Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the
Speaker 1: twenty sixth of March, and I'm Billy. Now. Usually in
Speaker 1: the afternoon we would be publishing our afternoon headlines, but
Speaker 1: today we have a very special edition for you. As
Speaker 1: you would have been able to tell from the title.
Speaker 1: On this episode, you will hear an interview with Prime
Speaker 1: Minister Anthony Albanesi. Last night, the Labor government delivered its
Speaker 1: pre election budget, where it committed to tax cuts and
Speaker 1: energy bill relief, but the documents also show Australia is
Speaker 1: plunging further into deficit, which is likely to be shouldered
Speaker 1: by future generations. This morning, TDA political journalist Harry Sekulich
Speaker 1: caught up with Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi in his Parliamentary
Speaker 1: office courtyard to ask him about how the budget will
Speaker 1: address issues that matter to young people. Here is that interview,
Speaker 1: Prime Minister, Thank you so much for time.
Speaker 2: So the Daily Oss audience tell us consistently that mental health,
Speaker 2: supports and renting are the top concerns for them. But
Speaker 2: based on this budget, not much appears to be changing
Speaker 2: in those areas. So what is in the budget for
Speaker 2: young people?
Speaker 3: Well, there's an enormous amount in the budget for young people. Firstly,
Speaker 3: of course the cutting of further cutting of hex decks
Speaker 3: twenty percent wiped out if we're elected to office and
Speaker 3: that will kick in in July.
Speaker 4: It comes on top of the three billion.
Speaker 3: Dollars we've already reduced Shouldn't debt by on mental health.
Speaker 3: We have increased support as well. What we're doing is
Speaker 3: having these Medicare mental health centers where people can go
Speaker 3: in get that mental health support that they need for free.
Speaker 4: They just need their Medicare card.
Speaker 3: We're funded in excess of sixty there's more than thirty
Speaker 3: of those centers are open right around Australia as well,
Speaker 3: providing that support. And in addition to that, of course,
Speaker 3: we've had a forty five percent increase in rental assistance.
Speaker 3: That has made a substantial difference and for young Australians
Speaker 3: who are at school and the future young Australians to come.
Speaker 3: I think the agreement that was signed right here in
Speaker 3: this space this week with Couensine, which now brings every
Speaker 3: state and territory into the better and Fairer schools funding
Speaker 3: agreement that was identified more than a decade ago. But
Speaker 3: what this will do is an additional sixteen and a
Speaker 3: half billion dollars from the Comwealth, as well as additional
Speaker 3: funding from state and territory governments to make sure that
Speaker 3: every student in every public school gets the funding that
Speaker 3: they deserve and they need.
Speaker 2: I just want to focus on some of the other
Speaker 2: cost of living measures that was in this budget. So
Speaker 2: that includes the tax cuts for all taxpayers, and also
Speaker 2: the energy bill relief which will be for all households,
Speaker 2: including those who might be on hir incomes. Do you
Speaker 2: think you should have focused on prioritizing those who are
Speaker 2: doing it toughest at the moment, Well, that's and targeting
Speaker 2: that support of cost living.
Speaker 3: Well, that's precisely what you do when you have universality.
Speaker 3: So that if you look at the tax cuts they
Speaker 3: aimed at, people on that lower rate in particular will
Speaker 3: benefit in terms of the proportion the average tax that
Speaker 3: they pay by lowering that first rate that kicks in
Speaker 3: once you get past the tax free threshold up to
Speaker 3: forty five thousand dollars from sixteen cents to fifteen and
Speaker 3: then to fourteen. That will particularly benefit low income earners.
Speaker 3: It will benefit part time workers, people who are students
Speaker 3: working their way through university or TAFE. It will make
Speaker 3: a difference for them. You can't when you're changing the
Speaker 3: tax scales. You can't change the first marginal tax rate
Speaker 3: and then change it at the top end or not
Speaker 3: see that flow through. But we deliberately have targeted those
Speaker 3: lower middle income earners, which will mean that for average
Speaker 3: Australians will benefit because it's a top up from the
Speaker 3: tax cuts that began this year to the tune of
Speaker 3: two and a half thousand dollars extra dollars in people's pockets.
