MARK GIBSON, HOST: On Tuesday night the Government delivered its pre-election federal budget. Tonight it's the Opposition's turn to reply. And Peter Dutton has already flagged that he'll try to trump Labor's cost of living measures with a 12 month cut to the fuel excise. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese joins me now. Prime Minister, good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Mark. Good to be with you.
GIBSON: And with you. Now, firstly on your budget measures, the consensus seems to be, thanks for the tax cut, but couldn't you have come up with a bit more than $5 a week? And why do we have to wait until the middle of next year?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, these build on the tax cuts that we are already implementing this year, that we passed through the Parliament last year, when we intervened to make sure that every Australian got a tax cut. And what we're doing in topping that up is delivering an additional $2500 in people's pockets. Wages are going up, inflation's coming down, taxes are coming down, interest rates have started to fall after they started to rise before we were elected. Importantly, we want people to earn more and keep more of what they earn. And Peter Dutton this morning has confirmed not only did they vote against the tax cuts after last year, they did say they'd repeal our tax cuts. Now they're saying they'll repeal and legislate for higher taxes. So under Peter Dutton people will have higher taxes but lower wages.
GIBSON: These tax cuts though, I mean when they cost $17 billion over five years this latest one, that's a lot of money to the budget bottom line but the average person only gets an extra five bucks a week. Wouldn't it be better to spend that money somewhere else?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it doesn't disappear on the way through, that is $17 billion in people's pockets. That's how much it costs. That's what we're delivering for every taxpayer. And that comes on top of, it is a top up of our tax cuts, it is what we can afford. We wanted to make sure, as we have the whole way through our term, Mark, is to put that downward pressure on inflation. We've got it down to 2.4 per cent - it had a six in front. Unless we did that, then there would be ongoing cost of living issues. So we've done that whilst providing that cost of living relief, whilst maintaining employment with 1.1 million jobs created on our watch, whilst making sure that real wages are increasing. And what we know is that per capita income is increasing as well, which means an increase in living standards.
GIBSON: It's been a bit of a tit for tat battle already, hasn't it, with cost of living measures and the Opposition matching some of the things that you've been promising. What about this latest plan now in the budget reply tonight from the Opposition, the plan to halve fuel excise for a year. They say that'll save the average motorist around $14 a week. Would you be prepared to match that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it disappears, Mark. The problem here with Peter Dutton is not only that is his team made up of the leftovers from the Morrison Government, they're now adopting leftovers of the Morrison policies. That's what they put in place in 2022 in their budget before they called the election. And of course they legislated to make sure that that decrease disappeared and this one will disappear as well. There'll be no ongoing cost of living relief. What we've done is provide ongoing cost of living relief. Not just tax cuts, but cheaper medicines, cheaper child care, Free TAFE that we've legislated, the schools funding program that we've been able to deliver. The tripling of the bulk bill billing incentive for Medicare will mean not just for a year or two years, but forever. We want to lift the bulk billing rates to 90 per cent for Medicare. Urgent Care Clinics will be there forever so that people can get the health care that they need. If it's not a life threatening emergency, they have somewhere to go rather than the emergency department. This is what good policy looks like and that's what we implemented in Tuesday night's budget and that's what my government will do, building on the foundations that we've laid in our first term.
GIBSON: Cheaper petrol though, for one year or not, is pretty appealing. Have you filled up lately? It was about $2 a litre yesterday in Perth.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah indeed, I'm fully aware. The latest figures that I have is that in Perth per litre was around about $1.75 - I know people do shop around. But the last fuel excise reduction ended when the Liberals legislated it to end. And what they're committing here to do is to end it again. Introduce it for a short term to get through an election campaign and then get rid of it at the same time as they are actually promising to legislate higher taxes. The first time in the entire time I've been involved in politics, which has been around for a while, that any government or opposition have said, ‘Vote for us and we'll give you higher taxes for every single Australian taxpayer’. Not just for some, every taxpayer will be paying higher taxes under them. And they don't support our cost of living measures. They've opposed them each and every time in the Parliament.And we have of course the knowledge that they have to find $600 billion to pay for their nuclear reactors, one there at Collie in spite of what's actually going on in Collie with renewables and batteries being built. I've actually been to the site there, unlike Peter Dutton. But $600 billion, the money will have to come from somewhere. And the cuts that will occur in health and education and services are there for all to see as well.
