NEIL MITCHELL:
Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Morning, Neil.
NEIL MITCHELL:
The cancelled visit to Geelong; they’re now calling you a coward, a wimp, a pussy, all these things. Do you think you’re hated by parts of the community?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look, I was a radical student myself once upon a time, Neil, and…
NEIL MITCHELL:
Oh not too radical.
PRIME MINISTER:
... well, I was, if you like, a radical on one side, some of the other radicals were on the other side and it was sport really, going to protests and counter-protests and I think they were looking forward to a big rumble today. And look, my interest is in calmly, carefully explaining to the Australian people why this Budget is necessary to look after our country for the long-term and fix Labor’s debt and deficit disaster.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Why didn’t you go? Why did you pull out of Geelong?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, giving the students an excuse for a riot was not actually going to serve that purpose, it was going take probably up to 50 police off the streets who may have been more useful elsewhere, it was going to inconvenience a lot of people, particularly a whole lot of overseas guests and I’m sure the Premier can go up there and do the honours without the distraction.
NEIL MITCHELL:
The protesters tell me they’re going to continue the protest, that they’ll target you indefinitely they say until the Budget changes. Does that mean you’re going to have to restrict your movements?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I will do what is necessary to do my job and it’s very important that we get this Budget understood. You see, I believe in this Budget, Neil, the Government believes in this Budget. What we need to do is explain it to the Australian people so that they understand its necessity. And the point I keep making over and over again is that we cannot go on spending $1 billion a month paying interest on the interest – we cannot go on paying our national mortgage on the credit card which is what we’re doing at the moment.
NEIL MITCHELL:
But, Prime Minister, before we get into that it’s the issue of your selling of it. Will you be able to move around Australia as freely as you wish?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m sure I will, but…
NEIL MITCHELL:
Well you can’t today.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, it’s the ‘national day of action’ apparently today, which happened to coincide with a planned visit to Deakin University and in order to avoid inconveniencing the police and inconveniencing others, I’ve decided to postpone the visit, but I’m certainly going to be back in Geelong on numerous occasions.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Will you go to the University?
PRIME MINISTER:
I dare say I will.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Were you at all fearful for your own safety?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look, my safety is not the issue. It’s trying to ensure that a whole lot of people are not unnecessarily taken from their normal jobs, it’s trying to ensure in the end that you don’t give the protestors what they want which is a riot on national television.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Are you surprised by the vitriol though and it’s almost as if you attract, personally, a certain level of vitriol that we haven’t seen for some time? People don’t just disagree, and it’s a very strong word, but they tend to hate, they tend to be very passionate about it, and before the Budget that was the way. Is there some sort of personal thing against you do you think?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Neil, look at the reaction to the 1996 Budget. I remember there was actually an invasion of Parliament House because John Howard certainly attracted a level of spleen, it seemed. I think if you’re trying to cure Labor’s debt and deficit disaster as this Government is now, as John Howard’s government was then, if you are trying to I suppose put the country on a better direction, inevitably people who like the former regime are upset.
But you know, I was cycling along Beach Road on Sunday and there was a fellow about 100 yards ahead of me so I sped up to catch up with him. When I caught up to him he looked at me, suddenly a look of surprise spread across his face, and he said, “Oh congratulations”, and I was wondering whether he was congratulating me on the Budget, on being elected or on catching him, because it turned out that the last election was the first election he’d ever voted in – he’d be in his 30s I would say – and he said, “You know, my girlfriend hates you more than any other person on earth”. But we had a good chat…
NEIL MITCHELL:
But there’s that word again. Why the hatred?
PRIME MINISTER:
… we had a good chat, this fellow and I and he took a few photos on his mobile phone so he could take them home and show them to the girlfriend, presumably to let the girlfriend know that this fellow was a human being, on the bike at least.
NEIL MITCHELL:
So, why this hatred and does it concern you?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m just not going to go into that. I’ll let others analyse that. What I’m doing, Neil, is I am doing what is necessary to ensure that we are not borrowing $1 billion a month every single month just to pay the interest on the interest.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Hello Nick, go ahead please.
CALLER:
Yeah, g’day Neil, g’day Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
G’day Nick.
CALLER:
On the issue of the students, firstly, Tony, we’ve got your back, don’t worry about it...
