DAVID KOCH:
Prime Minister, good morning to you. What convinced you that we need this change?
PRIME MINISTER:
Kochie, this is a very important public health measure. It's very important that if you send your kids to preschool or child care that you know that your child is safe – very important that you know that your child is safe. It is very important that you get your child immunised and it's important that the children that your child is with are immunised. That's why we've changed the rules, and unless you've got a religious objection, unless you've got a medical issue, you will have to be immunised if you want to get Child Care Benefit, Child Care Rebate.
DAVID KOCH:
Ok. The medical grounds and religious grounds – how will that be policed?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there are one or two religions, as I understand it, that have a formal position against vaccination and if you are a member of one of those religions, well, obviously that's a religious grounds. But just saying that, “My conception of Jesus, or my conception of Allah, means that I can't get vaccinated” – that won't do it.
DAVID KOCH:
What about the medical side? Because, I agree with what you are doing, I'm very pro-vaccination and I get into so much strife on social media from the anti-vaccination lobby coming through saying “no, they've done their Google research and there are all these doctors that say it kills kids.”
PRIME MINISTER:
If your doctor says that your child, for a legitimate medical reason, cannot be immunised, well then that's fair enough. But what you can't do is go along and say, “I've Googled a particular vaccination and there might be a reaction and therefore I'm not going to have it”. That's just not on, and what we can't do is put our children at risk. What we can't do is threaten the security of families, and that's why this is a very important public health measure. When I was the Health Minister, Kochie, we got vaccination rates up well above 90 per cent. We've got to keep them there. In fact, we've got to improve them, because what we've seen over the last decade is the number of people claiming conscientious objection has risen from about 15,000 to about 40,000.
DAVID KOCH:
Alright, let's move on to the budget now – only a month to go. You said it will be a pretty dull, routine budget. Business groups, though, warn that we need a lot of reform. What can we expect from this budget? Last one didn't go down too well. How will this be different?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we can expect a budget which is focused on jobs, growth and opportunity. We can expect a budget that will be measured, responsible and fair. We can expect a budget, Kochie, which does continue the task of tackling Labor's debt and deficit – that's very, very important – but the assurance that I give to your viewers, the assurance that I give to you, is that we aren't going to tackle our budget problems at the expense of families' budget problems.
DAVID KOCH:
Ok, alright, so families won't be worse off by the sound of it...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, what we're able to do, because of the good work in last year's budget – and let's not forget that, as the Intergenerational Report showed, Labor's debt and deficits have been halved already – notwithstanding our difficulties in the Senate, the measures that have passed the Senate mean that Labor's debt and deficit has already been halved because of the good foundation that we have, thanks to last year's budget, there will be good news for families and there will be good news for small business in this year's budget.
DAVID KOCH:
Now, polls out this morning, Newspoll has you just one point behind Bill Shorten as preferred PM, but the rival Ipsos poll has Labor eight points clear of your Coalition , two party preferred. You know, the political brains say the Newspoll is always the most reliable. What’s your reading of the polls?
PRIME MINISTER:
Kochie, polls go up and down. I'm obviously focused on getting on with Government. That's the important thing – to get on with Government. That's why we made this important announcement: no jab – no play, in fact no pay, yesterday. That's why we announced a crackdown on ice late last week. That's why I was in Brisbane on Friday to announce an important addition to our strategic airlift. This is a Government which is getting on with the job, Kochie, and as I said, polls go up and down but the challenge of government is there every day and that's what I'm determined to meet.
DAVID KOCH:
Tony Abbott, thanks for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Kochie.
[ends]