GIBSON: PM, there's been another delay on a decision to extend the North West Shelf gas project. Now cynics say it's been pushed back to May 31 to avoid becoming an election issue. Cynics I said, cynics are saying that. Surely though a six year approval process is time enough?
PRIME MINISTER: The state government have had it for that period, we have had it for a matter of weeks at the federal level. The Minister's department is going through it properly, properly and we have doubled the number of -
GIBSON: But the state took six years to then decide that it was worth pushing ahead with. Our Premier wants you to get on with it.
PRIME MINISTER: And the Federal Government will get on with it but in accordance with the law so that if the approval occurs then it can just go ahead without legal challenge. These processes are important in accordance with the law. We are following the process that's set out by the law that was put in place by John Howard's government.
GIBSON: So look, it's another battleground, isn't it between you and Peter Dutton. He says he'd fast track approvals for gas projects.
PRIME MINISTER: Well you know what that would do, his statements that he made in WA, and people in the sector know this, put in danger at risk the potential approval. What happened under the former government with the PEP-11 project, exploration project off the New South Wales coast, was that because it was pre-empted it was subject to legal challenge and gets knocked over in the courts. That's not a sensible thing. What that is is a recipe for delay through a protracted legal argument taking place because you can't under the law which is there, you can't preempt it, you can't do that very clearly. So this isn't something that would actually lead to a fast tracking, it would lead to a blockage and a slowdown.
GIBSON: Look, I think it's going to be interesting as we head towards an election you'll be calling it soon. There are several points of difference between the two major parties at this election. Just quickly, another battleground is public servants. You've added 40,000 over your term. Peter Dutton says he'll take 40,000 away. Most people believe there's probably still too much fat in the public service, don't they?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, not the people who were damaged by Robodebt. The people who literally lost loved ones to the Robodebt debacle because people were sent bills that they didn't actually owe because you had an automated system rather than people. I tell you who likes this idea - the big accounting firms, the consultants, because they were paid billions of dollars under the former government rather than having public servants. I've met so many people under the former government who used to be public servants, they were doing the same job but being paid four times the amount working for the big accountancy firms as consultants. Doing the same thing, providing the same advice to government. I'll tell you what we inherited, we inherited when we came to office - 42,000 people in the queue. Veterans who served our nation in uniform. Men and women who were delayed in receiving their entitlements. Some people who passed away still never getting their entitlements that they deserved because of the queue that was there. Now some billions of dollars has been spent, particularly in Veterans Affairs, improving those times, getting rid of that queue that was there. And now people are getting paid when they deserve their entitlements rather than waiting.
And in addition to that, they've even spoken about people who are 'last on' essentially will be 'off', these new public servants. One of the things we've done is established a National Emergency Management Agency. Now during the recent Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred events in Queensland and Northern New South Wales, but also during the events that occurred in the Kimberley earlier in this term, NEMA played an absolutely critical role. Now those public servants have done an extraordinary job. I met people in Hervey Bay in Queensland, fifteen public servants working out of a caravan in a car park making sure that the victims of those floods were given their entitlements within 24 hours of them applying. Now Peter Dutton wants to get rid of all of these people, and all that will mean is more money being expended by consultants and the big accountancy firms.
GIBSON: Mr Albanese, just finally, this Sunday is a pretty big day here in the West. It's the Eagles against the Dockers. It's the Derby. Most West Australians will be watching the footy on Sunday. What will you be up to? Are you visiting the Governor-General by any chance?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll wait and see what I do. But I've been to the Derby of the AFLW there at Optus. And of course I launched my campaign in 2022 there as well. It's a great stadium -
GIBSON: That did not answer my question. Are you going to visit the Governor-General or not?
PRIME MINISTER: I will be visiting the Governor-General soon, and I'll be calling an election for May.
GIBSON: May 4 or 18?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, neither of those, because May 4 is a Sunday -
GIBSON: Oh it is, too -
PRIME MINISTER: And May 18 is a Sunday as well.
GIBSON: It is too.
PRIME MINISTER: There you go, you get two exclusives now. It'll be in May and it'll be on a Saturday.
GIBSON: I buggered that up completely. Prime Minister, thank you for your time.