NEIL MITCHELL:
Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, Neil.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Prime Minister, last year your slogan, your catch-cry was innovation. What is it this year?
PRIME MINISTER:
It continues to be innovation, it continues to be driving more jobs and better jobs, stronger economic growth, more exports, more economic opportunities for Australians. That’s what we are all about.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Okay. Can you change the tax system? The Treasurer is saying in London today that Australia is really going backwards and our standard of living is at risk. Do you support that? Is Australia’s standard of living at risk?
PRIME MINISTER:
Certainly, our standard of living is at risk if we don’t remain competitive. Innovation is a key part of that. Being competitive is a key part of that equation. One of the things we have to be competitive on is business taxes. That’s why we took to the election a program to reduce company tax down from 30 to 25 per cent over ten years. It’s a very carefully calibrated reduction and it starts off with medium sized businesses - businesses up to $10 million turnover for this financial year.
NEIL MITCHELL:
When?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it would start this year. We’re presenting that legislation to the Senate and we’ll be negotiating with the cross bench to secure its passage.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Are you confident you’ll get it through?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it’s going to be a negotiation, Neil. Now Nick Xenophon, who obviously has a key bloc of votes, has said he will support a reduction in company tax for businesses with a turnover of $10 million or less. We’re obviously talking to him and the other crossbenchers about the whole package and we’ll obviously talk to the Labor Party. But you know, Bill Shorten has set himself up on this platform of populism in a way that threatens every Australians job. He is for more expensive electricity. He is against trade and the opening up of market opportunities that allow Australians to export their jobs – export their goods I should say – and create more jobs in Australia. So he is basically against trade. He is against affordable electricity. Now, he is against making Australian companies competitive.
NEIL MITCHELL:
I thought we didn’t have an election this year but it sounds like it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the reality is that we’ve got to look objectively at our circumstances. You know, previous Labor governments and Labor leaders have been in favour – in fact Bill Shorten in previous times - have been in favour of cutting company tax - not because we feel that big companies, or small companies for that matter, should be the objects of some kind of charity, but because if you reduce company tax, you increase the return on investment and you get more investment. If you have more investment, you have more jobs.
NEIL MITCHELL:
That clearly is part of it but you’ve also got to cut spending haven’t you? This seems to be something we avoided last year. There is a need for a significant cut in government spending.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we have achieved over, about, 21 billion dollars of gross savings, gross improvement I should say, to the Budget bottom line and we have achieved cuts in spending, but –
NEIL MITCHELL:
How much of that is in savings? You’ve got $21 billion improvements, some of that is tax, what’s your saving?
PRIME MINISTER:
The cut in spending overall over the forward estimates is around half that, it’s more than half that amount.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Alright, what about more? Is there more ahead?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well yes. Look if we want to balance the Budget we have got to achieve agreement with the Senate on additional savings.
Let me give you a good example. One of the things we want to do is improve the childcare benefits system so that more Australians - like the average Australian you mentioned, you know, a 38-year-old woman with kids, living in a three bedroom house with her husband - what we want to be able to do is make childcare more accessible, more available to people on lower and lower-middle incomes. Now that’s obviously really important as a matter of increasing women’s participation in the workforce. In order to fund that, we need to make savings elsewhere in the social welfare budget and that is part of our package. The Labor Party to date has said they like the spending side, but they don’t like the saving side. That’s the problem.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Prime Minister business is also saying their penalty rates are a big issue. Now we have been mucking around with a decision on penalty rates. It was due about November last year. We still don’t have one on weekend penalty rates. Bill Shorten is reported as saying that even if Fair Work rules that Sunday penalty rates go, he will legislate to guarantee wages. What would you do if the decision on Sunday penalty, if Sunday penalty rates are gone what will you do?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will accept the ruling of the independent tribunal. Just as Bill Shorten said on your program on the 21st of April last year. You said to him: “Will you accept the ruling?” and he said: “I’ll accept the independent tribunal, and that makes a big difference between us and the Liberals”. He was suggesting we wouldn’t accept the independent tribunal. Well, we do!
