KARL STEFANOVIC:
We are live now to Prime Minister Tony Abbott. PM, good morning to you. Small numbers but big, bad publicity.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look Karl, I never thought that marketing a tough Budget was going to be all that easy. We always expected that there would be a fairly fierce reaction. But our country cannot go on as we have been, borrowing a billion dollars every single month, just to pay the interest on the borrowings. Everyone who has got a credit card or a mortgage knows that you can't borrow to pay the interest on your borrowings. That is what our country has been doing for the past six years. It has to stop. With this Budget, it does stop.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
You are under the pump at the moment. Are you feeling the pinch, the pressure?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I'm a politician. I’m used to pressure Karl, but I guess, depending upon the circumstances, the pressure goes up or down.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
So, a simple question for you this morning - can you guarantee the price of a degree won't double?
PRIME MINISTER:
There will be competition in the market and I have no doubt that some universities will put their fees up. I suspect others may well put their fees down. But the important thing to remember, Karl, is that overall education spending by this Government goes up over the forward estimates by about 3 per cent real. That's the important thing to remember. The other important thing to remember for students is that you can always get a fee help loan to cover every single cent of your degree.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
That doesn't help if the price of a degree doubles and you can't guarantee that it won't.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there are lots of things that I can't guarantee because we live in an uncertain world. But I can guarantee that no-one will have to pay a cent up-front because there will be these fee help loans to cover their up-front costs.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
But the issue is if the price of the degree doubles, then students are going to be paying back that for a long time. It is going to become unaffordable for a lot of people. The Vice-Chancellors of the Australian National University, as you would know, says the average university course will go up by 30 per cent and the University of Sydney's Vice-Chancellors says middle class Australian families risk being priced out of uni altogether.
Are they wrong?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, there is no doubt that some will go up, but there's equally little doubt that some will come down. The interesting feature of our changes, Karl, is that 20per cent of the income – the extra income that universities make in this way – has got to be given back to students through scholarships.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Let's move on. When you winked yesterday, I reckon the whole of Australia could have almost seen and realised the moment that you realised there was a camera on you. How do you explain that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, I was looking at Jon Faine. He was smiling at me and I winked back at him. I shouldn't have done it Karl. I should have been more focused on the caller and less focused on the interviewer.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Were you being disparaging in any way as to the position the lady held in terms of trying to find work and to work generally for money?
PRIME MINISTER:
Karl, the important thing in all of these contexts is to engage with the people who were talking to you. I was attempting to do that. I was momentarily distracted by the interviewer.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
So, the issue here is, at the moment, the blowtorch is on you and the blowtorch is on your Government – particularly you. A wink is a wink. But right now, in context, it's a mistake you can't afford to make.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, mistakes are always regrettable Karl and I will do my best, having made a mistake yesterday, to make none today.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
All right. I guess, forget about what's going to happen at the next election and you've said already that people will be the judge at the next election – will you make it to the next election as leader?
PRIME MINISTER:
I expect so. I think the Australian people are sick of governments which change their leaders mid-term. Neither Kevin Rudd nor Julia Gillard made it from one election to the next. I don't think the Australian people want to see a repeat performance.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
I get the strong leadership side of things. I get the strong action on the Budget – that needs to be done – but it's got to be the right kind of strong leadership and the right kind of action. Right?
PRIME MINISTER:
Absolutely.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
There is a risk here that if the electorate continues its backlash, your party might get the yips and say righto, we need someone else to lead it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, I think what we need in this country right now is not an action replay of the last six years. Now, everything this Government has done over the last eight months demonstrates that we are the polar opposite of the former Labor government. We have stopped the boats. We have stood up to the business-rent seekers. We have vigorously asserted Australia's national interests abroad. We have successfully concluded free trade negotiations with Korea and with Japan. And now we have brought down a tough Budget; I believe a fair Budget. The Budget that Australia needed and a Budget which doesn't pretend to people that there are soft options.
Now, there are no soft options in the real world. We can succeed and we will succeed but we will only succeed by being fair dinkum with ourselves.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
There is collateral damage when this blowtorch is being applied, as we have seen in the past couple of years in this country. I need to ask you this, how is your daughter, Frances, with those questions being raised about her scholarship this morning – her scholarship which she deserved?
PRIME MINISTER:
She absolutely deserved it. She won it on her academic potential. She kept it on her academic performance. I'm very proud of her. She's doing a fantastic job.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It gets personal, doesn't it?
PRIME MINISTER:
It does but I've always said that families should be kept out of the front line. That's the way I've always tried to run my political operation that we play hard but fair, Karl, and families should be out of it.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Well, she did deserve that scholarship. Prime Minister, we appreciate your time today. A busy day ahead.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]