DAVID KOCH:
Prime Minister, thanks for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Kochie.
DAVID KOCH:
Let’s kick it off, the environment we have at the moment – do we still have a budget crisis and an economic emergency?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we had a budget crisis under Labor because Labor was incapable of keeping spending under control. Under Labor spending was growing at 3.6 per cent a year, under this Government, it's 1.5 per cent a year. And under this Government, you have a credible, believable path back to surplus, every year the deficit comes down by about 0.5 per cent of GDP.
DAVID KOCH:
Because after last year's budget, which you would admit now was overly mean I think, we’ve all been in the bunker. We have been scared to do anything. We have been scared to spend. Businesses have been scared to invest. You are asking them to change. How does this Budget help that change of mind?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Kochie, last budget, last year's budget, was right for those times. This year's Budget is right for these times. Last year's budget cut the carbon tax and the mining tax. This year's Budget cuts taxes on small business big time. It incentivises small business big time, because small business is the most creative part of our economy. It's the job engine room of our economy. In the end, this Budget is about jobs, growth and opportunity, that's why we have focused our tax cuts on small business.
DAVID KOCH:
There is a great graph in the budget papers, which I didn't realise as a proportion of population we have the second highest level of small business owners in the world, just behind the US and streets ahead of most other advanced economies.
PRIME MINISTER:
We are creative nation, we are people who love to have a go, and that is why this Budget is pitched towards people who have a go. A lot of governments, indeed a lot of Coalition governments, Kochie, have been rhetorically in favour of small business. This Budget, more than any other budget in memory, converts the rhetoric into reality.
DAVID KOCH:
Ok, a couple of things – you want small business to go out and spend.
PRIME MINISTER:
Responsibly.
DAVID KOCH:
Yeah – responsibly, of course. Go out and spend from today, anything under $20,000, you get an immediate write off.
PRIME MINISTER:
That's correct.
DAVID KOCH:
But if I do that as a small business owner, I want to make sure it’s going to get through the Senate. Are you confident that this measure will get through, it won’t get knocked back?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I think there will be a lot of very angry small business people if this measure doesn't get through. But surely, every Member of this Parliament wants to create jobs, every Member of this Parliament wants to give small business a fair go so that they can have a go for the benefit of everyone.
DAVID KOCH:
Ok, that's a challenge to the Opposition – don't stand in the way. The other incentive for small business is to hire more people. Now, we had a question from a viewer – retired viewer – who is 70 years of age saying, ‘what is in it for small business to go and hire someone like him?’
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there is the Restart incentive – the Restart Wage Subsidy – for older people and what we are going to do as a result of last night's Budget is pay that to employers more quickly. The $10,000 incentive to employ older people to take them on and to keep them on is going to be paid in a year now rather than two years as well. The incentives to take on younger people and long-term unemployed people will be paid to businesses more quickly. There is a very innovative proposal in this Budget, where people who have been unemployed for a while, young people who have been unemployed for a while, can go and do work experience in a private business, keep the benefit for up to a month, while they are doing work experience. It's giving employers the chance with longer term young unemployed people to try before you buy if you like. We think it will be good for jobseekers because youth unemployment is way too high and good for business as well.
DAVID KOCH:
Now, the hardnosed economists are saying, yep, terrific to start encouraging small business but you should still be cutting costs; that you have delayed our return to surplus. Are you disappointed that you have had to delay it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously, we want to get back to surplus as quickly as we prudently can and I think that's exactly what this Budget does.
DAVID KOCH:
But you did tell us before the election that you would get us back into surplus in the first term of Government.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that was based on the figures that the Labor Party was giving us then. And you’ll remember Wayne Swan said in 2012, “the four years of surpluses I announce tonight.” In fact, we inherited from Labor a $48 billion deficit. Now every year it comes down, the deficit comes down, by about 0.5 per cent of GDP. So, this is a strong and credible path back to the surplus that we have to get to.
DAVID KOCH:
Also, a lot of people are saying, you haven't focused on superannuation, that the tax concessions are just way, way too generous, as a country we can't afford it. I think there is one person with $300 million in their super account, getting these tax concessions we’re all paying for. Will super be on the agenda for your next term?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Kochie, what we have said is we don't plan to change super.
DAVID KOCH:
In this term?
PRIME MINISTER:
Under Labor, people's superannuation was a piggy bank that the Labor government raided all the time. There were so many changes to superannuation. What we said going into the election is that there should be a period of stability. There should be no adverse changes to super in this term and there will be no adverse changes to super in this term.
DAVID KOCH:
In this term?
PRIME MINISTER:
And there are no plans.
DAVID KOCH:
Even for the next term?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m not saying super will never ever change ever again. But we have no plans to change super. Let’s face it, superannuation – it's not the government's money, it's your money, it's my money, it’s our money. And the government should never treat people's savings as the government's piggy bank to be raided at will.
DAVID KOCH:
Ok, just one last message for you to the Australian public. Why should we start thinking glass half full rather than glass half empty?
PRIME MINISTER:
Because that's our nature – we are by nature optimistic people and what people should understand now is that this Government wants to work with them to build a better Australia.
DAVID KOCH:
Prime Minister, thanks for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Kochie.
[ends]