Well, joining us live now is the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. PM, good to see you. Thanks for your time this morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G’day Peter.
STEFANOVIC: So, let’s start off with trying to get some clarity because investors do need it. Will you guarantee that you won’t touch negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have no plans to touch or change negative gearing. What we’re concerned about is supply of housing and this, I’m not convinced it’ll make any difference that’s positive when it comes to supply. That’s why we actually have our $32 billion ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾s for Australia Plan. That’s about building more public housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund, having more private rentals through our Build to Rent Scheme that’s currently blocked in the Senate by this noalition of Greens, Liberals and Nats. And our Help to Buy Scheme that’s a shared equity scheme to get more people, 40,000 people, into home ownership that’s also being blocked even though it’s actually the policy of the Greens political party.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, two words there, ‘no plans.’ Problem is, you’ve said this before and then changed course. Might you do it again?
PRIME MINISTER: No, Pete, what we did with our income tax changes was to deliver a tax cut for every Australian. And guess what Pete –
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, but you lied doing it. You lied. You were deceptive doing that.
PRIME MINISTER: Guess what, Pete? Well, if I did, so did Peter Dutton because they voted for it. Because they voted for it.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, but might you be lying again on this?
PRIME MINISTER: No, and I don’t accept the premise of your question, Peter. What happened, very clearly, was that there was a massive change in circumstances and we had a cost of living crisis, that hopefully you’ve noticed, and we needed to deal with that by putting that downward pressure on inflation whilst we delivered support for people. So we changed the policy, we made it clear why we changed the policy. The Opposition said that they would oppose it, that they’d reverse it, and then they said we should have an election on it and then they voted for it. The entire Parliament voted for it.
STEFANOVIC: But when it comes negative gearing and capital gains, if we go to the current issue of negative gearing capital gains tax, might you change course? Even though –
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s not a current issue.
STEFANOVIC: It certainly is, it’s on the front page of every paper at the moment.
PRIME MINISTER: No it’s not a current issue, Pete.
STEFANOVIC: When you say there are no plans –
PRIME MINISTER: That doesn’t mean it’s real. That doesn’t mean it’s real.
STEFANOVIC: But when you say there are no plans to change capital gains tax or negative gearing, could those plans change?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, if you ask the same question, Peter, you get the same answer.
STEFANOVIC: Well, I’m not getting a response to it. Can I ask again, could those plans change?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, you are. Yes you are, you’re not listening, Peter. You’ve already asked it and I’ve already answered it.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, but I’m asking, you said no plans, but could plans change?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, if you want to keep interrupting me, then this won’t be, we won’t get anywhere. I have said why I have a problem with changing, which is that it’s about supply. And the problem is that all of the analysis shows that a change to negative gearing will not assist supply. And my Government is focused on more supply of housing, more public housing, more private rentals, more home ownership. That’s the key to dealing with the housing issues that we inherited after a decade of inaction when it came to housing, when the former Government didn’t even bother to have a Housing Minister for some of the time that they were there. So my concentration has been on getting that downward pressure on inflation that we’ve seen with, yes, those figures, 3.5 per cent down to 2.7 per cent, making a real difference for people. The action that we’re taking on supermarkets with the ACCC taking Coles and Woolworths to court on Monday. Over 500 products being advertised as being specials when it simply wasn’t fair dinkum, when the allegation is they were essentially just having a lend of people. Increasing prices, then decreasing them by less and pretending they were on special. That has been my concentration and the concentration of my Government.
STEFANOVIC: I know you’re celebrating those figures yesterday, but why is Michele Bullock gaslighting you by saying those inflation numbers don’t mean anything?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, she hasn’t. I noticed that what you’re doing there is quoting Michele Bullock before these figures came out.
STEFANOVIC: But she knew those figures were coming because she said she wasn’t going to be distorted by short term drops. She wanted something more consistent.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have seen consistency. And when it comes to the figures yesterday, excluding volatile, was down from 3.7 per cent to 3 per cent. Trimmed mean down from 3.8 per cent to 3.4 per cent. And the headline inflation rate down from 3.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent. Inflation has halved since we came to Office and is down from by a third, two thirds down from where it peaked. That makes an enormous difference to people and that’s because it hasn’t happened by accident. That’s a result of responsible economic management. The production of not one but two Budget surpluses, Cheaper Child Care, Fee-Free TAFE, the Energy Bill Relief that we’ve put in place at the same time as, of course, we’ve assisted families who were doing it tough by increasing wages that have increased and giving them a tax cut, more dollars in their pockets in order to take some of that pressure off that we understand is very real out there. There’s more to do, but it is heading in the right direction.
