: Well, we got a phone call just now to say that the Prime Minister of Australia would like to chat to you, Hobart. So, we’ve got him on the line right now. Good morning to the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese. Good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, how are you?
TAYLOR: It’s good to have your company again, Prime Minister. Thank you so much for getting in touch. You’ve got some announcements that have come out over the last 24 hours and it’s good news for Tasmanian schools. What can you tell us?
PRIME MINISTER: They are cracking announcements on Tassie schools. We’re going to have 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard delivered over the next five years. That means more funding. Hundreds of millions of dollars of additional Commonwealth money into Tasmanian public schools. We’ll lift our delivery up to 22.5 per cent and the Tassie Government will lift its contribution up to 77.5 per cent. Put simply, it means more tutorials and support for students who might be falling behind. It means better welfare as well to look after school students there in Tasmania. And it means that we’ll have – make sure that students can catch up, keep up and finish school. They’ll make a big difference there in Tasmania. You might remember some years ago David Gonski did a review of what was the resources that schools needed to ensure that the potential of every student was reached. Now this funding, together with the Tasmanian Government will deliver that. And it’s so exciting. It’s the third state to sign up to this Agreement and it was a good day yesterday in Launceston.
TAYLOR: Tasmanian schools have been crying out for this funding for quite some time, Prime Minister, and it sounds like good news for our Tasmanian students, which is fantastic. I think we can all celebrate that and obviously the excitement we can hear in your voice, Prime Minister. Why then are Tasmanian teachers in the Australian Education Union upset about this announcement?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s a question for them to answer. I find that quite perplexing. I spoke to the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Secretary of the Union yesterday. Some of the public school teachers think there should be no funding for private schools from the Commonwealth and that’s not going to happen. This is about though, additional funding for public schools and it’s good news. It’s good news to lift up literacy and numeracy. Part of this agreement as well is getting that back to basics that students need. And this is additional funding. And it has been welcomed certainly by the Tasmanian Government and I think it’ll be welcomed by parents as well.
TAYLOR: Absolutely.
PRIME MINISTER: This will make an enormous difference.
TAYLOR: You’ve got parents of primary school teachers that you are speaking to right now, right across Tasmania that I know will be absolutely delighted with this as education, investment in education, is the future of our country and particularly the Tasmanian state, we’ve needed this funding for a long, long time, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: And it goes as well with what we’ve done with Fee-Free TAFE. I’ve been into a couple of TAFEs there in Tassie that are making an enormous difference. I’ve met people doing courses, from traditional apprenticeships to people doing nursing and aged care, and early educators who will go and work in child care centres. All of that will make a difference as well, as well as the support we’re giving universities through the Universities Accord and of course, our Cheaper Child Care plans. And in December, the 10 per cent wage increase for our early educators in childcare and then a further 5 per cent increase next year means over $150 extra wages on top of the normal wage increases that will occur for those people who are looking after our youngest Australians and providing them with an education. It’s not just child minding. We know that the human brain development, a lot of it occurs in the first five years.
KAZ MCMULLEN, HOST: Now, Prime Minister, along the lines with education, we have to feed our school kids. We can’t afford healthy lunches with those supermarket prices. How are you fighting the fight at the supermarket for us?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re cracking down on them. And Woolworths and Coles, we’re taking to court through the ACCC. There’s more than 500 examples that they’ve found where the supermarkets were – the allegation is they put up prices by, say, $1.50 and then decrease it by $0.50. So, it’s still a dollar more expensive than it was, and pretend it’s on special. Now, this is a breach of trust. It’s not the Australian way. And that is why we’ve taken such strong action by taking them to court. At the same time, we’re changing what was under the former Government, they had a voluntary Code of Conduct, so they all wrote it themselves and all agreed and it was all voluntary and hunky dory to do the right thing. And quite clearly that’s not good enough, so we’re mandating that. And on Monday, we released the Terms of Reference for the Code of Conduct and we also released the draft of the changes to legislation that we’ll do before the end of the year to clamp down and make sure that consumers are looked after. When customers go to the supermarket, when there are cost of living pressures, they’re looking for value, they’re looking for specials, they’re looking for bargains, and they shouldn’t be lied to, basically, which is what’s been clearly going on.
