CRAIG REUCASSEL, HOST: The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, joins me right now. Morning, Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Craig. Looking forward to being out there in Parramatta later today for the opening of your new studios.
REUCASSEL: Yes. Heading to Parramatta for the opening of the ABC, indeed. I mean, should I not be in here? Are they not opened yet? Oh, hang on, I've got to get – we've got to get out, guys. The Prime Minister hasn't opened them yet. Hasn't cut the ribbon.
PRIME MINISTER: That's right. The plaque's not up yet, but it’ll be up tonight.
REUCASSEL: Up tonight. Now, you would have just heard there in the AM promo, talking about will the Reserve Bank actually – there's some arguments they may not drop the interest rates. What's your perspective on that? A few of your backbenchers have been quite vociferous about it.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Reserve Bank, of course, are independent, so we respect the independent decision that they will make. What our job has been to do is to get inflation down. We've done that. It had a six in front of it when we came to office. It's now down to a headline rate of 2.4 per cent. And so that is much lower, almost a third of when we came to office. And that is in, within, the band that the RBA aims for. But they'll make a decision based upon the economics, not based upon any politics.
REUCASSEL: No, obviously. Although there is – obviously they don't have political pressure, but there's obviously a lot of pressure from the community now. People are really struggling and there is a feeling that it's leading to a bit of a turndown in the economy. Given there's a lag in it, don't we need it to happen now, even if those numbers aren't exactly where the Bank wants them?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, cost of living pressures, of course, have been real and there continues to be a lot of pressure on families, particularly those with a mortgage. And that's why our job has been to get that inflation down, but also to provide cost of living relief through the tax cuts we gave to every taxpayer, Energy Bill Relief, Cheaper Child Care, Cheaper Medicines, Free TAFE. All of these have been aimed at reducing the pressure which people are under. This has been a global inflation spike and overseas, of course, it hit double digits in some places. Our neighbours in New Zealand are in a deep recession at the moment. Now, we've managed to avoid that. The economy has continued to grow. We've created more jobs than any government since Federation. And importantly, I think something I'm really proud of is that we have the lowest average unemployment rate of any government in the last 50 years. Now, that’s important as well –
REUCASSEL: You speak about, you know – look, there's obviously some good figures for you. You talk about more jobs, you talk about cost of living relief, but is that flowing through? We saw over the weekend polling suggesting that if an election was held at this moment that the Coalition would win. So, obviously these messages, or this relief, is not getting through to people.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, our job is to govern for the country and to put in place good policies and that's what we've done. We know that all of those cost of living measures, including the tax cuts, were opposed by Peter Dutton. Every single one of them. And if he had have had his way, Australians would be on average $7200 worse off. And we know that he's planning further cuts. He won't tell people what they are, but he's saying there'll be cuts. And last time around that meant a GP tax he tried to introduce every time people went to the doctor, which would have, of course, abolished bulk billing. A tax every time people turned up at an emergency department, massive cuts to education and health and essential services, including of course, the cuts to the ABC that were brought in.
REUCASSEL: Now, it's interesting you talk about those kind of things because obviously Medicare will be part of this campaign. We saw a story last week that the ALP was circulating an ad using a quote from Peter Dutton that cut him out of context to suggest he said he was getting rid of Medicare. And he went on to clarify what he said. You know, are you – is this the way we're going to fight this election? With misinformation and with, you know, a mediscare?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Peter Dutton, when he was the Health Minister – and remember he was voted Australia's worst Health Minister by doctors – tried to introduce a GP tax. So, a tax every time people went to the doctor, they would have had to have made a payment. So, abolishing bulk billing. Now, bulk billing is at the heart of Medicare. That's why we've tripled the bulk billing incentive, which has reversed the –
REUCASSEL: Most of us pay when we go anyway, I mean, we see reducing rates of bulk billing.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's reversed the downward trend that was in place because when he couldn't get his GP tax through the Parliament - and remember he was removed by Tony Abbott as the Health Minister because he did a shocker of a job - then they froze the rebate that's paid to doctors. And that is what has led to the decline in bulk billing. Now, we're addressing that by tripling the bulk billing incentive, opening 87 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics. There's more to do to strengthen Medicare, but it is one of the great –
REUCASSEL: I understand you have that argument to make, Prime Minister, but there's a difference between making that argument and then taking a quote out of context. And obviously, you know, we've talked about trying to get rid of misinformation in the election. You obviously don't want that happening to you. Shouldn't the Labor Party also be leading on that and making sure you're not putting out misinformation?
