KENNY HEATLEY, HOST: The unofficial 2025 election campaign is underway with the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, launching a three state blitz to start the new year. Today, he's in Cairns in Queensland announcing $260 million to go towards community and housing infrastructure. And the PM joins me now. Prime Minister, good to see you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning.
HEATLEY: You fired the starting gun on the unofficial election campaign, choosing Queensland and the Northern Territory as the first stops, two jurisdictions that have voted out Labor governments. Is that why the chequebook is out?
PRIME MINISTER: I work every January. And last January I was here in Cairns dealing with the floods that had hit this area. In previous years, I've done road trips all the way from Cairns down to Brisbane along the Bruce Highway. And that was one of the things that cemented to me the need to take action. We've committed $7.2 billion to fix what is Australia's most dangerous highway. And that will make an enormous difference. It brings the Australian Government contribution to $17 billion. There were 41 deaths on the Bruce Highway last year alone. And that's why this Highway is deserving of the special treatment that my Government has found the space in the Budget through our disciplined approach to be able to deliver.
HEATLEY: I want to just touch on these extraordinary developments out of the United States. President-Elect Donald Trump hasn't ruled out using military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland in a major news conference earlier this morning, our time. What's your reaction to that and should Australians be prepared for significant global uncertainty this year?
PRIME MINISTER: I have no intention of having a running commentary on what incoming President Trump has to say from day to day. That's a matter for him. I'll leave the commentating to the commentators. My job is to look after Australia's national interest, to ensure that Australia has a positive relationship on an ongoing basis with our friends in the United States. And that's what I intend to do.
HEATLEY: But PM, these are Arctic Rim states that are key allies of Australia. We would expect that the same allies would support our interests at least in the Indo Pacific. This is a major development regarding Five Eyes partners. Surely that's in our interest.
PRIME MINISTER: I will deliver on Australia's national interest rather than having a running commentary on what world leaders have to say about issues that don't impact directly on Australia. My focus is very much on our interests, building the positive relationships that we have with our Pacific neighbours, dealing with ASEAN and dealing with our traditional partners, including the United States and the United Kingdom through AUKUS. And I'm confident that my Government in our second term will continue to build on the foundations of our first term where we essentially had to repair relationships around the world.
HEATLEY: President-Elect Donald Trump also says for the US to continue to support NATO member states would need to increase defence spending up to five per cent of their GDP, up from two per cent. Is this another indication that the Trump Administration will require Australia to increase its defence spending further for support of US defence programs like AUKUS?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Australia of course isn't a member of NATO. We make our decisions based upon our own national interest. And our national interest requires us to have increased defence spending. And that's precisely what we've done. Not just that, but we're actually delivering on capability rather than just issuing press releases and thinking that a media release will defend Australia. That's why we've made appropriate purchases. And in addition to that, of course, we're building our manufacturing capacity as part of our Future Made in Australia agenda. Our Defence Strategic Review outlined where Australia's priorities should be, including our defence force posture. And we've been busy implementing that and putting those measures in place.
HEATLEY: The departing de facto ambassador for Palestine believes a re-elected Albanese Government would recognise a Palestinian state. Will you commit to that if re-elected?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we have a position where we support a two-state solution. I think that quite clearly at the moment what we want to see is peace and security for Israel in the region. But also, we want to see an end to conflict. I think that's what most Australians overwhelmingly want to see in the region. And we have had a long-standing bipartisan position in this country of support for two states in the Middle East as part of a resolution. That of course, is what the United Nations voted for way back before Israel was created in 1948 there was a vote for two states, a state of Palestine and a state of Israel. And we want the right of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security with prosperity. Quite clearly, an organisation like Hamas can have no role in that because they simply don't believe in security. And we saw that with the terrorist actions on October 7, and we've seen that with its terrorist activity over a period of time.
HEATLEY: Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for joining us.