Thanks for your time, Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G’day, Gary. Good to be with you.
ADSHEAD: Welcome back to the centre of the universe, in case you didn’t know.
PRIME MINISTER: It is very much the centre of the universe today. I’m on my way down to HMAS Stirling, where the USS Hawaii is there. A nuclear powered sub, Virginia class, similar to the other subs that will be visiting here, and we’re announcing our new Jobs for Subs Program. 200 apprenticeships that will be high value, high wage jobs, skilling up Australians to be able to maintain the subs that are visiting here, firstly. But then, of course, the subs that will be ours as well, the conventionally armed nuclear powered submarines.
ADSHEAD: On that, the apprenticeships, etcetera. Is that specialised training at a specialised location? Given the sort of nature of what they’re going to be doing, it’s not your sort of run of the mill, is it? So what happens there?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, exactly. So they’re working right now, you have Australians working with Americans here on the maintenance of this submarine during the visit. But over a period of time, what we’ll have is 200 apprenticeships for young West Australians to train in this specialist area. We already have had people over in the United States and in the UK picking up skills, but this will be really specialised. This will be quite an exciting opportunity for some West Australians to join the 3000 jobs that will be created here as a result of the AUKUS program.
ADSHEAD: Prime Minister, can I just ask, Newspoll today has your voter approval rating at 41 per cent. Now, that’s the same level of Scott Morrison’s before the last election. Are you worried?
PRIME MINISTER: No, look, polls come and go. I’m at the same level as Peter Dutton in Newspoll today. We haven’t lost a Newspoll unlike every other government during every term since Newspoll started, I think, certainly since the last few decades. So we understand that Australians are doing it tough, a lot of them with cost of living pressure on them. That’s why we’re rolling out the support that we are. Just yesterday, additional medicines going on the 60 day dispensing list, which will mean that they’re cheaper. Australians have saved half a billion dollars already as a direct result of our cheaper medicines plan, and that’s just one area, along with fee free TAFE and cheaper child care, the energy bill rebates and, of course, tax cuts for every single taxpayer that started in July.
ADSHEAD: That poll though, does start to indicate a hung parliament, doesn’t it? And how do you think the Australian people would feel about a hung parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don’t think it necessarily does that at all. We have 78 seats in the House of Representatives, I’m determined to add to them rather than subtract them. I’ll be in Bullwinkel later this week, we’ll be announcing our candidate. I was in Canning yesterday and having a look at the quite wonderful Mandurah Giants there, the sculptures, and meeting with local people there. We think that when it comes to the crunch, when people have a look at what the offer is – a Labor Government working arm in arm with Roger Cook’s Government here on better health services, better education services, what we’re doing on the economy. The Coalition haven’t got a single costed policy out there and a nuclear-powered fantasy down there at Collie, where they won’t even visit to talk to the locals about it. I was there yesterday looking at the big battery that will be installed there to have storage of renewable energy. It will be able to store enough energy to power 860,000 homes. And there’s another one being built about five km’s away that’ll also be connected up with the grid through the transmission lines. Collie Power Station, the coal-fired power station is going to shut in 2027. We actually need a plan for now for transition, not something that’s the most expensive form and the slowest, sometime in the 2040s. The investment is happening there right now, as well as of course, issues like production tax credits, where the Coalition are refusing to support critical minerals and hydrogen and these new industries where WA will particularly benefit.
ADSHEAD: Prime Minister, obviously yes, you’ve been to Collie and you’ve talked about Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy policy. Will you meet with farmers in WA to hear their concerns about your decision to ban the live sheep export? That policy?
PRIME MINISTER: I already have. I’ve met with farmers, with families in Kalgoorlie, but also I’ve met with farmers in Canberra. I’m always prepared to sit down and talk with people and I’ve done that. We have a very clear policy here. The live export of sheep is worth about $80 million a year. Sheep meat exports are about $4 billion and we have $107 million upfront. I raised that with the farmers who I met with. We want to see a transition of the industry. We don’t want communities to be left behind and we want to engage with them on those issues.
ADSHEAD: Now, Labor seems to be first with attack ads in terms of the Peter Dutton posing a threat to WA’s share of the GST. I’ll just play you the ad that’s running.
ALP ADVERTISMENT: Liberal Peter Dutton wants to rip away WA’s fair share of GST. Here’s what his fellow Liberals say. Julie Bishop said Peter Dutton is against WA getting a better GST deal. Scott Morrison said Dutton would scuttle the Western Australia GST package and WA Liberal Ken Wyatt said Dutton’s WA GST position is why he couldn’t serve in Dutton’s ministry. Dutton’s always wanted to take our GST. WA can’t risk Peter Dutton. Authorised by E. Whitaker ALP, Perth.
ADSHEAD: Thank you, Ellie Whitaker. Obviously, the Opposition are saying that is just pure deception. What do you say?
PRIME MINISTER: I say they had one of their shadow ministers on the ABC Insiders program yesterday, just yesterday, threatening states GST. Saying that they wanted to hurt, hit the states where it hurts when it comes to the GST, across the board. So on the one hand they say, oh, no, nothing to see here. On the other hand, they’ve got their shadow ministers out there saying they’re considering a plan to scuttle the GST.
