: Joining us now from Parliament House is none other than the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Prime Minister, welcome back to News Breakfast and happy Budget Week.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, James. One advantage that we have here in having a March Budget is that it's a little bit warmer than it usually is in May. So, I think it's not a bad idea to maybe continue this.
GLENDAY: Bring it forward. You've got to compete with the Currawongs, though, so hopefully they'll be quiet for this chat. For a lot of Australians, this tax cut announced last night is going to be worth about $5 a week from mid next year. Is it designed to help you win votes?
PRIME MINISTER: What it's designed to do is to help Australians with cost of living and it builds on the tax cuts that have started this financial year so that the average Australian will benefit over $2,500. In addition to that extra cash in their pockets, we've got real wages increasing, we've got Cheaper Medicines, we've got Energy Bill Relief, we've got Free TAFE. All of these measures are aimed at assisting Australians at a time where people are under pressure. We're turning the corner. The economic figures that were put in the Budget last night show that inflation, which had a 6 in front of it, now is at 2.4 per cent. Employment is continuing to grow with 1.1 million jobs created. We're continuing to see, of course, positive growth. Real wages increasing. All those measures mean that people will feel that support which is there. And the Government is doing our bit by adding a top up, if you like, for the tax cuts that we introduced last year.
GLENDAY: Now, this Budget includes money for the endangered Maugean Skate in Tasmania, pandas in Adelaide, and even I noticed the Rabbitohs great rivals, the St. George Illawarra Dragons. Are you trying to hit every constituency before the election?
PRIME MINISTER: What we're doing is governing for all Australians, no matter where they live. And that's why we have had a comprehensive plan since we came to government, whether it be turning the corner on the economy. We inherited an inflation rate with a 6 in front and going up. That's now a 2.4 per cent. We inherited very soft employment growth. We've had 1.1 million jobs. We inherited real wages going backwards 5 quarters in a row. Now they've gone forwards five quarters in a row. Interest rates had started to rise before the last election. Now they've started to fall. All of these measures are important and we have a comprehensive plan. A strong economy, giving us the space as well to complete the Gonski reforms. They are so important, giving every child an opportunity. But we now have early childhood support through our abolition of the activity test, our three day Child Care Guarantee, our child care investment in wages to make sure there's a workforce there to look after our youngest Australians. Through to our schools, Better and Fairer Schools funding, through to our University's Accord and our Free TAFE. Making sure that every Australian gets those education opportunities that are so important. They open the doors of opportunity and we want to push them a bit wider.
GLENDAY: You've touched on a whole range of different things in the Budget there. I just want to come then to the budget bottom line. This Budget is pretty clear. There are deficits as far out, really, as can be reasonably forecast. After the election, is there going to have to be some sort of reckoning where spending is either pulled back or taxes are going to have to be raised in some way to pay for a lot of this?
PRIME MINISTER: We've produced, since we came into government, almost $100 billion of savings. We have improved the Budget bottom line by around about $180 billion. And if you look forward, that Budget bottom line improves by some $207 billion. We have turned the deficit to almost half that was predicted just three years ago in the Coalition 2022 Budget. And the only group that will be putting forward cuts are of course, Peter Dutton, who has $600 billion he has to find for his nuclear energy plan. He'll cut education, he'll cut health, he'll cut everything, except he won't cut your taxes. That's the only thing that he's opposed to cutting.
GLENDAY: Sorry to jump in there, Prime Minister. I mean, we can ask the Opposition Leader about that afterwards. I just want to just clarify though, after the election, as you look forward into the future with these deficits forecasts, you don't see a time where we have to pull back on spending, or work out another way of raising revenue in order to get the Budget back into a better structural position?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've already had some, almost $100 billion of savings. We've been responsible in the way that we've managed the economy. We inherited in that first year a $78 billion deficit that we turned into a $20 billion Labor surplus. We followed that up with another surplus. And in last night's Budget we've halved the deficit. We will always have responsible economic management. But what we will do is make sure that we look after people. The economy is there to look after people, not people - the other way around - to look after the economy. A strong economy gives you the space to do what we're doing. Strengthening Medicare, providing opportunity through education, making sure we do protect our environment, making sure that Australians are looked after with cost of living relief.
GLENDAY: I just want to go to a slightly different issue. The Queensland Premier was in Canberra this week. We've got him on the show in a minute. Did he put the hard word on you for some extra cash for some Olympic stadiums?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we have - our funding is there for the Queensland Olympics. We'll work constructively with the Premier. We know that the Brisbane 2032 Games is an opportunity for Queensland, but importantly an opportunity for the nation as well to showcase us to the world. Just like Sydney 2000 and Melbourne '56 did. And I'm sure they will be a tremendous success. And, of course, we'll work constructively with Queensland because this is an important opportunity for our nation.
GLENDAY: One notable thing about the Budget is how relatively little allocated but not announced spending is on the books. It's just a couple of billion dollars. Does that mean that all your big election announcements are done? And have you now decided on an election date?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the election will be May, James. As I've been saying for a long period of time, I believe that three years is too short. I've been saying that. Remember last year at this time Peter Dutton wanted me to go to an election in order to stop our tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer. So, he's got a record here. It's not surprising he supports the top end getting tax cuts but didn't support a tax cut for every Australian, like he's not supporting this tax cut for every Australian either.
GLENDAY: We'll ask him about the tax cuts. Before I let you go, do we need to get the drone ready to track your car to the Governor-General on Friday morning?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I'll announce the election at an appropriate time. The election will be in May. This is another reason for a four year fixed term. But unfortunately you've got to have a referendum for that. And it's failed twice because the Coalition have refused to support it.
GLENDAY: Look, a fixed term would be a good thing. We might just put the drone batteries on charge anyway, Prime Minister, it feels imminent. Thank you so much for joining our program this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, James.
