Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s good to be back Jim.
JIM WILSON: This is very much a big spending Budget. I think in the circumstances, though, you didn't really have any choice?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think that's exactly right. The alternative was far more severe, which would have seen we know already, had we not stepped in with JobKeeper and JobSeeker and the cash flow boost, there would have been 700,000 more people who would've lost their jobs. And so we avoided that through those measures. But many Australians we know did not only lose their job, but all the hours in their job. We've seen 760,000 of those jobs come back, though, over the last few months. So we are making that recovery, we have still got a long way to go. But the Budget is that recovery plan, not just for today and tomorrow, but into the future as well.
WILSON: I suppose the big unknown as far as this pandemic, is actually the Budget being reliant on a vaccine being available and widely administered to the Australian public by late next year? There's just no guarantees on that front.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think this has been overstated. I mean, all Budgets have their assumptions, there are assumptions made about the iron ore price, the met coal price and the thermal coal price and a whole range of things that are made in assumptions that go to a Budget. But those assumptions don't determine whether you're getting a tax cut, they don’t determine whether the Dunheved Road upgrade is going to be done, or the many other infrastructure projects. I mean, all of those things are not dependent on a vaccine being there or not. I mean, the hiring credit, the JobMaker hiring credit, that's going ahead whether there's a vaccine or not. And all the other measures that are in this Budget, tax cuts, investment allowances, businesses, particularly small businesses who've had a devastating blow and will be making losses this year, they would normally have to wait several years if they survive, before they can offset those losses against what they earn in the future. But what we've said now is you can offset it against the better years you had coming into this into this COVID recession. And so you can through your tax, you can, you would get the rebate of that tax paid to you so you can keep people in work or you can invest again in your business and take advantage of those those new investment allowances.
WILSON: The tax cuts, will they be coming- will, eleven million Australians will receive tax cuts. Will they receive those in coming weeks in their pay packet or will it be at the end of the year?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, two things have to happen first. Obviously, it needs support in the parliament for the tax office to be able to move ahead. Then they'll publish the new tax scales and then the accounting software in the employer will be adjusted and then they'll start making the adjustments in people's pay. And I'd expect that that to happen in the weeks and months ahead, depending on the employer. And then there'll also be adjustment at the end of the financial year to ensure that people get every cent that's coming to them, because you'll have some people Jim, who may have been earning less over the earlier part of this year. But when your employer decides how much tax to withhold, they have to do it on the basis of how much you're then getting paid in that fortnight. And it's quite possible that people may be on a lower tax bracket because they were earning less in the early part of the year. So rather than get to the end of the year and us having to chase debts or people getting overpaid and underpaid, the smart way to do this, which is how we've done all of our supports through this pandemic, is to use the normal existing channels for doing this. Otherwise, you can get yourself in a lot of strife like we saw in the last crisis, which taught us everything not to do, under Labor, we're showing how to do it during this crisis.
WILSON: JobKeeper and JobSeekers now if this current crisis continues. Is there flexibility with those dates as far as when they end?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they are as they are now. But I think we've always demonstrated, Jim, we're looking carefully at how the economy is performing, what the global conditions are, how the economy's opening up. I mean, it was last week that the first gear change happened with JobKeeper and with JobSeeker. And we've moved through that period. And what we're finding and what we will continue to find as the economy continues to recover, then people in their jobs won't be dependent on JobKeeper, money from the taxpayer. They'll be getting paid their wage by their employer. The whole point of JobKeeper is to graduate from it and to be able to move forward. And many businesses have just done that. And there are some sectors, obviously, that continue to be significantly affected, but that's taken into account with the way we’ve structured the programme.
WILSON: But the COVID component in JobSeeker is set to end in December. What happens after this time surely can't go back to pre-COVID levels of 40 bucks a day. We know people can't survive on that?
