Speaker 1: So, Paul, you've just come out of the budget lockup.
Speaker 1: What was it like in there?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Well, it's quite a new experience really. The lockups these
Speaker 3: days are actually done in the press gallery and in
Speaker 3: the bureau. So we were, as it were, locked in
Speaker 3: the Saturday Paper bureau with a treasury official who took
Speaker 3: our phones office and made sure that we could not
Speaker 3: communicate with the outside world.
Speaker 1: Paul bon Jorno is a columnist for the Saturday Paper
Speaker 1: and this is not his first rodeo.
Speaker 3: It's very different from the first lockup I attended. I
Speaker 3: can tell you thirty seven years ago, Ruby, probably before
Speaker 3: you were born, but I won't say anything.
Speaker 1: Tell me about that. What was it like thirty seven
Speaker 1: years ago?
Speaker 3: Well, in nineteen eighty eight, Paul Keating was the treasurer.
Speaker 3: On the morning that he delivered the budget, he got
Speaker 3: into the mood by listening to Richard Wagner's four Last
Speaker 3: Songs from one of Wagner's operas, and I think the
Speaker 3: version was sung by J.
Speaker 4: Norman.
Speaker 3: I went out and bought the CD, and I must
Speaker 3: say it's very moving music. I was just trying to
Speaker 3: work out how many budgets I've actually covered in those
Speaker 3: thirty seven years and it's thirty five. I've missed two,
Speaker 3: so that's not a bad you show up rate.
Speaker 1: Thirty five budgets. Okay, So how does this budget then,
Speaker 1: as someone who's been around for three and a half decades,
Speaker 1: how does this compare?
Speaker 3: Well, this is a pre election budget. Even though the
Speaker 3: treasurers tried to convince us all that it was economics
Speaker 3: first and politics second. I know a lot of the
Speaker 3: gurus at the other end of the corridor and the
Speaker 3: financial press aren't all that impressed. They just look at
Speaker 3: the budget bottom line and all they see is read
Speaker 3: and they say, Aha, that proves it's all about politics
Speaker 3: rather than good economic management.
Speaker 1: As the government makes its pitch for reelection, gross public
Speaker 1: debt is forecast to hit one trillion dollars next year
Speaker 1: and a decade of deaficie it's loom, But Treasurer Jim
Speaker 1: Chalmers used his budget night pitch to argue that if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for labor, the picture would be worse. It's
Speaker 1: a tough sell at a time when cost of living
Speaker 1: is biting, but with a record investment in Medicare, energy
Speaker 1: bill relief and a surprise tax cut for everyone, the
Speaker 1: government is hoping to secure a second term from Schwartz Media.
Speaker 1: I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven AM today. Budget veteran
Speaker 1: Paul bon Jorno on whether Labour's election budget will pay
Speaker 1: off and what's in it for you. It's Wednesday, March
Speaker 1: twenty six. Paul, let's begin by talking about the budget
Speaker 1: bottom line. The total gross debt is expected to peak
Speaker 1: at thirty seven percent of GDP in coming years and
Speaker 1: we're now expecting death it's for the next decade. So
Speaker 1: why is that, Paul, Given that we've had surfaces for
Speaker 1: the past two budgets.
Speaker 3: What has changed, Well, a few things have changed, But
Speaker 3: I think we should make this point that Australia, with
Speaker 3: thirty seven percent of the total economic output that's what
Speaker 3: GDP means, is amongst the lowest in the world. The
Speaker 3: United States is one hundred percent of its GDP, as
Speaker 3: is the United Kingdom. So the Australian economy, even on
Speaker 3: that measure, is in much better shape than other major
Speaker 3: democratic economies. But the explanation is that commodity prices have
Speaker 3: come off, energy prices have risen as a result of
Speaker 3: the continuing war in Ukraine and also the war in
Speaker 3: the Middle East, which is disrupting energy supply chains. So
Speaker 3: all of that is an explanation. The other explanation is
Speaker 3: that the revenue that our commodity produces we're getting in
Speaker 3: recent years meant that they were paying a lot more tax. Well,
Speaker 3: this year, the government's not getting the revenue bonanza it
Speaker 3: was and it has gone into deficit. And a big
Speaker 3: reason for that is because it knows, and the Treasurer
Speaker 3: made a big point of this in his budget speech
Speaker 3: and throughout the budget papers, that people are hurting and
Speaker 3: they do want relief.
Speaker 5: We've made a lot of progress together, but we know
Speaker 5: that many people are still doing it tough. Our plan
Speaker 5: to rebuild living standards starts with cost of living help
Speaker 5: and wages growth. It includes more hip pocket help for households.
