The Federal Government’s reworked stage three tax cuts sailed through the Senate last week. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, joins us now from Canberra. PM, very good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Michael. It’s a beautiful day here.
ROWLAND: I love Canberra. Always a beautiful day in Canberra. Now, I want to talk about politics in a moment, but I want to ask you first about the story that has gripped Australia in all of the worst possible ways – the alleged murders of Jessie Baird and Luke Davies. Their bodies discovered yesterday. You cannot imagine, can you, the grief parents, family and friends are going through?
PRIME MINISTER: This is just a terrible incident that’s occurred here, the loss of the two young men. And I feel for the grieving of the family, the friends. They obviously were full of life, because so many people interacted with them. It’s a really tough day for, as well, the queer community. And it’s been a very difficult time.
ROWLAND: Indeed it has. Okay, let’s go to the stage three tax cuts. The reworked version of it going through the Senate last night. Happening just days before the Dunkley by-election. Do you expect voters in that seat to reward the Government for these changes?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, this is about a tax cut for all 13.6 million taxpayers. It’s a good day that they’re going to not miss out, as they were, under the old Liberal plan. Everyone will benefit. Those low-income workers earning under $45,000 will now get a tax cut. They were going to miss out completely. And average workers will get double the tax cut of what they were going to get. If you’re a family with mum and dad working, earning the average, which is around $130,000, you were going to get $1,000. Now you’ll get $2,600. That will make a substantial difference. And it will be good for the economy as well. Treasury estimates that this will increase workforce participation by some 930,000 hours. And that will make a difference because we know that there are skills shortages out there as well. So, it will assist business. It’s good economic policy. It’s good for the family pocket. And it will make an enormous difference. And we’re very proud of the changes. And it’s good that they are now passed into law.
ROWLAND: They were changes different to the changes or the position that you took to the election. Are you worried, though, PM, that it all comes at a cost to your credibility? The Essential Poll in the Guardian this week saw your trustworthiness rating dropped by a fairly significant 15 points.
PRIME MINISTER: We made not an easy decision. We made the right decision for all the right reasons. We know that families are under cost of living pressure. The idea that we could sit back and ignore the clear recommendations that this was the best way that we could have an impact on providing that assistance to middle Australia without putting upward pressure on inflation – we couldn’t ignore that. We have a responsibility to do the right thing. And that’s precisely what we have done. And the fact is, the Liberals, of course, said that they’d oppose it. Then they said that they’d roll it back. Then they said we should take it to an election. Then they ended up voting for it. So, they changed their position as well. Well, they can change the way that they vote, but they can’t change their values, which is why this morning, Senator Hume has been out there saying that they’d start again with their tax proposals. We’ll wait and see what it is that they come up with. But this is a much fairer proposal. And it was unanimously endorsed by the Senate last night.
ROWLAND: A few other issues to get through. Health funds are reportedly are getting toey about the Government not unveiling what the premium increase will be on April 1. In fact, six of the biggest told the Australian it is the longest wait under any Government in 15 years. Why the delay?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we make no apologies for pushing back against these health funds. The health funds have got a story out there in their interests. That’s what they do. And I reckon people will see through it pretty clearly. We make no apologies for pushing back, trying to get the best deal possible for consumers. That’s what but Mark Butler, the Health Minister, is doing. That is his job. There is nothing unusual at all about the time frame, which is late February to early March. Sussan Ley, when she was the Health Minister, made a decision later than where we are today. And there’s nothing unusual about this at all.
ROWLAND: They say their claims have been on the table for a while. Why can’t the Minister push back this week? Weeks before the Dunkley by-election so voters have an idea? They are going to go up. The question is what level the premiums will be. Why can’t he announce the increase today, tomorrow, Friday?
PRIME MINISTER: The Health Minister has pushed back. And, Michael, I think that Australians deserve better than the media being commentators on behalf of the big health funds.
ROWLAND: I’m not being a commentator on behalf of anybody with respect.
PRIME MINISTER: No, but, of course, what they’re doing is trying to push for an easy decision, a tick and flick. We’re not going to give them a tick and flick. We’re pushing back, as appropriate. That’s the Health Minister’s job. And that’s what he’s doing.
