$100 extra dollars every week will be in the pockets of child care workers right across the country as a Christmas gift from the Federal Government. Joining us live is the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Pete.
STEFANOVIC: PM, we will get to the Olympics in just a moment, but let's start with the politics. This is great for child care workers but, there's always a but, for the centres who have cost pressures of their own, such as rent, food, energy bills. How do you police it?
PRIME MINISTER: We make sure that in order to be eligible to receive this money centres have to limit the amount that they can increase fees over the next year to 4.4 per cent. So we make sure that this gets passed on to the workers. This will be of enormous benefit and we've worked with the sector on this. They will certainly welcome this announcement. A 15 per cent increase, as you said, from December 1, an additional, a bit more than $100, 10 per increase. And then a further $50 increase the following December 1 as well. Meaning that child care workers are valued. These are people who don't just mind our youngest Australians, they care for them and importantly, they educate them as well. It's so important. The human brain develops most in the first five years of life. And that's why this is a key to a more successful and prosperous Australia in the long run. It also will assist in keeping costs down for families. This will boost productivity and workforce participation by encouraging, particularly women, to enter back into the workforce earlier or to work an extra day or two. This is good for productivity, good for workers and good for families as well.
STEFANOVIC: Is it inflationary?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's not, because what it will do is keep costs down, importantly. And in addition to that, this will apply to out of school hours carers as well - they do such an important job. And what we know is that if we didn't do something about the wages of child care workers and aged care workers, then we wouldn't have a workforce. The truth is that they are the sectors that are most feminised, most likely to have women in the workforce, and over a period of time their wages have not kept up with standards in other areas of the economy. It's been identified as a real weakness, and identified as something that's necessary if we're going to have a workforce to look after our youngest Australians. And if we don't have child care centres, we don't have women re-entering the workforce, we don't have families able to get by, and we have a handbrake on our economy. So this is really important economic reform, as well as being a question of just basic fairness as well. It will be welcomed by all of the child care workers right around the country today. They've campaigned really strongly on this issue for just something that was identified during the pandemic, as well, as an issue. We can't continue to have this massive gender pay gap and it is so important for families and for businesses.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, on inflation, the RBA has taken a shot at your spending which is why rates aren't coming down. Are Australians facing higher rates for longer because of big spending federal and state budgets?
PRIME MINISTER: Well that's not what they've said, Peter, with respect. And the truth is -
STEFANOVIC: Well, this is the quote here from the RBA, 'Public demand is forecast to be stronger than previously expected, reflecting recent public spending announcements by federal and state governments'. Are you saying they're wrong?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, that's very different. That's very different from the way that you characterised it, Peter. Inflation has a range of aspects and that's why we've made sure, we agree, that inflation needs to be further moderated. It's been cut in half since we came to office. One of the reasons why, two things we've done, we've designed all of our reforms to put that downward pressure on inflation. Whether it be our Energy Price Relief plan, whether it be Cheaper Child Care, where costs have been reduced by 11 per cent, Fee Free TAFE - these measures are designed in a way to assist people who are doing it tough whilst we make sure that we continue to moderate inflation. But the other thing we've done, that is so important, is we've made sure fiscal policy, budget policy, works arm-in-arm with monetary policy by producing two budget surpluses -
STEFANOVIC: Well, that's not working at all because the RBA and Treasury are brawling at the moment.
PRIME MINISTER: That's not true, Peter. We agree that inflation -
STEFANOVIC: Well, you're saying completely different things -
PRIME MINISTER: No, we're not. We're saying that inflation needs to continue to moderate and we're saying that we are working towards it, that's why we're producing two budget surpluses. If you had the Prime Minister, any of the last three, on your program over the years, whether it was Abbott or Turnbull or Morrison, they would have been standing here speaking about their massive budget deficits. We turned a $78 billion Liberal deficit, into a $22 billion Labor surplus. That is in order to make sure that inflation moderates. That is what we are doing and that's what we'll continue to do. And today's announcement as well, that's why we have the constraint on child care fees, again, to help families and to assist with that moderating of inflation that we want to see.
STEFANOVIC: Ok. Are you going to kick Iran's ambassador out of the country?
PRIME MINISTER: What we're going to do is act responsibly in Australia's national interest. And we do that, we've made it very clear that the comments that were made are completely unacceptable. We've brought in the Ambassador to convey that. But it's also important that we have relations in Australia's interests and we continue to do that whilst condemning the comments that have been made.
STEFANOVIC: Ok, let's lighten the mood here. We'll close on this because I know you've got to go. Paris is now officially our most successful Games ever. Four gold today, that's our most in a day. 18 Gold overall, our most in an Olympics. You're the Prime Minister, what's your thoughts on this remarkable achievement?
PRIME MINISTER: It's an absolutely extraordinary achievement by our Olympians. Our Olympians have brought us excitement, joy and a great deal of pride. I watched Keegan last night skating, I mean, what a remarkable young man he is to win back-to-back Golds. And to win Golds across such a broad range of sports as well, everything from cycling to pole vaulting to skating is incredible. And all Australians are so proud today waking up to this fantastic news.
STEFANOVIC: Has everyone got their hands out now? You've got all these sports that are doing so well, PM. I mean, is there going to have to be more funding for these sports, such as skateboarding and et cetera, to go for the next Games in LA?
PRIME MINISTER: We provided, I'm really proud of, one - the funding that we announced and delivered in the lead up to the Olympic Games that allowed people to get proper training, to get experience in international competitions as well - that's been a real factor here. In addition to that, of course, we've announced the increased funding already. The Australian Institute of Sport was falling apart there in Canberra. We're going to fix it. We've provided money to do that and we've provided additional money for the next two years for our Olympic sports. Already was announced in the lead up to the Games.
STEFANOVIC: I've kept you long enough. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, thank you so much for your time. We'll talk to you again soon.
