THOMAS ORITI, HOST: As 2024 draws to a close and summer is upon us, Parliament has had a mammoth final week. A late marathon sitting of the year past 45 pieces of legislation, there was a lot in there, bills on migration, housing reform, social media that ban for those under 16 as well. And that rush on bills has led to speculation from some that Labor could be preparing for an early election. And as many of us are preparing to have a more restrained Christmas in the meantime, the Government's conceded there's more work to do to help ease cost of living pressures. Joining us now is the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Prime Minister, good morning and thank you for your time.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Thomas. Always good to talk to you.
ORITI: Great to have you again. There are a lot of important issues to discuss here, the environment being one. We'll get to that. But first up, I mean, people are worried about buying food, medicine, having a roof over their heads. And if you don't mind, I want to start there because there are many Australians doing it tough. And some might be saying, “look, Prime Minister, in May 2022, you said you'd make life better, but things haven't gotten better, in fact, they're worse.” Let's start there. What would you say to someone doing it tough, who says things just aren't getting better for them under your government?
PRIME MINISTER: What I say is that we promised that we wouldn't leave people behind and we certainly haven't. We, each and every day, have recognised that these are tough global economic times with global inflation having an impact on people. And that's why we've had people's back. We've been working hard to make Australians lives better, whether it be holding supermarkets to account to get fairer prices at the checkout. The work that we did last week on housing, helping 40,000 Australians to be able to buy 80,000 new homes for renters, the work that we've done in cost of living relief, be it energy bill relief, cheaper childcare, a billion dollars Australians have saved on medicines, or whether it be importantly, the tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, each one of those measures has been opposed by the Coalition. They've even opposed Free TAFE. So, things would have been far more difficult if Peter Dutton had got his way, because he's opposed every single measure that we have put forward that have provided that support for people when they have needed it.
ORITI: With respect, though, do you think the relief measures you've introduced haven't had as much of an impact that you'd hoped? I mean, sure, and you flagged there a moment ago, global factors. But we've spoken to countless, you know, charities, welfare organisations, mental health support groups, to name a few. They are all saying they're at crisis point and increasingly stretched.
PRIME MINISTER: We know that people are doing it tough. The difference between us and the Coalition is that we're doing something about it and they're trying to block every single measure that we've put forward. So, whether it be the increases, two consecutive increases in rental assistance, or whether it be the increases in the pension, the support that we've done across the board to provide more support for people when they need it, including changing the tax cuts with a big call to make sure that low and middle income earners were the big beneficiaries -
ORITI: With the support of the Coalition, by the way.
PRIME MINISTER: No, let's be very clear -
ORITI: You said they didn't support anything, but that was supported by them.
PRIME MINISTER: No, first they said they'd oppose it, then they said they'd roll it back, then they said we should have an election on the basis of it. That's how strongly they opposed it. And eventually, eventually the response of the community meant that they didn't vote against it. They continue to argue, they continue to argue week after week that it's the wrong thing to do. Just like last week, Sussan Ley, the Deputy Leader, made it clear, she said if things are free, people don't value it. So, that's why, that's what explains their opposition essentially, to Medicare and the tripling of the bulk billing incentive that we've done, the Free TAFE that we've done, those measures that we've put in place to assist households, they've all been opposed by those opposite.
ORITI: Can we expect, you just acknowledge yourself, you know, people are doing it tough and there's more to do. Can we expect any significant measures ahead of the next election? And by the way, I welcome you to tell us when the next election might be. If you're not going to tell David Speers at Insiders, I'm not expecting you to tell me. But I welcome you to do us a solid, tell us a date.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm sure you would welcome that, Thomas, and the great listeners of NewsRadio would enjoy getting that scoop.
ORITI: Indeed. Think about us when you come up with it.
PRIME MINISTER: People will find out when I get in that white car with the flag and go to Government House. I've said the whole way along that it would be in 2025. But what we've been determined to do as well, Thomas, is to do the tough decisions that make that longer term difference. So, we've always been focused on providing that cost of living support in ways that bring down inflation. And when we were elected, inflation had a six in front of it and was rising. It now has a two in front of it and is falling. Real wages are increasing and a million jobs have been created on our watch.
ORITI: Just back to the question, any significant measures ahead of the next election in that space though, before we move on?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've already flagged the first of the measures that we'll put in place which is to cut on average around about $5,500 from the HECS debts of 3 million Australians. Now that will make an enormous difference. And the big beneficiaries are those who are earning less than $90,000 a year. And we've flagged as well the extension of Free TAFE to 100,000 people in areas of skill shortage each and every year on an ongoing basis. So, we've done that which people, if we are reelected, that will be the first piece of legislation we will introduce. But there's more to come as well in 2025 because we understand that we want to work each and every day to assist people.
ORITI: Now, more than 30 Government bills passed on the last day of Parliament alone, and credit where it's due. But one thing that didn't make it through involves environment protection laws. I want to ask you about that. A lot of talk about that in the last few days, Prime Minister, and I'm trying to get my head around it. It looked like there was a deal with the Greens and the crossbench to pass it. Now we're being told it's being shelved. Did you intervene to do that and if so, why?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there wasn't a deal. There wasn't a deal across a range of things. We passed 45 pieces of legislation. What we didn't get passed was that issue, the issue of electoral reform, the issue of superannuation, taxing of superannuation for balances above $3 million, veterans' affairs. There was a range of legislation we didn’t get through.
ORITI: But what happened with the environment legislation? Because it's been reported this was to satisfy Roger Cook as WA Premier.
