A very good morning to you – good morning and Mr. Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be with you.
HOST: Welcome.
HOST: Oh, nice to be with you. Welcome to our little radio show down here on the Peninsula. And I believe there’s something happening on the weekend?
PRIME MINISTER: There is indeed, a by-election in Dunkley. Tragically, of course, I know that most of the Peninsula would not want a by-election because it’s due to the passing, all too soon, of Peta Murphy, who was a dear friend, a magnificent colleague, a very brave woman, taken from us and taken from her local community far too soon at age just 50. It’s very sad, but we are hoping that Jodie Belyea, the Labor candidate who Peta personally recruited to the Labor Party is able to carry on with the work that Peta Murphy did as such a champion for her local community.
HOST: Well Jodie, Prime Minister good morning, has certainly been channelling Peta Murphy and she was a very dear friend of us here at the radio station. A margin of 6.3. She certainly dominated the seat. How are you seeing things? You spent a lot of time down here in Dunkley over the past few weeks. So how are you seeing it?
PRIME MINISTER: I have indeed and I’ll be there again this morning. Look, it will be tight. By-elections are difficult for governments. That is the history, that history is a seven per cent swing, since the Hawke Government in 19 byelections, away from the government. We know it will be difficult but we believe very strongly we have the best candidate in Jodie Belyea. She will be a voice in government, not just another bloke sitting with the other blokes behind Peter Dutton.
HOST: Hear, hear.
PRIME MINISTER: They seem to have a photocopier or something on their side of politics at the moment they just churn them out. They all, sort of, look the same and sound the same. And all they say is ‘no’. They know what they’re against. Jodie Belyea knows what she’s for. She’s for the tax cuts that we’re delivering to every single taxpayer in Dunkley, she’s for the Urgent Care Clinic that’s open there in Frankston with the increased support for Medicare and support for the health system, the rebuilding, really, it’s a massive bit of work taking place there at Frankston Hospital. She’s for infrastructure, development. She’s for appropriate development as well on the foreshore there. The Mayor seems to be in favour of a massive high-rise which would really change the nature of the skyline there along the waterfront, but Jodie Belyea will be a really strong advocate. She’s connected with the community. She’s not a career politician. She’s someone who Peta found, really, when she was involved with the Women’s Spirit program, helping disadvantaged women. And that’s what she’s devoted her life to. And that’s why I think she would be such a strong successor to carry on the work.
HOST: Indeed, Prime Minister. We got to know what Jodie Belyea the other day when she appeared here on the local radio station RPP FM. Just wondering, Prime Minister, about the tax cuts that you envisage. The average weekly income in Dunkley $1,700 a week, are the tax cuts going to do it for the locals?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they would make a substantial difference, they’ll get double the tax cut that they were going to get. That together with cheaper childcare, which costs have come down on average by 11 per cent, the healthcare reforms, cheaper medicines, cheaper, well, free – not cheaper – free visits through the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, the Fee-Free TAFE. There’s been 350,000 people begin Fee-Free TAFE last year and Chisholm TAFE there, has a really important role to play as well. All of those cost of living measures are things that we have done whilst we’re putting that downward pressure on inflation. And yesterday, we had good inflation figures again, that downward trend continuing, which is what we need if we’re going to get interest rate cuts and take pressure off people’s mortgages.
HOST: We’re speaking to the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister, thank you very much indeed, for your time. We’re talking about channelling Peta Murphy. I’m wondering about the recommendations that she handed down after her online gambling inquiry, those recommendations, are we moving far on those? I mean, down here on the Mornington Peninsula, in the last year or so $61 million was lost in gaming. There are great concerns about its impact on our community. Where are we at?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there is and that’s why we’ve acted through creating Betstop which over 10,000 people have registered with, that’s why we’re putting new regulations re credit cards for online gambling, why we’ve got really strong restrictions, as well, on young people, children being involved, and tightened up there. That’s why we’re giving, we’re consulting on all of the recommendations of Peta Murphy’s report. We need to do more, there’s nothing more annoying than during a time where you’re trying to watch the footy and you get these ads come up. We’ve changed, of course, people will have noticed that we’ve changed the tag lines for those ads, so they recognise something a bit more than just gamble responsibly that was so anodyne, the old tag line, so that they warn people of the fact that people lose. That’s the business model here.
