HOST: Right now on 5AA Breakfast, we are joined by the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison. Prime Minister, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Will. Morning Pembo.
HOST: Thanks for joining us, Mr Morrison. We haven’t had a chance to speak to you for a few weeks and –
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
HOST: Haven’t had you on the show since the Marshall Government was wiped out a few weeks ago in a landslide. There’s a view across both parties here that the standing of your Government contributed to the collapse in the Liberal vote locally. What would you say to that, and how concerned are you about the seats of Boothby and Sturt?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’d say this election is a choice between a Government that I’ve left that has demonstrated strong economic financial management through the worst crisis since the Second World War. Unemployment has fallen to 4 per cent and falling, we’ve retained our triple AAA credit rating, and we’ve achieved the biggest budget turnaround in 70 years. And we have a clear and proven economic plan and a team that will keep our economy strong in the future. And it’s a choice between us and the Labor Opposition led by Anthony Albanese, who, you know, can’t manage money. They have no economic plan and they’re untested and unproven. So now’s not the time to take that risk with our future. So it’s a Federal Election, and these are the issues that will determine a Federal Election.
HOST: But that’s at the macro level. But locally here, the Liberal brand got absolutely smashed only three weeks ago. Do you think that that was the people of SA letting off some steam? Or are you worried that there could be a residual effect in five weeks time that’s going to cause you dramas in Boothby and Sturt?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the now Premier made it very clear that even before the election that it was an election fought on state issues. And so that was what the Labor Premier has said. This election is a choice between a Liberal-³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Government, headed by myself with a very strong tea – Josh Frydenberg as Treasurer, Peter Dutton as Defence Minister, Karen Andrews as ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Affairs Minister, Marise Payne as Foreign Minister, Simon Birmingham as Finance Minister, of course, Anne Ruston, who’s been doing a terrific job as Social Services Minister and as our campaign spokesperson – against the Labor team that is untested, unproven, we know can’t manage money and the key issues facing our country are on the economy and national security, and we’ve shown the strength and the plan and the resolve to deal with those issues and bringing Australians through the worst economic crisis that we’ve seen since the Great Depression.
HOST: You’re committing today to deliver 1.3 million jobs over the course of the next five years. Can I ask you how many of those new jobs will be in South Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, it’s a macro number that we do right across the economy and with unemployment in South Australia now 5 per cent. And so we want to get that number down. I mean, where I’m speaking to you today in New South Wales, the unemployment rate is 3.7 per cent. You know, it’s 4 per cent across the country. And I think there is a lot of opportunity to get the unemployment rate further down in South Australia and the way we’re going to continue to do that, is particularly by creating those manufacturing jobs and that we’re seeing. Whether it’s in the defence industry, or the food and beverage industry, in places like Bickford’s and the other great food and beverage manufacturers you have in South Australia. We’re investing heavily in the infrastructure in South Australia, where the North-South Corridor or the Marion Road, Anzac Highway to Cross Road or the Adelaide Hills productivity and road safety package some $120 million there. So, we’re investing in the economy of South Australia. We going to keep doing that and particularly in those new cyber jobs and technical jobs down at Lot 14, and I’m sure the new Government will continue the same passion and enthusiasm. Steven Marshall did for Lot 14, and what was happening to cyber jobs, space jobs. So I think there’s great opportunities in South Australia. We’ve got to keep that momentum going.
HOST: South Australia’s share of those that the jobs figure should be just shy of 100,000 over the course of the next five years. You’re confident you can deliver that.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, for all the reasons I’ve just said, because we’re going to invest in skills, we’re investing in skills. I mean, we’ve got 220,000 trade apprentices and training right now across the country. That is the highest level we’ve seen since 1963 and it’s been part of the plan that we can, you know, we’ve outlined very clearly this investment, further investment, we’re making in skills $3.7 billion to support and 800,000 new training positions. We’ve got $2.8 billion in additional incentives to train the next generation of apprentices. There’s further investment, particularly in women’s economic security, for women to take up nontraditional trade apprentices. So we’re investing heavily in the skills to give South Australians who currently aren’t in a job to ensure they can get in one, and that they can contribute to the strong growth of the South Australian economy and get that unemployment rate down.
HOST: There’s been no mention of the subs.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, of course we’re building subs in South Australia, I mean, that I think is, you know, one of the bigger – I said defence industry before – I mean, our defence industry is massive in South Australia. And those skills development, which we’re doing in South Australia, are critical to delivering those projects. I mean –
PENBERTHY: Will there be new jobs in that sector delivered over the next five years as part of this promise?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, there will be.