PRIME MINISTER: No. We simply didn't have agreement. What I made clear at the beginning of my election, and certainly made very explicit at the beginning of last week, was that we wouldn't be just agreeing to any old amendments in order to get legislation through. And that's why our housing legislation that had been held up for a long period of time passed without amendment. Those two bills for helping people into home ownership and helping to build more rentals. Now, on the environment, the Greens have come up with a range of amendments. Depends what week, whether it's climate triggers, whether it be native forestry ending, whether it be decisions that would have an impact on RFAs. We want to make sure that any environmental legislation does two things. One, that it protects the environment and sustainability, but secondly, that it also supports industry where it's appropriate to speed up approval.
ORITI: Yeah, because, I mean, are you concerned that if that gets passed, then it could risk aggravating voters in key industries in a state like WA that could end up being very crucial in the next election.
PRIME MINISTER: Now, this isn't about politics, it's about getting it right. And we won't support measures that don't get it right. We want to support industry to be able to operate effectively, but also to operate in a sustainable way. And so that's our focus. We didn't have that agreement, so it was put aside, along with a range of other bills where we couldn't get agreement across the Parliament. I made that very clear.
ORITI: How are things between you and Tanya Plibersek now, though? Because there's still confusion from some over what happened here and talk of an internal feud. Can you categorically deny that?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. There's still some, it's extraordinary that the media want to concentrate on what didn't happen as opposed to what did happen. What happened was 45 pieces of legislation, including 11 across the Treasury, including a Future Made in Australia, which will - a Future Made in Australia is important industry policy, but also important environmental policy. Because what it does is set Australia up for sustainable industries like in critical minerals, rare earths, green hydrogen. That's what that's about as well. And when we come back, another piece of legislation that hasn't been carried yet through the Senate is our one for production tax credits. What that will do is encourage first mover advantage, new investment in these new industries, which will help to drive global emissions, not just Australian emissions, help to drive global emissions down.
ORITI: And we look forward to hearing those developments. Social media, of course, one that passed as well. I just, you know, looking at all of this though, Prime Minister, your government had to get a vast amount of legislation through last week and the end of the parliamentary year is often chaotic. But I mean, this seems like an extraordinary rush. You know, like someone who's left all their Christmas shopping to the last minute. I mean, why were you so determined to ram through so many bills with next to no debate at the very end? We're hearing that word guillotine a lot.
PRIME MINISTER: The real question is, Thomas, why were they held up for so long? Some of this legislation had, at the end of it, the hint is 2023 for various legislation because they've been held up for more than a year. The Coalition have been determined just to block everything. And before last week, the Greens, for example, voted to push off twice the voting on the Help to Buy legislation to help 40,000 Australians in the home ownership. You had what I called the No-alition of the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens putting things off and just refusing to vote on them, refusing to vote for them or against them. That was a political strategy because Peter Dutton doesn't have anything positive to say. He has one policy on nuclear energy that we haven't seen any costing of, has spent all year just blocking and trying to block cost of living support for Australians. And it's a political tactic that he had. And before last week, unfortunately, the crossbench that Australians voted for means we've got less than one third, we have 25 votes out of 76 in the Senate. And so we rely upon either the Liberal Party to vote for legislation or the Greens and crossbenchers to vote for legislation. I'll give you one example, Thomas. The Liberal Party voted last week against, they voted in the Senate and then voted even when it came back to the House against anti money laundering legislation. Now, what this was aimed at is making sure that if someone rocks up to an auction and buys a home with a bag of, a suitcase full of cash, with $2 million on it, it had to be reported to the appropriate authorities. Now, the Liberal and National Party voted against that. They need to explain why -
ORITI: You’re not suggesting they support money laundering. They probably just had a, they took issue with that particular approach.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's a pretty clear approach that real estate agents be obligated to notify the appropriate authorities that this had occurred, so there could be some investigation of it. It's up to them to explain why. They voted against the doxxing legislation that was introduced as well as part of our privacy laws. They just continued to oppose, oppose, oppose. We had held up for a year in the Senate simple legislation which after the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth would replace the references in legislation from Queen Elizabeth II to The Sovereign. And that was held up for a long period of time. Now that is what we had to deal with. But we got things done last week because my government was determined to hold the line, to argue our case and to win the arguments. And last week we did. And I thank all those who voted for it.
ORITI: Sure. And we'll see how things pan out in the coming months. Just finally, before I let you go, though 2024, it's seen major democracies around the world, the US, movements in France, the UK all vote against incumbent governments. You've had close to three years in government now. I mean, why should Australians trust you with another three?
PRIME MINISTER: Because we're working hard to make Australians lives better and Peter Dutton is blocking it. And what people will vote for is one, our record. The hard work we've done producing two budget surpluses, wages increasing, the work we've done on tax cuts for all Australians, they'll vote on that. But they'll also vote on who has the best offer for the future. And we'll continue to outline our case. We've already got our education and HECS and cost of living support out there. We will have Free TAFE. We will have continued roll out of our Urgent Care Clinics that are opposed by the Coalition. Our continued support for housing, that's opposed by the Coalition. And we'll continue to offer a better future. And people will vote on, on the past, yes, but they will focus on who will make your life better in three years time. And a Labor Government reelected will build on the foundations that were put in place in our first term and work even harder in our second term to improve the lives of Australians not just in the short term, but the long term reforms that we have put in place, such as Future Made in Australia and aged care reform, cheaper childcare, will make an enormous difference to the lives of Australians, whether they be our youngest Australians or our oldest Australians.
ORITI: Thanks for joining us. Appreciate your time.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Thomas.