UHLMANN: Julia Gillard, welcome to 7.30.
PM: Thank you very much Chris.
UHLMANN: You've revisited places you saw devastated just three months ago, what was that like?
PM: It was a tremendous opportunity to be out talking to people and my overwhelming sense is whilst there's a lot of fighting spirit there, there's a lot of hurt too. It is a long journey back for people and I've had the opportunity yesterday and today to talk to people in Dalby and Toowoomba, people from the Lockyer Valley, people in Goodna, so it's been a great opportunity to catch back up and see how people are going and I've very much valued it.
It is tough out there, but people are taking it a step at a time and rebuilding their lives and we'll be there with them as they do it.
UHLMANN: Now the Government's been here talking to people, but you've been quite critical of some members of the insurance industry, you've called them cowardly, why?
PM: I've called them cowardly because there was a special opportunity created yesterday for members of the insurance industry to come and front Queenslanders in Ipswich and actually address people's complaints and I think they should have taken that opportunity.
It can be difficult sitting there, talking to people who've got criticisms, but it's the right thing to do, to front people and explain why you've made the decisions you have and the insurance companies refused to do that yesterday. I did think that was cowardly.
UHLMANN: Now the devastation in Queensland will have an effect on your budget, you've seen revenues collapse through your company tax receipts. You've made it quite clear that this is going to be a tough budget. Are you going to target welfare in this budget, do you think there are too many people on welfare.
PM: We are committed to rebuilding Queensland and around the nation, so money has been allocated for that. I announced our $5.6 billion package to do just that and we've spent almost $1 billion here in Queensland on individual payments already and there is a tough environment in many senses, apart from natural disasters here, with all of the economic loss of revenue that that causes. We've had implications for our economy from Japan and whilst the mining sector is booming, other parts of the economy are quite flat and that's hit into company tax receipts. But my purpose in talking about participation for the budget is really a purpose about spreading opportunity in this country.
I want to make sure that Australians who can work do have the opportunity to work and that we get people into work. That's about giving life chances.
UHLMANN: But certainly one of the things that you're going to have to do is move people off things like disability pensions, aren't you? And do you intend to do that, how many people do you intend to move off and what do you intend to save while doing that?
PM: I've talked about participation consistently, this has been a theme of mine and I've said we face formidable challenges. There are around 2 million Australians who are not in the fulltime workforce, above and beyond those who are officially registered as unemployed.
Now I understand that there are a whole set of individual circumstances for those Australians, but for Australians who can work, I believe we should have those Australians working. It's going to take a lot of policy innovation to do that, it is a formidable policy challenge. As a government we've made a start and in the budget I want to do more.
UHLMANN: Sure, can I put some flesh on the bones about that though, are you talking about disability pensions; are you talking about moving people off disability pensions?
PM: I'm talking creating a circumstance where we're building a bridge to employment for people through more training, more skills and making sure that people are motivated -
UHLMANN: And fewer people on welfare?
PM: Inevitably that would cause fewer people on welfare, because given the choice I want to see people in the workforce, not on welfare. We do have to build those bridges into the workforce, give people the skills and trailing they need to get a job opportunity.
UHLMANN: Prime Minister, have you always consistently, publicly and privately supported a price on carbon?
PM: I've always believed we had to price carbon in order to tackle climate change, absolutely.
UHLMANN: Kevin Rudd says that you didn't at one stage, that you urged him to abandon the former ETS scheme.
PM: Look, I understand that people will focus on some of this history, but Chris if I'd wanted a history job I would have become a historian and studied the relevant qualifications.
UHLMANN: It is history and Kevin Rudd is a primary source and this isn't in dispute now, Kevin Rudd said that's what you did, is that what you did?
PM: Well Chris, I've always been very clear that I'm not going to talk publicly about confidential discussions between Cabinet colleagues -
UHLMANN: Yet he has.
PM: But I've also been very clear Chris and I'm happy to be very clear again, I believe climate change is real, I've always believed climate change was real, that we needed to tackle it by pricing carbon and I am committed to getting that done and we will do that from 1st July next year.