PRIME MINISTER: We want to be able to make that decision closer to the time, Jim, because what we've learnt during the COVID recession is, you know, a lot changes all the time. And we've just made the first change to the supplement, which means people can actually earn $300 a fortnight before they would lose any of their JobSeeker payments. And so that's important earnings if they can have and maintain what their previous income would have been under those former arrangements. So we'll look at that as we get closer to the end of the year, I've already said and lent in pretty heavily. So I think people can expect the supplement to continue and the levels we set it, we will make that decision close to the end of the year when we've got better information because as you said, it's a very uncertain time at the moment. So you want to make a decision based on the best information.
WILSON: Let’s talk about JobMaker and the hiring credit announced last night, you're relying on the fact people and businesses are feeling confident enough to hire more staff. What if they don't?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the good news is, Jim, is more and more businesses are, as I said, 760,000 jobs come back, 760,000. And that's just been in the last couple of months. And that's with Victoria still shut. And as the economy continues to open up and people holiday home, there's $32 billion dollars net that usually goes offshore from Australians travelling overseas. That's not going to happen. They'll be doing that in Australia. They'll be spending their money in Australia. And so this will support the economy to continue to grow. We've got companies that are graduating from JobKeeper and and those finding employment. And the hiring credit is to ensure that they have that incentive to bring forward that decision. The key part of our economic recovery plan, taking back what has been lost, is to be bringing forward. We've brought forward tax cuts from our longer term plan, and we're getting businesses to bring forward their investment plans with the investment allowance, which means they can write off all their capital expenditure in the same year and they can offset their losses against previous tax paid as well. So that's going to bring forward a lot of investment decisions. And we also want them to bring forward their hiring decisions by partnering with them to put people into these jobs. Now, that is in addition to 100,000 additional apprenticeship positions where those wage subsidies exist. And I’ve got to say it also, people may not recall this, but I recall it was one of my Budgets when I was Treasurer. We introduced the ten thousand dollar Restart wage subsidy. Now, that helps eligible job seekers who are aged 50 and over, and it's already helped 50,000 Australians over the age of 50 get into these jobs. And so we already have within the system a range of other supports to get people who are over the age of 35 into work. We've also got the support for adult Australian apprentices.
WILSON: But just on the JobMaker programme, Prime Minister, which is great for young workers. Fantastic. OK, getting off welfare. But older workers. Why is there a cut off for those over 35?
PRIME MINISTER: Because Jim, the biggest impact has been in terms of job losses on people who have been younger. It's been that and women. We've seen a very good bounce back in terms of female employment. 60 per cent of the jobs that have come back in the last few months have actually been women. And that's tremendous because they were the ones who lost the most jobs. And the same has been true for young people. When I was Social Services Minister, Jim, one thing I learnt was that if a young person stays on welfare when they come out of school or they lose a job when they're young, they have a much higher risk of then being conditioned on to welfare and they could stay there for the rest of their life. Now, that is a great waste of human potential.
WILSON: Question from one of our listeners, Prime Minister, Lisa from Ryde here in Sydney. Could you please ask the Prime Minister if the $200 dollar a week to employ young people is available for people with a disability. It would be really good if it was because disabled people want to work as well.
PRIME MINISTER: It doesn't discriminate against people who’ve got a disability. It applies to anybody who falls into that age category and has been offered a job.
WILSON: Ok. Let's talk about the aged care. And we've just had Ian Hensche the aged care advocate on the programme. They're far from happy. They say it doesn't go far enough, in fact. Well, short, 23,000 home care packages available they wanted- they were expecting 66,000 places. You can understand their frustration?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think it's an unrealistic expectation. A couple of points, since we came to government Jim we've tripled, tripled the number of in-home aged care places from 60,000 to more than 180,000. And the latest 23,000 is the single largest increase we've done at any time. And we've been steadily building up those numbers. Now, 97 per cent of people who are right now waiting for a different type of in-home aged care place or an in-home aged care place are already receiving another type of in-home aged care place or other form of in-home support. So people are getting that support and we are making more spaces available. But you can't just turn this on like a tap. There has to be workers trained. There has to be people who can provide those services. I mean, if you just rush the funding into a programme like this, you'll have people who are providing care in people's homes. You'll have implementation problems. You'll have standards of care and quality that would be at risk. The notion that you can just create 60,000 places in in-home in-home aged care overnight is not practical and in fact could be quite dangerous.
