STAN GRANT:
The Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is with me now. Nice to have you with us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Great to be with you, Stan.
STAN GRANT:
The deal-maker, you've done a deal with another deal-maker in Donald Trump. I want to go to that deal for asylum seekers - is that locked in? Is that guaranteed?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it is certainly agreed to yes. It is agreed to by the President as I said in the piece you had earlier, in our discussion on the weekend and it was confirmed by his spokesman in the White House earlier today.
STAN GRANT:
Are you taken by surprise by this apparent shift that now he is still considering it? And that's coming from another White House spokesperson?
PRIME MINISTER:
Anonymous and no-one has seen them.
Look, Stan, we have to raise the standards of journalism a little bit here.
We have a conversation between the Prime Minister and the President. In which the President gives an assurance. We have a confirmation of that assurance given by the Prime Minister's spokesman in the White House briefing room. That's what I am basing my remarks on, and I think that's more reliable than some of the reports we've seen in the press.
STAN GRANT:
Okay - a reliable guaranteed deal. But what does it entail? What is the detail here? How long will it take? What are the numbers, potentially, that the United States may take at this rate?
PRIME MINISTER:
The number of people - the Americans have a refugee program, as we do - and so, what they have agreed to do is to consider taking a number of people from Nauru and Manus through their program. They will go through very rigorous vetting and checking -
STAN GRANT:
Extreme vetting as we know now and that’s been heightened. And that raises the question - when you are dealing with people predominantly from Iran, Iraq, countries that are on the banned list - how can you be sure that they are going to take any significant numbers?
PRIME MINISTER:
Stan, the commitment is to undertake, to process these people for the purpose of being accepted as refugees within the United States. They will be given very rigorous vetting as indeed we give people who apply for refugee status in Australia rigorous vetting.
As Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman said a moment ago, that understanding, that arrangement was the same -
STAN GRANT:
So we don't know? We don’t know what the numbers ultimately will be? There’s 1200 potentially.
PRIME MINISTER:
The United States Government determines who comes to the United States, just as we determine who comes to our country. They will assess these people and they will decide which of them they are prepared to offer refugee places to within the US.
STAN GRANT:
While on the subject of Donald Trump - clearly, it has shaken up the political landscape. The ban, travel ban on some countries has been widely criticised, and you hadn't done that publicly. Why?
PRIME MINISTER:
Because I'm the Prime Minister of Australia and what I do is stand up for and affirm our values.
Now, we are the most successful multicultural society in the world. We are proud that we are an immigration nation. We are proud that we have a non-discriminatory immigration program. And have had for many, many years, as you know. We're proud of that. Those are the programs I'm responsible for. Those are the Australian values that I make sure I stand up for as Australian Prime Minister. What I don't -
STAN GRANT:
And -
PRIME MINISTER:
Let me just finish, Stan. What I don't do is provide a running commentary on the domestic policies of other countries.
STAN GRANT:
You don't, but others have. I’ll quote what Bill Shorten said the other day - he says he would not remain silent, he said: ‘If the Germans can speak up, if the English can speak up, if the Canadians can speak up, why are we silent?’
PRIME MINISTER:
Justin Trudeau has set out what Canada's values on immigration are, and just as I have set out what our values, Australian values, on immigration are. But what I am not doing is providing a running commentary of criticism of the United States Government's domestic policies. When we have words of advice to give to our friends in Washington, we do so privately and frankly, as good friends should. And that's because I am concerned about ensuring that I deliver for Australians and Australian citizens, and that I defend our national interest.
STAN GRANT:
Okay. Let's talk about delivering for Australians. You've given your speech today. The battlelines have been drawn for the political year ahead. Jobs are key. How do you convince ordinary people that cutting corporate tax rate, giving their bosses a tax cut, is going to be good for them?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, if you cut the tax on businesses, on companies, you increase the return on the investment in those companies. That's pretty clear.
STAN GRANT:
Well, it is not actually clear -
PRIME MINISTER:
OK, well, you increase the return on investment you will get more investment. Therefore, you will get more employment. Therefore, you will get more people in jobs but you will also get better wages.
Now, when the Labor Party has proposed tax cuts for companies as they used to, before they swung to the far-left under Bill Shorten into this sort of populist dead-end of left-wing populism that Shorten is progressing at the moment - in the old days, when Labor has rational leadership, responsible economic leadership, that's how they justified the tax cuts that Paul Keating delivered, for example. Or indeed the ones Bill Shorten advocated in 2012.
STAN GRANT:
There are questions about just how long this will take. Chris Richardson, an economist from Deloittes, he supports the idea of cutting corporate tax but even he has said it is a decade out before you see the impact.
PRIME MINISTER:
The big tax cut is a decade out. In fact, what we are doing is we are cutting taxes for small and medium companies over the first years. This year it will only apply to companies with a turnover of $10 million or less.
STAN GRANT:
But in terms of seeing that impact, that extra money in people’s pockets, the extra jobs that would come from it - what is the timeframe?
