SABRA LANE, HOST: The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese joins us now. Good morning, Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Sabra. Good to be with you.
LANE: First to the gambling legislation which the public's yet to see. Doctor Mike Freelander, a Labor MP who's Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Health, has told the ABC it's disgusting that gaming industry lobbyists were briefed ahead of Caucus on the government's proposed partial ban on gambling ads, that Ministers are now repeating the language of lobbyists and that MP's are being softened up. In his words, this is bad form. Is that right?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's not right. And I have every respect for Mike Freelander. He's a good fellow, but not the first time he's gone public with various comments that he has. Look, we have done more in our first two years on gambling than any previous government ever. Monthly activity statements, so that people can clearly see their wins and losses each month. Requiring all staff who work for companies to have proper training. Launching BetStop, the national self-exclusion register - now 27,000 people have signed up for that. The banning of the use of credit cards so that you're not betting with money that you simply don't have. Committing to mandatory minimum classifications for content on computer games. The pre-verification that we have put in place as well. And of course, as you'd be aware, the change in the statements at the end of ads as well. To be really clear, moving away from the benign gamble responsibly, which was in place before we were elected. Now we're looking at further reforms and we're consulting appropriately, including with caucus members. Indeed, I met with Mr Freelander last week.
LANE: There is dissent within Labor over this, over both the lobbying and the watering down of advertising bans to a partial ban. How are you going to deal with this dissent?
PRIME MINISTER: We are a political party that has members who are very passionate about ideas. I've got no problem with that at all. What we're doing as a government, though, is making sure that we get it right. And we will get it right. We will make a difference. The status quo is completely unacceptable and there'll be further reforms.
LANE: A full ban is what Labor MP Peta Murphy pushed for. She died last year. She headed an inquiry into gambling. The Committee handed down a bipartisan report finding that gambling is a health hazard, insidious and needed to be banned. Why won't the government honour her legacy with a full ban?
PRIME MINISTER: Well what we're doing is making sure that we get these reforms right. There is such a thing as the internet, there is offshore gambling as well, which is therefore difficult to regulate and has implications across a range of areas as well. Obviously, if you just move it offshore. There are a range of issues that we're dealing with. We're consulting appropriately. And one of the things that my government does is to make sure we don't just take a position, try to ram it through. We consult with stakeholders - that's a good thing. That's how you get reform right. That's how you avoid unintended consequences, and that's what we're doing.
LANE: TV broadcasters, one of the reasons being given is that free to air needs to be protected. But broadcasters are on threat from a range of digital media giants like Google, who aren't regulated. They're resistant to change, resistant to restraining trolls, false ads and scams. They've taken a big chunk of ad revenue to free to air. Why not make them pay a levy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we're looking at all of those issues, including the relationship with social media. And we've said that we're examining those issues as part of the media bargaining code.
LANE: Labor is talking with the Coalition and trying to get agreement on putting the CFMEU into administration and to curtail the growth in NDIS recipients joining the scheme and the amount of spending. How confident are you that those bills will actually go through the Senate this week?
PRIME MINISTER: They are just two of the reforms that we have this week, but we all know that the NDIS needs to be made sustainable. It needs to be put back to the purpose for which it was established by the former Labor government. We are looking to create, not cuts, but a growth of 8 per cent - that's still substantial. And these reforms are common sense, making sure that it's delivering for the people it should. And of course, the CFMEU, we have this crackdown legislation. It's extraordinary that the Liberals and Greens twice last week blocked this legislation, but I'm confident that we will be able to get it through. And in addition to that, this week we have our HECs Relief Bill. We want to cut the HECs bills by $3 billion. We have our Future Made in Australia Act - we want Australia to make more things here. We have our Net Zero Economy Authority Bill, that's important for communities that are in transition. And this week we'll also be introducing our Superannuation on Paid Parental Leave Bill - that comes on top of the increased weeks that we've established, two additional weeks every year kick in, leading up to our full objective of making sure that Paid Parental Leave delivers for families.
