Prime Minister
NEIL MITCHELL: The Prime Minister is with me, Scott Morrison good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be here.
MITCHELL: Have you got little lights you can put on your car so you can come roaring down the middle of the road?
PRIME MINISTER: [Laughter] I'll struggle through the traffic like every other Australian does here in Melbourne, that’s why we’ve got to bust this congestion.
MITCHELL: Okay, get to that in a moment.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
MITCHELL: We're into an election campaign, can you give me four or five words, what is your pitch, what your slogan? Why should we vote for you?
PRIME MINISTER: Under the Australia I'll continue to lead, our economy will be stronger, Australians will be safer and I'll continue to bring Australians together. Without a strong economy, you cannot pay for the hospitals and schools that you need. Under Bill Shorten, the economy will be weaker.
MITCHELL: Four or five words then, it’s; “stronger economy, safer Australia, come together”?
PRIME MINISTER: That's it.
MITCHELL: Have you got the slogan yet? Or that’s it?
PRIME MINISTER: [Laughter] I'll leave that to others, but that's what I've been talking about from the day I became Prime Minister. Those three things Neil, you’ll probably recall, in that first press conference I did, that's what I wanted to do; keep our economy strong, keep Australians safe and keep bringing Australians together.
MITCHELL: The polls aren't good, you didn't get any real bounce from that offshore processing issue and that was pushed pretty hard. Do you still recon you can win?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes absolutely, because this is the stark choice; I mean when your economy is facing stiff headwinds that we are – yesterday unemployment came down to the lowest level in seven years, 4.9 per cent, youth unemployment down to the lowest level in seven years - our economy facing headwinds is going to put all that at risk. So you don't hand the wheel, the economic wheel, to someone who doesn't know how to drive. That's the Labor Party.
MITCHELL: Still, a lot of people say it's going to happen, all the polls say it's going to happen.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s what they say.
MITCHELL: They’re all wrong?
PRIME MINISTER: The polls always say this and people say this and that about the polls. But you know who gets to decide? Australians, when they turn up to vote.
MITCHELL: We change prime minister on the basis of the polls.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the basis of who is elected at the next election, that's going to be done by the Australian people. They will get to have their say in May.
MITCHELL: Speaking of that, is Malcolm Turnbull going to campaign for the Government?
PRIME MINISTER: He already is.
MITCHELL: [Laughter] No he’s not. In Flinders? Ask Greg Hunt about that.
PRIME MINISTER: No, he's been supporting particularly Dave Sharma in Wentworth.
MITCHELL: Okay, so he will be out there campaigning for you?
PRIME MINISTER: In the seat, I assume he’ll be out there in Wentworth supporting Dave.
MITCHELL: Have you asked him to keep his head down a bit, not cause trouble?
PRIME MINISTER: We haven't had that conversation.
MITCHELL: Do you think he will?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't feel the need to have that conversation.
MITCHELL: Don’t you?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
MITCHELL: Well, he’s campaigning against one of your ministers in Flinders.
PRIME MINISTER: He’s been nowhere near Flinders.
MITCHELL: Ohh, what about his statement? Yes, alright. One Nation, I saw ad nauseam on The Project last night, you're not going to commit to putting them below Labor in the preferences, at this stage anyway. There’s no decision?
PRIME MINISTER: Well hang on, we’ve just got a process Neil. We'll make that decision in accordance with our normal process, not because the Labor Party wants to go around, you know, trying to force us into making decisions. I mean at the last election that it was the Labor Party that benefited from One Nation preferences, to win seats like Longman and Dobell. So it's a bit rich for the Labor Party to go around giving us lectures, particularly on the same day when they've got the leader of the Labor Party of New South Wales Michael Daley saying that Asian immigrants take our jobs.
MITCHELL: Well the union movement has also said; “put the Liberals last”.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the union movement, yeah. Look we're not going to take lectures from the Labor Party on this. We will make the decision the way we always do and we're certainly not going to do any deals with them. I mean we've got the Labor Party doing deals with the Shooters Party up in my home state.
MITCHELL: And you won't do deals with the Shooters?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
MITCHELL: Will you preference them?
PRIME MINISTER: We won't do any deals with them, so that means –
MITCHELL: So you haven't decided on preferences there either.
