Prime Minister
NEIL BREEN: Now, good morning, Prime Minister, welcome to Queensland.
PRIME MINISTER: It's great to be here, Neil, how good are hot chips at the footy.
BREEN: I’ll give you the answer to that - they’re too good.
PRIME MINISTER: They are a bit too good.
BREEN: I'll tell you what else is too good is Queensland and the weather here. And we're happy to have you here in the state. Do you feel welcome here, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, very. Obviously, I was here over the weekend and we weren't always just at our official events, the mega-facility out there near Ipswich on the weekend building those new boxer armoured vehicles, hundreds and job, a terrific project. But just getting out and about. Stopped into a quiet pub to watch the rest of the Wallabies -All Blacks match and that was tremendous.
BREEN: Wow, wasn’t that a game?
PRIME MINISTER: Field goal, though, a bit of field goal practice needed I think.
BREEN: Why wouldn’t anyone take a field goal?
PRIME MINISTER: They had their heads up and they were going for the line. But tremendous courage at the end, I thought, it was great to see it again. Jacinda Ardern and I have to carry over our bet til next week so that’ll be fun.
BREEN: Talking about Jacinda Ardern, how are discussions with regards to a border bubble between Australia and New Zealand? And particularly Queensland's inclusion in it if we want to be in it.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the only thing… well, it starts with New South Wales. The only thing that’s preventing Queensland is your border arrangements here in Queensland. And the reason Kiwis can't come to Queensland is because they'll be taking up places in hotel quarantine, which we need to get Queenslanders home to Queensland from overseas. So New South Wales won't have that restriction. Neither will the Northern Territory, the ACT, I suspect South Australia will follow fairly soon. And so that's the only thing standing in the way of it. It's a decision for the Queensland Premier.
BREEN: It is disappointing that we seem to be slow on the uptake with all of these things. We seem to be in a defensive frame of mind, our government in Queensland, about New South Wales and they've got to get it under control and we're slow with New Zealand. 480,000 Kiwis a year come here. They spend $600 million. Obviously, you've spoken about it a lot, but you'd like to see them to be more proactive and on the front foot rather than trying to be 20 not out at lunch.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you've got to walk and chew gum at the same time. I think New South Wales has done very well in keeping their economy open, but also staying on top of COVID. That doesn’t mean there aren't outbreaks, there are. But they get on top of them with their testing and their tracing and their COVID safe behaviours. I mean, we've got to be careful, though. I mean, and this isn't about whether you have a border or you don't have a border. You've got to do that on the basis of health advice and health advice alone. There can't be any other reasons for it. And the reason for that is, Neil, as I'm sure Queenslanders understand who support borders and the vast majority, of course, do and I understand that. But they don't, they're not cost free. They do have an economic impact. There's no doubt about that. I mean, in Queensland, we've seen 44 per cent of the jobs come back from the pit of the COVID-19 recession already and that's great. But in New South Wales, it's been 70 per cent. In South Australia, it's been 70 percent. So, you know, we've got to get Queenslanders working again here. And our Budget is designed to do just that and get private businesses, you know, companies, businesses, small businesses, large businesses, employing again. That's how you get people back into jobs. You get businesses investing and hiring again. And that's what our Budget is about with the tax incentives to do that. But also the tax cuts for 2.3 million Queenslanders, two million of which are on low to middle incomes.
BREEN: Well, we've seen what the public thinks of the federal Budget in today's Newspoll in The Australian. Just a poll, I know polls are polls, but there's some good results for you in there in that poll today. Two-party preferred 52 to 48. But there is one in there, it's about wage subsidies. And basically, 50 per cent of the people surveyed for this poll thought the government should have allowed the wage subsidy to be paid for all new jobs offered to unemployed people regardless of the age of the person, rather than just under 35s. Is that a criticism you would take on board? And would you look at extending it to all Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, to get ourselves out of the COVID recession, we've got to be very smart about it and we've got to focus on the big challenges that are there. And, you know, we said we'd be targeted, we’d be proportionate would be temporary. 90 per cent of the additional spending is in this year or next year. Now, what is true is that for people under the age of 35, they have seen their numbers of people employed there fall by 6.2 per cent. Now, for those over 35, it's 1.7 per cent. And for those hours lost too it's over 8 percent, for people are over... under 35, I should say. But the youth unemployment rate is double what it is for the rest of the population. So we've got a real problem. And the COVID-19 recession has hit those younger people even harder. That's not to say others haven't been hit, of course they have. But you've got to focus and put priorities on the problem where it's been most acute. And that's why it has been designed that way, because that's where we've seen the big impact, biggest impact. Now, what happens we know, Neil, is if you're a younger person starting out your working life, your working age, if you started out on the dole, on JobSeeker, then you're more likely to spend more of your life on welfare. And that is not something I want to see for anyone.
BREEN: So you’re trying to break the cycle? You want to break the cycle.