PRIME MINISTER:
The estimate of the saving or the improvement in the pay packet of average weekly earnings, is based on a calculation as when all of the tax cuts are in place. And you're right, that would be over 10 years. So this is a very responsible model.
But, Stan, you know, we have to get real about this. We have to decide whether we're going to be competitive or fall off the back of the pack.
Now, Britain's cutting taxes. America is going to cut tax. New Zealand already has. We have one of the highest company tax rates in the developed world. Certainly, the highest company tax rate in our region. Now, I just ask you this - do you think we can seriously be competitive if our company tax rate is, for example, twice as high as the US, or nearly twice as high as the United Kingdom?
STAN GRANT:
That's a question you need to put to those in Parliament. You need to get this through Parliament. That's looking particularly difficult. Labor oppose it, the Greens oppose it, Nick Xenophon has, maybe potentially some concessions.
PRIME MINISTER:
Your gloominess - you should break out of that Stan. We have fewer seats in the House and fewer seats in the Senate than we did in the last Parliament. But in the last four or five months of last year we got more through the Senate than we had in the previous three years. So I focus on negotiation, I am prepared to compromise, I am prepared to cut deals - I am a pragmatic, practical person, because that's what you need to be if you’re going to deliver for Australians and get the 45th Parliament to work.
STAN GRANT:
Crucial today again, Bill Shorten spoke about it yesterday, this integrity in politics and the loss of faith in politics. You spoke about entitlements. You prefer to call them work experiences.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they are work expenses.
STAN GRANT:
No they are but if we are talking about integrity and there are questions about your donations to the Liberal Party but you won't release that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Stan, I think Australians are more interested in what I am doing with their money than what I am doing with my own. Now, I have always been a supporter of the causes I believe in. Lucy and I have always been generous. We know -
STAN GRANT:
Why are you shy about releasing it though?
PRIME MINISTER:
If you just hear me out, I'll tell you. We have always been generous because we know that we have done well in life and we believe it is part of our duty to give back. So we've always been philanthropic.
STAN GRANT:
To the Liberal Party?
PRIME MINISTER:
To the Liberal Party we gave, in the last - in the course of this current financial year, which is why it hasn’t yet been disclosed on the AEC - I contributed $1.75 million. That was the contribution I made. It has been talked about and speculated about so there it is.
STAN GRANT:
$1.75 million.
PRIME MINISTER:
$1.75 million. That's a substantial contribution, I can assure you we make big contributions to many important enterprises and causes. I've always been prepared to put my money where my mouth is.
Now, here's the difference - I put my money into ensuring that we didn't have a Labor Government. I put my money into the Liberal Party's campaign.
I am not beholden to the CFMEU like Bill Shorten is. I am not beholden to left-wing unions, who own Bill Shorten.
I put my money where my mouth is. I stand up for my values, with the money that I've made, the money I've paid tax on, and Bill Shorten wants to go after me all the time. He says I'm ‘Mr Harbourside Mansion’. Let me tell you this, Stan, I do live with Lucy in a nice house on the water in Sydney. Yes, we do. And we paid for it. We pay the expenses on it. That's our house. Bill Shorten wants to live in a harbourside mansion for which every expense is paid for by the taxpayer. That's the big difference. So what he is doing, what he is doing, is trying to run an old-fashioned politics of envy campaign.
STAN GRANT:
Okay, you've had your criticism of Bill Shorten.
Let's finish on the political year ahead. You come into this down in the polls, the latest Essential Poll has you five, six points behind. You scraped home in the election last year. We know that faith in politics is at record lows. Is this a real test for you, this year? This is the make or break for Malcolm Turnbull?
PRIME MINISTER:
Every year, every day, is a test in politics. Every day is a test of leadership. It's a test of character, it's a test of your judgement. It is a test in every way, Stan. You know that.
STAN GRANT:
And if you look at the polls, it is a test that right now you're failing. How do you turn that around?
PRIME MINISTER:
Stan, you know, journalists, with great respect, are much more interested in polls than your viewers.
STAN GRANT:
No, no, seriously, Prime Minister – you used the polls as argument to actually become Prime Minister and overthrow Tony Abbott. So you have spoken about polls. The question is - how do you turn it around?
PRIME MINISTER:
The way I get my message across is I have to cut through the political gossip and the ‘inside the beltway’ discussion about politics and all of the ins and outs; and focus on Australian families, their household expenses, their cost of living, the way they are battling in an environment where wages and salaries are rising very slowly. We are not seeing strong wage growth. A lot of other costs are pressing down on them. Energy costs in particular. Bill Shorten stands for much more expensive energy and much less reliable energy.
And so, what we've done, what I have done in the speech today, is set out all of those elements, whether it is cutting business tax, whether it is ensuring that we have the big export opportunities that drives the jobs and enterprise in Australia, whether it is ensuring that we have a rational, non-ideological approach to energy that delivers reliable electricity, affordable electricity and cuts our emissions in accordance with our agreements.
STAN GRANT:
People can watch this back next week at their leisure and next week Parliament begins. Prime Minister, I thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Stan. It is good to see you.
[Ends]