LEON BYNER:
Prime Minister, good morning. Thanks for being on the programme.
PRIME MINISTER:
Leon, it’s lovely to be with you.
LEON BYNER:
First of all, Tanya Plibersek in our news said that it was very gutsy of Bill Shorten to out himself on a matter of a police investigation which is now concluded. Do you go along with that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, what I think on this one is that it happened a long time ago. Apparently it’s been dealt with by the police and I don’t think there’s really anything more to say about it. It’s a personal matter and I certainly wouldn’t normally be commenting on personal matters, so it seems that it is at an end.
LEON BYNER:
Prime Minister, you’re having a press conference in less than an hours’ time to announce the North-South Corridor, and as you know, Australians welcome infrastructure projects because one of the benefits that we believe we get out them is local employment and one of the contentious issues for us on this programme – and I’m sure you’re aware it’s not just here but across the country – is the fact that when these tenders are let, unfortunately a large predominance of workers are not local. What are your thoughts on this?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Leon, I understand people’s anxieties and obviously we do wherever possible want to see jobs created here in Australia and one of the good things about the North-South Corridor that I’ll be talking about this morning is that over the next four years we’ll be creating about 500 additional jobs as we spend about a billion dollars from the Commonwealth and about another half a billion dollars from the state to do these two major upgrades – the Darlington project and the Torrens to Torrens project. So, all of the infrastructure work that the Commonwealth is very, very committed to and cracking on with is going to be creating jobs here in South Australia.
LEON BYNER:
Ok, Tony, there’s another issue. Earlier this week Arnott’s decided that they’re going to scale down their manufacturing at Marleston and they made the point that they can’t get the economies of scale in this state that they can get elsewhere. Today, Inghams have said that they’re going to move their turkey production away from the south into another state – New South Wales. How do you view South Australia economically? We are in a very difficult position right now. What’s your perception of the way things are for this state economically?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I accept, Leon, that South Australia has had its issues over the last few years and I’ve had a few arguments with the South Australian Labor government which has been a high-taxing, high-regulating government, and I don’t think that’s the way to get jobs into your state. But I’m not here to talk South Australia down. Adelaide was rated, I think, the fifth most liveable city this week. It is a beautiful city. I think it’s a place to work and to invest and to employ, as well as simply to live. If we get – within a decade, as this Government is committed to doing – the North-South road corridor upgraded to freeway standard; if we can get the mining tax off; as well as the carbon tax which has come off; we may well get more work happening at Olympic Dam, and obviously, there’s submarines which will be a big job creator here in South Australia in the future as well as in the past. So, while some jobs go, other jobs come, and I’m confident, Leon, that over time good economic policies will produce significantly better employment conditions in South Australia.
LEON BYNER:
Prime Minister, in the last few days we’ve had some very colourful public debate with the people that you’re trying to negotiate with the get your Budget up. Now, one of the most contentious issues of your Budget of course is that $7 co-payment. The AMA put up an offer and I understand that it well it’s not going to happen. So what do you do from here? How do you get this Budget resolved where a few days ago we had a Budget emergency and now it’s business as usual? So, what is the real status at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we do want to get our budget measures through the Senate because we think they’re important and necessary measures to get the Budget back under control, and if you want a strong economy, it certainly helps enormously to have a strong budget. On the subject of the co-payment, Leon, while we don’t necessarily support the proposal that the AMA put up yesterday, we certainly think it’s good that the AMA has accepted the principle of the co-payment because after all we’ve got to keep Medicare sustainable. It’s a great system. As health minister, I’ve invested a lot of time and effort in keeping Medicare sustainable, but given the current fiscal position, it is important that there be a modest co-payment. We’ve long had one for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and if it’s perfectly reasonable and fair to have a modest co-payment for your prescription drugs, why isn’t it also reasonable and fair to have a modest co-payment for Medicare?
