CARY: Good morning
PM: Good morning, Greg and thanks for having me on the program.
CARY: I just talking about the seeming bipartisanship of what came out of yesterday. You might talk with us a little bit about that. What are the key points out of it our listeners should know?
PM: Well, all Premiers and Chief Ministers when we meet in Perth yesterday were completely seized to the fact that we are in the middle of a global financial crisis. Therefore that has implications to the Australian economy. Therefore we need to cooperate, put any petty differences to one side.
What does that mean in practice? What we have decided to do on the infrastructure front is to bring forward a report on priority national infrastructure projects from Infrastructure Australia. That was due to be considered next year, we will now bring that forward to the end of this year. And that's practical projects like roads, rail, port, high speed broadband. That is the first thing.
The second is in the area of regulation of Australia's credit institutions, a number of those are still regulated in an uncoordinated way across the States. We have decided and have agreed as all Governments now to bring that under a single national uniform set of regulations. We think that's important for the long term future, particularly the problems we have seen overseas.
They are two practical things that we have done. But we did a lot of other things as well.
CARY: How confident are you then that we can weather whatever economic storms are about to hit, not only the United States but seemingly the other parts of the world? And we will obviously get some of that over here as well.
PM: Well many people have said to me around the world that Australia is better positioned to weather these storms among practically all of the countries. The reasons are these - our banking system is well regulated, they are running strong balance sheets. Thirdly, we have a strong budget surplus which gives us a buffer to act into the future and for those three reasons we believe that we are well positioned to see Australia through.
It's going to be tough, it's going to be hard. But my overall responsibility as Prime Minister is take the decisions, including some hard decisions, to ensure that we maintain the stability of the Australian financial system.
CARY: Prime Minister from Australia's perspective, let alone America's, how important is it that the Congress now passes the bailout package over there? And how confident are you that they will?
PM: It is of fundamental importance. It was bad, very bad that it didn't get through the Congress last time. During the course of this week, I have had Australia's Ambassador in Washington speaking and working with individual Congressman on this. Yesterday morning, I spoke directly to the Leader of the, the House Majority Leader on this as well, putting the view of friends and allies that whether you are in Australia, whether you are in Japan or the United Kingdom, we as friends and allies of the United States need to see this package passed through the Congress as well.
Why? The stabilisation of the US financial markets means the stabilisation of global financial markets. Very important for the economy. I'd rather not think about the consequences if it doesn't pass but I know a lot effort is being put in by our friends in the congress to muster the votes necessary. But it is going to be tight.
CARY: A couple of other issues this morning. One I mentioned on the program yesterday, how sickened I felt and a lot of our listeners felt the same way to wake up and see on our front pages the smiling faces of the Bali bombers as they get closer with their date with the executioner. You said yesterday that they are murdering cowards who deserve to die. You went on to say it is only fair that the Bali bombers are on death row. I don't know if there are too many Australians who would disagree with what you said. It does raise this question however no doubt, and that is you implicitly supporting or explicitly supporting the death penalty there and yet we've got plenty of murdering cowards on death row here. Why not the same for them?
PM: What I said was first of all they describe themselves as holy warriors. I said they are not holy warriors at all, they are cowards and they are murderers and they are mass murderers.
Secondly, I went on to say that they deserve the justice that they will get. By which I mean consistent with the judicial system and how that pans out in the end is a matter for the Indonesians.
Our position as you know has always been one as a matter of general policy of opposition to the death penalty. We also have said that we intervene in the cases of individual Australians who are convicted with capital sentences abroad. And that has been a bipartisan policy since year dot. My comments yesterday were about basically the integrity of the Indonesian judicial system and that is evident in the transcript.
CARY: I accept that, but if we are to support that judicial system and the integrity of it and condone what that judicial system is doing, is it not appropriate that we even contemplate the same kind of punishment for similar kinds of crime in Australia?
PM: Well look, bipartisan basis we've opposed the death penalty in Australia going back to year dot. Well, a long, long time, anyway. And that's the view of Liberals, it's the view of the Australian Labor Party, and that will be the case into the future as well.