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you, Nick.
CALLER:
They don’t represent us and we as ordinary students are sick and tired of having our lectures and education hijacked by them. But, on that point, I mean I’m a fan of deregulation of uni fees. I think if it encourages unis to innovate and fund things to make them better, that’s good, but to be honest when I talk to my uni mates about, you know, barriers to uni, unis fees aren’t the issue; it’s things like textbooks, it’s things like the compulsory student union fees, which by the way fund the Socialist Alternative. Prime Minister, are we going to see anything to, you know, remove parallel import restrictions on textbooks and a return to voluntary student unionism?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Nick, at the moment my plan is just to sort out Labor’s debt and deficit disaster and get the Budget through the Parliament. So, I think they’re all fair questions you raise, but I’m not planning to open new fronts at this time. So let us get all of the things that we currently have on our plate fixed and then I guess we can think of other things. But I really appreciate your call and thanks for your encouragement.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Nick sounds a little like the student union leader you were, actually.
PRIME MINISTER:
He does, doesn’t he!
NEIL MITCHELL:
He’s a Young Lib, wasn’t he?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don’t know whether he’s a Young Lib, but if he’s not he should be.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Or will be! Eddie? Yes Eddie, go ahead please.
CALLER:
Hi Mr Mitchell and Mr Abbott. My point is that it’s easy for politicians when they need to raise money to put up the fuel excise when they get a taxpayer funded vehicle where they don’t have to pay for fuel. I mean, the state government’s put the registration up. I live in Ballarat, our council’s going to put the rates up. People have only got so much money that they can survive on.
PRIME MINISTER:
You’re dead right, Eddie, and look, I don’t like doing this at all, but we do have a problem where the government was spending like a drunken sailor. We have to rein in spending and we are reining in spending very considerably…
NEIL MITCHELL:
Well actually spending’s increasing.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well…
NEIL MITCHELL:
If you look at the Budget you’re increasing about 12 per cent.
PRIME MINISTER:
But the deficit, which under Labor’s policies would have been at least $30 billion in 2017-18, is going down to under $3 billion.
NEIL MITCHELL:
This is what I don’t understand – how is it a tough Budget when spending’s going up about 12 per cent?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it’s a tough Budget in the sense that it does things like puts a co-payment on the first 10 visits to the GP, it changes the indexation from MTAWE – Male Total Average Weekly Earnings – to CPI – that’s a permanent structural change – it closes the last defined benefit superannuation scheme…
NEIL MITCHELL:
All this is tough on us, but you’re still increasing spending 12 per cent. Where’s that going?
PRIME MINISTER:
But we are cutting spending in structural ways. Yes, as I keep saying to people, we are honouring, at least for the next three years, Labor’s Gonski changes, Labor’s public hospital changes and this is why a lot of the screaming is rather self-interested and a lot of the complaints are, to put it mildly, exaggerated.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Prime Minister, on the issue of spending and Budgets, it’s your principle that we’re taxed too much, isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER:
It is.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Ok. Will you provide tax cuts before the next election?
PRIME MINISTER:
I would like to be in a position to offer tax cuts in our next term. At the moment I’m certainly not guaranteeing that or promising it, but the whole point of getting the Budget under control now, Neil, is so that we can give tax cuts in the not too distant future.
And it’s interesting, we’ve just seen a Victorian budget which invests quite heavily in infrastructure and that’s a very good thing. It’s been a very well and widely well received budget and it’s only because the Victorian coalition government did the hard yards in its first three budgets that it’s able to bring down a budget like this in its fourth year. That’s why budget repair is not an exercise in sadomasochism; it’s actually an exercise in bringing about long-term prosperity for our country.
NEIL MITCHELL:
The Treasury Secretary says the average worker will be in the 37 per cent tax bracket by 2016 via bracket-creep. That’s unacceptable, isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s undesirable – absolutely undesirable.
NEIL MITCHELL:
But do you want the states to raise more taxes?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don’t and…
NEIL MITCHELL:
So how will they pick up the $80 billion gap?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, this is money that was never in any budget. It was part of the unsustainable pie in the sky promises that the former government made knowing that it wouldn’t ever have to deliver on them.
