: Well, it's the surprise of this year's Federal Budget. A tax cut for 12 million Australians. While it's worth just five bucks a week, it's a clear pitch to voters as the Government sets the stage to call a federal election. To discuss this, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins us live now from Parliament House in Canberra. Good morning to you Prime Minister. What a sales pitch, huh? You've been accused of bribing Australians with this tax cut, are you?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we're doing is helping family budgets with our Budget, whether it be the tax cut, energy bill relief, cheaper medicines, the cheaper child care policy we've put in place, the tripling of the Medicare Bulk Billing Incentive that will make it possible for more Australians to see a doctor for free, which is the basis of Medicare. The additional Urgent Care Clinics, our laser like focus has been helping family budgets at a time when it is needed.
ABO: PM, I mean this tax cut is worth just 5 bucks a week. It doesn't even hit until next year. It's the price of a cup of coffee. It's so modest, yet it'll be a $17 billion hit to the bottom line. Is it really going to make a difference to Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is modest and you correctly put the cost which is there. It is something that we can afford. It builds on importantly the tax cuts that we introduced that began this financial year. Importantly where we intervened to change the tax cuts so that every Australian got a tax cut, not just you and me and not just the top end which is what the former Government had in place. Now this is a top up of that. So, the average Australians will receive in excess of two and a half thousand dollars a year extra in their pockets. At the same time as inflation is falling, real wages are increasing, interest rates have started to fall after those things were all heading in the wrong direction when we were elected, Sarah. Inflation had a six in front, wages were going backwards, interest rates had started to rise. We are turning the corner due to the hard work that Australians have made and we always will look to do what we can to provide further assistance. That's what last night's Budget did.
ABO: You're giving taxpayers back about 70 cents of their own money. As you said, you and me, we probably don't actually need it. The same could be said about your energy rebate extension, right? I mean, is this your way of hiding the root of the issue here, that your Government has failed to address soaring energy costs?
PRIME MINISTER: What we've done is to intervene in the market on three occasions now. And every one of those interventions has been opposed by the Coalition. The last one, the one we announced on Sunday, that's in this Budget, they said that they would wave through that. That stands in contrast of their standing in the way of our energy bill relief that has provided support when it was needed. We had a global energy spike. That is something that we had to deal with. But while we're dealing with what were very turbulent seas, we continue to keep our eye on the horizon, continue to do what we need to do to set Australia up for the future. And a lot of what is in this Budget as well is about just that, a future made in Australia, buying more Australian goods, more manufacturing here as well.
ABO: You are likely, though PM to announce many more commitments during the upcoming election campaign, the campaign proper. Will you then bin this Budget and simply start again?
PRIME MINISTER: Certainly not. We have made major announcements. We made provision for them in the mid-year economic forecast in December and we've made provision for them in the Budget that Jim Chalmers gave down last night. We have been responsible. If you look at the turnaround in the Budget, it's been about $180 billion since we were elected and going forward it's in excess of $200 billion.
ABO: Is it short sighted though, PM? Considering you are likely to call and election by the end of the week.
PRIME MINISTER: This has been aimed at immediate support, but it's also aimed at the future. That's what the future made in Australia is about. That's what Free TAFE is about as well, making sure Australians can get those skills that are needed for the future. That's what the agreement we had this week on schools -
ABO: Speaking of the future, a trillion dollars of debt. How are you going to pay for all that debt?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the truth is, Sarah, that we have had a massive turnaround and including last night's Budget deficit is almost half of what was forecast when we were elected just in 2022. Our predecessors promised a Budget surplus in their first year and every year thereafter. They didn't deliver one. We turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus. We followed that up with another surplus last night. We followed up with halving the deficit that was forecast less than three years ago in the Coalition's 2022 Budget.
ABO: All right, PM, you are a busy man. Let's share that $5 cup of coffee sometime soon.