Speaker 2: You could change those tax brackets though, so they could
Speaker 2: increase according to a measure like inflation or the wage
Speaker 2: price index. Would you consider adjusting the tax brackets.
Speaker 3: Well, we are adjusting in the weedge, we're adjust We're
Speaker 3: adjusting them down, is what we're doing. What we did
Speaker 3: through our tax changes was take four and a half
Speaker 3: thousand dollars of legislative tax cuts that I was going
Speaker 3: to receive less and redistributed that to low middle income earners.
Speaker 3: And they're the changes that we put through. The opposition
Speaker 3: screen blue murder those changes, said that they'd oppose them,
Speaker 3: said they'd roll them back. Then they said we should
Speaker 3: have an election well, they did what they said they
Speaker 3: wouldn't do, and eventually they passed the parliament because they
Speaker 3: had support from the crossbenches as well, and in the
Speaker 3: end they went through unanimously.
Speaker 2: I just want to zoom out on the budget more broadly.
Speaker 2: We're heading into a twenty seven billion dollar deficit this
Speaker 2: year and the deficits are growing, and compared to last
Speaker 2: year's budget, they're actually estimated to be even deeper down
Speaker 2: the track. Who's going to be paying off this government debt?
Speaker 3: Well, what we have done is produced, of course, two
Speaker 3: budget surpass, the first time that that has happened in decades.
Speaker 3: We inherited a seventy eight billion dollar deficit when we
Speaker 3: came to office. We turned that into a twenty two
Speaker 3: billion dollar surpace and then followed it up with another
Speaker 3: fifteen billion dollar surpas. The deficit which we announced last night,
Speaker 3: twenty seven billion, is half of what was anticipated just
Speaker 3: three years ago under the coalition. So what we have
Speaker 3: done is we've made over almost one hundred billion dollars
Speaker 3: of savings, we have reduced debt by around about one
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty billion dollars, and going forward, the budget
Speaker 3: bottom line is two hundred and seven billion dollars better
Speaker 3: than the one that we inherited.
Speaker 2: But compared to last year's predictions, last year's predictions were
Speaker 2: actually a lot rosier than what we saw last night.
Speaker 2: Prime and stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, if you look at the midyear economic forecast, they've
Speaker 3: actually shown an improvement and that was just in December.
Speaker 3: What we've managed to do as to get inflation down
Speaker 3: to two point four percent, and unlike unlike what a
Speaker 3: whole lot of economists would say, which was to get
Speaker 3: inflation down, you've got to have unemployment rising, You've got
Speaker 3: to really put the brakes on and leave people behind.
Speaker 3: Now that's not the labor way, that's not a way
Speaker 3: that I support. So we've managed to get inflation down
Speaker 3: whilst we're provided cost of living relief, not just tax cuts,
Speaker 3: not just energy bill relief, but cheaper medicines that have
Speaker 3: benefited Australians as well, free tape, all of these measures
Speaker 3: making a difference, cheaper childcare, two thousand and seven hundred
Speaker 3: dollars saved on childcare, whilst we've created.
Speaker 4: One point one million jobs.
Speaker 3: More jobs have been created since I've been Prime Minister
Speaker 3: than at any term in Australian history. Over the last
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty five years, and our unemployment rate
Speaker 3: on average is lower than it has been. All of
Speaker 3: these measures are combining so that real wages are increasing
Speaker 3: and that has particularly benefited young Australians.
Speaker 2: So, just on climate change, the budget showed us last
Speaker 2: night that after X tropical cyclic and OURFRED, Australia is
Speaker 2: expected to pay thirteen point five billion dollars in natural
Speaker 2: disaster repair. But we didn't see any significant investments into
Speaker 2: cutting emissions or any major climate announcements. Is there a
Speaker 2: disconnect between the government's climate priorities and spending measures.
