HOST: Good morning Prime Minister.
PM: Good morning.
HOST: A busy day, obviously, talking about the budget, and it's been described by the Treasurer Wayne Swan as ‘Labor to its bootstraps.' Let's have a look at where the cuts will be. There will be cuts to AusAID, there will be cuts to police recruitment, jobs in defence going, scrapping Indigenous literacy and numeracy programs, and of course 4000 public services jobs to go.
That doesn't sound like Labor to the bootstraps to me, Prime Minister.
PM: Well it is Labor to the bootstraps, I don't think some of those savings have been properly described but rather than get into those details let me explain to you why it's Labor to the bootstraps.
It's a budget that delivers what our economy needs now, which is a surplus, that's a remarkable achievement given we so recently were in the days of the Global Financial Crisis and there's still turbulence in the global economy, and it's the right thing to do to give us a buffer for the future and also to make sure the Reserve Bank's got the maximum room to move on interest rates, because I think we all know what a difference interest rate reduction like the one last week makes for families.
HOST: Yes.
PM: So it's Labor to the bootstraps because we're taking the proceeds of the mining boom and delivering it to families who need that money through a Schoolkids' Bonus and through increased family payments.
HOST: 4000 public service jobs though, more unemployment?
PM: Well this will be achieved largely through natural attrition, and given the size of the public service it's a relatively modest change. I'm not suggesting that won't make it difficult for some public service departments to make the decisions they need to, but given the imperative for our economy and our nation of returning the budget to surplus, we did need to make some tough choices. But as we've made those choices we've protected frontline services for Australian families.
HOST: Prime Minister, the Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey has accused you of not really delivering a surplus. It's a surplus in name only. Things like the National Broadband Network are off the budget in the books to create the appearance of a surplus. What do you have to say?
PM: Well that's a ridiculous claim by Joe Hockey. Look, I expect Mr Abbott and Joe Hockey to be relentlessly negative about this surplus. I expect them to try and, you know, distract from the remarkable achievement it is for our nation to get into surplus so quickly after the Global Financial Crisis. On the specifics of the National Broadband Network, there's been no change in this budget on the way the National Broadband Network is treated in the budget papers, and to try and claim so is simply wrong.
HOST: Prime Minister, the Government in itself, the running of the Parliament and your Government over the last couple of months, it's become a shambles. We've had the Speaker stand aside, we've had Craig Thomson, you've essentially expelled him as a member of the ALP, he's sitting on the crossbenches.
Isn't it time you gave the people of Australia the opportunity to judge this Government and call an election?
PM: Well we'll have an election in the second half of next year, on the right time for an election, three years after the last election. In the meantime this Parliament is getting on with the job.
What's perhaps less remarked upon publicly is that we've passed 300 pieces of legislation, many of them nation-changing pieces of legislation, which will set us up to be a stronger and more prosperous nation in the future. And then we're delivering a budget that's right for the economy now with a surplus, but also right for families now, and don't forget we're building for the future in this budget too.
HOST: Don't you think you have a responsibility to the Australian public, and overwhelmingly they are asking for another election. We've had text messages by the dozens this morning and I'm sorry to say none are positive about the current setup. They want another chance to vote, because they think the way it's operating at the moment is a shambles.
PM: Well I do have a responsibility to the Australian people, a responsibility to keep the economy strong and bringing the budget to surplus is the clearest sign of a strong economy. A responsibility to those families who sit in a great state like yours, and they know that there's a mining boom and they know that there are people making a lot of money, but they say to themselves, ‘gee where's my share?'
Well, through our family payment increases we're directly giving them a share of the mining boom, funded by the Minerals Resource Rent Tax. And it's my responsibility to keep building for the future, and in this budget we've got an aged care package to make a difference for people who are older and want to stay in their own homes. We've got a down-payment on the National Disability Insurance Scheme which will make a difference for Australians with disabilities and their carers who love them so much.
HOST: Alright, we'll see what the fallout is from the budget this morning. Thanks for talking to us this morning.
PM: Thank you.