ADSHEAD: But that’s in relation to, if states don’t meet their house building targets under the schemes that are there at the moment, that they may be penalised with some withholding. And it was like a possibility of penalties in relation to GST share not being dispersed if they don’t meet those targets. That’s right, isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER: It was very clear what Senator Bragg said, and he said it in the context as well, of a Coalition that had promised, as part of their $100 billion of cuts, that the shadow Treasurer was open about just a week ago, part of that is scuttling the Housing Australia Future Fund. They actually want to spend less money on housing at the same time, at the same time as they’re saying, oh, well, if states don’t meet their targets, we’ll take their GST off them. You know, we are working constructively with state and territory governments on housing, including here with the Cook Government here in WA. Including funds for public and social housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund. But in addition, as well, we have programs that we’re trying to get through the Senate on Build to Rent Schemes, for private incentives for rental properties, as well as a shared equity scheme that’s actually based upon the WA model that’s worked so effectively here for a number of decades.
ADSHEAD: Here’s a bit of Peter Dutton, and he was on the morning program not that long ago with me talking about the GST. Here’s what he said.
PETER DUTTON: When we were in government, we made a decision to put in place the current GST arrangement. I was part of the Cabinet that made that decision. On my first visit here as leader I gave that pledge straight off the bat and there will be no changes to the GST formula. I can’t be any more definite than that.
ADSHEAD: Is the ad just Mediscare 2.0, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: No, well, Julie Bishop has said a direct quote, Peter Dutton fought, and then she went on to say, fought against WA getting a better GST deal. Peter Dutton is on record as arguing against WA getting a better GST deal. Malcolm Turnbull said this, direct quote, there remained enormous anxiety around the Cabinet table when discussing the GST deal, especially from Peter Dutton. They’re direct quotes from people who served in the Cabinet. Indeed, the Leader and the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, including, of course, Julie Bishop, was the senior WA person in the Government calling it out.
ADSHEAD: Can I just ask you whether you agree with what your Treasurer, Jim Chalmers said on Sunday? He said, with all this global uncertainty, on top of the impact of rate rises which are smashing the economy, it would be no surprise the national accounts on Wednesday show growth is soft and subdued. Do you agree with that narrative?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s just a fact. And it’s nothing different from what Jim Chalmers has said before, which is that the global inflationary environment is having a real impact on households. As I said before, there is cost of living pressures on people – they’re really feeling it. Now, the Reserve Bank we work very closely with, but it’s an independent body. We have the same objective of getting inflation down. We, of course, have a role to play, and indeed, inflation has halved since we came to office. It peaked at the beginning of 2022 there. And last week we saw a further moderation, down to 3.5 per cent. We want it to moderate further, but we also want to make sure that on the way through, we continue to look after people. That’s why that cost of living support has been important and why it’s been designed in a way to also continue to put that downward pressure on inflation. That’s why we’ve done things like rebates on energy bills. That’s why we’ve reduced the costs of medicines. That’s why cheaper child care was designed that way as well. Fee-free TAFE very similarly, why we’ve taken $3 billion off of student debt. All those measures, of course, are added to by having two budget surpluses designed to make sure that there’s that downward pressure on inflation.
ADSHEAD: Can I just finally ask you, I was a bit surprised last week and probably made some comments around the fact that I was, with the Census. It seems like your government’s tied yourself in knots on this one because you had certainly Richard Marles come out as Deputy PM and say there’ll be no more questions into the Census coming up in 2026 in relation to sexuality and gender identity, et cetera. You said that there will be now. Is that just because you had to back down to Labor MP’s?
PRIME MINISTER: No, well, the ABS were going out there and doing some testing of some questions. Why they were doing that in 2024, when the survey isn’t until 2026, is really a matter for them. There were some proposals that the Government thought were not clear enough and would have created confusion, I think, in the community, given that they go to every single Australian. And so we will work with the ABS, will work as well with the community to make sure that there’s a bit of a common sense approach here. I don’t think that anyone would object to people being asked. They don’t have to answer it, of course. People’s sexual orientation for people who are above the age of consent, which is another issue that was there. And people are already asked a question about identity. Now the question is whether that can be improved or not. I mean, the ABS will look at that. At the moment, it’s sort of male, you can answer male, female, non-binary, was in the question that was last time round. But we’ll work these issues through in a sensible, common sense way. We want to make sure that every Australian knows that they are valued, and that is certainly my approach, no matter who people are. No matter their gender, race, faith, sexual orientation. No matter who they are, we want to make sure that all Australians feel valued.
ADSHEAD: I suppose I was trying to get to the point that, you know, you had a Deputy Prime Minister and I think Jim Chalmers as well said no, there’ll be no more additional questions, suddenly there are going to be. And it seems a bit of a mess.
PRIME MINISTER: No, well look, they were talking about the ABS proposal that the Government did think that the questions would have created confusion, weren’t worded in the right way, and therefore there was that response. But we’ll work these issues through. It’s 2026 when the Census happens – plenty of time, but it hasn’t been a priority. What we’re focused on right now are the issues of cost of living, providing support for people, the immediate now. 2026 is a long way off. We’ll get it right.
ADSHEAD: I know you’ve got a schedule to keep to. I really appreciate your time today.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Gary. Always good to talk.
