Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, good to be with you.
KERWIN: So, I'm just going to call you Anthony.
PRIME MINISTER: That's absolutely fine.
KERWIN: Drop the formalities. So mainly you're in the north west, you were at the Port of Burnie yesterday to announce some future funding for this big shiploader, right?
PRIME MINISTER: I was, an additional $18 million we put in the Budget, bringing our total funding to $82 million. And I had a look at the shiploader, I had to climb up the top of it. I assure you, you get an amazing view of the entire coastline, up and down, as well as the mountains. And what a beautiful part of Australia the north west is.
KERWIN: And what a great port Burnie is, too. The cruise ships are coming in now fairly regularly.
PRIME MINISTER: It's awesome. And what it means, this shiploader, is that it's a doubling of productivity and that will mean greater economic activity. It really lifts up the prospects of increased resources being exported from the Port of Burnie. And it was great to go back, I funded the Rail Revitalisation Program when I was the Minister a decade ago for infrastructure. And we put, more than a decade now, we put over $300 million in. So it's always good to see the product of decisions that you make. Quite often infrastructure, because it takes time to come on, you don't get to see the results. But there at the Port, they're going gangbusters there. And that's a good thing for jobs and economic activity here in the north west.
KERWIN: Well, you mentioned exports there and the primary export from our part of Tasmania is certainly vegetables. We've got the vegetable bowl just up the road, the Forth Valley. You recently had the Chinese Premier in with the entourage. So, any news on future trade deals?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we certainly talked about, and indeed we signed an MoU about an expansion of the existing China Free Trade Agreement that we have. We've restored over $20 billion, if you look at it on an annual basis of trade with China. Products including timber and barley is going gangbusters now, but other products as well, meat products. And of course Tasmania has such a fantastic reputation for clean, green produce as well. It's in great demand. I spoke last night to some people in the seafood industry and we're very hopeful as well that in coming weeks crayfish will open up again to China. And that, of course, is a major industry here as well.
KERWIN: Certainly. Speaking of industries, the using of the base of Hobart as an entry point to Antarctica and for expeditions down there. So, apparently WA are trying to pinch that off Tasmania. So, what do you think about that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we want Hobart to be the entry point for access to the Antarctic. We need as well the state government to get on with fixing up the wharf there basically so that the vessels can have that access. We've raised that with them for some period of time. Hopefully that's part of as well what needs to happen at Mac Point there in Hobart in that urban redevelopment project.
KERWIN: All right, well, let's talk about Mac Point now. So, with the stadium and the development, the state government, $375 million I think it is for the stadium. The AFL's chipped in $15 million. $85 million to be raised through borrowings and commercial leases and agreements. And the feds, so you've committed $240 million. Now that was for not necessarily the stadium or the team, but the whole area of Mac Point to develop that in the future. Is that money still on the table?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, it certainly is. It's included in our Budget. Again, it's been a bit too long there. We put $50 million to clean up the site there in 2012, the 2012 budget. So it's been twelve years and not much has happened there at all. It's a magnificent site. What it can do is to link the city there in Hobart down to that magnificent waterfront. And if you look around Australia, whether it be the Barangaroo precinct in Sydney, or Docklands in Melbourne, the Elizabeth Quay in Perth, what we've done finally is value these waterfront areas. For a long time they were just places of industry and essentially discharge into the waterways of waste and we need to do much better than that. The Macquarie Point precinct is an extraordinary site and that's why we support urban redevelopment there. But the state government need to get on with it. It's essentially their project, but I was very pleased to work with Premier Rockliff to provide that funding and we want to see that area be able to contribute to the lifestyle as well as the economic opportunity that will come from a redevelopment there.
KERWIN: The team itself, do you have an AFL team? I know you're a South Sydney man in NRL, but do you have an AFL team?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, I'm a Hawk. Because I was a South Sydney fanatic you couldn't follow in the old VFL. You couldn't follow Collingwood Magpies, we had Western Suburbs Magpies and Richmond Tigers and Balmain Tigers. You had different colours, of course. So, my teams have quite unique colours, green and red, and brown and yellow. So we're a happy team at Hawthorne at the moment, though. I think it's five wins out of six. And I saw them beat Saints there at Lonnie, which we're also putting money into at UTAS Stadium there to make sure that they can have more games as well.
KERWIN: Well, I was going to suggest that our new Tassie team, the Devils, will be green and red with a bit of yellow.
PRIME MINISTER: It's pretty close.
KERWIN: Similar to South Sydney. So I can't, you know, twist your arm to join up.
PRIME MINISTER: I wish them well. Well of course, people like Peter Hudson was a great Tasmanian. It's produced so many fantastic players, including this part of the world as well.
KERWIN: All right, well, let's leave the football there. I was going to try and twist you into joining up as a member for the Tassie team but keep that in mind. It's red and green, so it's like South Sydney.
PRIME MINISTER: That's a good pitch.
KERWIN: Yeah, all right. Let's move to tax cuts. Okay, so these will start next financial year.
PRIME MINISTER: July 1. Ten days.
KERWIN: And it's across the board, isn't it pretty much?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. Previously it was just going to high income earners. What we're doing is giving a tax cut to every taxpayer on July 1. But as well there'll be an increase in the minimum and award wages, so people will earn more and get to keep more of what they earn. There'll be a further extension of two weeks additional Paid Parental Leave that will make a difference. Medicines, the costs of them will be frozen. You have all of these measures, an extension of fee free TAFE. So all of these cost of living measures will make an enormous difference, as well as taking $300 off people's power bills. So, that's all aimed at recognising that people are doing it tough, and done in a way that will also put that downward pressure on inflation that's so important. We've halved inflation since we came to office.
