PRESENTER:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott joins us this morning. Hello, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Amanda, how are you?
PRESENTER:
I’m very well, thank you.
PRESENTER:
I’m here too, Tony.
PRIME MINISTER:
Jonesy, how are you?
PRESENTER:
Good, I like how you brighten up when you hear my little voice.
PRESENTER:
Look, I know we don’t have too long with you this morning so I don’t want too long an answer, but this is the thing I can’t get my head around: as an individual why should it matter to me that we’re in surplus?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, while we’re not in surplus we’re essentially paying the mortgage on the credit card and as everyone who’s ever been paying a mortgage knows, you can’t borrow to pay your interest repayments because that just means you go further and further down a big black hole and that’s what our country was doing and under the former government we had debt and deficit stretching out as far as the eye can see. Under this Government, we’re making the tough but necessary decisions to get us back to surplus and I know it’s not going to be easy, but we’ve got to do it and of course one way to help everyone quickly would be just to abolish the carbon tax because, yes, there are tough things in this Budget, but abolishing the carbon tax would save the average family $550 a year.
PRESENTER:
It seems to me that what happens is you guys, you know, save the money and then Labor gets into power they spend the money and then it comes back again. Why can’t one government just stay in all the time or is it just a necessary evil?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, Jonesy, you know, seasons come and go, don’t they? We get winter, we get summer. But you’re right, a lot of Labor governments are very bad with money and it takes the Coalition to put things back on track. To Labor’s credit, though, the Hawke Government – at least in its early days – was a responsible, tough reforming government and the tragedy of the modern Labor Party is that all of those lessons seem to have been forgotten. But, look, I’m not here to tell people how bad the Labor Party is, I’m here to tell people that this is a good, responsible Budget; a fundamentally honest Budget because it doesn’t mince words and cook the books and fiddle the figures. It’s upfront with people about the tough decisions that need to be made.
PRESENTER:
Some of the decisions have been tough in terms of welfare and education and fuel increases. Why did you choose now for the medical research fund? If things are so tight, why are you doing that now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we are making some big savings in health and as you know we think that people should make a modest upfront payment when they go to the doctor just as there’s a modest upfront payment when they get a prescription filled on the PBS. But all of the money that we save will be reinvested in our long-term future. We’ve got fantastic medical researchers. We really punch above our weight when it comes to medical research and this will provide the world’s biggest medical research fund. It means that the treatments, the cures, the things that save lives and make lives better will happen in Australia in the years ahead.
PRESENTER:
Now it’s interesting, Facebook makes $80 billion a year and we’re in a $50 billion deficit. Perhaps we can do something…
PRESENTER:
Create a Facebook.
PRESENTER:
Maybe we should start thinking of stuff like that, Tony? This is the stuff that we should be bringing to the table. Like how hard is Facebook?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Facebook is the result of a smart person having a good idea and pushing it through and it’s not something that government does, it’s something that creative individuals do and what we’ve got to do as a Government is make it easier for creative individuals to flourish and you don’t do that with more regulation and more tax, you do that with less regulation and less tax. One of the really exciting things in this Budget is the deregulation of our higher education system because again we are smart people – smart, creative people. We don’t need government holding our hand so much, we need government getting off our backs and certainly Government is going to get off the backs of our universities.
PRESENTER:
But will that create a problem for students who can’t afford to go? If universities can set their own payments, is that detrimental to some students who won’t be able to afford it anymore? Australian-based students?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Amanda, look, it’s interesting that the social composition of our university population has been pretty constant over the last 40-odd years with the abolition of fees under Whitlam, with the restoration of fees in the form of HECS under Bob Hawke. I don’t think this is going to disadvantage poorer students because your fees can be covered by FEE-HELP. You won’t pay a cent upfront if you don’t want to. FEE-HELP will cover the fees and of course obviously you have to start repaying it once your income hits $50,000. So, I think we are keeping the fair go while encouraging more people to have a go and I think that’s the great thing about this Budget – we are true to both those essential elements in the Australian character: the fair go element and also the have a go element.
PRESENTER:
What was Joe’s title page for the Budget like? You know, because when I was at school, my thing was doing the title page and that pretty much I had no substance there so did he put some pencil shavings…
PRESENTER:
I saw his wife gave him a beautiful cover for it, a handmade kangaroo skin. I thought that was a very nice tough that his wife said I know this matters for your first Budget, here’s a pressie.
PRESENTER:
And then to hear you say there’s no smart and creative people in Government, there’s Joe right there with his title page, Tony!
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, Joe’s talking about the Budget as a ‘contribute and build’ Budget. We all make a contribution and because we all make a contribution we build a better Australia and I think that’s a pretty good way of describing it. He also invoked Bob Menzies in his speech last night we want to be a nation of ‘lifters, not leaners’ and I think we all have the capacity to be better and the job of government is to foster an environment where everyone can come closer to being his or her best self.
PRESENTER:
I’m going to put my ideas forward for spanners made of cheese. If Facebook can take $80 billion I think I’m on a winner there. What do you think?
There you go, smart and creative thinkers on breakfast radio. Prime Minister, thank you for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Amanda and Jonesy, it was nice to be with you.
PRESENTER:
Thanks, Mr Abbott.
[ends]