Press conference – Perth | Prime Minister of Australia
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks very much. It’s great to be back in Australia, and once again in this beautiful city of Perth, on what is a delightful morning as the sun rises. And tomorrow night, we want the sun to rise on Australia, on our economy. We have made some difficult decisions to provide cost of living relief, whilst making sure that we don’t put further pressure on inflation. And that’s why our Budget will be focused on providing cost relief for those who are most vulnerable, adding up to some $14.6 billion of cost of living relief in tomorrow night’s Budget, to make sure that no one’s left behind, and no one is held back – two of the themes that I had when I launched Labor’s campaign prior to the 2022 election, right here in Perth, at Optus Stadium. And this morning, I have an important announcement, one I’m very proud to be giving. That for some time, sole parents have been identified as one of the groups who are particularly struggling, as identified by the work of people like Dr Anne Summers, as well as the Women’s Economic Taskforce led by Sam Mostyn, to identify this group as particularly needing support. So we want to extend the financial safety net for single parent families by raising the age in which it is cut off for the youngest child of a single parent, for single parenting payment, from eight years to fourteen years. What that will do is to make sure that women in particular, but also fathers, in situations of raising children by themselves can have that sense of security, that children as well can be looked after, that people can be in a situation whereby they more easily move into employment when they’re able to as well. This change will cost, substantively, will mean that the payments for every fortnight increase by some $176.90, every fortnight. And that is an important change. It will cost to the Budget some $1.9 billion through to 2026-27. But what the research has shown is that this is an investment. It’s an investment in these families. I know firsthand what it’s like to grow up with a single mum doing it tough. And we want to make sure that the children of single parent families have the best opportunities in life, to go on and to fulfil, to aspire to a good life with good jobs with security. And we want to look after single parents, because we know that the role that they play in raising their children is such a priority for them, and they’re deserving of more support. I’ve spoken about this now for almost a decade. And as Prime Minister, I’m very proud that we’ll be delivering this change tomorrow night. And I want to also single out, in conclusion, people like Terese Edwards and others who’ve fought for this change for such a long period of time. They’ve been patient. They’ve been strong advocates, and they deserve our thanks for the work that they have done. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, as well deserved and urgently needed as cost of living relief and changes to single parent payments are, isn’t there a risk it will fuel inflation and force interest rates even higher?
PRIME MINISTER: No, and that’s why we’ve been very responsible. For example, when we have sat down and worked through the measures that we’re putting forward for cost of living relief in this Budget, we’ve made sure that they won’t add to inflationary pressures in the economy. And that’s why the revenue gains which we have seen due to commodity prices, we have overwhelmingly banked those revenue gains, rather than doing what the former government did, which was to bank just 40 per cent of any revenue gains over their nine long years in office, their nine years in which, at the end of it, we had a trillion dollars of debt. So we’re not responsible for the debt that we inherited. But what we’re doing is taking responsibility for fixing that problem.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, why age fourteen and not any higher for the single parenting payment?
PRIME MINISTER: We think fourteen is the right balance. Fourteen is the period in which a student starts to gain more independence, doesn’t need the same level of support at home that a younger child does. Eight was far too low, an eight-year-old needs mum or dad or their carer to cook them dinner, to look after them. A fourteen-year-old starts to, in today’s world, starts to move into that change into adulthood. And we think this is absolutely the right balance as well, where we want people who’ve been single parents, where it’s possible, to move into full-time employment over a period of time. By this change, you might see people then moving into at least some form of part-time employment. We think we’ve got the balance right here. Eight was far too low, we think 14 is the right age.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we want to leave some announcements to tomorrow night. Obviously, we’ve put out the figure of $14.6 billion of relief. But the Energy Price Relief Plan is an example of how we’ve designed the support to not add to inflationary pressures in the economy. Now the former Government, in its last Budget, had a whole lot of cash payments and stimulus to the economy. I mean, I’m stunned by the Shadow Treasurer’s hypocrisy of sitting in the Cabinet, whilst in the lead-up to an election, a whole lot of cash payments and stimulus was added to the economy, most of which ended immediately once people voted in May of 2022. But all of those payments, primarily of which occurred in that financial year, fed into economic activity and added to inflationary pressure in the economy. What we’ve done, with our Energy Price Relief Plan, isn’t give people cash payments, we’re reducing bills. And when you reduce bills, you’re actually putting deflationary activity, that’s a deflationary act from the economy, because it’s reducing that amount of dollars flowing through the economy and those payments. So we have been very structured in how we’ve done it. If you look at how we’re providing support in other areas, an example is child care, where from July 1, our largest on-Budget expenditure that we’ve announced before the election, was our child care plan. And what that’s designed to do, of course, is yes, it will provide increased support for families, but it will boost productivity, it will boost women’s workforce participation, it will add to economic growth. And that is how my government has focused on productivity, focused on measures that improve the economy, providing that cost of living relief in the short-term, but making sure we’re always looking towards the medium and long-term.