LANE: Aged care is also a major issue. The royal commission three years ago said there should be a new Aged Care Act. Labor has been talking with the opposition about this for months. Five key groups representing the providers have come out today and said this is urgent business and the changes need to happen soon. How soon will it be introduced into parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we want it to happen soon, but we've been busy implementing, of course, the recommendations of the Aged Care Royal Commission already. We've already implemented five of the core aged care commitments we have, including 24/7 nursing. It'ss now in place for 99 per cent of the time. The additional hours that we're giving care means that there's an additional 3.6 million care minutes every single day, compared with when we were elected two years ago, for older Australians in aged care. These are important rules that we've put in place and we're hoping that the new Aged Care Act can be introduced to Parliament as soon as possible. We've been having good faith negotiations with people across the parliament on these issues because it's so important as our population ages.
LANE: Sorry, Prime Minister, you were hoping to do that a year ago and we're now nearly at the end of 2024 in terms of parliamentary sitting schedules. Is it going to happen this year?
PRIME MINISTER: We want it to happen this year. We haven't waited, though. We haven't sat on our hands. What we've been doing is introducing pieces of legislation previously, but also changes that we've been able to make through regulation. This is about a once in a generation reform. We want, whether it's the youngest Australians through the action we're taking on early education, or older Australians who we want to get the dignity and care they deserve in their later years, we're looking after the interests of all Australians, the youngest and the oldest.
LANE: To the situation in Gaza, Independent MP Zali Steggall says Peter Dutton's approach is racist. He's apparently considering legal action over that. Do you think he's racist?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think Peter Dutton is deeply divisive and that creates a risk.
LANE: Racist?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that creates a risk to the nation. I was astounded that last week when we welcomed home our Olympians, a moment of national unity, Peter Dutton once again showed that there's no moment too big for him to show how small he is.
LANE: What do you think his motive is?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's always about politics with Peter Dutton. Everything's about politics and everything is about division. What I'm concerned about is actually delivering on the issues, including the ones we've discussed this morning, that really matter to Australians. Peter Dutton knows full well that the same security agencies, indeed the same personnel, in many cases are looking after national security issues. If he doesn't have confidence in them, he should say so.
LANE: Nationals leader David Littleproud says he and Peter Dutton believe 99 per ceny of people who come to this country from Gaza come with the right intent but should have face to face interviews conducted by security officials. Would that solve this issue? And logistically, is that possible?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, David Littleproud knows, as does Peter Dutton, as do you I'm sure, Sabra, knows that at the moment no one is coming out of Gaza. Because in order to leave Gaza, of course Israel, due to the nature of the situation there, was having to approve people going through the Rafah crossing in order to depart earlier on. So they know that that's the situation and that's the context of Peter Dutton then saying he wants just a pause for the moment. He wants to stop people coming in when he knows that no one is leaving Gaza at the moment.
LANE: Prime Minister, if the polling trend is right, repeated public opinion polls this year show that Labor is headed for minority government at the next election. How worried are you by that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm concerned about dealing with assistance for Australians on the issues that matter to them. On the cost of living -
LANE: But how do you turn, obviously those messages aren't getting through and voter sentiment is, at the moment if the polls are accurate and right, that you're headed for minority.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll leave the commentating to yourself and other commentators. What I'm concerned about is dealing with practical measures. We've delivered a tax cut for every single taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, cheaper child care, 500,000 fee free TAFE places, we're expanding and strengthening Medicare through our Urgent Care Clinics - they're the issues that really matter to people. And in addition to that, we're dealing with difficult global economic times. We have managed to halve inflation whilst creating almost a million jobs now. More new jobs created under my government than under any previous government since federation - that's something I'm really proud of. And in addition to that, we're seeing wages, real wages increase, unlike what occurred under the former government. And that, of course, assists people as well. So these are challenging times, but we're determined to get it right and we're determined to continue to be focused not on the politics of division, we'll leave that to Peter Dutton. We're determined to focus on the needs of the Australian people.
LANE: Prime Minister, thanks for joining AM this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Sabra.