LEON BYNER:
You’ve tried to deal with many of the crossbenchers, including the Palmer United Party, and there have been some comments in the last couple of days that you’ve publicly admonished and said, look I don’t agree with this – and that’s about Clive Palmer’s comments about China and then his Tasmanian Senator saying a few more things about invasion. But ultimately, do you still think you can negotiate some of these parts of a Budget that they’ve rejected? What is open to you to give you leverage to get this through?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, they all said pre-election that they oppose the mining tax and I think that as part of opposing the mining tax and getting rid of the mining tax they should also be prepared to get rid of the unsustainable spending that the mining tax was supposed to fund. So, that’s obviously a discussion that the Government wants to continue with them and will hopefully progress in the next week or so and look, Leon, we’re going to just take it step by step by step. Every few days we’ll deal with another issue and hopefully as time goes by more and more of our Budget and other measures will go through. We just accept that we’ve got to work with the Parliament that the people elected and we will do the best we can, given the reality that we face.
LEON BYNER:
Ok, so Tony, you and Joe Hockey and others in your sanctum of executive government have made it clear that we are on a budget trajectory that is unacceptable – that’s what you’ve said. Now, given that you’re not getting much help from the Senate, are you going to rule in or out or just leave it there on the side the possibility of a double dissolution?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you never finally say no to any of these things, but it’s the last thing the people of Australia want, another election. No one wants another election now. We’ve had plenty of elections lately. I mean, you had a state election just a few months ago. There was a federal election late last year. We had a whole state by-election in Western Australia earlier this year. So, we’ve had elections coming out of our ears, Leon, and I think that the public now expect the Parliament that they elected to get on with the job. Now, we did scrap the carbon tax and that means that every household will be better off on average to the tune of $550 a year…
LEON BYNER:
Do you stick to that figure, by the way? Because I noticed that Aurora Energy as recently as last night suggested that they’re not going to be giving the kind of discounts or repeals of monies spent on the carbon tax back in anywhere near the amount that might have been predicted.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I think Rod Sims from the ACCC is probably the most authoritative individual on this and he said, yes, he certainly expects the average family to be better off to the tune of about $550 and he’s the man who watched prices as they went up and he’s the man who’s going to be monitoring and watching prices as they go down.
LEON BYNER:
Peter Greste and his two colleagues have formally filed an appeal against their jail sentences in Egypt. Are you helping him with that?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ve had two conversations with Egyptian presidents about this. I certainly want Peter Greste and his colleagues out as quickly as possible because as far as I can work out they were just doing their job. Now, obviously I accept that the Egyptian legal system has to be given due respect. I’m not going to comment on the legal tactics of the Greste family’s lawyers, I just want to do whatever we reasonably can to get Peter Greste and his colleagues released as quickly as possible. My understanding is that it’s only after all legal processes have been exhausted that there is the possibility of presidential clemency. So, I’d rather expected to be on the phone to the President of Egypt soon, but given this appeal it might take a little longer because he’s obviously going to say to me, well, we’ve got to see where this appeal goes before I can get involved.
LEON BYNER:
Prime Minister, another important issue for South Australia is that the government have said – the state government – that they will not rule out the closure of a hospital or indeed savage cuts in education because of your Budget. What do you say to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I think that that would be an excuse, frankly, if they were to blame us for anything they do in that area. I’ve had another look at the figures this morning and funding for schools and hospitals here in South Australia goes up and up and up every year. Overall, public hospital and school funding in South Australia will be 30 per cent higher. Commonwealth funding for public schools and hospitals in South Australia will be 30 per cent higher in four years’ time than it is now.
LEON BYNER:
The gauntlet you ran last night before you gave the speech at Adelaide Uni, you had about 500 students there. They’re upset about the business of the standards of wages, they’re upset about the business of gay marriage, they’re upset about asylum seekers and their treatment. Your comment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I didn’t exactly run the gauntlet because the South Australian police did a terrific job of keeping the protest – and it was a bit ugly at one stage – they did a very good job of keeping the protest away. Look, they all have a right to protest. It’s a pity when protests start to get a bit out of hand as this one did, but people also have a right to speech and to listen and that’s, in the end, what did happen. I gave my speech, I got a polite hearing from the 400 or so who turned up and the 200 or 300 or 400 or whoever it was outside, they got to shout themselves hoarse. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves – as students do when they’re at protests!
