Well, it is an election year, whether you like it or not, unofficial election campaigning is well and truly underway. You would have seen the Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader, out and about handing out money, promising money anyway. The Federal Cabinet has a few new Ministers coming in this morning. In fact, the Prime Minister is about to head off to the swearing in ceremony in a few minutes time. He's kindly stopping by here to talk to you first. So, he's our first guest this year. Very good morning, Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Hamish. Congratulations on the new gig.
MACDONALD: Thank you very much, very happy to be here. Some incredible images this morning of those first three female hostages being released from Gaza handed over to the Israeli military. Do you think this represents a moment, an opportunity for Sydney particularly to dial down some of the fierce divisions that we've seen playing out on our streets and in our suburbs recently?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we certainly need to lower the temperature here in Australia, but we certainly welcome the release of these hostages under the ceasefire deal. Of course, hostages should never have been taken in the first place and the fact they've been kept for 15 months has prolonged the conflict in the region. Our thoughts are also with the remaining hostages though, we must now see their full release and the ceasefire deal implemented in full, including increased aid into Gaza where people have suffered enormously, innocent people.
MACDONALD: Clearly antisemitism has become a real and persistent problem in Sydney recently and I'm hearing from members of the Jewish community that they feel that your government has let them down. Do you hear that? Do you understand those sentiments?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, antisemitism has been horrific, something that needs to be stamped out. My government has taken every action that we could, from appointing an envoy on antisemitism, taking her advice, Jillian Segal, through to making sure that increased security has occurred around places of worship and schools, but also continuing to call out acts of antisemitism. We established Operation Avalite and the first arrest occurred last Thursday. These instances of hate that we have seen aimed at the Jewish community are crimes and they should be prosecuted to the full and the full force of the law brought to bear on those who engaged in these crimes. We have outlawed things like the Nazi symbols, et cetera. And we've also had legislation passed in December to outlaw doxxing, that has occurred, the targeting of members of the Jewish community.
MACDONALD: Can you legislate your way through this, though? I've seen some commentary and some formal reviews around legislative reform saying actually this is about community cohesion, there are other factors here. You can't just legislate your way through an issue like this.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you can never legislate for the behaviour of 27 million Australians. What you need to do is to build social cohesion. I've also appointed an envoy, Peter Khalil, on social inclusion, to promote that. I've worked with members of the Jewish community, the Islamic community and others as well to promote harmony. I note that Christian leaders have made a joint comment today in Sydney - that's a good thing. We need to make sure that we build that social cohesion, and it's right, it can't come just from the top, it has to come from the bottom up as well.
MACDONALD: You're swearing in a new cabinet shortly, then heading to the Hunter to announce another $2 billion, I think it is, to help aluminium smelters shift to renewable energy. And I'm just reviewing a list of the spending pledges you've made since January 6th of this year. It is a bit of a shadow election campaign. Millions of dollars here, a few billion dollars there. These are pretty tough economic times. Are you handing out money like a drunken sailor to try and win this next election?
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. These are government decisions, to be clear, not a promise. Something that is fully accounted for through our budget processes. And this is a $2 billion investment in the future of the Australian-made aluminium industry. This is so critical going forward. One of the lessons of the pandemic is that Australia can't just be at the end of the supply chain. We do need to make more things here, and that's what our Future Made in Australia agenda is about. Aluminium is so important for so many products and it is important that we not just dig up bauxite, export it somewhere else, and watch the jobs and value be added on in another country. It is important that we're able to produce aluminium here and that's what this announcement, over a 10 year period, of course, providing a production credit to provide targeted support so that aluminium smelters can do what they want to do, which is switch to reliable renewable energy before the next 10 years.