PRIME MINISTER: No, it'll just be done when we know who the nominees are, because we learned this; we've had people with very extreme views pop up in all sorts of seats. So you know, let's just wait to see who nominates and then we'll make the decision in the normal way.
MITCHELL: Well, look at that One Nation beast. Pauline Hanson, is she a racist?
PRIME MINISTER: Look Pauline has expressed extremely strong views on these issues over a long period of time. I must say in more recent times particularly in this term of Parliament we've worked closely with Pauline on a lot of important issues - issues like family court issues, which I know she feels very passionately about. I think it's pretty easy to sort of say - and I'm not suggesting you're saying this Neil - but just go; “Well, they’ve got a view on this and they've got nothing to contribute on any other issue”.
MITCHELL: But don’t they?
PRIME MINISTER: I tend to deal with people on the issues they present to me and Pauline has never raised or come to me over those issues. What she has been coming to me about, is things like how welfare is spent and ensuring there's integrity in the welfare system and she has very deep concerns about the way the family court system works.
MITCHELL: She is described today as a racist and a bigot. Is that fair?
PRIME MINISTER: Look what I said last Monday when I was here in Melbourne is, I don't think it helps that we constantly go back to just herding people into tribes and seeking to create further conflict around this stuff. I want us to all step back from all that. I want to step back from all the name-calling. I want us to step back and say; “How about we just deal with the issues that are in front of us and stop treating politics like a sport, where you have to pick sides and throw rocks?”
MITCHELL: Well, let's look at One Nation the Party then. Do One Nation policies represent Australian values or are they at odds with Australian values?
PRIME MINISTER: Well they’re not ones that exist certainly within my Party.
MITCHELL: Are they anti-Australian in their values?
PRIME MINISTER: I said last night that I think there is a lack of knowledge, or awareness or understanding particularly when it comes to Islam in Australia. It can be sort of stereotyped, I think there's no doubt about that. I think it's the job of leaders such as myself to improve that understanding. But the question is are all of their policies or their policies inconsistent with Australian values, well, many of their policies are not policies I would share.
MITCHELL: Which ones?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I don't share their views when it comes to how they see a role for big government in this country. I don't share their views for intervening in so many different parts with additional regulation and things like that. When it comes to their views on immigration and the fact that they believe that, you know, it’s certain types of people in the immigration program which are the issue. So, I've never shared those values -
MITCHELL: Isn’t that itself racist? If you base immigration on race?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Neil, what I'm not going to do today - which is I think what you're inviting me to do -
MITCHELL: Well I mean I’m interested, you’re tiptoeing around One Nation. Why are you being so careful?
PRIME MINISTER: Because I don't think it helps Neil, for us to just get into this slanging match between all of the personalities here. What happened last Friday was abominable and I think the right response in relation to that, is not to get into tit-for-tat between political parties and start with; “This person is this”, or “that person is that” and “they’re to blame for this” and “they're to blame for that”.
I think the right thing to do is to reach out to the Muslim community and give them a big hug. The right thing for me to do is to turn up at a Coptic Church on Sunday with my family and pray for the victims in a Christian church that actually knows quite a lot about being impacted by these sorts of attacks. I think the right thing to do is for me to stand up in Melbourne and say; “Hey, how about we treat each other as individuals and not members of groups and try and set them against each other for public entertainment?”
MITCHELL: Well, do you think Pauline Hanson supports you on that philosophy?
PRIME MINISTER: I have no idea, I have never discussed it with her.
MITCHELL: You don’t care?
PRIME MINISTER: It's not for me to have a view about that, it's for her to have a view about what she does. She is accountable, as is her party, as is every party, for their own decisions and all the things that they say. I'm responsible for what the Liberal Party does and what my Government does.
MITCHELL: True, true, but you will to an extent be judged on your reaction to parties like this. I mean you were quite happy to take Fraser Anning’s head off for what he did.
PRIME MINISTER: Which was abominable.
MITCHELL: Which was obscene and which was wrong, but sometimes Pauline Hanson … she won’t even condemn Fraser Anning.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I certainly don't agree with her on that, that's for sure.
MITCHELL: But you can take his head off, you won’t take hers off.
PRIME MINISTER: I absolutely didn’t agree with what she did in the Parliament, when she wore the burqa to Parliament. I thought that disrespected the Parliament and you know, we made those comments at the time. So look, again Neil, I don't think it helps the debate if we make it about the personalities. I think what helps the debate is by being constructive.