NEIL MITCHELL:
So are we being conned here when Denis Napthine and the others say, “Well it’s going to increase waiting lists, it’s going to screw up hospitals and education”. I mean he’s your mate and he’s telling us one thing, you’re telling us the other.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m not saying that it’s easy to run public hospitals; what I am saying is that Commonwealth spending increases by 9 per cent – Commonwealth public hospital spending increases by 9 per cent for the next three years and by 6 per cent in year four. Now, okay, it’s not as much as Labor promised in year four, but it is still a pretty significant increase and the idea that all of a sudden we’ve got to rush out and raise the GST because spending is only going up by 6 per cent rather than 9 per cent I just don’t think adds up.
NEIL MITCHELL:
So let’s cut to it – do you want to increase the GST, or broaden it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I want to lower the tax burden and the great thing, Neil, about this Budget is that overall we do lower the tax burden by $5.7 billion…
NEIL MITCHELL:
But is that a no, you do not want to change the GST even after the next election? Is there a possibility you’ll go to the next election, as John Howard did in his time, with a proposal to increase or broaden the GST?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we do have a tax reform white paper coming up and I don’t want to pre-empt what might come out of that white paper, but this Commonwealth Government has no plans to change, certainly no plans to increase the GST, and this particular Government absolutely wants to bring about lower, simpler, fairer taxes.
NEIL MITCHELL:
This Government?
PRIME MINISTER:
This Government.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Is there a possibility you would go into the next election with a proposal to increase or broaden the GST?
PRIME MINISTER:
We’ve got a tax reform white paper process, we’ve got a Federation reform white paper process, I’m not going to pre-empt them, but it’s not part of my plan.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Given Rudd famously and then Julia Gillard said that with them with health ‘the buck stopped with them’. Where does the buck stop on health now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it depends. I mean, if someone goes into see the doctor I guess the buck stops with the doctor...
NEIL MITCHELL:
You know what I mean [inaudible].
PRIME MINISTER:
If we’re talking about Medicare, the buck stops with the Commonwealth Government, namely with me. If we’re talking about the PBS, the buck stops with the Commonwealth Government, namely with me. If we’re talking about public hospitals, ultimately the buck stops with the premiers.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Isn’t it time somebody just took control of the whole damn thing?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that’s a very fair point, Neil, and when I was the health minister, one of the things that I found very frustrating – as the Commonwealth health minister – was the fact that we were in those days paying about 45 per cent of total public hospital funding, but we had zero per cent of authority over what happened in the hospitals and that was a frustrating business. I think, over time, we want the states to be sovereign in their own spheres; that means over public schools, over public hospitals, but it’s quite a complex process to get us there and that’s what this Federation reform white paper is all about.
NEIL MITCHELL:
The Prime Ministers is with me. Prime Minister, with the earn or learn philosophy and waiting for dole payments, can you guarantee nobody will actually get in trouble? Nobody will be hungry, nobody will be living on the streets because of that?
PRIME MINISTER:
If you are a disadvantaged jobseeker, this policy will not apply. If you are a work-ready jobseeker and you’re under 30, yes this policy very much does apply and why shouldn’t young people who can’t get a job go off and improve their credentials either at TAFE or at uni? One of the interesting features of our university changes is that we will be providing the FEE-HELP loans for diploma courses, not just for degree courses and…
NEIL MITCHELL:
People fall through cracks and you don’t want people who are genuinely either wanting to work, they’ve finished their course, you don’t want them living on the streets or hungry.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, and…
NEIL MITCHELL:
So how do you stop it?
PRIME MINISTER:
If you need government support you’ll get government support as a student, but you won’t get government support if you are work-ready and you’re under 30 for the first six months.
NEIL MITCHELL:
A lot of people are trying to get jobs – seriously trying to get jobs – and can’t.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, and if you want government support and you are under 30 and you’re work-ready and you can’t get a job – well, go out and get the training that will help you to get a job.
NEIL MITCHELL:
But that’s easier said than done too. I mean I have spent years training for something, I am having trouble getting a job, it might take me months to get a job – how do I live?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we think that the best thing we can do for the young people of Australia is to ensure that they don’t start their working life on unemployment benefits if they are capable of work, if they are work ready. Now…
NEIL MITCHELL:
It doesn’t explain how I eat.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, if you need government support and you haven’t got a job and you are under 30 then there is no reason why you can’t sign up for a course.
