Radio interview – ABC Brisbane Drive
STEVE AUSTIN, HOST: Now for the weather currently in Brisbane, let’s go to Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, in Brisbane right now, it’s 27 degrees, a look around the region, Bayside it’s 28, Logan, 26, Ipswich the same 26, Gold Coast it’s a very warm 27 and on the Sunny Coast it’s 23.
AUSTIN: Not bad, you want a job?
PRIME MINISTER: Hopefully, I’m pretty keen on keeping the current one for a while yet.
AUSTIN: So, you’re in Brisbane today, I believe, where you announced the Cornwall Street Medical Centre or a new Urgent Care Clinic, in the city?
PRIME MINISTER: I did indeed.
AUSTIN: Why do we need Federally funded health clinics in the heart of Brisbane?
PRIME MINISTER: We need one, and it’s one of eleven that will be here in Queensland to fill the gap that’s there between your primary health care, your GP services and emergency care. So, that if someone has a kid who falls off a bike or they do an accident, chopping up the potatoes for dinner and cut their finger, if they need to go and get an X-ray for a fracture or a break or they need to get something stitched up, they have somewhere to go. That means they’re not clogging up emergency departments of hospitals. That means they can get the care when they need it, where they need it, for free, through Medicare. And what that does is aim at taking pressure off our hospital system, which, of course, is under pressure right around the country.
AUSTIN: How are they different from the state government’s satellite hospitals, which are minor injury and illness clinics? They sound exactly the same to me.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, these are through Medicare, funded through Medicare. We have, 58 of them, will be rolled out around the country. And they’re in places, like the one where we were today is owned by UQ, so they have GP services there, but on site, they have pathology, X-rays just across the road, GP services, so that people can get the service they need when they need it. They’ll be open seven days a week.
AUSTIN: Is this because doctors in Brisbane aren’t bulk billing as much as they used to?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this will help with bulk-billing. But also, of course, we have, beginning next month, a tripling of the bulk billing incentive, the largest ever increase to incentivise bulk-billing. And we know that already, that’s getting a very positive response.
AUSTIN: My guest is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. In the Australian Financial Review magazine on Friday, your face was on the cover and in the inside you were artificially created face on a DJ rack. They described you as the most powerful person in Australia today. So, are you? Do you think you’re the most powerful person in Australia today?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, certainly with holding the office of Prime Minister, it gives you political power, but it’s only useful if you use it wisely and you bring people with you. So, I run a Cabinet Government that isn’t just a one man band and I think that’s really important, as well. So, I certainly think that Federal Government has a lot of power, and the Prime Minister is the captain of the team, if you like. But I’m only as powerful and as effective as the team.
AUSTIN: What does power feel like?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is the power to make a difference. And I think, having spent most of my political life in opposition, the difference is when you’re a part of an opposition, you can make representation, sometimes you can affect some change, but it’s a lot harder. Governments are in a position to make a difference over things that impact on people’s lives. Whether it be opening a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, whether it be increasing childcare support, whether it be increasing support for single parents, whether it be adopting emissions targets. Governments are there to lead. And my government is determined to lead Australia to a better future.
AUSTIN: Is there anywhere where you feel that at the moment, you’re not taking the people of Australia with you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s a matter for your listener’s judgment, really. But I think it is the job of government not to just occupy the space, because if you do that, the world will move past Australia. We live in a really fast changing world, and unless you adapt to what’s required, for example, learning the lessons of the global pandemic by making more things here in Australia, then the rest of the world will move past us. You have a clean energy revolution that’s happening around the world. Now, the race is on for critical minerals to value add, to have a green hydrogen industry, all of those measures. And so, I think it’s really important that government does lead because we know that to just occupy the space and to not make a difference and not set a direction, it means you tread water and problems just become worse when they’re not solved.
AUSTIN: Are you a progressive?
PRIME MINISTER: I believe I’m a progressive. I think that –
AUSTIN: I want to know then, what are we progressing towards? I’ve never been able to get a clear answer of so called progressives. I say, what are we progressing towards? What is the endpoint for a progressive today?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there is no endpoint, by definition.
AUSTIN: Well, that means we’re on the treadmill.
PRIME MINISTER: No, it doesn’t at all. It means you constantly progress and move forward.
AUSTIN: Forward to what? To a mythical nirvana?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, to a more inclusive society. To one that has greater opportunity regardless of people’s birth or people’s ethnicity or religion or gender. A country that is able to move forward as a whole, but an economy, for example, that works for everyone, not people working for an economy.
AUSTIN: Okay, you have, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers, has been out there pointing out all the different times you’re giving rebates, financial support, supporting wage increases for workers, a whole raft of areas where you’re pouring federal money into the economy. Now, normally economists say that inflation is created by an excess in the money supply. And your pick for the governorship of the Reserve Bank, Michele Bullock, has made it very clear, they are trying to wind that back. In other words, they are trying to decrease or fight inflation. But your government seems to be pump priming for inflation, like having one foot on the accelerator, one foot on the brake. Are you working with the Reserve Bank to help them achieve, fighting or defeating inflation in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: We are working totally with the Reserve Bank –
AUSTIN: Where?