STEFANOVIC: On Energy Bill Relief. That drop yesterday is in part thanks to those subsidies. Will you extend those energy subsidies beyond this financial year?
PRIME MINISTER: Well look, they’re in place now, Peter. We made interventions into the energy market –
STEFANOVIC: Will you extend them?
PRIME MINISTER: We made interventions into the energy market. We’ll let you know what’s in next year’s budget next year, Peter, with respect to Sky News. That’s what we’ll do.
STEFANOVIC: But without them there will be a surge in out of pocket costs next year when that government support ends, yes?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s not right. Peter. There’ll be a whole range of factors across a whole range of goods when it comes to the economic impact next year, the year after, the year after that. What we’ve dealt with –
STEFANOVIC: That’s not right. When say that’s not right, you think bills will still go down if you take that relief out?
PRIME MINISTER: What we’ve dealt with, Peter, no – you tried to extrapolate the entire figure of the national economy on Energy Bill Relief –
STEFANOVIC: I’m just seeking clarity, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: On Energy Bill Relief, and in that, that is a massive extrapolation. What we have is a range of things in the economy and we have intervened into the gas and coal market in unprecedented circumstances because we had to deal with the global pressures that were there. So we did that in partnership with state governments, including, credit where credit is due, the Perrottet Government supported that action as well here in New South Wales, it was opposed only by the federal Coalition. And then we determined to give people extra relief. But you know how we could do that? Because of responsible economic management. We did that while still delivering a Budget surplus. By making sure that we banked improvements in revenue. By making sure that we made savings as well, that we valued every dollar and we turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion Labor surplus. That’s what good economic management looks like. And yes, Energy Bill Relief has put downward pressure on inflation. Why has it done that? Because it was designed that way to help people, to help families. Those people watching this program this morning got that Energy Bill Relief and will continue to get it. That’s a good thing because at a time where they needed that support, this was a really practical way of delivering it without putting that down, whilst at the same time putting that downward pressure on inflation.
STEFANOVIC: I’m out of time, but I just want to get one more in on Lebanon. Potentially Israel is looking at a ground invasion sometime down the track. Obviously, a lot of concern from Australians who might be in Lebanon. Indeed, we spoke to one a little earlier in the program. What’s the advice to them if they’re stuck, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: The advice has been for many months now, please leave. Australian citizens should not be travelling to Lebanon. That they’ve continued to do in recent months. We have had warnings, I have on I don’t know how many occasions now said that if people can get out, they should, through commercial airlines, while it’s available. And we continue to call for –
STEFANOVIC: What if they aren’t available, PM? Just on that point.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we continue to call for de-escalation. We have been saying for months that people needed to leave and people do need to leave. And we can’t be clearer than that. And we also want there to be restraint here. We want to see a de-escalation in the region. We want to see a ceasefire both in Gaza and when it comes to Lebanon, we want to see a de-escalation there.
STEFANOVIC: So when you, I know Penny Wong spoke about this earlier, and I’ve got to go now, but when she says you’re exploring the full range of options for Australians to leave, presumably that means options outside of planes. What are you looking at?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re looking at options.
STEFANOVIC: But how else do you get out other than a plane?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there are other ways, there’s this thing called water there as well.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, that’s all you need to say.
PRIME MINISTER: We’re looking at, no well, we’re looking at every option. But there’s obviously national security issues. This is a war zone, is going on here, and it is appropriate that we not broadcast all of the contingencies that we’re putting in place. We’ve been meeting on this through our appropriate bodies over a period of time and including engaging with our friends and allies. But we say, we repeat as well, whilst people can get commercial aircraft, they should. And I find it remarkable that people are still staying there and that in recent months, in spite of the warnings, people have travelled into a zone which is very risky and that’s unfortunate that that has occurred.
STEFANOVIC: Prime Minister, really appreciate your time. Thanks for squeezing us in. We’ll talk to you again soon.