MACDONALD: Sure. I mean, I think probably on merit we can each understand and interpret the rationale that you're making for these spending pledges. It's just a heck of a lot of money all up when we're all living with the consequences of inflation.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is an investment that produces a return - that's the point. There are two roads you can go down. One is to take the Coalition's view, which is that manufacturing doesn't matter and watch it leave offshore, like they urged the car industry to do, and suffered the consequences for it. Australia needs to be a country that makes things. We can't just be a quarry for our minerals, and this is important. Our aluminium smelters are in four regional locations - Gladstone, Tomago, up there in the Hunter, Portland in regional Victoria and Bell Bay in Tasmania. Now the jobs that are created there, there's 1500 jobs directly at the smelter in Tomago alone, with thousands more located locally in the Hunter region. It is important that we do continue to have these smelters and that aluminium supply chains are able to exist which support tens of thousands of jobs in Australia.
MACDONALD: At 1300 222 702 is the number, I'm asking you this morning does the Prime Minister deserve another term? Obviously you will have to call an election fairly soon, PM. Why do you want a second term? What is it that you do with a second term that you haven't been able to do with your first term?
PRIME MINISTER: I want to build on the foundations that we've built in the first term. We've taken inflation from having a six in front of it to having a two in front of it. We want to continue to drive down inflation, continue our measures that we've put in place of cost of living relief, but importantly as well, to set Australia up for the future. The world is moving to net zero - that's important, the shift on climate change policy and a stark contrast between us and the Opposition. But also we want to do things like build manufacturing, build an Australian future here, not just in bricks and mortar, but also in the care sector as well. We inherited an aged care sector that was in crisis. We now have a nurse in a nursing home 99 per cent of the time. We've passed the biggest aged care reforms this century.
MACDONALD: This is about a second term, PM. We know what you've done in the first, this is about the second term. I mean, you've said also recently you want four year fixed terms. By that logic, can we assume you'll let this term run as long as possible? No election before the 17th of May?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're getting on with just governing is what we're continuing to do. Governing to set us up. There'll be further investments as well. We've already made announcements of things we'll do in our second term, like chopping 20 per cent of student debt - that will benefit 3 million Australians by an average of $5500. We've announced that we'll give a three day childcare guarantee. We've announced that we'll build new child care centres in our regions and in our suburbs where childcare isn't available. And we'll have more to say about how we'll strengthen Medicare, about how we'll continue to create that Future Made in Australia that's at the centre of our economic policy agenda.
MACDONALD: Donald Trump will be sworn in as US President for a second term today. It'll be early tomorrow morning here. You'll be represented at the inauguration by Kevin Rudd, the Ambassador, Penny Wong, the Foreign Minister. I'm interested to know what's the first topic of substance you want to discuss with Trump once he's president again?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the two issues which we discussed when we had our conversation where I congratulated him, the first was AUKUS and its importance. And we've seen that recognised by senior people in the incoming administration already. And secondly, the issue of trade and how our economic relationship is so important for Australia, but also important for the United States.
MACDONALD: So you're worried about tariffs?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the incoming president, of course, has made comments about the United States and their interests. It's important for us to point out that the US has had a trade surplus with Australia since the Truman presidency. And importantly as well that the US is, of course, the major investor here in Australia.
MACDONALD: Now, I know you've got to go, you've got to have a new cabinet sworn in. But I know you're a big tennis fan, so I want to ask you about this. Does Novak Djokovic deserve an apology from Channel Nine? He wants one.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, I'll let that go through to the keeper. That's a matter between them. But I think Novak Djokovic is certainly a fine tennis player, there's no question about that. And I do think that there is a place for more respect. I've seen the comments that were made by the broadcaster. There's, you know, we need more kindness and generosity and respect just across the board. I think that's what people are looking for.
MACDONALD: Do you reckon the crowds have been getting a bit out of hand in Melbourne this year? A lot of boos flowing, lots of sunshine.
PRIME MINISTER: I think that someone booing a fault is wrong myself. But Australian fans are feisty and it's a great tournament, the Australian Open. It's very enjoyable for all who watch right around the world. And I make this point that Australia doesn't have many events that are truly global. As much as I love watching the NRL and AFL, they're not global events. This is an event where the world is watching and Australia puts on a great tournament.
MACDONALD: Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time. I know your office is telling us that you'll come and visit us in the studio as we're here in the heart of Sydney at Parramatta Square. So we hope we'll be able to welcome you here very soon.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm sure you will, and best of luck with the program.
MACDONALD: Thank you very much. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
