: Finally, an interest rate cut, a quarter of a per cent, the first since 2020. What does it mean for you? Are you relieved? 1300 222 720. More importantly, what does it mean for my next guest? The Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese joins me now. Thanks very much for your time, Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon Gary. Good to be with you.
ADSHEAD: It's been a while. You must be delighted at this decision.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is very welcome news for millions of Australians. It's the rate relief that they've been asking for, that they need and that they deserve. We know there's more work to do, of course, and we know that people are still under pressure. That's why my Government's number one focus has been on cost of living. But this will be very welcome today. We need to do more, of course, to continue to work on inflation and cost of living pressures. But it is a very important step and it's positive progress.
ADSHEAD: Prime Minister, is it a springboard to an election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, my focus has been on getting inflation down, getting wages up, maintaining low unemployment, and now interest rates have started to come down too, and that's good news. Inflation had a 6 in front of it when I was elected. Now it has a 2 in front of it at 2.4. Wages were falling and now wages have increased in real terms for four quarters in a row. Unemployment is low and we've created more jobs than any government since federation and indeed the average unemployment rate is lower than for any government in 50 years. Now that's pretty remarkable given the global inflationary pressures that are there coming out of COVID and then from global factors that have seen inflation in some places hit double digits. So, this is welcome news, but we understand that there's more work to do.
ADSHEAD: Prime Minister, obviously the RBA Governor Michele Bullock said that while the market might be expecting more by the end of the year, that should not be, no pun intended, put in the bank. That this is just one rate relief to see whether or not the settings are right at the moment. And she pointed to and it always seems strange, and I'm sure our listeners will find it strange too. She pointed to one of the biggest issues still confronting the RBA and its decision making was the low employment, unemployment rate.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we make no apologies for wanting to see people in jobs at the same time, as we want to see inflation decrease, that's our objective. That's what we've been trying to achieve. And I must say that in some countries they saw an incredible spike in unemployment, Just across the ditch there, in New Zealand, they're in a deep recession at the moment. They've got unemployment rising, they've had real pressures. Interest rates are higher there than they are here, as well as being higher in the UK and the US. I don't think that when you manage an economy, you say, 'oh well, what we'll do is see some people fall behind.' As if the statistics, when we talk about numbers, don't represent people. They do. And my commitment before the last election was no one left behind, no one held back. And that's been the approach that my Government has had. We want to see employment stay strong at the same time as inflation decreases. And that is what we have seen. We know there's more to do, but we make no apologies for wanting to see strong employment as well.
ADSHEAD: So Prime Minister, obviously, you know, when you have the cost of living issues that we've seen over the last couple of years, people always look to someone perhaps to blame for that. Do you think that this interest rate cut might sort of take some of that millstone that's been around your neck in relation to cost of living and give you some relief at the ballot box?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we know that people have been under financial pressure and that's been a factor around the world. People have also been doing it tough through COVID, we had there in the West of course, people couldn't travel to or from Western Australia. Western Australia with Mark McGowan's leadership was very strong during that period. But people did do it tough, isolated from families across East. And so then we had global inflationary pressures. But what we've done is design cost of living relief so that it also put that downward pressure on inflation. So whether it was energy price relief, we delivered in conjunction with the Cook Government there in WA. The tax cuts we've delivered for every single taxpayer, not just some. The medicines being made cheaper, more than a billion dollars has been saved. Or the 600,000 Australians who have got free TAFE. They have all been designed to assist with those cost of pressures, but do so in a way that didn't then put upward pressure on inflation. If we just pump money into the economy, that would have done that. So, at the same time, we turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus and followed it up with another one. So, the first back-to-back surpluses in more than two decades. And if you compare that with the G7 countries, they certainly weren't in surplus and that has assisted in the fight against inflation.
ADSHEAD: So Prime Minister, what's the date of the federal election?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, the date of the WA election is March 8. That's the only thing that's certain. I wish there were four-year fixed terms like you have in all of the states now just about. It makes no sense that you have the speculation. Peter Dutton, I remind you, said that there should be an election call to stop our tax cuts going ahead for every taxpayer. That was a year ago. So we've been working and focused on good policy, cost of living relief, not focused on the politics. Peter Dutton's been opposed to every one of those cost of living measures and we know people would have been worse off if he'd gotten his way.
ADSHEAD: You can end the speculation. Feel free. When will be the federal election?
PRIME MINISTER: When I go to Government House. It will be sometime May 17 or before.
ADSHEAD: May 17 or before. That's the best you're going to throw at me?
PRIME MINISTER: That is Gary, sorry about that, mate.
ADSHEAD: That's all right. I was looking for the big scoop.
PRIME MINISTER: Good try.
ADSHEAD: Because you know that off the back of an interest rate cut, that's what the pundits will be asking. How long will you -
PRIME MINISTER: They've been asking it for a year.
ADSHEAD: How long will you wait? Because there's nothing like a sugar hit to take people into an election in terms of their mindset. Or are you willing and wanting to see the state election here in WA out of the way first?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll make an appropriate decision after I speak to colleagues. But I've said that three years is too short in my view, there should be four-year fixed terms. There's been a referendum tried on a couple of occasions. Unfortunately, we haven't quite got there. So, it's hard to win a referendum in this country.
ADSHEAD: Yeah, well, that's true, but on that then, do you think that the mood of the public are changing around the fixed term and the length of the fixed term election?
PRIME MINISTER: I think as soon as one political party says no, it's very hard to get referendum. And we've got a current Opposition Leader who's addicted to saying no. Said no to tax cuts, no to energy price relief, no to cheaper medicines, no to cheaper childcare, no to free TAFE, no to production tax credits that will benefit WA industry over there.
ADSHEAD: Can I ask you just on something else, if you don't mind, cause I'm going to be touching on it a little bit later on? There was a collective communique put forward by Islamic groups in Australia in and around the reaction and the treatment of the two nurses at Bankstown who said those horrific, I think vile words that you described in relation to treating Israeli people that might come into the hospital. Has that collective communique, which says that the reaction has been over the top, surprised you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, those nurses deserve no sympathy. What they deserve is the condemnation that they've gotten. It just defies my comprehension that nurses and people, anyone working in the health sector, I've had a lot to do unfortunately with the health system, with my mum, was an invalid pensioner. I spent a lot of my early years visiting her in hospitals and around the health sector. Overwhelmingly, people go into the sector because they want to help people, regardless of their faith, their gender, who they are. That's what they do. And the idea that anyone would engage in that discussion is just beyond my comprehension. It's shocking and it deserves condemnation rather than sympathy.
ADSHEAD: All right, and I'll just to elaborate on that, do you think that the Federal Government then needs to reach out to some of those Islamic leaders and sort of have a discussion with them, given that they've put this out so publicly and so many people in the Islamic community have done this? Does it surprise you?
PRIME MINISTER: I note some of these people are people running for election, a couple of them, against Labor candidates. And what I'm surprised about is the reports that there have been discussions with the Liberal Party about preference negotiations with these people. I mean, I just think overwhelmingly people in this country, whether they be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, we all work together. Our diversity is a strength. People respect each other. And that's what I want to see, not division.
ADSHEAD: Prime Minister, thanks very much for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Gary.
