HOST: Let's welcome the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Prime Minister, thanks for joining us.
PM: Good morning Leon.
HOST: Now, we've done a bit of homework and found out that the cost of refrigerant gas is to go up about four times, which means a domestic air conditioner burnout will cost substantially more to fix than previous. Try $800 to $1,750. How are people going to afford that?
PM: Well Leon, all of this has been factored in the general cost of living increase that we are predicting of less than a cent in a dollar. The gases that you speak about have been the subject of special levies and arrangements for many long years now, going back to Prime Minister Howard's time in government because these gases do have a far more potent affect on our environment than even carbon dioxide.
But Leon, carbon pricing, let's have a look at the totality of it. This is a scheme where the businesses that generate the most carbon pollution will pay a price per tonne for doing that.
HOST: And they'll pass it on?
PM: Well they will pass some of it on. They will change the way that they do things, they're rational business people. They'll respond to that price. And as a result we'll see the equivalent of 45 million cars going off our roads in 2020.
That's the amount of carbon pollution we'll see reduced. Yes they will pass on some of the costs, which means people's cost of living will increase by less an a cent in a dollar. And people from today will get tax cuts.
If you earn less than $80,000 check your next pay packet and check out your tax cut. If you are particularly someone who works part-time, a limited number of hours, a student, a mum going back to work; we have increased the tax-free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200. You earn that, and the taxman doesn't take a cent. And of course there have been pensioners and family payment increases too, and they'll go on.
HOST: Small and medium businesses get no compensation. And that refrigerant gas issue has taken a big jump now because the gas itself has gone up four fold. This is going to have a profound effect on many businesses because most of them, if they're involved in the food supply chain, have to store food and refrigerate it, and indeed anybody who's got an air conditioner this will affect.
PM: Leon, number one, there have been a number of false claims going round about these refrigerant gases and number of figures being used that simply aren't right-
HOST: The figures I've given you today are from the industry, checked with the formula published on your own website.
PM: Right, well I just want to repeat, I saw a sheet last week for example, that simply did not have these figures right.
So number one, let's be very, very careful about the claims that are being made. Number two, of course these gases have been the subject of special arrangements for a long period of time now. Number three, in terms of the general position of small business, they are not paying the carbon price. They are not paying a price per tonne for the carbon pollution they generate-
HOST: But they pay what's handed down to them by other businesses who are.
PM: Yes, yes absolutely Leon, and they will be able to pass that through to consumers, which is why we are expecting the increase in cost of living to be less than a cent in a dollar. Let's remember, you know, a lot of businesses, the biggest cost in their businesses are labour costs, for example. That is not affected at all.
HOST: No. Prime Minister, given the fact that you've handed out this compensation, you've made some very substantial changes to the tax system per se, yet the electorate is saying on two fronts; one, two out of three people don't want the carbon tax, but more importantly, despite the things you're doing to compensate the population, you're polling at the moment is pretty awful.
PM: Well Leon, we've got to get big things done for this nation's future. I want our country to have a clean future, I want us to do the right thing by the environment to cut carbon pollution. I want to see us strengthen in our economy with a clean energy future.
HOST: What does that mean? What's a green job? What's a green job?
PM: Well, I think those jobs are really twofold, there are jobs in industries that will exist in the future that haven't existed in the past, for example in the solar industry.
They weren't jobs that we used to have ten or twenty years ago, they are jobs we'll increasingly have in the future. But very traditional jobs, Leon, being a motor mechanic, being a plumber, will be done in a different way because we're seizing a clean energy future.
So Leon, people elect governments to get the big things done. They don't expect us to sit there and not shape our nation's future to make us stronger and to protect our environment. And that is what I am determined to do.
But the other important this Leon is now that carbon pricing has started, it started yesterday, people can, you know, not listen to the politicians, they can just work it out themselves. They can have a look at their pay packet, have a look at the tax cuts, have a look at what they're spending at the shops when they go and do the family shopping, and see for themselves what the truth of carbon pricing is.
HOST: So you stand by your claim Prime Minister just for the record, that the impact of your carbon pricing, is going to have, you're still standing by the claim that it will have a minimal impact on the cost of living?
PM: Absolutely Leon. Let's be very clear. We had our experts at Treasury model the effect for people of carbon pricing, the flow through costs. These are the same people who for a government of a different political persuasion, modelled the effects of the GST and they got that right. These aren't politicians. They're not political people. They're experts that have worked for government over a long period of time and they've got the hard things right before. The single-
HOST: Prime Minister-
PM: Leon, if I can finish this, because I think it's very important, the single biggest impact people will see will be on their electricity bills, which will go up by ten per cent. Now that's the single biggest impact. Right around the country the people who set electricity prices have already said, yes that's right, electricity is either going up ten per cent or less. The single biggest thing that proves the Treasury modelling is right, has already occurred.
HOST: Prime Minister, given the polling today, which you'd be tremendously disappointed in, is there going to be more pressure on your leadership?
PM: Oh, look Leon, I'm not a poll commentator, and you've misunderstood what I'm determined to do if you think that's where my focus is today.
HOST: Well I'm just asking a very obvious question.
PM: And I'm not, Leon, going to engage in all of that, I mean the important thing for our nation isn't what's in today's newspapers.
The important thing for our nation is are we going to have our precious environment for the future, are we going to have a strong economy for the future, are we going to look after families on the way through?
That's where my focus is.
HOST: Are you absolutely certain still that Malaysia must be part of any solution in terms of the way we handle refugees?
PM: Look, I've got advice, the same advice has been provided to Mr Abbott, that the most effective deterrent we have available to us is Malaysia. But I have appointed an expert panel. I have been prepared to compromise in order to get a solution here. I was very disappointed when last week in the Parliament I was prepared to compromise and neither the Opposition nor the Greens moved one millimetre from their original position.
HOST: Is it possible the Parliament might be recalled?
PM: Having compromised last week, and having seen that met with, I mean Mr Abbott's got so negative now, he came into the Parliament and voted against offshore processing, even though he says he believes in it.
You know, he's voting against the things he says he believes in now, I mean how much more negative can you get? But I am determined to find a new way through. And that's what the expert panel is there for.
HOST: Prime Minister, thank you for joining us. That's Julia Gillard and again, just on those numbers that I've been broadcasting about the refrigeration issues, I can promise you there's been no political party or organisation that have provided this information.
It's come directly from industry and we've had it confirmed, I've had a couple of people in fact who are economic experts, graduates with Honours degrees here check those numbers against the formula provided by the Federal Government and we are about to put that formula up on the Facebook site Don't Sell Australia Short.