And also, when it comes to Australians convicted of sentences abroad, both Mr Howard when he was Prime Minister, and myself since becoming Prime Minister, we regularly intervene with foreign countries arguing the case for clemency for Australians convicted abroad.
When it comes to foreign nations, the situation is as I described before.
CARY: Okay. Just perhaps in a sentence then because there is not a lot of time and only one or two points to make - what is your fundamental, philosophical problem with the death penalty?
PM: Oh, I take the underlying view that when it comes to the death penalty, in this country, I have never accepted the argument that it represents a sufficient deterrent of itself. And secondly, the argument that killing another person doesn't bring back the person to life that they have already killed themselves.
So, if I was persuaded of the deterrent arguments or the other arguments, then I would have a different view. But I have never had a persuasive argument put to me on that score and that has been my consistent position throughout my life.
CARY: Okay, we have two minutes. Let me ask you quickly about maternity leave, one of the big stories of the week. I'm getting a lot of correspondence from small business concerned about the nine per cent superannuation impost. At the same time, they've lost a worker and had to replace that worker. What would you say to them?
PM: Well, I think for all business we are very mindful of the fact that business have real costs here. The first thing about paid maternity leave though is that we are one of two developed countries around the world - us and the United States - who don't have it. It's just, frankly, we've got to catch up with the 21st century, and I'm surprised that the Liberals have been opposing it, I really am.
Secondly, on the way in which it'll be funded, the proposal put forward by the Productivity Commission is for this payment to be paid by the government. The exception, of course, is that when a woman is on paid maternity leave that their superannuation contribution continues to be paid by the employer.
I've got to say, we'll work through all of that detail over the next few months, but we, the Government, are strongly of the view that paid maternity leave's time has come. We've fiddled and faddled on this for 12 years, it's been 12 years of inaction. It's time Australia bit the bullet on this. This Government will bite the bullet, and we will put forward a detailed response to what has been put out by the Productivity Commission over the course of the next few months.
CARY: Okay, the other concern related to all of that is the disparity, and, I think Tony Abbott highlighted it earlier in the week, between those who choose to be stay at home mums and those who are working mums. The stay at home mums will effectively get less than the working mums during that period?
PM: Can I say this, that all mums at present receive the baby bonus. And I believe, fundamentally, in women's right to choose here. Across Australia, there are nearly 300,000 bubs born each year. About 100,000 of those mums are stay at home mums, about 200,000 - a bit less than that, heading up towards 200,000 - are mums who return to the paid workforce.
Now, we've got to deal with both those realities and support women who make those choices.
Stay at home mums will not be a dollar worse off. The baby bonus will continue to be paid.
What we are now debating is paid maternity leave. And as I said, it's just wrong the fact that we're one of only two countries in the world not to support women. Often women in low income levels are finding it almost impossible to juggle having a baby and needing to go back to work in order to balance their budget, their household budget.
CARY: I understand that. But you don't find a problem with that disparity, that the baby bonus won't be as much as the 18 weeks paid maternity leave?
PM: Look, I respect women who make both those choices. But I've got to say, we've got to bite the bullet on paid maternity leave.
The medical advice is that if women are returning to the workforce, and often the case at present if we're talking about lower paid women, women on low to middle incomes whose employers have not been able to provide any form of paid maternity leave, for the health of the bub and the mum, what all the professional advice is is that women need to be at least given the flexibility of being with their bub for four and a half, five, six months. You know, breast feeding and the rest, settling the baby down. It's really important.
So the practical question is how do you provide sufficient income support for women often lower paid women in those circumstances.
I know it's controversial, I know it's tough, but the Government's determined to bite the bullet on this. And I'm surprised, again, that the Liberals would oppose it.
CARY: The big question until last - no Brisbane Broncos in the Grand Final. Storm versus Manly, what's your tip? Who do you want to win?
PM: I'll be backing the Storm because half of them are from Brissie.
CARY: Enjoy the day Prime Minister.
PM: Thanks very much, Greg.