HOST: Prime Minister, good morning to you. And I guess my first chance to say congratulations.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Nadia. That is very generous of you. And thanks to the people of Perth for a fantastic result with four new Members of the House of Representatives team. And I look forward to catching up with the Premier tomorrow and then again on Sunday.
HOST: Well, let's just quickly look at your front bench, the front bench, one West Australian in your Cabinet, two in the outer Ministry. Compared to the previous government, WA does not have the same level of senior representation. There are a few people here that might feel a little dudded by that.
PRIME MINISTER: Ah look, people are coming through and rising up the ranks in from WA and that will continue into the future. It's not surprising that people who had done the hard work to get us into government over the previous three years tended to stay in the Cabinet. There were two new Cabinet Ministers coming from the outer Ministry into the Cabinet to replace the two Cabinet Ministers who lost their seats in Terri Butler and Kristina Keneally. But change happens over a period of time. And what you'll see is that Madeleine King will be joined by other members from WA in the Cabinet. And the addition of Anne Aly as a Minister is certainly a very good one.
HOST: Okay. A couple of things to look at. First of all, South Australia is now the latest state to be whingeing about a share of the GST. They say it's outrageous. Now, the deal at the moment ensures we get $0.70 in the dollar back. I appreciate you've committed to that. But what happens when compensation for other states to ensure they're no worse off expires in 2027? And the Productivity Commission looks at this. Are all bets off then?
PRIME MINISTER: No, look, the process that's been established that was there before the election stays in place, no changes. I made that clear before the election. I don't change my position after the election.
HOST: What about after 2027 though? I mean, that would bring you, if you win, a second term.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, ask me in 2027, and the lead up to that. We're at 2022. I have, I have no plans to change any of the arrangements that have been put in place.
HOST: WA, as you would well be aware, has a domestic gas reservation policy, which quarantines 15 per cent of gas produced here for domestic use. So, as a result, we do have cheaper gas in the rest of the state at the moment and a clearly a more reliable gas supply. Does the rest of the country need to do the same? Do they need to have this kind of policy in other states?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's pretty visionary, wasn't it, of the WA Government to put that in place. And it has served the people of Western Australia well. Unfortunately those procedures weren't put in place. We did argue for a the capacity of a domestic gas reservation for a period, of a long period of time. It was rejected by the former government. It then eventually put in place a trigger. But that trigger, if it was fired off, if you like today, it wouldn't change anything until at least January next year. So the short-term challenges, the immediate challenges which are there, which are a product of some things beyond any government's control, with regard to what has occurred with Russia and Ukraine, and the consequential significant hike in global prices are beyond people's control. But what was in the Government's control was actually having an energy policy. And we've been through nine years of no energy policy. We had a lot of rhetoric from the former government about a gas-fired recovery for year, after year, after year and no real policy changes put in place that are appropriate. This is a direct consequence. As I said, it's not all domestic considerations. Some of it is beyond the Government's control, but it was within the Government's capacity at some stage to land one of the 22 different energy policies that they announced and haven't landed…
HOST: Okay, a couple of things there. First of all, the CEO of Woodside, Meg O'Neill, did flag that Woodside might be able to provide some LNG cargoes to the east. Have you taken up that offer? Have you asked for that to happen?
PRIME MINISTER: We certainly have. In terms of, Madeleine King herself has been in contact with the big providers, as well as Chris Bowen, the Energy Minister. And we're talking through with the sector how we can alleviate the immediate real pressure which is on businesses and households.
HOST: Your commitments on climate change in the lead up to the election and the gravity of that issue, it's a big issue for a lot of people. Are you comfortable with Woodside's Scarborough Gas Project at a time when climate scientists are saying that there should be no more new fossil fuel projects?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm comfortable with making sure that we transition over a period of time, in an orderly way—one that protects our environment by reducing emissions and heading to Net Zero by 2050. That's a target that's shared by companies like Woodside and BHP and Rio Tinto. We need to make sure in the meantime that people do have access to energy. That's what we're talking about immediately now on the east coast with the extraordinary increase in prices that we have seen and the pressure that's on businesses.
HOST: Yeah, but the gas from the project is not going to the east coast will go overseas.
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. And we will continue to benefit from the export of our resources, the revenue of which goes in part to fund education and health and our services in our national economy. Our resources exports will continue to be an important role of our national economy. At the same time, Australia will, of course, change the energy mix. We can see that happening right now because the cheapest form of new energy here is renewables are backed up by storage. Gas will play a role domestically as well in the economy as a firming fuel. But globally, that will be dependent upon global demand and decisions made in boardrooms overseas.
