KARL STEFANOVIC:
PM, good morning to you. Where did it all go wrong?
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, Karl. Well, Karl, the carbon tax has been successfully repealed, the mining tax has been successfully repealed, the boats are stopping, free trade agreements are being negotiated, the repeal of the carbon tax means that every household is $550 a year better off. So, sure, the polls aren’t so great, but no one said that the task of budget repair would be easy. No one said that tackling six years of a debt and deficit disaster was going to be easy, but I think the Australian people can be very confident that they’ve had a good year under their belt, that we’re getting the fundamentals right and that we are delivering for the people of Australia. I’d say to the people of Australia, we are delivering for you. That’s what we set out to do when we were elected and every day this year that’s exactly what we’ve done.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Peter Costello says this morning that getting rid of the barnacles has been as choppy as the barnacles themselves. He’s right, isn’t he?
PRIME MINISTER:
Peter’s obviously entitled to his view. Again, Karl, no one said that the task of tackling the debt and deficit disaster that Labor left us would be easy. We’re repairing the Budget, Labor is doing its best to sabotage the Budget and I’m not complaining…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Yes you are!
PRIME MINISTER:
… because that’s the Senate that the people elected. But if you look back over the year, everything that this Government has been able to do without needing parliamentary approval has been done pretty effectively. Look at the way we’ve handled foreign policy issues like MH17, MH370, look at the way we’ve handled the foreign fighters threat, the ISIL death cult threat, look at the way we’ve dealt with free trade negotiations. Sure, it gets tougher when you’ve got to negotiate your legislation past your political opponents in the Senate, and I wish the Labor Party wasn’t in such a feral mood, I wish the Labor Party was taking the kind of view that the Howard opposition took back in the 1980s when Bob Hawke and Paul Keating were being a responsible Labor government.
But, my message to the public is that we are delivering: your carbon tax repealed, the mining tax repealed, the boats stopping, the roads building and the Budget under repair for the first time in seven years.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
With respect, you were fairly feral in opposition, weren’t you? I mean the greatest respect by that, and isn’t he just doing what you did and why would he do anything different when it worked for you?
PRIME MINISTER:
We tried to stop the Labor Party from putting in a carbon tax, because a carbon tax was a very bad policy and that’s what Bill Shorten wants to give you, the people, back if he was to win an election – he’ll whack the carbon tax back on.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
PM, he says your policies are bad so why would he support them? And if it worked for you, why would he do anything different?
PRIME MINISTER:
The interesting thing is that Mr Shorten and the Labor Party are actually opposing $5 billion of their own savings and that’s why I say it’s a Budget sabotage approach from Labor, because savings that they had committed themselves to pre-election they’re now opposing post-election. Now, fair enough if they think it works for them, but in the end what we’ve all got to be on about is what’s best for our country.
Labor knows that a surplus is important and necessary because they told us until they were blue in the face that they would actually deliver one. In fact, they’ve given us debt and deficit stretching out as far as they eye can see and, Karl, it’s my duty not to allow this intergenerational theft to go on. It’s my duty to the Australian people and, sure, there’s some passing unpopularity associated with it, but my duty is not to load up our children and our grandchildren with debt so that the promises of the former Labor government which were never sustainable can continue to be delivered.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
The reality here is that the Budget position is in a shambles and every day it does get worse; it’s not getting better.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it’s not in a shambles, Karl, I want to stop you there…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
No one is buying what you are selling is the point. No one is buying what you are selling – what you are laying down – and that’s the problem.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Karl, I want to stop you there. The Budget started to come under control the day the government changed and the day we got a government which was serious about Budget repair. Now, I don’t pretend that this Parliament has been easy for us – not for a second do I pretend that this Parliament is easy for us – but we have already made substantial changes through the Appropriations Bill. Let’s not forget that despite the difficulties in the Senate we did get $10 billion worth of savings associated with the repeal of the mining tax, we got almost $3 billion savings in the social security budget in the last sitting fortnight.
So, we are making progress every day. It’s not as easy as we would like, it’s not as fast as we would like, but we are committed to Budget repair, we are committed to ending the crime of intergenerational theft, which Labor unfortunately still believes in.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Are you worried that you might be a one term wonder?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I was a member of the Howard Government you might remember, Karl, and the Howard Government didn’t look too flash at different times in its first term, but it went on to become probably the most successful government in Australia’s post-war history. But my job every day is to discharge the heavy responsibilities, to discharge the job that I’ve been entrusted with to the best of my ability and to the best of my colleagues’ ability, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
And as you showed yesterday, you’re front and centre now. Is Joe Hockey’s job safe?
PRIME MINISTER:
Joe’s doing a fine job. All of my frontbench colleagues are doing a fine job…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Is his job safe?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course. Of course it is, Karl, of course it is. And look, we can always play this game of trying to turn politics into a soap opera, but it’s a very serious business. The decisions that we make will impact on our children and grandchildren and I am determined that they should have the freedom to determine their own destiny without being burdened by debt that we’ve run up because the former government were so irresponsible and because the current Parliament doesn’t always have the intestinal fortitude to do what’s necessary for our nation’s future.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Two questions before we go. This is very easy for Bill Shorten and you can see it right away. First of all he’s just copying you. It will come down to your inability to pay the Budget down and it will also come down to broken promises. You can do something about the Budget, but you’re not going to be able to do anything about broken promises; you’ve done that now.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Karl, we can have all sorts of arguments about the fine print and the semantics, but let’s not forget that despite everything, school funding is going up, public hospital funding is going up. Sure, we have decided to cut, modestly, the ABC, but there’s a world of difference between what’s right and proper when the then government is telling you that the deficit will only be $18 billion and it turns out to be almost $50 billion and I think the public understand that when circumstances change you have to change your response. I think the public do understand that, and look, the fundamental commitment we made to the Australian people was that we would get the Budget under control and we’ve absolutely kept faith with that commitment.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Just before we go, PM, who put that Christmas tree behind you? It looks like some sort of superhero tree!
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that’s the Giving Tree and I suppose the Channel Nine cameraman put me in this position! Good of you to advertise the Giving Tree in my office. I’m encouraging all the visitors to my office in this Christmas period to bring a gift and the Salvation Army will distribute those gifts to disadvantaged and needy families in the run up to Christmas…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It’s a good thing.
PRIME MINISTER:
… and I think over the last quarter century the Salvos have distributed over 6 million gifts as part of this whole Giving Tree programme.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It’s a good programme. Larissa Waters says boys shouldn’t be given toy guns to play with and Tonka trucks and girls shouldn’t be given Barbies to play with this Christmas. Your thoughts on that?
PRIME MINISTER:
You know, and you wonder why the Parliament’s difficult, when you’ve got people like that with the balance of power in the Senate. Look, I certainly don’t believe in that kind of political correctness. Let boys be boys, let girls be girls – that’s always been my philosophy – and above all else, let parents do what they think is in the best interests of their children.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Good on you, PM. Thank you very much for your time today. I appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you, Karl.
[ends]