PRESENTER:
On the line is the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott.
Good morning Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Eddie.
PRESENTER:
Prime Minister, we’re not going to hit you up this morning with, you know, whether you broke promises or anything else, we just want to know, what was the motivation when you sat down with Joe Hockey and said, right, frame a Budget? What was it that you wanted and what our callers this morning, what they’re calling for, Prime Minister, is how can we measure this to get to the end result of cutting the deficit and having a better Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Eddie, that’s what we set out to achieve. We didn’t set out to boost our own popularity, we set out to do the right thing by Australia and the problem that we were dealing with was that, as a country, we were like a person who’s paying the mortgage on the credit card; that was the difficulty. We were living beyond our means, we had to rein back spending, but what we also set out to do was to spend less on short-term consumption and more on long-term investment and that’s why you’ve got the world’s biggest medical research fund, that’s why you’ve got the biggest ever Commonwealth spend on infrastructure which by some measures is the equivalent of 10 Snowy Mountain schemes.
So, it’s a nation-building Budget, but above all else it’s a Budget which is fair. We’re all doing our bit to build a better Australia.
PRESENTER:
Tony, our callers this morning have been pretty reasonable and understand that you’ve got to pay back some of that with the view to big projects in Melbourne, money pumped into the roads etcetera. We had one caller though suggesting – who was a police woman in the emergency services – with the increase in the retirement age up to 70, how do people in those sort of industries plan for their future working through until 70?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that’s a fair point Luke and I know a lot of people who are maybe in their 50s who would be thinking to themselves, “Gee whiz, can I really go through?” Don’t forget this won’t be taking place until 2035. But there is a very important measure there – we’re calling it Restart – to try to ensure that if you’re over 50 and you lose one job and you’re on a benefit and another employer wants to offer you a job, that employer will get up to $10,000 in assistance if that person is taking someone off welfare who’s over 50 and into work.
So, I absolutely accept, Luke, that it is tougher for older workers or would be workers and that’s why there’s very substantial assistance there for them in this Budget.
PRESENTER:
Tony, we’re throwing around a suggestion that maybe if you hit 65 and you’re going onto 70 that you get taxed at the rate that you would with superannuation so that people could actually get jobs and not have to be paid as much and people would be more willing to maybe hire somebody over 65 years of age, so there’d be a net result of more money coming into the economy and more people working, less reliance on the Federal Government to pay pensions. Is there something like that that we can work towards? I mean it’s early days yet, as you said.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, this is essentially what we’re doing. We’re saying to an employer, if you take someone over 50 off the welfare queues and into your workforce, there’s $10,000 to help you to do it and a lot of employers do have a set against older people. I think it’s most unfortunate that over the last couple of generations this cult of youth has built up because, you know, I’m not that young anymore, Eddie, and I want to be useful well into my 60s and beyond. So, I think it is really important that we say to employers, those older people can be very valuable members of your staff and here’s something from the Federal Government to help.
PRESENTER:
Prime Minister, you’ve cut the funding to states for education and health and most people are looking at that, reading between the lines and saying well that’ll mean that they’ll push for a hike in the GST at some stage. Is that something that we look at and say, yeah that looks like it might happen too, or is it you saying, “No, we’re going to pay for your roads so you look after the rest of it”?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that’s right. I mean this is a very good deal for the states when it comes to infrastructure. It’s a very, very good deal when it comes to infrastructure. There’s the asset recycling fund which hopefully will unlock some privatisations and that’s going to be good for business as well. So look, in the end it is up to the states to fund their schools and hospitals, but the states on balance have done well out of this Budget.
PRESENTER:
Prime Minister, we’ve got 30 seconds with you. We’re going to let you have the microphone. Tell the people of Melbourne what you want them to hear from you.
PRIME MINISTER:
I want them to know that this is a fundamentally honest Budget. We’ve been upfront with people about the difficult choices needed, but we’ve also been upfront with people about the hope that we can have if we are prepared to make the hard choices now.
Above all else though, Eddie, this is a fair Budget. We are all in it together. Everyone, from the Prime Minister down, is doing his or her bit to build a better future for our country.
PRESENTER:
We’re a bit worried about that cough, Prime Minister. You have to get the $7 out and go and see the GP.
PRIME MINISTER:
No I just need a nice cup of tea – a nice cup of hot tea, that’s what I need!
PRESENTER:
A cup of tea and the other secret is cold, fresh pineapple juice is what all the singers do, the international pop stars.
PRESENTER:
Don’t tell me Tony’s going to sing, is he?
PRESENTER:
It will get you through the day.
PRIME MINISTER:
Don’t get me singing!
PRESENTER:
Cold, fresh pineapple juice.
Good on you Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]