HOST: Prime Minister back in 2004, when John Howard squared off against Mark Latham, Mr Howard opened the election campaign by saying “this election’s all about trust. Who can you trust to keep interest rates low?” With the scheduled or anticipated rate rises over the next three years, that are going to hit the family household budget hard. Can you make a similar promise? What will you do to keep interest rates low?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think our delivery, I think, demonstrates that. I mean a cash rate of 0.1 per cent. Now we know that is, you know, at historical lows, but that’s not what people pay on their mortgage. Their average discounted mortgage rate at the moment is around 3.5 per cent 3.6 per cent. But we keep the pressure down on rises in interest rates by maintaining our triple AAA credit rating and ensuring that we’re managing the finances well. Now we’re in one of nine countries through the course of this pandemic, and we’ve had to do some serious investment spending to save our economy. 700,000 jobs saved through JobKeeper. That has enabled our economy to remain whole and now be coming back strongly. So that AAA credit rating, ensuring that we keep spending wisely, and today, Simon Birmingham has made a very good point. I mean, not only would Labor have spent another $81 billion in additional spending during the pandemic, but their promises that they’ve already made, totalling some $300 billion in extra spending out into the never never on a whole range of issues, whether it be on child care or other issues. This is not spending that the economy can maintain unless it’s extremely strong. Now, we’re not engaging in that sort of level of recklessness. We’ve got sensible financial plans that have enabled us to keep our AAA credit rating. And that’s put downward pressure on rises in interest rates, because last time Labor was in, unemployment was higher, interest rates were higher and electricity prices were higher – and electricity prices are down nationally 8 per cent over the last two years. It’s one of the things we said we’d do.
HOST: Speaking of the use of public money, how can you say that the payout to Minister Alan Tudge’s staffer with whom he had a relationship is private, when it’s actually taxpayers money provided through the Department of Finance?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I have no visibility on that at all. I can’t confirm to you whether a payment has even been made. And that’s the point I made yesterday, in the same way the private finalisation of matters in the corporate sector are done also. But I know it’s taxpayers money and those matters are handled by the Department of Finance at arm’s length from politicians including, you know, the Special Minister of State. So, but –
HOST: But if this bloke’s got himself… but if this bloke’s got himself in a strife. Shouldn’t he be paying? Or shouldn’t the Liberal Party be paying? I mean, it looks like taxpayer funded hush money.
PRIME MINISTER: Well look, you’re suggesting some involvement of ministers, of which there has been absolutely none. This has been done independently, assuming –
HOST: So does money just fly out of the sky in the Finance Department? Half a million dollars lands in your lap and no-one’s got any real oversight over it?
PRIME MINISTER: You’re assuming that there aren’t matters that relate to Members right across the Parliament as we go into an election and there are there are staffers who are ending, concluding up their time. The Department of Finance has provisions that enable them to deal with these matters privately. But you’re also assuming that there is any wrongdoing on Alan Tudge’s part. No matter has been raised with me by the Department of Finance in relation to any of those things. We had an independent investigation by Vivienne Thom into these matters, which found there was no basis valid, not continue on. So the suggestion that Alan is in some way being found, you know, it’s not supported by the independent Inquiry. Look, I had an independent Inquiry when serious allegations were raised against members of my team. I didn’t dismiss it. I took it very seriously. I pointed Vivienne Thom, through the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, to undertake that investigation. She did. She was thorough. The report has been made completely public, and it’s there for people to see that Alan Tudge can continue to serve. He’s chosen for the sake of his health and family for a period of time to stand aside from the Ministry, there’s been no other Education Minister sworn in. No-one went out to the Governor-General. We’re very transparent about all of that.
HOST: Can I ask you a question? I’m almost asking you this just as a bloke rather than the Prime Minister, Mr Morrison.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
HOST: How did politics get so horrible in this country? I must admit I haven’t seen the full transcript of what Connie Fierravanti-Wells said about you in the Senate until I watched it all last night. There’s all sorts of name-calling, you know, some of the things that have been trending hashtags about you over the last couple of years on on Twitter just make me shake my head in disbelief. How has, how has public life become so deeply unpleasant and how do we make it more pleasant?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think you put your finger right on it and when talking about hashtags, David. I mean, social media has been eroding the stability of our country. And not just our society, societies all around the world. And David, you know, you’ve reported on politics for years and years. You’re telling me that people haven’t been saying these things about politicians for the last few years? Of course they have. But what happens now is you whack a hashtag on it, put it out there in the social media and then people report it. Now I think what happens, but that’s, but I’m more concerned about young people who are getting shamed and bullied and harassed on social media. That’s why our Government has taken the strongest possible measures. Other countries are following our lead to hold social media companies accountable. So you can’t have these, these, these these cowards in their basements going around and trolling people. I mean you all know of Erin Molan’s story. Leigh Sales also went off, went off Twitter the other day, and good for her, because of the appalling treatment of her and so many women in particular. Now politicians aren’t immune from that either. I mean, social media has given everybody a microphone and things that used to be said and now said through social media. So I think social media really does undermine. I’ve always said, there’s no problem with disagreeing in this country, but we’ve got to disagree better than we have. And social media, I think, has made that a very hard thing to do, and I really do think it’s really undermining – the cohesiveness of our society. And that’s why we have taken such a strong stance standing up to those big tech companies and holding them to account.
HOST: So we’re going to see you in Adelaide for a pastie and a pint of Cooper’s during the election campaign. Or is it, you’re just going to fly over South Australia on your way to defending seats in New South Wales and hopefully gaining a couple WA?
PRIME MINISTER: No, you’ll see us there plenty of times, there’s no doubt, but you know, you’ve got a great team down there. So, and Simon and Anne are leading our charge down there in South Australia, and you know it’s going to be fantastic. I’m looking forward to getting down there for exactly those reasons, Pembo.
HOST: Good stuff.
PRIME MINISTER: Amongst many others, amongst many others.
HOST: No worries. Scott Morrison, Prime Minister. Thanks very much for joining us this morning on 5AA.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, guys.