Yesterday I was down at Punt Road with Bachar Houli and we announced $15 million dollars for the project we've got going down there, not just with his leadership program with Muslim Australians, but also for young Indigenous kids. That's what we should be doing.
MITCHELL: The reason I did raise it by the way, is Kevin Rudd has tweeted; “It's appalling that Morrison,” you, “can't simply state Liberals and Nationals, put One Nation last. Hanson’s racism and religious bigotry is as clear as day. What about some leadership, Morrison?” Not Mr Morrison either.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Kevin Rudd doesn't get to make decisions for the Liberal Party. We have a process for making our decisions. As our record shows, we're in the Senate, we didn't preference them in the Senate last time, that's what our actions are. Labor got people elected on the basis of One Nation preferences last election. Michael Daly thinks Asian immigrants take Australians jobs. I haven't heard Kevin Rudd call out Michael Daly.
MITCHELL: No.
PRIME MINISTER: Or Bill Shorten for that matter, by the way.
MITCHELL: What has Bill Shorten done? Is he racist?
PRIME MINISTER: Well why has Bill Shorten not disassociated himself with the comments of Michael Daly in New South Wales?
MITCHELL: On the Asians?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, why not? You’ll remember when John Howard many years ago was attacked for those things, a long, long time ago.
MITCHELL: Yeah I remember.
PRIME MINISTER: Labor had a lot to say about that, so where is Bill Shorten today? Tanya Plibersek? Anthony Albanese? When it comes to the leader of the Labor Party in the New South Wales Parliament –
MITCHELL: Well, for the same reasons you won’t bag One Nation, it's political.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm sorry, this is his own Party.
MITCHELL: It’s politically difficult, it’s the middle of an election.
PRIME MINISTER: This is the leader of the Labor Party in New South Wales who was has said Asians are going to take people’s jobs.
MITCHELL: A fast trail to Geelong. You've talked about $2 billion dollars towards it. You'll need, when it comes in, you’ll need the sky rail, a tunnel or acquisition, which will it be?
PRIME MINISTER: Well this is the business case that is now going to be developed.
MITCHELL: Oh so this is just a business case?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's $2 billion down, to actually make sure the project can proceed based on the business case that has to be developed. It's no different to what we did when we announced the Melbourne Airport Rail Link. At that stage we didn't have a preferred route, now we do have a preferred route. We have a heads of agreement between Dan Andrews and ourselves.
MITCHELL: But you’d agree it’s going to have to be one of those three? It can't just arrive at the edge of the city and go from 160 to 20.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, sure.
MITCHELL: You’d either need sky rail, or a tunnel, or acquisition.
PRIME MINISTER: And that’s what the process will determine.
MITCHELL: When will we be in it, when will it be running?
PRIME MINISTER: Well our best estimate at the moment is that within about two years we should be able to start construction. There's a lot to be achieved over that time and I know the State Government has already been working on this. That's one of the reasons why it's the project that we've decided proceed with. But let me put it in perspective, what this project is all about. On Wednesday I announced together with Alan Tudge and David Coleman, a population plan for Australia's future. Now that is about having the right and balanced migration settings. But it's also about having the infrastructure we need to support population growth. This project is a critical example of the sort of infrastructure we need to ensure our cities can grow.
MITCHELL: So is it ten years off?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we have to wait for the business case to be done.
MITCHELL: So the business case is two years off?
PRIME MINISTER: No the business case will be done more quickly than that, then you need to get into the advanced planning works. Then you need to get the tenders and then you need to start construction. I mean you can't go –
MITCHELL: It sounds ten years off.
PRIME MINISTER: Well you can't go into the McDonald's drive through and get yourself a fast rail to Melbourne. You can get a few other things I notice -
MITCHELL: [Laughter] I did want to come back to that.
PRIME MINISTER: Look, these are big projects Neil, they can't just be done by yesterday afternoon and they don't start unless the Commonwealth in this case, is prepared to make this sort of a commitment of $2 billion, which we have and we'll work with the State government.
I think we're demonstrating that on Melbourne Airport Link. We took the initiative there, to put our $5 billion down, this time last year and it's moving towards becoming reality.
MITCHELL: So you like the idea of Geelong being like a suburb of Melbourne?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's a satellite city and it has been.
MITCHELL: Yeah, they wouldn’t like that.
PRIME MINISTER: It's a city in its own right.