NEIL MITCHELL:
For what? I am fully trained as a, I don’t know, a computer programmer and I can’t get a job so I have got to go sign-up in a course in basket-weaving to get any money?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, if you are fully trained as a computer programmer I am confident that, particularly if you are prepared to move around the country, that you will find work.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Other safety nets – now, putting the concession card holders aside – if I am the average person going along to the doctor what is the safety net on the $7 co-payment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it is 10 visits and then the standard bulk-billing arrangements will apply. If I could just…
NEIL MITCHELL:
Without the $7?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, that’s right the standard bulk billing arrangements kick in after you have had ten visits in a calendar year. Look, I have had calls at various radio stations, Neil, from pensioners that say ‘look, I am not well, I will go to the doctor at least ten times’. After you have been ten times – that is after you have racked up the $70. Well, then the normal bulk-billing arrangements apply and of course these pensioners and other vulnerable people they will lose the carbon tax but they will keep the couple of hundred dollars a year in carbon tax compensation that the former Labor government gave them. So, without wanting to pretend for a second that people are on easy street – they are not, and they are doing it tough – on balance they should continue to be better off.
NEIL MITCHELL:
So, if I go back to bulk billing I am not paying the $7 co-payment.
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s correct.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Is the doctor paying?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, because what happens is that the financial arrangements for the doctor revert to the current situation.
NEIL MITCHELL:
What about the chemist? I am paying $5 extra a prescription there. What is the safety net there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there is the same safety net as before although you do have to have a couple more prescriptions before the safety net kicks in.
NEIL MITCHELL:
So, in the end it is going to cost me more?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, I accept that – I absolutely accept that Neil but if we are going to rein in some $667 billion of Labor’s projected debt and $123 billion of Labor’s projected deficit we have got to take these sorts of decisions.
NEIL MITCHELL:
But that’s not happening in this case because the money is going into your medical fund – your $20 billion medical research fund. So, it is not actually going against the deficit unless you are cutting somewhere else.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that’s true but nevertheless as a general principle people are going to have to pay more if we are going to get the debt and deficit situation under control. Either they will pay more or they will get less – that’s the only way.
NEIL MITCHELL:
But the changes to the medical system aren’t actually coming off the deficit are they?
PRIME MINISTER:
In the short term, no, they are going to build up this world leading medical research fund because in the long term if we are going to continue to improve our health system and continue to improve people’s health we need the treatments and the cures that Australia’s researchers are very good at finding.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Does that also mean in the long term or middle to long term the Government will not have to provide money for research?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we will continue to provide roughly the current quantum which is about a billion dollars a year for research but because of the fund that we will build up and will be in a lock-box like the future fund it will not be accessible by future governments to raid. We will effectively have doubled the annual funding for medical research.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Chantelle, hello.
CALLER:
Hi, how are you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Hi Chantelle.
CALLER:
I just have a question and my question would be, I work for local government doing home and community care. Now, out of the 16,000 jobs that are going to be cut I would like to know if my section is going to be the first to go?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, we are talking about Commonwealth jobs – not local government jobs.
CALLER:
Yeah because even around our local government at the moment they’re trying to privatise us. We have a three-year contract but we don’t know what is going to happen after those three years.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I have a three year contract as well and I don’t know what is going to happen after three years. Look, Chantelle…
NEIL MITCHELL:
You probably would get out with a bit more money than Chantelle.
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s a fair point Neil. Look, we all have to live with uncertainty and it’s not nice and sometimes you have got a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when you contemplate the future – I accept that Chantelle. Nevertheless, the Commonwealth Government is tackling its issues because we have got to get the debt and deficit problem that we were left under control. Other levels of Government are doing what they think is best as they wrestle with their particular problems.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Prime Minister, consumer confidence is down. Do you expect it will rebound and do you see it as a direct result of the Budget?
PRIME MINISTER:
I do think it will rebound.
NEIL MITCHELL:
And it is a result of the Budget?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, there has certainly been a lot of political argy-bargy over the last week or so. But the great thing about the Budget is there is a plan, it’s the only plan to tackle the debt and deficit disaster, it’s the only plan that will maintain our AAA credit rating, it’s the only plan that will give us long term prosperity and it’s there thanks to this Budget.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Do you accept that the poorer – the less well-off, the more disadvantaged – are in fact carrying the bulk of the pain here?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think everyone is doing his or her bit. High income earners over $180,000 have got a two cents in the dollar increase in their top tax rate.
