DOYLE:
Well taxes have been slashed and welfare revamped in what Peter Costello hopes will be his last Budget. As always, reaction is mixed, with taxpayers generally happy, but single parents leading the critics.
BARETTA:
We'll hear from both of them in just a moment, but first to Canberra where John Howard is starting the big sell. Prime Minister, good morning to you. Is this a Budget designed to get Peter Costello into your job?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's a Budget designed to help Australia - as all of our Budgets have been - and I think it's a great Budget. It delivers a very strong surplus. It embraces major reform of the welfare system; designed not to punish people, but to help them off welfare into work, and it also rewards hard-working Australians with some taxation relief. It invests very heavily in defence and national security, and is a Budget very much about laying the foundation for a strong economic future for this nation.
DOYLE:
Tax cuts is the one in particular that most people are pleased about. Was that your idea or Mr Costello's?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the Budget was prepared as all previous Budgets have been prepared. There was a lot of involvement by other Ministers. Naturally the lion's share of the work was done by the Treasurer, as is always the case, the Finance Minister contributed a great deal, and the final decisions on the big ticket items are taken by the Treasurer and myself, with the involvement of some other very senior Ministers. Now that always happens, and this idea of, you know, who's responsible for what - as the Treasurer said last night, it's a Government Budget. But I give Peter Costello enormous credit for the job that he's done as Treasurer of this country over the last nine and a half years. I said during the election campaign that I regarded him as the best Treasurer Australia's had, and that certainly remains my view. But this is a Budget that I am very proud to be associated with. I think the tax cuts are long overdue. We realised a few weeks ago, Peter and I, that there was some capacity for taxation relief, and I believe that the final form in which they emerged is right and will provide a great deal of incentive and reward for hard-working Australians.
BARETTA:
Prime Minister, we understand there's always a balance. Tax cuts come at a cost. This Budget implies many disabled people are dodging work. Is that your view?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there are, I believe, arguments for making it a little more, how should we put it, circumspect - the operation of the Disability Support Pension - and that's what we're doing. We're not affecting people who are on it at the moment. But what we're saying to people who come on to it after tonight, and those particularly after the 1st of July next year, that there will be a new regime, and essentially if you are able to work 15 to 29 hours a week then you can be required to do some part-time work, and, in effect, be on other than the Disability Support Pension. You'll be on what is an enhanced unemployment benefit, or Newstart, as it's called, and it's really the unemployment benefit, and a more generous one. Now I think that's a fair balance. And this is not designed in any way to affect the position of those who are genuinely unable to work. Let me say immediately, anybody who, in the common understanding of the term, is unable to work will be completely unaffected by this Budget. DOYLE: Alright. The other group to be rather dissatisfied this morning is single parents - those mothers who are on welfare, who've been told they have to go back to work when their youngest child starts school. A lot of them say they don't have the money or the time to find work. Are you holding them to ransom?
PRIME MINISTER:
No we are not holding them to ransom. We are going to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in training programs to help them get back into the workforce but lets look at it from a positive point of view and not from a narrow, negative point of view. It is overwhelmingly in the interests of a sole parent, a single mother, once their youngest child has gone to school to be in a part time job. They are better off financially, from a social point of view, from a career development point of view, from a personal satisfaction point of view and we see this as helping people to better their lives. It's not about taking benefits away, it's going to cost about $2 billion dollars more over the next four years to implement these welfare reforms. Now if this were a cost cutting exercise, it wouldn't be costing all that money. This is an exercise in helping them, and also helping the nation by increasing workforce participation.
DOYLE:
They don't think you are helping them socially. Socially, they think they are better off at home. We are about to speak to someone straight after you and they are saying they want to be at home with their kids and its much better for them and their family.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well certainly, while a child is under six, that's a very good idea and I have long advocated a tax system and I have implemented as Prime Minister with my government, a tax system that gives women far greater choice to stay at home while their children are young. But we are talking here about a situation where the youngest child has gone to school and we are talking not about a full time job obligation, we are talking about a part time job obligation. Now let's just pause for a moment and analyse exactly what is being proposed. We are not talking about forcing women back into the workforce when their children are one or two, we are not talking about that. We are talking about a situation where the youngest child reaches the age of six and we are talking about a situation where we are asking them as a condition of receiving their benefit and, in effect, they will go on receiving the benefit but if they don't comply with the new regime, well they could be subject to other conditions but what will happen, is that we are saying to them, will you please do part time work. Now that won't interfere with their caring obligations of their children - it will give them more money and it will certainly give them greater enjoyment. Now see I just want you to understand we are not talking here about children who are under six. We are talking about a situation where the youngest child has gone to school. Now that is a vastly different thing than implying that we are forcing women with children who have just been born into the workforce and we are going to provide thousands more childcare places so it will be possible for them to do it. Now I think this is a long term reform that will be of enormous benefit to the country.
BARETTA:
Prime Minister can we just talk about your priorities for a moment...
PRIME MINISTER:
Sure.
BARETTA:
We obviously have a big surplus at the moment, was infrastructure, and a lot of experts are saying this morning that maybe infrastructure, roads, hospitals, schools, have been the loser.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well infrastructure at a federal level was very heavily invested in, in last year's Budget with AusLink which is an $11-$12 billion dollar plan for our road and rail network. As far as hospitals are concerned, they are primarily the responsibility of the States. We have a very generous Roads to Recovery program which has been operating for years and of course the Budget contains details of the investment in the individual road projects around Australia. I think there is a very good balance when it comes to things like that and then over and above that we have the Future Fund where we are going to invest the proceeds of future surpluses and that will mean that as the years go by we will have a capacity to meet the financial obligations of future generations and we won't have robbed their future and their inheritance by our own profligacy.
DOYLE:
Alright Prime Minister we do thank you for your time this morning, John Howard, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you, thank you.
[ends]