TAYLOR: It’s getting harder and harder when you walk to the supermarket to fill up a basket and not walk away with any change from $100, Prime Minister. Now, this question comes from Matt in Lindisfarne, ‘to the Prime Minister. With growing reliance on age pension for many Australians and the continued limitations on tax effective super contributions, what is the Government doing to help those who need funds the most to access this government benefit quicker, with the average wait time for age pension acceptance being over three months?’ You mentioned aged care there, Prime Minister. What are you doing with regards to Matt’s question there?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we’re doing, one of the things we’re doing in order to ensure there’s not as great a reliance on the age pension is, we are increasing superannuation contributions by another half a per cent increased in July. That’s been important to lift up superannuation contributions. Secondly, when it comes to pensions, we’re making sure they’re indexed properly. The Coalition, regard this as a waste, is what they have said, as part of their $315 billion of cuts they’ve proposed. They say that our increased expenditure is wasteful. Well, we don’t think it is. We think the pension should be indexed properly. And the other thing that we’re doing for older Australians is in the aged care sector. Where, before the election, I remember us talking about putting the nurses back into nursing homes. Well, 99 per cent of the time there’s now a nurse in nursing homes. We’ve got significant aged care reforms coming, the biggest in 30 years. But the other thing that we’ve done, just like childcare workers, is increased the wages of aged care workers substantially. We’ve put an additional $12 billion into that, which ensures there’ll be an appropriate workforce and that people are valued as well.
TAYLOR: Prime Minister, why is it taking so long for people to get access to their age pension?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they should be getting access when they turn the appropriate age. So, I’m not quite sure what the holdup should be there. We know that we’ve put additional people on in government services to ensure that that’s delivered. But that is something, certainly, that I’ll make my own inquiries on. People should be assessed appropriately and should get access when they turn the right age.
TAYLOR: Now, Prime Minister, obviously our beloved Hawks didn’t make it into the Grand Final this year, which was shocking that they made it so far. To be fair, I don’t think anyone had the Hawks in the top eight at the start of the season.
PRIME MINISTER: If Sicily doesn’t hit that post and it goes about six inches towards the middle, then they find themselves still going. But it was a great season. They lost the first five games, of course.
TAYLOR: I’m sorry to bring up your heartbreak so soon after Sicily did hit the post there, Prime Minister, but who are you tipping this weekend? Who have you got?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, as a Sydneysider, I have to be going for the Swans this weekend. I think they have been the best team all year. There’s no question about that. And I got asked at one stage about why are you – are you a real Hawks fan? This was sort of midseason when the Swans were flying. Couldn’t lose a game, and the Hawks were really struggling. So, it would be a pretty dumb Sydneysider who decided for opportunistic reasons, to support the Hawks at the beginning of this season.
MCMULLEN: And where do you watch it? Where do you watch the Grand Final?
TAYLOR: You’ll be there, won’t you?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll be at the G. I’ll be at the G and looking forward to it. My first Grand Final was back in – I’m showing my age here – in 1989.
TAYLOR: Oh, that was a beauty.
PRIME MINISTER: I went to the Hawthorn versus Geelong Grand Final. Gary Ablett kicked nine in a losing side. Won the Norm Smith. But no flag.
TAYLOR: No.
PRIME MINISTER: And so it was an amazing game. And I also went to the only Grand Final ever held at Waverley when the Hawks beat West Coast in ’91 I think it was?
TAYLOR: I think it was ’92, I reckon that one, Prime Minister, sorry to correct you.
PRIME MINISTER: It was pretty good.
TAYLOR: Prime Minister, always good to chat to you. Thank you so much for making yourself available to Tasmanians today and we will chat to you soon. Enjoy the Grand Final.
PRIME MINISTER: Terrific. I hope the weather is better in Hobart than it is in Sydney today. It’s a shocker here. It was warmer in Launceston yesterday than it is in Sydney this morning.
TAYLOR: We’ve got blue skies and Kunanyi is looking resplendent with a light dusting of snow. Prime Minister, thank you so much for your time on Triple M Breakfast with Kaz and Tubes.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, guys.