JOURNALIST: The Greens are saying we should be getting a whole lot more than $2.4 billion out of the oil and gas industry, will you be willing to negotiate to ensure that the changes pass Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the Greens, of course, are people who don’t support that industry. They want to, they’d be quite happy to shut it down. We want to support that industry. The gas industry is an important industry for Australia, for our national interest. And that’s why we worked with APPEA and with individual companies as well on this modest change, which provides for a bring forward of taxation revenue, which would have been in later years, we’re bringing that forward so it’s available, which is appropriate. We work these issues through, we make no apologies. And we call upon the Coalition to support these measures. How extraordinary is that you have the gas companies and the peak organisation out there saying they can live with this change, acknowledging the work that the Government did to work these issues through, and the Coalition saying ‘yeah nah, nah.’ All they do is just say no to everything. And that’s why the Coalition of yesterday have become the ‘Noalition’ of today, the group that just say no to every measure that is put forward. I think Australians are tired of a Coalition that simply are negative, and say no to everything.
JOURNALIST: On the other side of the Greens, some have called it a tax on WA, are you risking the goose that lays the golden egg?
PRIME MINISTER: No well, importantly, we have worked this through with industry. This is a modest change that will bring forward by reducing the deduction to 90% that companies can claim. This is a sensible reform which is a result of two reviews were established by the former government. Two reviews, no response, no action. My government is responding to those reviews. There are a range of options recommended. We have chosen what we believe is in the best interests of the economy and taxpayers, but also is in the interests of providing support for industry.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’ve billed this Budget around relieving cost of living pressures, will it be enough for Australians who are really doing it tough?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we acknowledge that global inflation is having an impact. I did see the interview that was done yesterday by the Noalition spokesperson, who spoke about inflation in the in the G7 countries. One, someone should tell Angus Taylor we’re not actually in the G7. But if you look at the countries which are in the G7, I’ve just come from the United Kingdom. Overseas have higher inflation rates in places like that. The United States has much higher interest rates than Australia as well. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, together with the impact of the pandemic, with supply chain shortages, has meant that there is global inflation out there that’s having an impact. We’re not immune in Australia’s economy, from global impacts because of the globalised nature of the world’s economy. But what we’re doing is making sure that we provide as much support as possible, targeted to where it is most needed, to make the biggest difference whilst making sure we don’t add to inflation. This is a responsible Budget that will provide relief where it is needed and will be good for the Australian economy.
JOURNALIST: The Treasurer’s indicated amendments to JobSeeker won’t be limited by age. Why is it important that everyone on JobSeeker get an increase?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, people will see the announcements that we’ll make tomorrow. We’ve put out what the total figure is of support across the forwards, $14.6 billion of cost of living relief. I’m proud that we’ve got it right. You can’t just simply look at measures in the short-term. We’ve done that, but we’ve looked at it as well in the medium and long-term, which you need to do as well, to make sure that changes aren’t counterproductive by adding to inflation. So what we’ve done is to look at a range of measures. They’ll all be included in the Budget tomorrow night. And I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done. The Expenditure Review Committee met, at times, multiple times a week. We’ve been working on this Budget since our last Budget in October of last year. And one of the things that we’ve had to do is to provide space for the funding of measures which fell off a cliff. The former government left a debt trap, they left a trillion dollars of debt, but without funding future programs in community services funding, in cybersecurity, in so many areas where funding just stopped on June 30. Now our government has had to provide billions of dollars to make sure that certainty can be provided going forward, as well as deal with funding of our national institutions and other areas that were simply starved of funds for so long. Our National Gallery which had buckets, buckets collecting water from leaky roofs, when you’ve got an artwork like Blue Pole sitting there worth half a billion dollars. I mean it’s just absurd what the former government did, they can never lay claim to being responsible economic managers ever again, after the economic mess that they left, but we’re taking responsibility for cleaning it up.
JOURNALIST: On the Coronation, did anything surprise you? And is it now time for an Australian republic debate?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Coronation was a delightful and wonderful, historic event. And it was a privilege to attend along with the Governor-General representing Australia. And can I take the opportunity to thank those people who represented Australia at the Coronation, our three VC winners, of course, including the remarkable Keith Payne, a great and legendary Australian. Sam Kerr, a great West Australian, was our flagbearer at the Coronation, and did Australia proud. People like Adam Hills, people like Nick Cave, we had a very diverse group of Australians. We had a nurse from the NHS, we had scientists who’d worked on AstraZeneca, we had Adam Hills, we had a range of people across, Yvonne Kenny, across the arts, culture, the economy. Showing the diversity of Australia going forward there on display for the world. And I was very proud to be there. I support Australia having an Australian as our head of state, but that’s a decision for the Australian people to have. We have our constitutional arrangements as they are, are ones that my job as the Australian Prime Minister is to respect them. And I respect King Charles, I certainly was able to congratulate him on the Coronation. And I also had the opportunity to meet with the Prince of Wales. Both of them of course and their families are very knowledgeable about Australia. I reiterated the standing invitation that exists for members of the Royal Family to visit Australia and I certainly hope they do at some time soon in the future. Thanks very much.