: We are going to go live to Canberra now because joining us is the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Prime Minister, good morning to you. So, when cost of living has climbed multiple thousands of dollars a year, how much of a difference will $5 a week really make?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, this builds on the tax cuts that we put in place this year so that the average Australian will get two and a half thousand dollars additional in their pocket, at the same time as real wages are increasing, inflation is falling and has come in at the bottom half of the Reserve Bank band at 2.4 per cent, at the same time as we're providing other relief as well. Be it our Cheaper Medicines policy bringing it down to $25, the same price that medicines were back in 2004, our Energy Bill Relief, our Free TAFE. What we have is a comprehensive plan to deal with cost of living pressures whilst continuing to put that downward pressure on inflation while seeing employment growing, 1.1 million jobs created on our watch and the economy continuing to grow, unlike economies right around the world that have seen, of course, quarters of economic contraction or in New Zealand's case, a recession just across the ditch.
STEFANOVIC: But when you're talking about the hike in insurance premiums, health insurance premiums as well, I mean, are people even going to notice an extra five bucks in their bank account?
PRIME MINISTER: What they'll notice is the tax cuts that we've delivered and that we're continuing to deliver for every taxpayer. We know that people have had a difficult five years from COVID and the long tail of it, and then the global inflationary pressures which are on. What we've done though, isn't just wring our hands. What we've done is taken action with cost of living relief. Now, Peter Dutton has opposed all of that cost of living relief and indeed, when it comes to the cuts that he will make, we know he's got to create space for $600 billion for nuclear reactors. We know as well that he's described the increased support like Cheaper Medicines and Free TAFE and the Energy Bill Relief, as waste. So, those cuts will be in there as well. He wants to cut everything except for your taxes. And we have not just dealt with those immediate pressures, but with measures like the tripling of the Bulk Billing Incentive in Medicare that will see some 90 per cent of Australians be able to access bulk billing, addressing the decline that has been there since Peter Dutton presided over $50 billion of cuts to health and $30 billion of cuts to education when they came to office last time.
STEFANOVIC: Well, what you're not talking about there is debt and deficit. The Budget has no answer on that long into the distance with payments on a trillion dollars of debt, amongst other things. Are you making things harder for the next generation for this short termism?
PRIME MINISTER: Pete, there's nothing other than long term objective, by turning a $78 billion deficit into a surplus, which is what we did, delivering another surplus, which is what we did.
STEFANOVIC: You don't have those anymore. Now we're only talking about deficit.
PRIME MINISTER: We have almost halved the deficit that we inherited that was predicted and foreshadowed in the 2022 Budget less than three years ago, Pete. That's a massive turnaround. We have provided almost $100 billion of savings over our three years. We've presided over an improvement in the Budget bottom line of almost $180 billion and going forward, an improvement in the Budget bottom line of $207 billion. That's due to hard work, responsible economic management that we have done. We've made sure we're working with Australians to turn the corner. And we inherited, of course, a mess when it came to that $78 billion deficit. With no funding there to deal with fixing Medicare, no funding there for a Better and Fairer Schools Program. No funding there to deal with those issues, no funding and support for a Future Made in Australia. We've made space to do all of that whilst getting inflation down.
STEFANOVIC: All right, but also there's, when it comes to defence spending, there's not much extra, at least not at the levels that Donald Trump wants. Do you risk raising the ire of Administration by not getting defence spending upwards of 2 and a half to 3 per cent?
PRIME MINISTER: I find it extraordinary that you refer to another nation about what people want. What we want and that is an Australian defence policy consistent with the Defence Strategic Review that we've put forward and the additional investment that we have put forward from the one that we inherited, including bringing forward another billion dollars in last night's Budget.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, you've probably been asked this already today. I suspect you have. Do you call the election now or do you sell the Budget for a week and then call?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you'll have to wait and see. But bear this in mind, Pete, you might recall that Peter Dutton was calling upon me to call an election this time last year in order to stop the tax cuts going ahead for every taxpayer. He wanted me and you to get a tax cut, but your listeners to not get one. And now we know that he'll cut everything. He'll cut education, he'll cut health, but he won't cut your taxes.
STEFANOVIC: Just a final point before we go. Donald Trump seemed to talk back tariff threats yesterday. Are you hopeful on that, or are you not really taking it seriously? Because following what he says is often like following a bouncing ball.
PRIME MINISTER: We're continuing to negotiate in good faith with the US Administration, make representations. That's what responsible governments do. One of the things that my Government has done is to repair our international relations. Frankly, what we inherited, we were pariahs in our own region of the Pacific and the Asian region. And last week, the Leader of the Opposition gave a speech on foreign policy and division where someone needs to hand him a globe because he didn't mention Asia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Japan, Korea, India, the Pacific. He needs to understand that we need to build better relations in our region as well as with our traditional partners like the United States and the United Kingdom. We're doing that. We're providing for much better relations, and that's why our trading relationship with China has been repaired. We've got the Free Trade Agreement with the United Arab Emirates and much better relations with Southeast Asia with our Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 blueprint. That was done by Nicholas Moore. We're working with the private sector to make sure that Australia takes advantage of the opportunities that we have by living in the fastest growing region of the world in human history. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens due to hard work and building those relationships. So, when it comes to international security issues, we are working on our capability, but also working on our relationships.
STEFANOVIC: Prime Minister, thanks for your time.
