Welcome back. Great to have your company. Well, from Monday, July 1, a raft of changes will come into play, affecting millions of Australians struggling with the cost of living challenges. But will it be enough to ease the burden in our households? Well, let’s bring in Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, now. Morning to you, PM. We’ll chat about where you are a little bit later. First up, though, just want to talk to you about these changes that come into effect on Monday. Do you think this is what you need to turn the polls around? Because they’re not looking great at the moment for Labor.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, Monday’s a big day. Some 13.6 million taxpayers will all get a tax cut on Monday. And in addition to that, everyone on an award wage will get a wage increase. So, people will get to earn more and keep more of what they earn. In addition to that, there’ll be two weeks of additional paid parental leave, we will be keeping the freeze on pharmaceuticals there as well. All of these measures as well as of course $300 off everyone’s energy bills from Monday. So, it’s a big day for cost of living relief and it’s been designed in a way that will continue to put that downward pressure on inflation that we need.
MATT DORAN, HOST: Prime Minister, Monday, not a bad day to be leading the country either. Your salary, you’ll enjoy a pay rise, earning more than $600,000 a year. Given what Australians are going through, do you think that passes the pub test?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s independent of me. We have a system of the rem tribunal makes all of those decisions. I recognise I’m really well off. And that’s why, as well, we made the decision to intervene in the tax cuts so that both you and I had our tax cut in half, so that people who are low and middle income earners didn’t miss out. People who were earning under $45,000 were not going to get a single cent. And that’s why we made sure we changed the Liberals tax cuts into Labor’s tax cuts, which benefit primarily people on those middle and low incomes.
WRIGHT: Okay. Still can leave a bit of a bad taste in people’s mouth, though. We want to move on to another topic. You became emotional when talking about an extremist teenager who threatened your family. Just wondering whether that sort of event makes you want to be out of politics. We’re obviously having problems. Prime Minister, you’re still there?
PRIME MINISTER: There’s certainly no place for extremism in Australian politics or in Australian society. And I’m pleased that the police and the authorities are doing their work.
DORAN: Prime Minister, can we ask you about the US Presidential debate? This was intriguing. Of course, this is a matter for the Democratic Party in America. But can we ask your opinion? Joe Biden, is he fit to lead again? Should he pull out of the race?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I think President Biden is someone who has an important relationship with Australia. The US elections, of course, are a matter for the American people. And the election will take place in November. This is a relationship not just between individuals, it’s a relationship between our two great nations. And I’m sure that it will continue to be strong into the future.
WRIGHT: All right, I want to talk to you about social media giants coming out this week, yesterday, in fact, and saying we’ve never harmed children. What’s your response to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you can’t provide a solution if you don’t identify the problem. And social media giants are showing just how out of touch they are with the Australian public and, in particular, with Australian parents. We know that social media can cause a great deal of damage. Anyone who looks at some of the hate speech which is propagated on social media, some of the damage, we know grooming and other activity can occur on social media. Parents are really concerned about the impact that social media is having on their children. And that’s why when parents are concerned about the impact of social media, they’ll be despairing about these social media giants saying, ‘Nothing to see here, no problem’. Well, there is a problem, and they need to fess up to their responsibility for social cohesion. And they’re not doing that at the moment.
WRIGHT: No, they’re not. And we, as parents, need you, as the Government, to help us here. What can you do about this? What are you going to do about this? Because I feel like we’re being gaslit by these social media giants and saying, ‘Nope, nothing to see here’.
PRIME MINISTER: We certainly are. They just show how out of touch, how arrogant and how contemptuous they are of the legitimate concerns that every parent is expressing about this activity. That’s why we funded in the Budget $6.5 million to have a trial of age verification and of limiting the impact of social media, particularly on young people. We want to make sure that we get it right. We know that young people are tech savvy. You need to make sure you’re not shutting down one avenue just to send them down another dangerous road. And that’s why this trial will take place. The funding kicks in along with our other Budget funding from Monday as well. And we want to make sure that we haul these people into line and that we put in place appropriate restrictions. But we want to make sure that they’re effective to protect our youngest Australians because we know the impact it’s having on their mental health and we know it can cause a great deal of distress and anxiety.
DORAN: Gee whiz, PM, you’ve had a busy week. Can I ask you about where exactly you are right now? Are you just planning to wind down the week with a spot of gardening?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’m at JD Propagation here at Pearcedale in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne. Cassandra Fernando, the local Member here, invited me along to meet this small business that’s growing into a big business. They make some 14 million plants here being grown at this nursery, about the same number as the number of Australians who’ll get a tax cut on Monday.
WRIGHT: Nice. Nice segue. Prime Minister, good to talk to you. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Seamless segue there.
DORAN: It’s a ten out of ten, PM
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much.
DORAN: Well done.
PRIME MINISTER: Have a great weekend.
