PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: Joining us live now in Canberra is the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Prime Minister, good morning to you. So, a safe Budget to pay for your election commitments. Are tax increases and spending cuts next?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Hang on, Pete. We've just said the Budget last night. You're now talking about future budgets. Let's talk about what we did last night. What we did last night was to fulfil our election commitments, provide cost of living relief with cheaper child care, cheaper medicines, more Paid Parental Leave, more support for affordable housing. And we want to get wages moving again. We did all that without putting pressure on inflation by targeting our investments in things like infrastructure, improving the National Broadband Network, making sure that there's that growth in the economy without putting pressure on inflation. That was our focus last night. And we managed to achieve it.
STEFANOVIC: You've still got a mountain of debt to pay down, it's only going north, Prime Minister. So, are tax increases and spending cuts going to come next?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we inherited a trillion dollars of debt, Peter, as you know. We inherited a trillion dollars of debt with not much to show for it. What we did last night was to make $22 billion of savings. We took the revenue gains that have come through, 99 per cent of those revenue increases from the higher costs of fuel and energy, we put them straight to the Budget bottom line, 99 per cent of them. So, it was a responsible Budget that saw a significant drop in the deficit to $37 billion from what was anticipated. That is a responsible thing to do. Because we want to make sure that we fight inflation because that is necessary if we're going to get real wages moving in the way that we want them to.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Gas and electricity bills to skyrocket, though. That's roughly another $1,000 or so a year that folks are going to have to find. What's the short-term plan to ease that pain?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll look at regulatory reform, as the Treasurer flagged yesterday. We know that one of the things we inherited was the 20 per cent increase that was baked in that the Government actually introduced a regulation earlier this year to avoid telling the Australian people before the election. That was a decision that had been made. So, that price increase began in June, it was deferred by the Government, that announcement, by the former Government, because they hid from the Australian people what was going on. We've been upfront about this. We had four gigawatts of power basically leave the system under the former Government and only one gigawatt of new investment come in. That's had an issue on supply. But we are getting it moving again. And what we know is that the cheapest form of new energy is clean energy. Last week alone, we had the biggest new investment in renewables. The biggest announcement since the Chifley Government announced the Snowy Hydro scheme.
STEFANOVIC: What will that regulatory reform entail?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we will continue to engage with the ACCC. We've already saw the ACCC make strong recommendations that lead to the Heads of Agreement with gas suppliers earlier just in the last month, that agreement was signed off. That's about making sure that Australians get access and supply for the non-contracted gas that was in the system. What we need to do, of course, is to increase supply further. We'll continue to engage with the ACCC as well as we're taking advice from our respective departments. We would, as the Treasurer has said yesterday, be prepared to look at measures that are beyond what governments have normally considered because of the extraordinary circumstances which we're seeing, which is a result of two things. One, the failure of the former Government over a decade, the lost decade of investment, that has seen that reduction in supply. But also, what's occurred with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has seen a global issue, a spike in global prices for energy that's fuelling international inflation. That is something that is having an impact here as well. If we'd have had a decade of renewables investment, we would be less reliant upon those global prices that are feeding into inflation here as well as around the world.
STEFANOVIC: Do you now concede Australians won't see a $275 saving to their annual energy bill as promised this term?
PRIME MINISTER: I stand by the Reputex modelling.
STEFANOVIC: Will people still see those savings?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we stand by the modelling, Peter.
STEFANOVIC: Is the modelling now outdated?
PRIME MINISTER: No, if you have renewables investment compared with the business-as-usual approach of just sitting back and watching nothing happen, which is what happened under the former Government, then you will have cheaper prices. We know that for the same reason why your listeners have put a solar panels on their roof. Because once that capital investment is repaid, they get cheaper power. That is the same principle that applies throughout our national economy. It's one where the former Government simply failed to get that investment. That's why the Business Council and Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Clean Energy Council, the National Farmers' Federation, all have backed our plan, our Powering Australia plan that we have. We had 22 energy policies announced by the former Government, none of them implemented. I tell you what, Pete, you need an energy policy for this country. We now have one.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Just a few quick ones here before you go, Prime Minister. Rishi Sunak, he's the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Thoughts on this and when you will get to speak to him?
PRIME MINISTER: I congratulate Mr Sunak on his election as Prime Minister. We have a phone call scheduled for later today. And it will be my third engagement with a British Prime Minister in my five months as the Prime Minister of Australia. It's a reminder of how important stable government is here. And that is what we are providing.
STEFANOVIC: And a very final one here. Have you invited Kevin Rudd to be Australia's next Ambassador to the US?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
STEFANOVIC: Haven't invited him? No invitation?
PRIME MINISTER: Haven't invited you either, Peter. Haven't invited anybody.
STEFANOVIC: I'm not going for it.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm focused. We've got one. He's called Arthur Sinodinos.
STEFANOVIC: But his time is going to finish soon.
PRIME MINISTER: And I've got a meeting with Arthur soon when he comes back to Australia. He's continuing to serve there. And he's doing a good job.
STEFANOVIC: Anthony Albanese, appreciate your time this morning. I know you're busy, as always. Thank you. We'll talk to you again soon.