LEON BYNER:
Prime Minister, from this point, you’ve got a pretty tough job to get the Budget up, although Joe Hockey has said that most of it has gone through anyway.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, much of it has; much of it has gone through with the appropriations bills.
LEON BYNER:
There’s $40 billion outstanding, though – approximately. So, have you put a time limit on this or is it just going to dribble on?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, if we don’t get the savings, we don’t get the return to surplus, and every year we are still in deficit is a year when we are running up a very heavy bill for our children and grandchildren to meet. The problem with the former government, Leon, is that debt and deficit were out of control and if debt and deficit continued on the same trajectory, within a decade the bill would be $25,000 for every Australian man, woman and child. That would be the debt that we would each owe as a result of the former government’s spending spree.
So, we do need to get the Budget back under control. We think we’ve brought down a very sensible Budget, a Budget that builds as well as saves; a Budget that plays to our strengths as well as live within our means. There’s the medical research funding, there’s the road building funding, as well as sensible savings. So, we think it’s a very good Budget. Yes, inevitably there are some reductions in the growth of future spending. Yes, there are some modest savings in various areas, but what is the alternative and what we’ve had from the Labor Party is near hysteria about the solution to the problem that they created and we’ve had no solutions from Labor, just a series of hysterical complaints.
LEON BYNER:
Let me ask you, if you believe the wisdom is in the Budget as you suggest, why do you think you’re polling so badly so close to when you won in a very, very comprehensive victory? What do you think’s gone wrong?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it was never going to be easy to significantly reduce the growth of government spending because people inevitably – even if they accept that the overall problem needs to be dealt with – never much like it when it impacts directly on them. So, I think that’s the basic problem. No one likes to have something – even something that’s really unsustainable – taken away, but my job is not to complain. My job is to get on with it and I’m confident, Leon, that in two years’ time when we’re about to go back to the polls, people will look at this Government and they’ll look at what we promised: to stop the boats – well, that’s happening; to build the roads of the 21st century – well, that’s happening with the North-South Corridor; to repeal the carbon tax – well, that’s been done; and to get the Budget back under control – now, this is a work in progress, but considerable progress is being made and I think people appreciate that the real villain here is not the Government, but the Labor Party.
LEON BYNER:
Let me ask you finally, Prime Minister, the big problem for us is the cost of energy. If you want to enrich manufacturing jobs, even at the higher end, the energy intensive users are going to have to have a competitive edge when they’re paying the highest power prices in the world that’s going to be very hard. Apart from the repealing of the carbon tax, what are you doing to get the price of electricity down?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, repealing the carbon tax is a good start because that should take about 10 per cent off power bills. The other thing that we’re trying to do is ensure that we’ve got a one stop shop for environmental approvals and that should mean that new energy projects go ahead more readily than they might previously have gone ahead. Greg Hunt has given environmental approvals for some $800 billion worth of new projects – very many of them are energy projects – since the election. So, they’re some concrete things. The restoration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission should mean that the capital costs of energy projects are significantly reduced over time because, at the moment, building costs are going through the roof or they were going through the roof under the former government – in part, because of militant union activity. So, there are a lot of things that we’re addressing. Then, of course, there’s the Renewable Energy Target. Now, we support renewable energy, but we have to accept that the growth of renewable energy has significantly lifted prices in recent times and we’re looking at ways we can deal with that to try to ensure that it is having less of an impact on power prices than it’s had.
LEON BYNER:
Prime Minister, thanks for joining us today and you’ll keep us in the loop, won’t you?
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly will, Leon.
[ends]