There is some big news out of politics this morning with the Federal Government unveiling a multibillion dollar plan to improve pay for child care workers. The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, joins us now live from Kirribilli. Prime Minister, good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Lisa. It’s a very chilly morning, I’ve got to say, here in Kirribilli.
MILLAR: Oh, thanks for joining us. And look, I know you’ve got big news, but boy, it’s a bit hard to beat the big news coming out of Paris this morning. The biggest gold medal haul ever. Have you been addicted to the Olympics in the time that you do have?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely awesome. I was watching the heats of the skateboarding last night, and the idea, as someone who used to skate down our back lane in Layton Street or Lambert Street into Layton Street at Camperdown, we just had to do one little corner and make sure we didn’t go off onto the road. The idea that you could do these massive spins with the height that they get is absolutely incredible. And for our skater to win back to back Golds after winning in Tokyo, as well as the Golds that we’ve won in sailing, on the big pole vaulting is just absolutely incredible. Four more Golds, the best ever performance by an Australian team at an Olympic Games, and all Australians are so proud of our team. I had the honour of talking to a whole bunch of our Olympians on a Zoom call just a couple of days ago, particularly the swimmers who’d finished. And it was such a privilege to be able to pass on the fact that Australians have been inspired, excited and so proud by the performance of our athletes.
MILLAR: Nothing like being a Prime Minister who welcomes home the biggest Gold medal haul. What are you planning for them? Something special?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. Well, they get a big welcome home next Wednesday morning. They’ll be arriving at Sydney Airport. Parliament is sitting next week, so I’ll be flying up pretty early, either that or late the night before, and welcoming them home. They deserve absolutely every accolade that we can give them because it is uplifting. At a time where there’s so much conflict and turmoil and bad news in the world, what they’ve given Australians is a great deal of pleasure and pride.
MILLAR: Prime Minister, let’s turn to the offer you’re putting on the table today for child care centres and for workers, something that will end up being $155 a week increase for those workers. What’s it going to achieve? What are you hoping makes a difference here?
PRIME MINISTER: What this will do is give child care workers the wages that they deserve. They look after and care and educate our youngest Australians. What we know is that child care or early education is just that – it’s not just child minding. What they do is to create better, smarter, more capable Australians and they deserve recognition for the hard work and commitment that they put in. What this will do is deliver a 15 per cent wage increase – 10 per cent in December, over $100 in their pocket, as well as a further 5 per cent increase on the 1 December the following year in 2025. This is a two year commitment whilst the Fair Work Commission look at the work value case which is taking place. And just like aged care workers have received an increase, what we know is that during the pandemic, these are people who kept Australia and our economy going and they deserve more than our thanks, they deserve decent wages and conditions. And the Productivity Commission inquiry has shown that unless we do something about wages in this sector, we won’t have a workforce. It is the case that you shouldn’t earn more just stacking shelves than you do looking after our youngest Australians in such a fantastic way. And so this is a really important commitment that we’re making. It’ll cost $3.4 billion over two years, and it will make an enormous difference. And one of the things we’ve done as well, Lisa, is to make sure that there’s a cap on the increase in child care fees for families, that child care centres, in order to receive this payment to pass on to the workers. That makes sure that we don’t get a flow through. That child care centres don’t just say, ‘Oh, well, thanks for the money, we’ll just pass it on to families’. We make sure that this is good for workers, good for families and also good for our economy. Because what happens when you value child care is that women, in particular, are more likely to be able to not just enter the workforce, but perhaps work an extra day or two as well – so it’s good for workforce participation and productivity. So this is a really exciting announcement. I’m so proud of the work that we’ve done. We’ve worked with the sector as well as work with the union and the workforce themselves. And importantly as well, it won’t just apply to people who are in long day care, it will also apply to child care workers working out of school hours care as well. So those people who are working to look after our young kids after school will also receive this increase. It’s so important.
MILLAR: And you point to the wider effect on the economy. The RBA has flagged that wages are increasing faster than productivity at the moment, and I’m not sure how you increase productivity in the child care area, but how does this then factor into your ambitions to try and get inflation down?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we, of course, want to see inflation continue to moderate. We’ve cut, effectively, inflation in half since we came to office, but we know that there’s more to do and that’s why we’ve produced budget surpluses. And that’s why the economic measures which we’re introducing will all assist with that. Whether it be the cuts to energy price relief, whether it be cheaper child care, where child care costs have come down already by 11 per cent. But what this will do for productivity is to boost the economy. The Productivity Commission have made it very clear that childcare is important in boosting the economy because it boosts workforce participation. And all of that will assist with the economic objectives that we have, that the Reserve Bank has as well, to see that inflation continuing to moderate. But what we want to make sure is that people don’t get left behind in that. There are some economists who say, ‘Let rip, don’t worry about the impact of anything’. Well that’s not our approach. Our approach is to make sure that no one gets left behind while this is occurring. That we have an economy that works for people, not the other way around.
MILLAR: You’re still battling the critics, though, who say that the amount of public spending is fuelling inflation.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Lisa, we’ve produced two budget surpluses. That’s two more than our predecessors produced after almost a decade in office when they promised a surplus in their first year and every year thereafter. In our first year, full year in office, we turned a $78 billion Liberal deficit into a $22 billion Labor surplus. And that’s why, as well, all of our cost of living measures are designed to put that downward pressure on costs as well, as well as assisting on cost of living. Fee free TAFE, cheaper child care, energy price relief – all of these measures are aimed at making sure we look after people, but do so in a way that’s designed to see inflation continuing to moderate, which is what we want to make sure happens.
MILLAR: Prime Minister, we’ll have to leave there. You’ve left us with visions of you skateboarding as a kid. I’m wondering what your favourite trick might have been on the skateboard?
PRIME MINISTER: Let me tell you, I was pretty ordinary. When I was young the best thing that you could do was Tic Tac, which was, you know, to flip the back of the board and go left, right, doing a tap. There was no such thing as a skate park. I’m showing my age here, but these amazing athletes are just extraordinary. And to have, first of all, to have a 14 year old from the Gold Coast win in the Women’s and then to see back to back in the Men’s is just fantastic. We’re the skateboarding world champions quite clearly. And that will inspire, there’ll be skate parks, I make this bold prediction, Lisa. Skate parks will be full after school today and they’ll be full on the weekend.
MILLAR: Can I just also advise, don’t try it at our age, because I jumped on one about five years ago and it slipped out from underneath me and I thought I was going to break my arm. So, let’s leave it to the young kids, hey? Prime Minister, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Can I just say as well, Lisa, I know that you’re departing, moving on to other things and just, it’s been fantastic talking to you on so many mornings and I wish you all the very best.
MILLAR: Prime Minister, we always appreciate your availability as Opposition Leader and then as Prime Minister. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Lisa.