PRIME MINISTER: We should always put out accurate information, and it is accurate to say that Peter Dutton tried to abolish bulk billing by introducing a GP tax every time people went to the doctors. That's just a fact. And Peter Dutton has said – on the weekend he did an interview again where he repeated the things, the statement that ‘you don't value it if it's free.’ They've opposed Free TAFE. 600,000 Australians have benefited from it. The only thing they want to be free, is free lunch for the bosses that all of your listeners will pay for. $20,000 to spend on lunch and entertainment for clients or potential clients. That could be anybody. And they won't say how much that will cost. We know that if everyone took it up, who could take it up, that could cost $10 billion a year. A year. Now, we simply can't afford that. At the same time as, what we can do, is to support more free Medicare services through Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, more Free TAFE to give Australians the skills that they need. These are the priorities that we have as a Government. It stands in stark contrast to Peter Dutton's priorities that he showed when he opposed our tax cuts and said – you spoke about the election – he said we should have an election a year ago in order to stop Labor giving tax cuts to every taxpayer.
REUCASSEL: Do we remember that stuff, though? It's interesting. You talk about the lunch policy of the Coalition. Peter Dutton was in Brisbane yesterday talking it up. He seems to think he's on a winner with this one. But you guys also seem to think you're on a winner with it. So, whose polling's wrong on this?
PRIME MINISTER: Your listeners overwhelmingly will be paying for someone else's lunch. That's the reality of this policy, and it's a thought bubble. The only policies that they've put out are free lunches for bosses, a $600 billion nuclear plan, and the third is that there'll be cuts to the Budget without telling Australians what they are until after the election. They're the only three policies they've developed in three years. That's simply not good enough for an alternative government. And during the coming months, when the campaign is called, people will focus on what the alternatives are. My Government has been stable, has got inflation down, has maintained employment, real wages are increasing and we're defending and strengthening Medicare through Medicare Urgent Care Clinics. We’ve got Free TAFE, we've got Cheaper Child Care. We will take a big chunk further of student debt on top of the $3 billion we've already removed. This is what the next campaign will be about.
REUCASSEL: Now, Prime Minister, you are coming to Parramatta later today. I'm not sure if you're going to leave the comcar at home and hop on the train, but if you do, you'll notice there's been chaos in the trains at the moment. The Rail, Tram and Bus Union are actually – they're governed under federal law. Would you intervene in this?
PRIME MINISTER: This is, actually, to correct you, this is a state dispute of a state branch of a union over pay with a state government. I support very much the efforts of the Minns Government to bring this dispute to an end. Common sense has to apply here and I think that the union needs to acknowledge that it is alienating people through these actions of not turning up to work. And there was hope on the weekend that it would be settled and it should have been.
REUCASSEL: This is, this is. I mean, it is still under the Fair Work Act and Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt could give a Ministerial Declaration terminating the industrial action if he thought it was a threat to public safety or significant damage was being done to the economy. I mean, are we getting to the point where this is significant damage being done to the economy?
PRIME MINISTER: We're getting to the point where the union needs to see common sense, settle this dispute with the Minns Government. Chris Minns is working very hard to get an end to this dispute.
REUCASSEL: Yeah, okay. All right. Now, just quickly, before you go, Prime Minister, there has been a new video of Australian prisoner of war Oscar Jenkins that's appeared online. It appears to show him alive and well in Russia. This is him speaking.
OSCAR JENKINS: My name is Oscar Jenkins. I am 32 years old. I come from Australia. I am Australian.
REUCASSEL: Has this been verified? What is your understanding as to whether this is proof that he is alive?
PRIME MINISTER: This would appear to confirm that. I have seen the video, but we still hold serious concerns for Mr Jenkins' welfare. We've made it clear to Russia that Mr Jenkins is a prisoner of war and that there are obligations that kick in in accordance with international humanitarian law and they must be observed. We've also, of course, made representations to Ukraine including a one on one discussion that I had with President Zelenskyy raising Mr Jenkins’ welfare. We have called for Russia to release Mr. Jenkins so that he can come home to his family.
REUCASSEL: Yeah, absolutely. Now just finally, Peter V’landys has invited Donald Trump to the rugby in Vegas. Has he invited you?
PRIME MINISTER: Peter V’landys always, always would do that. Of course he has.
REUCASSEL: Are you going to go?
PRIME MINISTER: It's on my birthday by the way, that game, so I am very much focused on Australia here, but it's a terrific initiative. I think that the Las Vegas game last year was a huge success. I'm sure this year will be as well. It's a great game and it's a great promotion of Australia and the people I know, I had some mates travelled over there, they had a ripper of a time. So, the Bunnies aren't playing this year. We didn't do too well last year. I've got to say. Yeah, it's a good thing and –
REUCASSEL: You're not allowed to go then.
PRIME MINISTER: No one promotes the game better than Peter V’landys and I wish him well. And I certainly hope that the President goes along to the game. He will enjoy it if he does. I had a chat with the President a couple of weeks ago, of course. I did raise the fact that Jordan Mailata was the first Australian to win a Super Bowl ring and he's a former South Sydney junior.
REUCASSEL: There you go. It all comes back to South Sydney, as always. Prime Minister, thank you for speaking to us –
PRIME MINISTER: As always.
REUCASSEL: As always. Thanks for speaking to us, Prime Minister. Well, let us know if you're going to head off to Government House this weekend.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks mate. You'll be the first person I call.
REUCASSEL: I'm sure I will be. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Prime Minister.