Speaker 3: And labor which spoke about delivering relief at its budget
Speaker 3: last year but didn't see any reward in the opinion
Speaker 3: polls for it knows that it has to have another
Speaker 3: big go this year because within six weeks we'll be
Speaker 3: going to an election and I think that's one of
Speaker 3: the reasons why we've seen the sort of budget that
Speaker 3: we have.
Speaker 1: Can you talk to me a little more about that,
Speaker 1: Poul I mean, there's no doubt that this is an
Speaker 1: election budget, but what does it say to you about
Speaker 1: how labor is positioning itself to voters. What is the
Speaker 1: overarching message here.
Speaker 3: Well, the overarching message is to quote the Prime Minister,
Speaker 3: though there have been some critics of him for saying
Speaker 3: that Labour's got your backs. This is what they're trying
Speaker 3: to say. There's a lot of measures that we've already
Speaker 3: heard about, more bolt billing, more help with electricity bills,
Speaker 3: cheaper medicines, less student debt, and a big investment into
Speaker 3: manufacturing in Australia as well as more homes. The Treasurer
Speaker 3: really hit the fact that a lot of money will
Speaker 3: be directed in the area of providing more housing, and
Speaker 3: there'll be more investment in skills and education.
Speaker 5: This is a responsible budget with five main priorities. Helping
Speaker 5: with the cost of living, strengthening medicare, building more homes,
Speaker 5: investing in every stage of education, and making our economy stronger,
Speaker 5: more productive and more resilient.
Speaker 3: But what we did see really as the surprise centerpiece
Speaker 3: of the budget tonight was Jim Charmers pulled a scrawny
Speaker 3: rabbit out of the hat.
Speaker 5: These additional tax cuts are modest, but they will make
Speaker 5: a difference. The average earner will have an extra five
Speaker 5: hundred and thirty six dollars in their pocket each year
Speaker 5: when they're fully implemented. Combined with our first round of
Speaker 5: tax cuts, this is two thousand, one hundred and ninety dollars,
Speaker 5: and the average total tax cut will be two thousand,
Speaker 5: five hundred and forty eight dollars, or about fifty dollars
Speaker 5: a week.
Speaker 3: So that's adding the five dollars to the tax cuts
Speaker 3: you got in July, which is a very clever political
Speaker 3: way in my view, of upgrading and updating the tax
Speaker 3: cuts as something new.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we have this small tax cut. Let's talk
Speaker 1: spends though. A big focus of that is healthcare. We're
Speaker 1: seeing eight point five billion dollars for bulk billing incentives.
Speaker 1: There's also this plan to reduce the cost of scripts
Speaker 1: under the PBS. There's a women's healthcare package as well.
Speaker 1: So tell me more about the details of the health
Speaker 1: spending and why you think it is that labor is
Speaker 1: focusing on this.
Speaker 3: Well, labor is focusing on that there for various reasons,
Speaker 3: namely that health is an issue that voters have identified
Speaker 3: as something that's impacting on their well being in a
Speaker 3: very big way.
Speaker 5: Tonight, we are proud to make the single biggest commitment
Speaker 5: to Medicare since its creation, a record eight and a
Speaker 5: half billion dollars to lift bulk billing rates and build
Speaker 5: our health workforce. Because of this investment, nine out of
Speaker 5: ten GP visits should be fully bold built by the
Speaker 5: end of the decade.
Speaker 3: The calculation politically, the hard edged calculation, is that Peter Dutton,
Speaker 3: when he was Tony Abbot's Health Minister, launched a full
Speaker 3: frontal attack on bulk billing by wanting to have a
Speaker 3: co payment. Now, when the Senate at the time refused
Speaker 3: to play ball with that, what the Abbot government followed
Speaker 3: by then the Turnbull and Morrison governments did they froze
Speaker 3: the Medicare rebate paid to doctors. And what we've seen
Speaker 3: over those intervening years, instead of a co payment imposed
Speaker 3: by the government, they've forced the doctors to charge when
Speaker 3: you visit them. In other words, it was still the
Speaker 3: co payment by stealth. Now, the eight billion dollars that's
Speaker 3: going back into raising the rebate for doctors plus the
Speaker 3: incentive for them to bulk bill is hoping to readdress that,
Speaker 3: but it also gives a line of political attack of
Speaker 3: the government on Peter Dutton because of his record in
Speaker 3: this area.
Speaker 1: Coming up after the break, is this budget enough to
Speaker 1: get Labor re elected?
