KARL STEFANOVIC:
Joining us now is the Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Prime Minister, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Morning Karl.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It is a chilly morning here and there are a lot of people waking up this morning across Australia feeling the cold shoulder of the Government this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, this is a fundamentally honest Budget. We’re upfront with people about the need for tough decisions. We don’t cook the books, we don’t fiddle the figures but we do get the Budget back on track to a sustainable surplus and that’s the fundamental commitment that we made to people before the last election.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
The difficulty here is when you’re saying you’re being upfront with people before the last election this is what you had to say about several of these items:
No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions.
No one’s personal tax will go up.
There should be no new tax collection without and election.
No country has ever taxed its way to prosperity.
Ok. So you have settled that. You have a trust issue now don’t you?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think people want the Government to do what’s right and necessary. They don’t want us to guild the lily; they don’t want us to pretend that we could keep paying the mortgage on the credit card because that’s what the former government was doing. It was paying the nations mortgage on the credit card. People are realist, they know that government has got to live within its means and they want people to do what’s necessary, what’s right.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
That being said, no change to pensions, no one’s personal tax going up and both those things are changing.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well pensions are changing after the next election and people can vote a different way if they don’t like that and sure, there is going to be a temporary increase in the top marginal rate of tax, I absolutely accept that and that’s going to impact less than three per cent of all taxpayers. What we are doing though is abolishing the carbon tax, if Labor will let us. This is a party which is complaining about broken promises; it’s trying to stop us from keeping our promises. Abolishing the carbon tax is an immediate saving of $550 a year.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
The criticism seems to be this morning – and if you look at it on the surface it seems rightly so – that the top end of the town is not doing much of the heavy lifting and families that are going to be doing the heavy lifting here.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I don’t want to personalise this Karl, but I’ll pay $6,500 a year more.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
The Budget does personalise it.
PRIME MINISTER:
And I’ll pay $6,500 a year more and I’ll forgo a pay rise and that’s as it should be.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
But you can afford it.
PRIME MINISTER:
I accept that and that’s why there’s a very significant share of the heavy lifting being done by high income earners as it should because I think the Australian people do want us to solve this problem together. Let’s also forget that while there are tough decisions here there’s hope – the world’s biggest medical research fund, the cures and treatments of the future and the Commonwealth’s biggest ever infrastructure spend equivalent to 10 Snowy Mountains schemes.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
This is a hell of a risk with the families of Australia; if you get this wrong you could be a one term wonder.
PRIME MINISTER:
I accept that we have done decisions that are necessary, not necessarily populist. It’s necessary that we do these things. Do you think I would likely do this Karl? I want to do what’s right for the country, not necessarily what’s right for the Government. This has got to be about the national interest, not just about self-interest.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
I accept that you’re saying that now and I don’t think there’s any argument that something needs to be done. It’s more about what happened before the election. It’s a significant trust issue for you to have promised and then to have reneged on some of those promises. You know how important trust is.
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course Karl and the great bond of trust that should exist between the public and their leaders is over can you trust your leaders to make the right and necessary decisions for the country.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
How can they trust you moving forward now though?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it’s in their hands. I think I’ve been very upfront with people in this Budget, we could not go on paying the mortgage on the credit card – we just couldn’t. What do you want, do you want a government that tells you ‘yes, tough things are necessary’ or do you want a government that wants to live in a fool’s paradise forever?
KARL STEFANOVIC:
You’ve pincered the states. Are you hoping they’ll come to you and say let’s raise the GST?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, that’s a matter for them. As you know, Karl
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Well you know you’ve pincered them.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, the states do well out of this Budget in infrastructure terms. Yes, in the end we are expecting them to run public hospitals; we’re expecting them to run public schools. We want grown-up adult states just as we want to be a grown-up adult Government here in Canberra.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
But you’re expecting them to come to you and you’d be accepting of that idea wouldn’t you? It solves a lot of problems lifting the GST.
PRIME MINISTER:
The GST is a matter for the states. It is absolutely a matter for the states. One thing we did say before the election is that there’d be a tax white paper, a federation white paper. These white papers will be a chance for all these issues to be considered.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Ok, Bill Shorten’s standing by, there’s going to be some opposition obviously to this Budget. What do you expect to get through in the Senate and what do you expect may not get through the Senate?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’d expect some alternatives from the Labor Party and all we’ve got from the Labor Party since the election are complaints, but no solutions. Complaints but no solutions and this is pretty rich from the party which actually got us into this terrible situation where we are borrowing $1 billion a month as a Commonwealth just to pay the interest on the earlier borrowings.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Ok, again though, do you expect to have problems getting some of those things through the Senate?
PRIME MINISTER:
I expect the Parliament to respect what this Government is trying to do. We are honestly grappling with the problems of our country and we’re doing so in a way which is fair.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
The biggest sell is to the Australian people. You’re out there trying to sell it today, are you going to effectively be able to do that given what’s happened before the last election and what you did promise?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m confident, I’m very confident Karl that what the Australian people want is a Government which levels with them about the problems, which offers them hope for the future and that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re offering hope for the future. We make the tough decisions now, we can have prosperity in the future and that’s what we owe our children and our grandchildren.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Is it true that Joe Hockey last night was singing along to that ‘this is the best night of my life’? Have you heard it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I didn’t hear him. I spoke a few times to Joe last night as you’d expect. I am so proud of Joe. I am so proud of the character and the resolution that he’s shown and I think last night’s Budget showed that Joe Hockey is a very worthy successor to Peter Costello.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright, well we’ll let you go. Thanks for your time today. We appreciate you being with us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks so much Karl.
[ends]