MITCHELL: And Albury Wodonga, you want to have a look at a business case?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, we’ve got a series of them.
MITCHELL: [Inaudible].
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve got a series, there's Terralgon, there’s Gold Coast, there’s Wollongong and there are already projects underway that we've done, into Newcastle and out of Ballarat and a range of other projects. So we're serious about fast rail.
MITCHELL: Matthew Guy did float this himself during the election campaign, didn't do him much good.
PRIME MINISTER: Well –
MITCHELL: It is pretty much his plan, isn’t it, the one he floated?
PRIME MINISTER: No because what I'm announcing is an infrastructure project in the context of an entire population strategy Neil, this isn't just a one-off announcement. This is a fair dinkum plan to manage population growth, which involves migration settings, investments in social cohesion, planning frameworks with state and territory governments and local governments and congestion-busting projects of over $330 million dollars here in Victoria alone. Things like Racecourse Road where I was out there with Jason Wood, $70 million for widening Racecourse Road.
MITCHELL: That’s the one in Cranbourne, not Flemington?
PRIME MINISTER: Pakenham.
MITCHELL: Pakenham, sorry. Tax. There is a lot of discussion about minimum wages and you’d agree they’re too low?
PRIME MINISTER: Well they increased 3 percent, the minimum wage.
MITCHELL: It’d be hard to live on, wouldn’t they?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course. Of course they would be but the majority of Australians don't live on the minimum wage, the majority of Australians are actually paid above award. But those who are actually on the minimum wage, 56 percent of them actually work for small and family businesses, not large businesses. Less than 10 percent of those who are on minimum wage, are actually employed by a large business, so those who actually pay those wages are small and family businesses who oftentimes - as you know Neal - when they're going through hard times, don't take a wage at all. See if you own a business, your wage is what you can take out of the business. Those small and family business owners often don’t take any wage.
MITCHELL: So would you look at this? If you’re on the minimum wage, you’re paying $70 a week in tax. What about a ‘shandy deal’, employers pay them a bit and you increase the tax-free threshold, give them some back in tax?
PRIME MINISTER: We actually are delivering tax cuts. We've already legislated tax cuts.
MITCHELL: How much will it give to someone on the minimum wage?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it can provide at that level, I think, it's around about a few hundred bucks.
MITCHELL: A year?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
MITCHELL: I'm talking almost 70 bucks a week, you take out of them now.
PRIME MINISTER: Well that's not something that the Budget could sustain and what I also understand - you know we also have a Newstart system, we have family tax benefits systems, we have a whole range of other payments and support that exist for people on low incomes. That's actually what the Fair Work Commission found –
MITCHELL: Well, what –
PRIME MINISTER: Let me just, this is an important point Neil - the minimum wage isn't the only form of income that people get, who are on those minimum wages. As the Fair Work Commission has found, this work has been done, they have a range of other income supports which help them in that situation. That's what the Fair Work Commission takes into account. Now they will set the minimum wage is, it's an independent process. If I say it should go up, well, that's good.
MITCHELL: I loved the fact that the child who served you at McDonalds didn't know who you were.
PRIME MINISTER: [Laughter] I think that’s great too.
MITCHELL: How often do you go to Maccas?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, occasionally yeah.
MITCHELL: And a pot and a parma at the pub in Malvern? How often, the health police will be onto you.
PRIME MINISTER: [Laughter] Why would they be onto me for going to the Malvern Hotel?
MITCHELL: Because you’re not allowed to eat Maccas, you’re not allowed to eat parmas, you’re not allowed to drink beer.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’m pretty much like everyone else Neil –
MITCHELL: How often at Maccas?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, I’d probably pop in once or twice a month, maybe.
MITCHELL: Do you have fries with it?
PRIME MINISTER: I certainly do.
MITCHELL: Thickshake?
PRIME MINISTER: Nah, I don’t go a thickshake.
MITCHELL: Coca Cola?
PRIME MINISTER: I just go the normal quarter-pounder meal or something like that.
MITCHELL: And a Coke?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, it’s always a Coke.
MITCHELL: A bucket of sugar and some fat.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, bit of that from time to time. It’s still not illegal.
[Laughter]
MITCHELL: It will be.
[Laughter]
Thank you very much for coming in.
PRIME MINISTER: No worries Neil.
MITCHELL: The Prime Minister.
[ENDS]