KERWIN: Is there a risk though that if you increase wages across the board that that will put upward pressure on inflation?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we are doing it in a really responsible way. And the other thing that we're doing, of course, is we've produced two budget surpluses. Now, that's something that the previous government never delivered. They delivered mugs saying they had, but they never delivered a single budget surplus. We're two from two in our first two years, and that is something that has led to inflation having a three in front of it instead of the six in front of it that we inherited.
KERWIN: Peter Dutton announced his nuclear plan during the week. I mean obviously, I'll be completely honest, my first reaction to it was, I don't like it. But the thing is we haven't seen a lot of detail, have we? Only that there's seven sites.
PRIME MINISTER: Quite frankly, if a Labor government had announced this flimsy proposal, worth hundreds of billions of dollars will be the cost. There's a reason they haven't announced the cost, and that's because it doesn't stack up. There's a reason they've said government, taxpayers, your listeners, will have to fund it because no one will touch it with a barge pole. Not a single bank or financier, because it is the most expensive form of new energy and it can't happen until the 2040s. They're saying they might have one or two in the late 2030s - we need action now, we need supply now. Projects like Marinus Link are really important. The projects we're seeing, including wind in the Bass Strait. We have the best solar resources in the world, one of the best wind resources. We have Hydro here in Tasmania and other parts as well, including Snowy Hydro. And this is a nuclear fantasy that will be costly, won't be done anytime soon, and there's no answers to what happens to energy security in the meantime if you just stop the rollout. And this will scare off investors, because investors want certainty. They don't want this chopping and changing. They had twenty-two different energy policies announced while they were in government, they didn't land one. And not one of them mentioned this nuclear proposal that is so uncosted and so flimsy. It's essentially fallen apart in the first twenty-four hours.
KERWIN: You mentioned Marinus Link there. So, that's co funded by Tasmanian Government, Victorian Government and Federal Government, right?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
KERWIN: So, it's a three way split there. So have you had any talks on that recently? Because we haven't heard much about that recently.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's off and running. It's been agreed and it, of course, was talked about for a long period of time. But we landed it with the Victorian Government and with the Tasmanian Government here. It will be of major benefit for Tasmania, as well as for the north island.
KERWIN: There you go, the north island, very good. Gavin Pearce, local Liberal member for Braddon, has announced he's not going to run at the next election. Which is due when? Next year?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah next year, sometime May or before, but it's less than a year away now. And I wish Gavin Pearce well. You know, it's a tough job being a federal MP, and he has said after a couple of terms he's hanging his boots up. And so that presents a real opportunity for Labor in this seat. We've got Senator Anne Urquhart, who does an amazing job, I've got to say, in representing north west Tasmania in particular, but the whole state. And so she's out there, I was with Anne last night and local business leaders, and Anne's out there securing us a candidate. Hopefully we'll have an announcement pretty soon, but we see this as a real prospect. It's a seat we've held in the past, of course. And when I look around this seat as well, I see a community that needs a Labor government that doesn't care about just those people at the high end of incomes. That cares about jobs, and economic activity, and cares about low and middle income earners as well.
KERWIN: All right, so obviously you've already got a short list of candidates.
PRIME MINISTER: We do.
KERWIN: I know you're not going to tell me who it is, but so is the list of candidates, does that include someone who may have done the job before or does it, is it all completely new people?
PRIME MINISTER: At this stage it's just new people, and looking for a new candidate with enthusiasm to really address it. We want someone who'll stand up for the local community here in the House of Representatives and work with Anne, who does such a great job in the Senate.
KERWIN: All right, well let's finish on the day in the life of a Prime Minister. So, long day, seven days a week. There's no real respite unless you go on annual leave. So, what time were you up this morning?
PRIME MINISTER: I was up before six, I'm always up. In the past week I've been in Canberra, Perth, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and now here in the North West. Yesterday I had a very busy day. I began the day welcoming a young girl who had won the National Volunteer Award for juvenile diabetes, a local advocate, and presented her with a little trophy at Kirribilli. I then went to my own electorate, to the Bread and Butter Project, which is giving employment opportunities to refugees, teaching them baking skills and other jobs. I came here. In between time I did a range of media appearances, had meetings in my offices in Sydney and then flew here and did Burnie and Devonport. The day before I was in Perth there with the Chinese Premier. So it's long days, and had a terrific dinner last night at Verona, a great little restaurant here. You won't be surprised at me enjoying Italian food, given my heritage.
KERWIN: Okay let's, while we're on that, now your name actually is actually pronounced Albanese, is that right?
PRIME MINISTER: Albanese.
KERWIN: Albanese. So, there is an A at the end, like it's Albanese.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah there is. Italians, Italian words is, that's why Italian sings as a language in general. You pronounce a vowel at the end of Italian words, but no one really says Bolognese.
KERWIN: No.
PRIME MINISTER: Which is actually how you should say it, by the way. Fun fact.
KERWIN: There you go. Thanks for coming in.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you so much.
KERWIN: I'm glad you enjoyed your little jaunt to Tasmania and I hope you come back more often.
PRIME MINISTER: This is visit number fifteen as Prime Minister in just over two years.
KERWIN: But I mean, come back into our part of, not just Hobart. Come in and say G'day.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I was here last year, so I have been a regular visitor to this part. I think this is my fourth visit to Devonport as PM, so fourth visit in two years. We had hospital health funding here with the Premier, I did a thing with the mayor here, so I've had quite a few visits here and of course, many over the years. It's a great part of Tasmania.
KERWIN: Thanks for coming in, enjoy your day.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much.