ROWLAND: Let’s go the rent to buy legislation. The Greens are digging in saying they will not support the Government’s key housing policy unless you consider changes to negative gearing. Will you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this stands on its own. Michael, the Greens went to the last Federal election saying that they would support and implement, indeed, they often have grand statements as if they’re in a position to form government, they said they’d have a shared equity scheme. And shared equity schemes have been supported by Labor and Liberal, in Tasmania, the Tasmanian Government, Liberal Government, has introduced one. WA, both sides of politics, Dominic Perrottet in New South Wales. This is good policy. This is about helping people into home ownership. The Liberal Party and the Greens coming together in a No-alition just saying no to everything, they will have to be accountable for that. But we’ll put our legislation, will be voted on in the House of Representatives today. Then it will go to the Senate. It will be voted on there. And it should be supported on its merits because it’s good policy.
ROWLAND: Okay. So no deals with the Now, let’s talk about Greens?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
ROWLAND: Now, let’s talk about the war in Ukraine. Sadly continuing. There is pressure on the Government to gift to the Ukrainian Government, the Ukrainian defence force, those ageing Abrams tanks, is that something the Government is considering?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we gave an announcement just a week ago of an additional $50 million in support for the effort in Ukraine. That was a substantial contribution. We are certainly one of the world’s largest non-NATO contributors to the struggle of the Ukrainian people in defence of their national sovereignty, in defence of their democracy, but importantly as well, on behalf of the global community, in support of the international rule of law. That is the support that we are giving to Ukraine. And we’ll continue to provide support for as long as it takes.
ROWLAND: I want to finish by circling back to the Dunkley by-election. What we are picking up, Prime Minister, is there is a lot of residual affection of Peta Murphy who held that seat for a while. Tragically lost her battle against cancer last year. One of the key policy positions she was arguing for was a ban on gambling ads. Why can’t the Government tell the voters of Dunkley you will honour Peta Murphy’s legacy by moving to either ban or severely restrict gambling ads in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Peta Murphy, of course, is someone who was much-loved. She was loved in this building, she was loved by her colleagues, but across the Parliament she was respected, but she was particularly loved by her local community. She was a strong advocate. And she, of course, chose to recruit Jodie Belyea, our candidate, to the Labor Party so she would be in a position of being the candidate in this by-election. We have put in place a range of measures including the BetStop program that’s seen over 10,000 people register, including various restrictions on online gambling that we’ve put in place already. We have a report. We’re saying more will be done. We have given that commitment. We’re consulting stakeholders on that. And I know that this is a big issue for people. People don’t want to see their footy disrupted by ads on TV in the middle of a game. Now, some restrictions have been changed and firmed by our Government. We realise there’s more to do. But your listeners as well, if they’re watching commercial TV to watch the AFL or the NRL, they’ll see those changes that have come up with the taglines of ads, we have followed recommendations, doing it, as is the nature of my Government, doing it in a considered, measured, orderly way in order to make sure that there aren’t consequences that hadn’t been thought through. And we’ll continue to do that.
ROWLAND: Prime Minister, I want to finish with footy – and I ask, full disclosure as a proud AFL supporters, I want to ask you about the NRL’s big adventure in Vegas this weekend including your beloved Rabbitohs. Is this a bit of hubris by the NRL? What do you think of it all?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it’s good. Good on them. They’re having a crack. They’re going into a new market. The US market is a terrific one. And rugby league is much more interesting than the game of footy they play. There’s actually more action on the field in 80 minutes than there is in 4.5 hours of watching an NFL game. So, I think it will be attractive. And good on Peter V’landys and Andrew Abdo for being prepared to take a risk and have a go here, to showcase what is a fantastic game. AFL, of course, taking games to China in the past. I think that’s a good thing. I think we have two fantastic codes, the major codes here in Australia. And it’s good that we’re prepared to showcase them to the world.
ROWLAND: We’ll get the US embassy’s view on your view on American football a bit later on. I agree with you, it can go on.
PRIME MINISTER: Caroline Kennedy is a great ambassador, but NRL is just a better game. Just a fact. As is AFL. They’re both fantastic to watch live. And it’s great that we’re giving Americans the opportunity to watch it.
ROWLAND: And on that front, I’m on a unity ticket with you. Prime Minister, thank you so much for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much.