WILSON: So could there be an increase in funding as far as aged care? Once the royal commission hands down their report?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely, and I've made that very clear. There have been two reports, interim reports that have already come from the royal commission. The first one was last year, and we responded to all of those recommendations. And we provided again then additional funding for things like in-home aged care. That was last year. There was also recommendations made about medication in aged care facilities and how that was managed and monitored. And we've responded to those as well. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, we've put $1.5 billion extra into aged care. And that's just in the last six months. And that has dealt with everything from workforce issues to supports for health management controls in these facilities and training. And a vast array of programmes to support residential aged care facilities and the care that's being provided. Now we said in the Budget, Josh said last night there's a royal care royal commission into aged care, when it releases its final report we’ll be making a substantive and comprehensive response then, and that's anticipated to be in next year's Budget.
WILSON: I was up miffed and shook my head at the Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, who labelled it the ‘Morrison recession’. I mean, this is a- we're going through a health crisis. What was the reaction to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, look, it's embarrassing for him. I think it demonstrates that he hasn't got the faintest idea what he's talking about. He seems to be the only person in the world who doesn't understand there's been a COVID-19 pandemic. I mean, it's a ridiculous statement. I mean, Australians know, Australians know why we're in this situation. There's been a global pandemic. I mean, a million people have died. Did he not notice? I mean, I think it's quite offensive, forget me, I couldn’t care what he says about me. He says nasty things all the time-
WILSON: Well it’s a COVID recession, let’s cut to the chase?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course it’s a COVID recession, but I'll tell you what. There's going to be a Coalition led recovery from this through the measures that we put in the Budget. That's that's that's what certainly will come as a result of the policies we’ve put in place. But it's all politics Jim. I mean, if he wants to politicise a pandemic, to score some cheap points well, that says more about him than it does about anyone else.
WILSON: Well, it's a big spending Budget. And the shadow treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will get a right of reply on the programme after 5 o'clock. But a big spending Budget. Extraordinary times I figure you had no choice?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's what Australia had to do and we were prepared to do it. And let me make this point. It's quite different what we've done in this crisis to what had happened previously. We said right back in March, we're going to have to respond and we are going to respond. And we did. And promptly and we saved some 700,000 jobs at the time. It was targeted. It was proportional and it was temporary. 90 per cent of the additional spending that you see in this Budget is happening this year and next year. And then it reverts back to the normal levels of funding that we have across programmes. So hospital funding keeps going up. Education funding keeps going up, on all the profiles that we previously agreed before we went into this recession. But the stimulus spending, that's this year and it's next year. What happened last time is it wasn't targeted. I mean, they were still putting money into school halls some five years after the GFC. And many of those schools have actually now closed. I mean, we had pink batts. We had all of that sort of stuff. It wasn't targeted. It wasn't proportional, and it certainly wasn't temporary. They baked in spending for a decade. That's not what we're doing here. We're not repeating their mistakes. We're doing this the right way. Prime Minister, very busy 24 hours. We appreciate your time this afternoon.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks. Who are you tipping for the Grand Final Jim?
WILSON: I’m on the pennies- on the Panthers.
PRIME MINISTER: You’re on the Panthers? Who do you think they’ll play?
WILSON: I think the Panthers, oh gee, who will they play? I reckon they’ll play the Roosters.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah mate I'm with you on that. I mean, that game, that game last weekend was a cracking game.
WILSON: I love how we finish every single chat with a reference to rugby league. How good is that? We love the finals. Good on your prime minister.
PRIME MINISTER: We do, enjoy. Good on you Jim. Cheers.