HOST: Yes, we’re definitely haemorrhaging.
PRIME MINISTER: People need to be warned about that. I noticed the Victorian Government have got further restrictions as well today on poker machine. All of these measures are good things. Gambling is a scourge, I know that someone I’ve had a bit to do with, I ran into him at a coffee shop in Frankston down there, Tim Costello, has been working with Peta Murphy. And we are working through all of the recommendations one by one, and making sure that we do what we can to minimise harm.
HOST: Prime Minister, by the end of the day, 50,000 pre pollers will have gone through the booths. Are you getting the data from them? Are you seeing any trends?
PRIME MINISTER: This by-election’s going to be tight. We know that that’s the case. So we know that every vote counts. And what I would urge people to do, your listeners, is to think closely about their vote. It’s up to, in a democracy, of course, it’s up to every individual to make their decision. But if they vote for Jodie Belyea they can do so in the confidence that they’ll have a strong member, that they’ll have a voice in government who can get things done, and someone who spent a lifetime of helping people who really need that assistance from government, from the Women’s Spirit program, but other work that she’s done as well through various charities and she’s devoted her life to helping others. And now she wants to take that into the Parliament. And she’s also a local mum with a mortgage. Her son’s at Year 12 Frankston High School, and so he really understands what makes our community tick.
HOST: Mr Prime Minister, I’d like to ask a question. I do a lot of community work here through the radio and other stuff that I do. And one of the things I hear a lot about is the problem that we have with housing, with rentals and with homelessness. There’s huge pockets of wealth on the Peninsula. And I feel that often gets overlooked and people don’t understand that there is also a lot of poverty and difficulty here. How are you going to address some of those concerns at a federal level?
PRIME MINISTER: The seat reminds me a bit of mine, actually, where you have pockets where some people are doing really well. I’ve got the largest number of boarding houses of any electorate in Australia, with people who are doing it tough, and I recognise that Dunkley is a bit like that. Very different geographically, but on housing we’ve got our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. Now, that was opposed by the Coalition. On top of that – $2 billion into the Social Housing Accelerator. The Victorian Government has received over half a billion dollars of that to build and refurbish social housing. On top of that – we had the biggest boost to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in the last budget in 30 years, and we have strengthened renters’ rights through the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Cabinet. The other thing that we’ve got before the Parliament is a Help to Buy scheme. Now that’s shared equity, essentially, what that is if you’re going to buy a house or unit for say $500,000, if it was new the Commonwealth could provide 40 per cent of that funding. So that would mean instead of having a $500,000 mortgage, you only need a 2 per cent deposit. And instead of a $500,000 mortgage, you have a $300,000 mortgage that reduces substantially the payments that you’ve got to make, reduces the interest that you have to pay and then when you ready, if you’re in a position in down the track in 10 years’ time, then you can buy back the Commonwealth share. It’s worked really effectively, particularly in Western Australia. And we want to roll out this model to help people into homeownership
HOST: Prime Minister, the budget’s not too far away any chance that there’s going to be a bigger allocation to community radio when that happens?
HOST: Yeah!
PRIME MINISTER: We have been big supporters of community radio and we’re big supporters of the arts.
HOST: And so was Peta Murphy, I must say. A great friend. But yeah, any consideration Prime Minister we would gratefully accept. Prime Minister, just about all for me, but to before I go may I wish you a very happy birthday for tomorrow.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much. Very kind. I’ll be in your local community in the morning, of course, with Jodie. It’ll be a birthday with a difference.
HOST: Well indeed. You share the day with Bon Jovi and Daniel Craig.
HOST: The big names.
HOST: Some heavy hitters there, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: And my Treasurer Jim Chalmers as well.
HOST: Of course. Yes, that’s right. It is his birthday as well. So I hope you have a super day.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much.