HOST: Would you be reluctant beyond Scarborough to approve another fossil fuel project?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we'll consider those issues based upon their merits, based upon one to the commercialised commercial analysis of projects. That's a decision for business. What Government is responsible for its decisions based upon the environmental impact of particular projects, and they'll all be judged on their merits. But the idea that you have a simple stop position is one that doesn't reflect the needs of either our domestic economy or the global economy, and also doesn't reflect the way that the debates and change occurs in terms of international agreements. I can assure you that when I went to the Quad Leaders' Meeting in in Tokyo on literally the first day after I was sworn in, the changed Australian position around the globe and Australia joining the global effort to tackle climate change is recognised, is recognised not just by the United States, Japan and India, but in the other discussions I've had with Prime Minister Trudeau, Prime Minister Johnson in the UK, our European friends, including President Macron and the other European and regional leaders as well. I look forward to Australia re-joining the effort and rather than being a state sitting on the sideline of the debate in tackling climate change, that we're going to be a part of the positive agenda moving forward.
HOST: My guest this morning on ABC Radio Perth and WA is the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. And Prime Minister, you are speaking this morning to a statewide audience. So farmers are listening. They are asking for clarity on your position on the live export industry.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've committed to maintain the existing ban that's there for the northern summer. That's a ban that's been in place for some time. And that's led to a reduction in the size of the live export industry. What we've said is that we want to phase out the industry. We haven't put a timeframe on that because we want to make sure that we consult with farmers, make sure that they're looked after, make sure as well that we consult with the WA Government and it is particularly affected given the nature of where the industry is located. Well, we'll work that through in a cooperative way to make sure we get a win–win situation.
HOST: Now, I appreciate you say that you don't have the timeline yet. Would it be in this term of government?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, no, no one's envisaging a phase out in in this term of government. We went to the election in 2019 with a longer time frame than one term of government. We'll sit down and we'll work these issues through cooperatively and respectfully. We recognise that the farmers who might be listening to your program work hard and they need to be respected. We need also to make sure that animal welfare issues are looked after. We have a range of policies in the animal welfare area that were undermined by the former government in terms of an independent office of animal welfare and other measures that were undermined. People do care about these issues, but they also care about the economic consequences. And I know that overwhelmingly people in the industry also care about the animals as well, and their welfare. So, look, we'll work through those issues to make sure that there's certainty going forward.
HOST: And to be clear, you're not touching cattle. The live export trade of cattle?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
HOST: Just one final quick question. I know you need to go, but you are committing to establishing a national anti-corruption commission in your first year in government. Your policy said that that would be retrospective. So it could look at things that happened before the establishment of this body. So does that mean it could then look at things like the car park rorts affair, for instance, or the sports rorts affair? And look at ministers like Bridget McKenzie and Alan Tudge and their role in those events.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what it means is that we want an independent national anti-corruption commission that won't be told by the executive what it can look at. So they will have the scope to look at what they see fit. I think that's very important. Part of the flaw in the government's quite frankly, pathetic model was that ministers would have to agree on whether there could be an investigation into anything that they were engaged with. My Government won't have that right of veto, and nor will any processes or any issues that the Anti-Corruption Commission sees fit to have a look at.
HOST: Finally, Prime Minister, last month, the Activ Foundation announced the closure of its industrial work sites, which employs around 700 people with disabilities across the state. It says it just can't afford to keep running them at a loss and this is a not for profit organisation. Is there any chance your government would be able to kick in some money as requested by our government, to keep those workshops running?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, Bill Shorten, will have a look at that along with Amanda Rishworth. I know that for the families of those people who had been working through Activ for a long period of time, for many decades as an organisation that was good for people who work there. Good for the families of people. Yeah, this was a real shock. And I'm prepared to say that people will certainly look at whether there is any assistance that we can give. It was very abrupt. The decisions. I was in Perth at the time when that decision came through during the election campaign and it's just one of the areas where they've been impacted by changes to employment services policies. There was a real disruption just before we went into caretaker mode with people across the employment services sector being impacted by some decisions which to my mind made no sense at all to take contracts off of businesses that were providing that support for the labour market and for training and getting people into work and giving them contracts in places where they had no presence. It didn't seem to me to make a lot of sense. And of course, we know in the area of disability services there have been real issues with cuts to the NDIS and that's something that I can't think of anyone better than Bill Shorten to make a difference in.
HOST: All right. Well, we'll see if some money can flow through. Really appreciate your time. Prime Minister. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Nadia.
HOST: That was Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister.