MADELEINE MORRIS, HOST: As we have been discussing, state premiers and chief ministers are in Canberra this morning, as they join Anthony Albanese at his first National Cabinet meeting since the election with a very big agenda focusing on healthcare, cost of living and of course energy. We do have the Prime Minister joining us from his office in Parliament House. Good morning, Prime Minister. How was dinner?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Madeleine. Dinner was very good, it was very convivial, very constructive. And I look forward to working positively with the state and territory leaders. We did have a very pleasant occasion last night. I hadn't met the Tasmanian Premier, Jeremy Rockliff, before. All of the other leaders were very familiar to me. And it was a chance to sit around the table, informally, and talk about today's meeting but to also talk about how we can improve federal and state relations in the longer term.
MORRIS: We have a big agenda today, so let's get straight into it. AEMO has said since it intervened there are promising signs on the east coast energy market. As we go to air this morning, are we still at risk of blackouts and load shedding on the east coast?
PRIME MINISTER: What we know is that these are difficult times. AEMO has had to make this intervention to ensure the market was suspended, to make sure the system continued to operate properly. There was a bit of gaming going on of the system, which is why AEMO used its tools at its disposal to intervene. So, we do have these short-term issues. In the long-term and medium-term, we know that we need to move on from the climate wars which have been such an issue over a period of time. We need to move on from this conflict. We know that the cheapest form of new energy is clean energy. We need to make sure that we get that investment, that we have battery storage, that we ensure that the transmission grid is built up for the 21st century. And that's why yesterday it was so pleasing to have the Business Council of Australia, Australian Industry Group, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the NFF, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the ACTU, they all say that, yes, they support Labor's policy that we took to the election that is now the Government’s policy, that is now Australia’s policy, of a 43 per cent pledge by 2030, with the mechanisms in place to drive that investment.
MORRIS: I will get to renewables and that investment in minute, but that is medium to long-term. In the short-term, how are you going to ensure that we don't continue to face this huge risk of blackouts, brownouts, businesses saying they are closing because they say they can't get continuity and certainty over electricity? How do you manage that in the short-term?
PRIME MINISTER: By doing exactly what we have. We have backed AEMO to ensure we have this intervention to make sure businesses can get power, to ensure households can get power.
MORRIS: But when that mechanism comes off, whenever that may be, what do you do then?
PRIME MINISTER: That will stay in place. AEMO has made clear it will stay in place while it is deemed to be necessary. What I can't do is stand here in my office in Parliament House and create a new power plan or fix the transmission grid. It is just dishonest. The problem is, we have had 10 years of denial and delays. We haven't had the investment. We haven't had the grid effects. And as a result, we have problems with the energy system. We had 22 policies announced and not landed. It is just dishonest if I stood here and said that I could create a new power grid in a day. You simply can't do that. What we needed to do was to have a short-term measure in place, but also to make sure that we get that investment, so that in the future we don't have these problems.
MORRIS: Up until this point, one of the problems with renewables has been how long it takes to get them on. We are so far behind in our establishment of renewables. If you speak to any energy experts, they say this will be a stretch to meet the signed up to targets with the amount of renewables and trajectory we are currently on. How are you actually going to materially drive this investment to change this? There needs to be so much money put into it.
PRIME MINISTER: Business is telling me that it will happen. I was in Gladstone just two days ago. There you have Rio Tinto as Australia's largest energy user. There at the Yarwun Alumina Refinery that employs in three plants in Gladstone alone, 4,500 people, they are looking at powering processes with wind and solar, backed up, in terms of for security reasons, by gas, and they are looking at over a double-figure billion dollars in investment. Once you have the policy certainty, you will get that investment. That is what businesses are all saying. Because they know that the alternative is either to shape their own future, to make sure their businesses can grow, or go backwards. Standing still is not an option in today's world. That is why business has welcomed our plan and the Government's plan, moving forward.
MORRIS: Earlier, you effectively said that the generators have been gaming the system. If so, will you actually let us know who those generators are? Are you considering naming and shaming? Can they actually be trusted?
PRIME MINISTER: The system was designed as such that there was almost a disincentive for it to operate properly in the circumstances which were there, because of the way that the price mechanism was working. And so that is why AEMO has intervened. We will look at any policy changes we could apply there as well. But the weaknesses in the system there have been known for some time. What we have had previously is that we had a Government that pretended it was all okay, pretended that they had a policy when they didn't. They had 22 different announcements, didn't land one. As a result, we had a problem created by that almost decade of denial and delay. What we need to do is to bring that investment on to make sure that the system is built for purpose for the 21st century.
MORRIS: Can I move to health, because it is another issue that the states are particularly keen to talk about? They basically want 50-50 splits of funding for hospitals. Are you open to that, given the huge burden we are seeing? In COVID alone, 200,000 people at the moment with it, and nearly 3,000 in hospital.
PRIME MINISTER: There are real pressures on the health system and we understand that is the case. But, when you look at those pressures, it isn't just a matter of hospital funding, it is the way the hospital system is operating in general. There are a whole lot of people who turn up at emergency departments because they can't get access to a GP. That's why we announced, during the election campaign, our urgent care clinics. That's why we announced our Medicare strengthening GP payments as well for every GP clinic in the country. That's why we announced $750 million to go into strengthening Medicare as well.
MORRIS: Those are all longer-term solutions.
PRIME MINISTER: They are not longer term. That funding starts to flow. It is about the way that the healthcare system operates immediately. We will have discussions today about the pressures that the system is under. We know that the COVID payments, in terms of the hospital system, are due to end at the end of September. That was something that was put in place by the former Government and we will have constructive discussions about better this morning with state premiers and territory leaders.
MORRIS: A final question, this is the first time we had a chance to speak to you since we got the unemployment down at 3.9 per cent, continuing that level, and also since the Fair Work Commission awarded that wage rise of 5.2 per cent. There are a lot of happy lower paid workers in Australia the moment but how can you make sure this doesn't just lead to some sort inflationary spiral?
PRIME MINISTER: You look at what the Fair Work Commission head, Ian Ross, said in his statement - that this wouldn't be inflationary. This was in the context of a relatively low unemployment rate which is there. And they made the decision that given the cost of living pressures that people are under, if you didn't have at least a 5.1 per cent increase in the minimum wage, what you would be saying is that people who are the lowest paid workers in this country would get a real wage cut, and they couldn't afford to do that. So, I welcome the decision by the Fair Work Commission. It was based upon their assessments about the economy and the impact on it as well. What we need to do in the medium and longer term, and I will be talking with premiers and chief ministers about this today, is that if you want to increase profits and increase wages, the key to that is boosting productivity. And we need a productivity agenda. And I am pleased that the states and territories want to be a part of that as well.
MORRIS: Alright, it is a very, very big and important meeting with a very long agenda. We will let you get to your busy day. Thank you very much for speaking with us, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much.