Aged care funding; Aged Care Royal Commission; a fairer GST deal; remote housing.
Prime Minister
GILLIAN O’SHAUGHNESSY: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, welcome to ABC Perth.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: You’re announcing $100 million for seniors this morning, is this a distraction from the aged care royal commission Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I initiated the aged care Royal Commission and I’m pleased that it’s going ahead. We’ll have a bit more to say about that and the terms of reference and the Commissioner soon. I think it’s very important that we have that residential aged care royal commission, which looks at in-home care as well as looking at young Australians living in an aged care setting with disabilities as well. So that will be a wide-ranging inquiry and I’ll have a bit more to say about that soon.
But today, we’re extending further the support we provide under the Commonwealth Home Support program. That does everything from meals, transport, home maintenance, home modifications, supporting the choices of Australians to remain in their homes for longer, which more Australians are doing. We’ve also backed it up with the increase in in-home care places in the last Budget and the mid-year statement before that.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: When would the money start to flow Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Well this money starts in the next financial year, from January 19th, so that’s the 2018/19 year. This was announced as part of this year’s Budget.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Can we look at this then, essentially an election promise, given how close we are?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s not a promise, it’s actually money. It’s going to flow, it’s happening, it’s our Government doing things that were in our Budget. We’ve provided for it because we want to ensure that senior Australians have more choices as they age and that they can age in their own homes. So they can be home, you know, for the kids’ birthday parties and the family meals and all the things that make up a full life. We want them to have that opportunity for as long as possible.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Prime Minister your Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt has been hit by accusations of bullying in his office. How much does that concern you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well there’s an independent process going on with that, which is appropriate. I don’t think it’s sort of fair to prejudge that or cast aspersions. I think there’s a process, but it actually involves a member of his staff, an allegation against that member of staff. So I think it’s fair to everybody involved that the process be done independently without any suggestion one way or the other.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Given the allegations, the wider allegations of bullying within the Liberal Party, is it not part of your role as the new leader of the Party to deal with these kinds of allegations though, directly?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the other ones you refer to are being addressed by the Party organisation. I dealt with that some weeks ago and this is a matter which is appropriately referred to the Department for a proper review and that’s how it should be done. I don’t think people should beat these things up. I think they should just wait to see what the independent process delivers and that requires you to respect all the parties in the process.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Is that how you see allegations of bullying within the Party, as a beat up?
PRIME MINISTER: No, that’s not what I said. You were referring to the matter involving Ken Wyatt and what I’m saying is, I don’t think those matters should be beat up, or discussed particularly given there’s an independent process. Surely people that are part of this independent process should be given the respect of allowing that to be done without any conclusions being drawn.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Prime Minister on the other royal commission, into the banks, the Labor Party has said it’s clear more time is needed. Has Kenneth Hayne asked you for an extension yet?
PRIME MINISTER: No, he hasn’t and if he asks for one, he’ll get one. I am very concerned at the way the Labor Party and Bill Shorten and Claire O’Neil are starting to really attack the Royal Commissioner here and the Royal Commission staff. I mean they have reviewed, personally, 9,000 submissions. They’ve gone through every single one of them and you can see that they’ve taken a lot from that in the interim report that they’re released. So to suggest that the Royal Commissioner and the Royal Commission staff has not been looking seriously at those submissions, I think is very disturbing. I think it really questions the independence of the Royal Commission and I think that’s very disappointing.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Yesterday Prime Minister, you promised to legislate changes to the GST. When you announced those changes, you said legislation wasn’t needed. Why did you change your mind?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the last time I was here, I actually said I was considering legislation, when I was in Perth a few months back. I was open to that and I believe that’s the best way to move forward. I mean Bill Shorten says he’ll support the legislation, now that wasn’t the case when I first announced those measures. We announced our plan and he subsequently said he was on a unity ticket. Well, we’ll see if he is on a unity ticket. The legislation will come into the Parliament and he’ll have the opportunity to support that plan and I certainly hope he does so. I sent him the full legislation yesterday, so he’s got plenty of time to look it over. It’s exactly what I announced some months ago as Treasurer. It provides $4.7 billion specifically for Western Australia, but that’s part of a broader deal which leaves every single state and territory better off, which is the way that you need to make these changes. Because you need to deal with it nationally, not just for any one state.
So we’ve delivered the plan that others in the past have not been able to. I look forward to it getting supported by the Parliament and by the Labor Party, given they said that’s what they’d do. I mean he is the only one standing in the way now, of this deal becoming law.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Prime Minister, I wanted to ask you about remote community funding while we’ve got you. It’s been three months now since Federal funding for remote Indigenous community housing stopped, no new agreement has been reached. I understand our Premier Mark McGowan has written to you asking the Commonwealth to contribute further funding. Can you confirm whether you’ll be doing that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re looking at that, but at the end of the day, housing is the responsibility of the state and territory governments. We’ve provided support up in the Northern Territory because there are quite specific responsibilities we have, because it’s a territory and the nature of the Commonwealth leasehold arrangements around the housing in the Northern Territory. But for states like Western Australia, like Queensland and others, they actually have the responsibility for dealing with those issues. You know, my view about the Federation is we’ve all got to do our own jobs. We’ve all got to fund our own responsibilities and just on the GST alone – I’m not talking about the $4.7 billion extra which is coming to WA under this arrangement – but on the changes we’ve made to the GST and how it deals with digital transaction and things like this – the states in total are getting $6.5 billion more than they would have otherwise got, because of the changes we made. So the states are really getting a lot of support from the changes we’ve made at the Commonwealth level, to enable them to make these investments. We’ll consider the proposal from Western Australia but ultimately it’s the West Australian Government’s responsibility to look after housing, particularly that type of housing, social housing and so on, within their state.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: The decision was made by the Abbott Government, is it one you agree with? The states should be responsible for housing?
PRIME MINISTER: Well that was a terminating agreement, there was no suggestion that agreement would go beyond the existing profile for that. The Commonwealth and the states do this quite frequently; they’ll come to agreement for a couple of years – and that was for a couple of years, it wasn’t suggested that would be a permanent arrangement – so it’s important that once those arrangements come to an end, yes you can reconsider them, but first and foremost it’s the responsibility of the state government. We keep providing them with, well, I don’t think anyone can say we haven’t been supporting Western Australia when it comes to resources. I mean the GST deal for WA is what they’ve been wanting for a decade. This enables them now to go and take up those responsibilities that they have. I’ve agreed in the past they’ve been really struggling because of the poor GST outcomes they’ve got. Well, I’ve fixed that and so that should enable them to better deal with the responsibilities that they have.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been doing lots of tweeting from New York. What would your advice be to him?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, to enjoy his time in New York, enjoy his time with his family and I look forward to seeing him when he comes back. I’ve been in contact with him, as many of my colleagues have and you know, he’s a good friend and I wish him all the best. I am looking forward to catching up with him and Lucy when he gets back.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Thanks for your time Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, all the best.