bear in mind Derryn, we could have had one million Australians overseas at any one time, and all of our embassy and consular officials are out there doing a first class job, providing support where it is needed, because Australians often find themselves in difficulties overseas.
HINCH: Well also because you have personal experience of getting drunk in a foreign pub and doing something you regretted?
PM: Well as you and I both said before, I think we are all human and we all make mistakes and I am one of them.
HINCH: Alright Mr Prime Minister, thank you for your time.
PM: Good to be with you.