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Speaker 1: This is Jim Chalmer's fourth budget and depending partly on
Speaker 1: how this lands, it could be his last. And I
Speaker 1: think over the years it's fair to say there have
Speaker 1: been a lot of small changes, a lot of little
Speaker 1: mechanisms that might make things cheaper for households, but there's
Speaker 1: never been a big centerpiece policies, something like making childcare universal,
Speaker 1: for example, or putting dental into medicare. So when you
Speaker 1: look at the last few budgets, what does it tell
Speaker 1: you about the sort of treasurer that you think Jim
Speaker 1: Chalmers is showing himself to be Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that he would take great exception to
Speaker 3: what you've just said. And by the way, what you've
Speaker 3: just said is not unusual.
Speaker 4: There are many.
Speaker 3: Critics, both from the left of the right that make
Speaker 3: similar comments.
Speaker 1: It just seems like there's lots of long lists of
Speaker 1: small things rather than tent pole policies.
Speaker 3: Well, and for example, on childcare, the government is now
Speaker 3: moving to three day free childcare for everybody you know,
Speaker 3: so sure, that's not five days a week, and a
Speaker 3: lot of working parents point out that that still leaves
Speaker 3: them with a terrible gap, but it's a hell of
Speaker 3: a lot more than what was on offer before. The
Speaker 3: other point to be made too, like, for example, the
Speaker 3: government is spending billions now on raising the salaries and
Speaker 3: the wages of care workers. Now that in a real sense,
Speaker 3: will be a signature policy as well. I also myself
Speaker 3: don't have a lot of sympathy for the criticism in
Speaker 3: the sense that Medicare is a major, big ticket item
Speaker 3: and eight billion dollars more that's on top of what's
Speaker 3: already been spent, has been put into what is in
Speaker 3: a legacy sense, an historic labor policy. But when you
Speaker 3: come to medicare dental, how much would dental medicare cost? Now,
Speaker 3: there are a lot of arguments to say, whatever it costs,
Speaker 3: it's going to save your billions more because of the
Speaker 3: relationship between dental and overall health. And I guess all
Speaker 3: budgets come down to choices, and this is a choice
Speaker 3: that the current government and treasure at this stage aren't
Speaker 3: prepared to make.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 3: Look, Charmers, I think has established a reputation already a
Speaker 3: competent treasurer. Should we be demanding more of him as
Speaker 3: a competent treasure Well, he would say, as he in
Speaker 3: fact did today at the news conference inside the lockup,
Speaker 3: that we've laid the foundations. Elect us again, and we'll
Speaker 3: do even more. So whether voters by that, we won't
Speaker 3: have to wait very long to find out.
Speaker 1: And so, as we've said, Paul, this is ultimately an
Speaker 1: election budget. So is it enough to get Labor re elected?
Speaker 3: Look, Ruby, I think any pre election pitch does depend
Speaker 3: not only on what one side offers, in this case
Speaker 3: the Labor government, but what the alternative side will offer
Speaker 3: to entice voters to go for it.
Speaker 4: Now, as I.
Speaker 3: Moved around the lock up this afternoon after doing my
Speaker 3: homework so I could talk to you. Talking to other
Speaker 3: journos and lobbyists, they were saying that Peter Dutton, they think,
Speaker 3: might have left it a bit too late. What does
Speaker 3: he put out there as a real alternative to what
Speaker 3: the government is doing. All he's been left to say,
Speaker 3: and I'm sure he'll say this on Thursday night is
Speaker 3: me too, me too on this? And it's as if
Speaker 3: Dutton was convinced that Albernizi and his government were completely
Speaker 3: on the slide and he didn't have to do much
Speaker 3: but stand to the side and cheer as they self destructed. Well,
Speaker 3: what we've seen, especially since the beginning of this year,
Speaker 3: far from self destructing. The Labor government is fighting back.
Speaker 1: Paul, Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 4: Thank you Ruby bye.
Speaker 1: Also in the news today, the Coalition will not support
Speaker 1: the tax cuts announced in last night's budget, the Shadow
Speaker 1: t Dura Angus Taylor has revealed. Taylor called the cuts
Speaker 1: an election bribe by a week prime minister and a
Speaker 1: cruel hoax will do little to improve the standard of living.
Speaker 1: The Opposition has previously claimed that taxes would be lower
Speaker 1: under a Peter Dutton led government, but has not yet
Speaker 1: revealed its tax policy. Peter Dutton's Budget in Reply speech
Speaker 1: will be delivered on Thursday night, and Brisbane is set
Speaker 1: to get a new sixty three thousand seat stadium for
Speaker 1: the twenty to thirty two Olympic and Paralympic Games. The
Speaker 1: stadium will be built at Victoria Park, a popular inner
Speaker 1: city public park. The Queensland Premier David chris A fully
Speaker 1: unveiled the plans for the venue yesterday, despite promising multiple
Speaker 1: times during the election campaign that he would not be
Speaker 1: building a new stadium for the Games. I'm Ruby Jones.
Speaker 1: This is seven am. Thanks for listening.