Speaker 4: Not at all.
Speaker 3: We've got in place the safeguard mechanism, the capacity investment
Speaker 3: skin that a driving investment in renewables. What we are
Speaker 3: seeing with the investment that we have in renewables, and
Speaker 3: to take one measure that we had in last night's budget,
Speaker 3: three billion dollars for green metals. If we can produce
Speaker 3: green alu medium and green steel in Australia driven by
Speaker 3: green hydrogen powered by solar and renewables, providing the green
Speaker 3: hydrogen that replaces coal in that system, then you have
Speaker 3: an enormous benefit going forward for reducing our emissions as
Speaker 3: well as supporting Australian jobs.
Speaker 2: But those products and tax credits are going to continue
Speaker 2: into twenty thirty six. Based on the government's own official figures,
Speaker 2: you're not on track to meet the forty three percent
Speaker 2: reduction target on two thousand and five levels by twenty thirty.
Speaker 4: You bet we are. You bet we're twenty two six,
Speaker 4: You bet we're on track.
Speaker 3: We are very confident that what the measures that we
Speaker 3: have in place already have at forty two point six.
Speaker 4: But what you are seeing is technology increasing.
Speaker 3: One of the things that we will hit forty three
Speaker 3: percent by absolutely. The development of new industries like green
Speaker 3: or hydrogen mean that if we seize the opportunities which
Speaker 3: are there, not only can we drive our missions down,
Speaker 3: we can support jobs. We can support industries, including new
Speaker 3: industries which will open up.
Speaker 2: What do you say to those people who want to
Speaker 2: see the government going further and faster on cutting emission.
Speaker 3: That we're going as fast as we can whilst being responsible.
Speaker 3: We want to make sure that we continue to build
Speaker 3: community support.
Speaker 4: We want to make sure we have energy security.
Speaker 3: I see climate change as something that must go through
Speaker 3: all of our policies that we put forward and we have,
Speaker 3: of course the motor vehicle emission standards, that fuel standards
Speaker 3: that we're talked about for a long period of time.
Speaker 3: It's taken my government to get those fuel standards in place.
Speaker 2: Just finally Prime mintersta just want you to picture a
Speaker 2: student that's heading to class today, maybe nineteen or twenty
Speaker 2: years old. He's not feeling too optimistic about the future
Speaker 2: of this country. What do you want them to know?
Speaker 3: I want them to know that Australia has a great
Speaker 3: future if we seize the opportunities. There's no country in
Speaker 3: the world you'd rather be than Australia. Where we're located
Speaker 3: in the fastest growing region of the world in human history.
Speaker 3: That presents the opportunity for us to be a renewable
Speaker 3: energy superpower.
Speaker 4: We need to compete in.
Speaker 3: That region by how smart we are, which is why
Speaker 3: it's good if they're going to university or doing a
Speaker 3: TAFE course.
Speaker 4: We need to.
Speaker 3: Make sure that we value that our industrial relations policies
Speaker 3: are making sure that they'll be properly paid. We want
Speaker 3: an economy that works for people, not the other way around,
Speaker 3: and that was a.
Speaker 4: Focus of our budget last night.
Speaker 3: It's a focus of my government in our first term
Speaker 3: and it will be an even stronger focus in our
Speaker 3: second term.
Speaker 2: Prome Minister Anthony Albineasy, thank you so much for joining
Speaker 2: the Daily Os in your courtyard.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks very much.
Speaker 2: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 2: Bunjelung Cargotin woman from Gadigl country.
Speaker 3: The Daily Os acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
Speaker 3: the lands of the Gatighl people and pays respect to
Speaker 3: all Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island and nations. We pay
Speaker 3: our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both
Speaker 3: past and present,