NEIL MITCHELL:
But it’s not hurting you and me as much as it is the, you know, the bloke who can’t get a job for six months and can’t get the dole.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don’t want to ask you what you’re paid, Neil, but if you’re earning a half a million dollars and that’s what the prime minister gets paid the tax bill goes up about $6500 a year for the next three years. There’ll be a freeze on MPs pay and senior public servants and judges pay for 12 months and of course everyone will pay the fuel excise indexation. The average family will pay about 40 cents a week more in the first year as a result of that.
NEIL MITCHELL:
But all that doesn’t hurt as much as it does when you’re on lower income obviously. You won’t notice six grand a year.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I’m not complaining, Neil – I’m not complaining. I’m saying that everyone is going to do his or her bit so that all of us will be better off in the long run.
NEIL MITCHELL:
The superannuation, the age at which you can access superannuation – you’re talking about changing it, when will we know? Create some certainty.
PRIME MINISTER:
We’re not going to change it in this term of Parliament.
NEIL MITCHELL:
But it will change inevitably?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m not saying that nothing will ever change and obviously a lot of superannuation things have changed over the years, but we promised before the election that we weren’t changing super in unexpected ways this term of Parliament and we’ll keep that commitment.
NEIL MITCHELL:
A Palmer United Party Senator-elect Jacqui Lambie wants you to tax the banks – this won’t fix it – tax the banks. Is she right?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, again, it’s not something that we are planning.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Are you in negotiations yet with the Palmer Party?
PRIME MINISTER:
They haven’t actually taken their seats in the Senate. As soon as the legislation that we need goes into the Parliament, we’ll be talking to all Members of Parliament about what we need to do to get the legislation through and I’m confident, Neil, that just as other governments that didn’t have control of the Parliament got the bulk of their legislation through, that we’ll be in the same position.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Is there anything non-negotiable?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well what’s non-negotiable is the need to get Labor’s debt and deficit disaster under control. We cannot go on as we are borrowing a billion dollars every single month just to pay the interest on the interest. And the fundamental point Neil is, we did not create this problem – we did not create this problem, but we shoulder the responsibility for fixing it.
NEIL MITCHELL:
So that’s the only non-negotiable? You’ll negotiate everything else? Is there nothing there that you can’t negotiate?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well everything is there for a very good reason. Let’s face it Neil, we would not have been putting ourselves in political jeopardy if we didn’t think it was absolutely necessary to change the country for the better.
NEIL MITCHELL:
So you accept you’re in political jeopardy?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I accept that the Government has taken a hit, but it’s better that the Government should take a hit in its popularity than the long term future of our country.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Could it cost you the next election?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, first term governments are not invulnerable and obviously governments can lose elections. No doubt about that.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Are you going to be in a position to throw a bit more money back at your final budget?
PRIME MINISTER:
If we are a strong and responsible Government, prepared to make the tough decisions now to get our country back on track, I am confident that within a relatively short period of time we will have the economic strength and the prosperity to start looking at things like tax cuts down the track.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Paid parental leave – still locked into it?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s a very important economic reform because we want everyone to be able to maximise his or her contribution to our country. We want people to be able to maximise their potential and that’s the thing about paid parental leave, if we get paid at our wage when we take holidays, if we get paid at our wage and we take long service leave, I believe - and just about every country in the world except Australia believes - that we should be paid at our wage when we take parental leave.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Another area if I may quickly, what’s your advice to people heading towards Thailand on a holiday – martial law declared, don’t go or not?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I think people should look at the warnings. It’s really a choice for individuals to make.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Thank you very much for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Neil, it’s always a pleasure to be here.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Just one last question, do you think you’ve divided the country with this Budget?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think I have alerted the country to the fact that we could not go on as we were, but now there is a plan and it’s the only plan on the table. Labor has no plan except to put its head in the sand and say there is no problem.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Not divided?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, you know, we’ve got Mr Shorten out there running the national complaints desk and being our whinger in chief and what we’re doing is making the constructive changes necessary to secure our future.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks Neil.
[ends]