NEIL MITCHELL:
You’ll accept it even if it rules in favour of penalty rates?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will accept it, absolutely. Neil that’s the point. We respect the independent tribunal that Bill Shorten repeatedly said he would respect and support. Now he’s done a backflip and walked away from it. Look at his record.
NEIL MITCHELL:
This is urgent though. When do we get it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that’s a matter for the tribunal, for Fair Work. You know, you’ve got to judge people by their actions. I mean Bill Shorten has consistently traded away penalty rates. When he was a trade union leader, what he did was negotiate away the penalty rates of workers for Clean Event, and he did so – as the Royal Commission found – in return for payments to the union. So he has no credibility on penalty rates.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Now I know it’s a state issue, but is there any role to play or help to offer from the Federal Government on this crime crisis in Victoria? Is there any role at all you can play?
PRIME MINISTER:
In terms of bail and managing youth detention, that is squarely, as you were saying earlier, in the Premier’s ballpark. Clearly the primary duty of every government, state or federal, is to protect the safety of citizens. People that are in custody should stay in custody, people that are a threat to the community should not be out on bail. So that’s absolutely fundamental. We have been working – we work very closely with state police, our federal police do and our security agencies do. As you know we’ve had extensive discussions with them concerning protecting public places.
NEIL MITCHELL:
That wasn’t Donald Trump on the phone was it?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. [Laughter] We’re having extensive discussions with the states about hardening up for example, places of mass gathering. The shocking attack in Bourke Street with the vehicle is an example of – well it follows on from that truck attack in Nice and we have been working effectively with state and other governments to ensure that places of mass gathering are hardened and I believe more work has to be done in that area in Melbourne. As you know I’ve had discussions with the Premier and with the Lord Mayor about it. But this is a very, very concerning vulnerability that we have. In anywhere where you have a large number of people gathered together we need to be able ensure as much as we can that it is not possible to get a vehicle into that place.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Do you think we need to tighten it up in Melbourne?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think so. You have got wonderful big open – it’s a big open city with big streets, wide footpaths. The attack in Bourke Street is an example of a vulnerability that we have to address and as you know, this criminal sought to turn into I believe it was Little Collins Street and wasn’t able to do so because of the bollards and then of course he turned into and began his murderous assault in Bourke Street. Can I just repeat Neil on what I have said before and I said on Sunday our love and sympathy for those who were injured, our condolences to the families of those who were killed and our absolute admiration for the courage and heroism of Melbournians, the first responders and citizens, just bystanders who rushed to the aid of the victims.
NEIL MITCHELL:
So you think we’ve got to have a serious look at more bollards?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think you do - I really do. It is a significant issue where you have a big mall like that and where it is easy, well relatively easy, to get a vehicle into a place where you have a large number of people. There is good planning generally for places of mass gatherings, say at big events, New Year’s Eve and so forth. But when you are looking at these pedestrianised areas in cities, you need to have a very hard headed think about how you make it harder to get a vehicle in there because -
NEIL MITCHELL:
Because of the terrorism threat you mean?PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, it is a threat of terrorism but you see this individual that killed five people and injured so many more was not engaging in an act of terrorism -
NEIL MITCHELL:
Well he is an accused man, he is not convicted.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, sorry that’s right, he has not been convicted, this person who is alleged to have done this. But what he was doing was using a method of attack that had been demonstrated I suppose you could say, by a terrorist in Nice and of course it was then you had a similar attack, a terrorist attack in Berlin. It is a vulnerability. Just one vehicle can do – it doesn’t have to be a truck – can do so much damage so we do have to think about this and I have spoken to Robert Doyle, I have spoken to Premier Andrews and my Counter-Terrorism Coordinator has been working with state colleagues and state counterparts since last year, since the attack in Nice. But I believe this is a very high priority that has to be addressed.