PRIME MINISTER: We are trying to break the cycle and that's what happens in recessions. Recessions can bake in unemployment and welfare dependency potentially for a lifetime. Older workers like myself, you and others, you know, we've been around a bit. We've seen a few things. We've got skills and experiences and a resilience that others who are younger might not have and not experienced. And so, I mean, I lived through, as I'm sure you did, to know the last recession of the early 1990s. That's when I came out. And back then, Paul Keating put in a programme called Jobstart and it was for the same younger people. The only difference was he did it for 50,000. We've done this for 450,000. So it's about where you focus your effort. That's why it's you’ve got to look at the measures in the Budget, pulling them all together, because we’ve got 340,000 training places this year, that's not age dependent. We've got, you know, we've got our workplace adult apprenticeship scheme. We've got additional university places. We've got the investment incentives for businesses and they'll be employing people of all ages. We've got the Restart programme, which provides up to $10,000 of a wage subsidy for workers over the age of 50 who have been on unemployment for six months or more. So the Budget, both the measures in this one and the ones we've already put in place are there designed to support people in the whole range of different situations.
BREEN: You know how there's no interest like self-interest? I like this one from the Newspoll because everyone's like, you know, they don't like this, they don't like that. Do you approve or disapprove of tax cuts? Are you surprised that 81 percent of Australians approve of tax cuts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, sometimes I'm surprised that there's still 20 per cent.
BREEN: Who don’t approve.
PRIME MINISTER: And look, we're passionate about lowering people’s taxes and we've been doing it for years and years. I mean, the tax cuts for 2.3 million Queenslanders that have been brought forward in this Budget, they didn't come out of nowhere. They were part of a plan that we'd already put in before, but they weren't going to happen for another two years. So we’ve just brought it forward. So we've always been for lower taxes. Lower taxes means people keep more of what they earn. And I believe passionately that if you've worked hard for it, I want you to keep as much of it as you possibly can and for us to use as little of what you earn as we need to get things done. That's why you've got to be targeted. That's why you can't just do things right across everywhere. You're sensible and you're careful and you prioritise. I mean, that's why we're focused on the things that need to be fixed.
BREEN: I don't think anyone on the planet except for one person could accuse you of not being a hard worker. I think it's in your DNA. Do you, were you disappointed that you came to Queensland and you hadn't been allowed here for a while then when you got here, our Deputy Premier accused you of being here on a holiday?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, look, I had a few things to say about that yesterday. I mean, politics and some people just treat politics like it's a game, Neil. And this is a serious election in Queensland and the people of Queensland will make their decision. Obviously, I think Deb Freckligton will make a great premier. I've worked with the current Premier as part of the National Cabinet, and Queenslanders will make their decision about that. And of course, I'm strongly supporting what Deb is doing here and a plan for jobs, getting Queenslanders working again. And of course I would. But, you know, politics is not a game. And I just see what some politicians like this character, you know, they just treat it like it's, you know, some sort of reality television show. It's not. It's really serious. People's lives, livelihoods in the middle of a COVID-19 recession. The world is very uncertain, you know, we are rebuilding Australia's defence forces and we're doing it here in Queensland. That’s what I was doing yesterday, opening a defence manufacturing facility employing hundreds of Queenslanders, which was delivering on a commitment that we had made as a government several years ago and followed through on. So, you know, I think sometimes people get pretty sick of that sort of behaviour.
BREEN: I know your travels have to be kept under wraps. Are we allowed to know where you are today at this stage, or is it still a bit of a secret?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm in Brisbane today and I'm looking forward to doing a number of things today. I'm going to get an update on the UQ vaccine today, which is very important. That's a huge part of what was also in the Budget, $1.7 billion to support should a vaccine prove successful, particularly here in Queensland, then we can make sure that can be manufactured here in Australia.
BREEN: That’s right. So you are working today?
PRIME MINISTER: Every day. I might take a bit of time out when the Sharks were still in the game or going to church Sunday morning and, you know, taking the odd day with the kids and Jen when we can. But, I mean, the medical manufacturing too and we were talking yesterday about defence manufacturing, but we've got six key areas that we're focusing on, areas like recycling, food and beverage manufacturing. But also on medical manufacturing, on medicines and medical instruments and things like this. Many highly skilled jobs there, but also many low skilled jobs as well in manufacturing. And so that's how you get people back to work. You don't get Australians back to work by employing more public servants. I mean, what we will need to run many of these programmes some more people to assist with those programmes as a result of the Budget. But that's not what turns the country around. They do a great job and I respect what they do. But the way people get back into work is when someone who's, you know, at work this morning and they’re perhaps may be on the way in, but if they're a small business person I suspect they've already been there several hours. And they're thinking about, you know, am I going to take that apprentice on? And am I going to purchase that new piece of equipment? And in the Budget, we gave them the reason to say yes to that.
BREEN: Say yes to both.
PRIME MINISTER: Then off we go.
BREEN: Rightio, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Enjoy your time in Queensland and thanks for visiting.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, Neil. Great to be here. We’ll try and keep away from those hot chips, mate, the best way we can.
BREEN: I know. They’re hard to stay away from.