The budget has been handed down overnight, the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins us live in Canberra. Good morning to you, Prime Minister. Now the Opposition slammed your budget -
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G'day, Nat. And I agree with you, that does look like a very good show. I've been listening to all of that. It looks like a cracker.
BARR: Does it just look like behind the scenes in Canberra, do you think?
PRIME MINISTER: It might be, but I don't know how Seth Rogen and Catherine O'Hara would go. I don't know who they'd play here, so.
MATT SHIRVINGTON, HOST: How would they go doing a Budget -
PRIME MINISTER: Wait and see. I think probably it might be a bit more interesting than what happens in Canberra.
BARR: Okay, you said that, not us. Sometimes now and then we think that, But let's talk about the Budget. The Opposition has slammed it. They said "it's a plan for the next five weeks, not the next five years". Are they right?
PRIME MINISTER: No, they're completely wrong, and they continue to oppose everything. This is a Budget that sets Australia up. It provides for cost of living relief in the form of tax cuts, building on the tax cuts that came in this year. But also Energy Bill Relief, Cheaper Medicines, Free TAFE going forward. But also has comprehensive plans to strengthen Medicare through our tripling of the bulk billing incentive, additional Urgent Care Clinics. The education funding, Nat. You've been speaking on that program for year after year after year about fairer and better funding for public schools - we're delivering it. The Gonski reforms that were talked about for so long. Fifteen years in the wait, but now we've delivered it and the funding's there in this budget. As well as making more things here in Australia - more manufacturing, more jobs. And Australia is turning the corner due to the hard work that Australians have done. We've got inflation going down, we've got real wages going up, we've got employment growth with 1.1 million jobs, and we have tax cuts for every Australian so that people can earn more and keep more of what they earn. Peter Dutton has a $600 billion nuclear plan that will be paid for by cuts to education and health. He supports cutting everything except your taxes.
SHIRVINGTON: Let's drill down on the tax cuts. So as you said, this is in addition to those already existing and also will roll over to the following year as well. We had Senator Jacqui Lambie on the show talking about why it wasn't means tested. She said that it was disgusting and lazy, saying that rich Aussies don't need the additional $5 per week. What's your response to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I love Jacqui, but on this she's wrong. What we've done very consciously, like the tax cut changes that we made last year, is direct them towards low and middle income earners. So by cutting that first rate, where it kicks in when people get above the tax free threshold, up to $45,000. By cutting that rate from 16 down to 15 and then down to 14, that's the best way that you can actually look after average Australians and people on low and middle incomes. We haven't targeted at the top end, and I'm sure when Jacqui has a look at all of this over a period of time that I'm hopeful she'll come on board. I love Jacqui, but from time to time we do have the odd disagreement. But one of the things that you'll say about Jacqui is she'll always be very strong in her views.
BARR: It's not just Jacqui, though. A lot of people are thinking, hang on, I know what you mean because proportionately lower income earners will get more money but why not cut it off at, you know, $300, $400, $500, $1 million? Why are they getting help? Could you not have put that money into, you know, funding other things?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's the way the tax system works, Nat. You can't have tax cuts for a rate that kicks in that then somehow stops. By lowering the tax rate at that first rate you are deliberately and consciously giving a tax cut to every Australian taxpayer. But proportionately, of course, it makes a bigger difference for people on low and middle income earners - and that is precisely what we've done. So the average earners will receive, with this top up of the tax cuts, around about $2500 extra in their pockets, at the same time as real wages are increasing. And we've got inflation down to the lower half of the Reserve Bank band of 2.4 per cent. It was 6 per cent and rising when we came to office. That's been hard work. That's been the $95 billion of savings that we've made, the $180 billion improvement to the bottom line, the $207 billion improvement to the bottom line that we've made going forward as well. But creating the space as well to have that investment in every child through our Better and Fairer Schools Plan. The support for child care that is there with the abolition of the activity test and the three day child care guarantee. Free TAFE that will continue to roll out as well.
SHIRVINGTON: Let's talk about energy because it's top of mind for everyone and obviously with an election coming it is really something that people care about and they're feeling like they are way behind in regards to how they're paying for power. You've said that you've promised another $150 in rebates. It's falling short. Some people's bills have gone up thousands of dollars.
PRIME MINISTER: We know that energy bill relief has been necessary because of the global spike that's been there in energy prices. We have now done three tranches of energy bill relief. We intervened in the market to put a cap on gas and coal prices. Also we intervened for gas reservation as well in the market. We provided that $300, then another $300, both of which were opposed by the Coalition. And what we've done is extend that relief through to the end of the year with another $150. When you look at the combination of measures that we've put in place, we've done what we can whilst providing responsible economic policy to make sure that it is affordable. And would we like to do more? Of course. But what we've done is make sure that we have that balancing act of getting inflation down whilst providing cost of living relief.
BARR: Okay. How's your weekend looking, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, pretty good. But -
BARR: Busy?
PRIME MINISTER: But I note that that show, that show's coming up apparently. So I might be locked in watching, binging on that -
BARR: Going for a drive?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not allowed to drive, Nat, under the rules. But I do get driven around these days and look -
BARR: To Yarralumla, maybe?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh well, we'll wait and see, Nat. I make this point, that this time last year Peter Dutton was demanding an election to stop Australians getting a tax cut. A tax cut that has resulted in more dollars in people's pockets over the last year.
BARR: Thank you very much. We'll leave you to the sell of the Budget, Prime Minister. Thanks for joining us.