NEIL MITCHELL:
We will pursue that further. Donald Trump is making his presence felt as President, supporting torture, ending the Pacific Partnership, building his wall with Mexico, apparently ending our refugee deal. Are you planning to ask to visit him? Do you plan to go and visit him soon?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he’s certainly invited me to visit him in Washington and I look forward to doing that –
NEIL MITCHELL:
Soon?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, in the course of the year. I have to say we are in constant touch with the new administration and I am directly and the relationship is very direct and very engaged. We have a very close relationship with the incoming administration just as we always have. The relationship between Australia and the United States is a very intimate one. We are very close and very trusted.
NEIL MITCHELL:
One would assume it must change now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you get a new administration, it has new policies of course and its entitled to do that. A new Australian government can have new policies too but the relationship is one that has been built up over a century or more. We have fought side by side with the United States in every major conflict since the First World War and the relationship is very, very engaged, it is very close and it operates at so many levels, Neil, that is the thing. It is not just between two leaders, it’s at every level.NEIL MITCHELL:
Julie Bishop is giving a speech today in the US saying that she wants, you want greater US involvement in Asia. Is that correct and will you get it?
PRIME MINISTER:
It is certainly our view that a strong presence of the United States in our region is vital for the continued security and prosperity of our region and I’ve made that point to President Trump and his response is the United States isn’t going anywhere. So he has affirmed America’s commitment to our part of the world and I’ve got no reason to doubt that. In fact, everything he said since he became President is consistent with that.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Do you agree with him that you can support torture in certain circumstances?
PRIME MINISTER:
Australia abides by all of its international obligations in respect of torture and we do not practice or countenance torture in Australia or by Australian agencies.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Prime Minister, housing affordability – the median price in Melbourne is now $770,000. It is out of the reach of a lot of people. Will you consider changes to negative gearing which might bring the price down a little? Or has the era come where young Australians have to give up the idea of home ownership?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. Neil, it is absolutely has not. And what we need to do is build more dwellings. Look, you know, there is a tendency for people particularly on the Left to overlook the fundamental reality which is that the reason housing affordability has deteriorated is simply because demand has been consistently exceeding supply. We have not been building enough dwellings. And that is one of the reasons why I have taken a very different approach to my predecessors, both Labor and Liberal, in terms of Federal Government’s role in cities where we are setting up City Deals where we will condition our financial support for infrastructure and so forth on agreed outcomes. And one of those outcomes has to be changes to zoning and regulation that allows more dwellings to be built.
NEIL MITCHELL:
So you want those prices down, don’t you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course you do.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Okay. Negative gearing – will you look at it?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, well, we have looked at it. The reality is, the vast majority of people who negative gear, that is to say, who buy a rental property and offset the net rental loss against their personal income, their wage or salary – the vast majority are Australians on middle incomes. There are vastly more teachers and police doing this than high flying lawyers and tax accountants. What Labor is not accepting and what they don’t understand is that if you have demand which is unmet, prices go up. So the reason, what we need to do is build more dwellings, now the New South Wales Government, now led by Gladys Berejiklian, absolutely understands that. It obviously takes a while for new planning regimes to come into place. It is a key part of our reform agenda with the states but you’ve got to build more dwellings. You can’t sort of constrain supply and then not expect prices to go up.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Just, finally, very quickly, I know you don’t support a change, a change to the Australia Day, the date of Australia Day. You’ve made that clear yesterday. But regardless of that, you can’t have a debate if you’ve got violent protests in the street. Do we at least need a discussion around it? I sense there is a mood change here that maybe there is more people thinking we should change the date. Do we at least need to discuss it?
PRIME MINISTER:
We are certainly entitled to discuss it. It’s a free country. But my view, and as I said yesterday, and that of most Australians is that the date is an appropriate one, it’s a traditional one. Australia Day has been celebrated for well over a century and the date itself is not the issue. The issue is what do you say on the date, what do you do on the date. And what you see on Australia Day, I believe is a very good, warm celebration of Australian values. We begin with an acknowledgement of country. Invariably, we honour the longest continuous human culture of the First Australians and then we celebrate our success as a multicultural nation.
NEIL MITCHELL:
I thank you very much for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Great, thanks a lot Neil.
[ENDS]