UHLMANN: But Prime Minister, this confidential conversation has been revealed by Kevin Rudd and his take on it is that you and Wayne Swan urged him to abandon his carbon pollution reduction scheme, is that the case? In private when things got hard, did you decide that you should cut and run from that?
PM: Look Chris, I'm absolutely determined to price carbon, I'm not going to go over past conversations -
UHLMANN: So the answer is yes you did?
PM: Well, no, the answer is the answer I'm giving you -
UHLMANN: Unless you correct the record.
PM: I'll leave the history to you, my focus is on making sure that we price carbon, so that we have a clean energy economy for the future with all of the jobs and prosperity that comes with that and so we are doing the right thing to cut carbon pollution and tackle climate change. I'm not going to canvass confidential discussions between colleagues.
UHLMANN: Prime Minister, are you pleased with the Foreign Minister's performance this week?
PM: I understand that Kevin was asked on Q&A some questions about that period of his prime ministership and he answered them -
UHLMANN: And did he tell the truth?
PM: What's been less reported Chris, is that he was also asked about his work now and made it very clear that he's got his shoulder to the wheel, pressing the policies and plans of this government out there arguing for them and that's exactly what I expect my ministers to do.
UHLMANN: Are you happy with this performance this week?
PM: Look, I just answered the question. I expect my ministers to be out there arguing for the Government's policies and plans and Kevin Rudd was doing that on Monday night.
UHLMANN: Kevin Rudd said today ‘as a former Prime Minister I will speak as appropriate to make sure the record is straight', are you happy with that as Prime Minister?
PM: What I want my ministers to be doing, Kevin included, and he was doing this on Monday night when you look at all of the questions that he fielded, is I want them to be out there explaining to the Australian community the Government's policies and plans. He said on Monday night, he'll have his shoulder to the wheel doing that, that's a great thing.
UHLMANN: And this week he's sucked the oxygen out of the campaign that you had this week on a carbon tax and he's opened up the questions that the Liberal Party might open up, what do you stand for and can you be trusted. So he's done you some great damage this week.
PM: I'm very clear about what I stand for and I'm very clear about my focus on the future of this country, on creating an Australia where we fairly distribute opportunity, where people don't get left behind, for example on welfare when they've got the ability to work and we as a nation tackle the challenges of the future and there's no bigger one than climate change and pricing carbon, which I'm determined to get done.
UHLMANN: Do you trust the Foreign Minister?
PM: Of course, Kevin is part of my team -
UHLMANN: Why after this week?
PM: Chris, I'll leave the political commentary and hyperbole to you. Kevin Rudd as Minister for Foreign Affairs went on an ABC show on Monday night, on that show he advocated for the Government's policies, that is what I expect my ministers to do and Kevin Rudd was doing it.
UHLMANN: You said in a speech that you gave recently that the Greens would never embrace Labor's delight in the Australian values that you shared, what did you mean by that?
PM: Exactly what those words do mean, I was obviously referring to the Greens political party, I know there's been some misreading of these comments to suggest that I was referring to every person who votes Green.
But my point there was, Labor is a mainstream political party, a mainstream political party that always wants to be, and indeed delights in being the voice of everyday Australia and in touch with their values.
The Greens, they started on a different journey, a journey about the environment, I understand that, but our journey as a mainstream political party has been, for more than 100 years now, giving political voice to the aspirations of Australians right around this country, ordinary hardworking Australians, people who need a job, need a pay packet, worry about the bills, want their kids to go to a great school, want to know that the hospital's there when they need it, want a decent old age and retirement.
UHLMANN: Finally, briefly Prime Minister, don't you think the Greens would share a delight in that as well? Aren't they part of Australia, don't they share Australian values?
PM: I think that's a simplistic divide and I'm not prepared to say that's what my comments meant. I stand by the words in that speech and I stand by a rational construction of them.
The Greens have a different genesis from the Labor Party, they didn't come into existence to be the mainstream voice of working Australians, they came into existence to be a protest movement about environmental causes and if we look now on some of the big policy debates in our country - mandatory detention - that's a policy debate in our country, I believe Labor is more in touch with mainstream Australian values on that, to take one example.
UHLMANN: Prime Minister, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you.
PM: Thank you.