PRIME MINISTER: And we’re doing so in three ways. Well, turning a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus. We have banked –
AUSTIN: That’s going to be short lived, though, isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’ve banked, overwhelmingly, what we’ve done is bank the additional revenues that we’ve received. Whether that be and most of that isn’t, contrary to some of the commentary, most of that isn’t from increasing commodity prices, most of that is by keeping people in employment. Because therefore, you get greater revenues, you get greater corporate –
AUSTIN: The Reserve Bank wants that as well, they want full employment as well. But they’re trying to wind back the pressure on inflation and your government’s policies seem to be increasing the pressure on inflation.
PRIME MINISTER: No, we’re not doing that at all. That’s why we have targeted relief as well. If you look at our cost of living relief, the reason why, for example, our Energy Price Plan didn’t give people cash cheques, what it did was reduce the cost by having a rebate, reducing the cost of energy from the increase that was going to occur. So that people weren’t hit with what was anticipated last year, but done in a way that was actually deflationary. And the Reserve Bank and Treasury found that that measure alone would take three quarters of a percent off inflation. So, we’re doing that. We’re having supply chain support. So, Fee-Free TAFE, yes, it helps cost of living by giving people access to skills for free, but it does so in a way that’s addressing labour shortages in the economy, as well, that are putting that inflationary pressure on.
AUSTIN: Hearing the voice of Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. The latest consumer price index figures show that rents are one of the biggest drivers in inflation. Rental vacancy rates have dropped to their lowest level in a decade, Australia wide 1.1 per cent, that’s horrendous. Your government is bringing in record levels of migrants to Australia. What is the effect of high immigration levels on housing demand and homelessness?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we had a major announcement yesterday, of course, of fixing the migration system. We’re aware that the system was broken.
AUSTIN: But you’re still bringing in massive numbers of immigrants.
PRIME MINISTER: No, to be clear, what’s happened, the number of people who are here now is much less than what was projected to be here prior to the COVID pandemic. So, what’s happened is that students, for example, are coming in and whereas people would come in at their first year of their degree and then leave after three or four years, because no one was coming in, there aren’t people going out at this point in time.
AUSTIN: There’s less people leaving Australia, that’s right. The data’s clear.
PRIME MINISTER: You have this temporary boost which is occurring and at the same time, we are making a range of measures to fix compliance with our migration system to stop the shonks, so that Australia can get the people who we need, but not allow us a broken system to allow people to come in and stay for year, after year, after year, who aren’t entitled to be here.
AUSTIN: 700,000 New Zealanders will now find it easier to get Australian citizenship, but largely, they’re already here. We get about 650,000 international students each year, 200,000 graduates, 330,000 visitors, 130,000 working holidaymakers. There are already 130,000 temporary skilled workers and 190,000 temporary visa holders, who are employed. How is that not putting massive pressure on our housing rental market in Australia, as evidenced in today’s figures of 1.1 per cent?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, to use just one of the figures that you used, the New Zealand figure, is actually just a bit over 300,000 people, are now eligible to apply –
AUSTIN: Become Australian citizens.
PRIME MINISTER: To apply for citizenship. They’re people who are here.
AUSTIN: Yes, I get that.
PRIME MINISTER: They’re people who are staying.
AUSTIN: I accept that.
PRIME MINISTER: What we’re doing is giving them security. That doesn’t bring in an additional one person. It just says, if you’ve been here for more than four years, paying taxes, working, many of them, it must be said, in south east Queensland, so that’s not additional –
AUSTIN: I get that, there’s no dispute there. But 330,000 plus visitors a year is a massive increase in the pressure on the housing market in Australia, as evidenced today by the appalling rates of rental vacancies that are not available for Australian citizens.
PRIME MINISTER: But that is one of the reasons why we are concentrating very much on boosting housing supply. We had, through –
AUSTIN: That won’t be fixed till five years from now, will it? It’s too far off.
PRIME MINISTER: It takes time, but some of it will move really quickly. I was at, I’ve already done two of the big state announcements about our Social Housing Accelerator. Now, what that is doing is taking homes that were vacant, essentially, many of them vacant, public housing, social housing, making sure they’re fit for purpose. So, yesterday I was at a place of three homes that have been vacant for many years, that’s been turned into eleven dwellings, one and two bedroom units, that will be fit for purpose, that will be available for older Australians, that they expect will be fully constructed by 2025.
AUSTIN: I accept that you’re doing something, but it’s really tinkering at the edges. Given the high levels of immigration coming into Australia.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we are doing massive amount. There’s that. There’s the $1.7 billion additional for public housing that we’ve committed, just to extend the housing agreement by one year. There is the $2 billion additional for community housing. There’s the support and measures that we put in place to encourage the private rental market, that will, according to the Property Council, result in between 150,000 and 250,000 additional dwelling. And every state and territory, when we met here in Brisbane at the last National Cabinet meeting, signed up to the construction of 1.2 million additional dwellings through our National Housing Accord, with a $3 billion incentive at the end of that to deliver on those numbers.
AUSTIN: My guest is the Prime Minister. I’m aware that you have to go in a minute, so four quick fire questions. When was the last time that Prime Minister Albanese read a book from cover to cover?
PRIME MINISTER: Pretty recently.
AUSTIN: What was it?
PRIME MINISTER: I read, it was Andrew Charlton’s book, that I launched last week, which is about India and the relationship between India and Australia.
AUSTIN: I’ve got a copy.
PRIME MINISTER: He came to me, it’s a great read. He came to me and I said to him, I’ve got to read it first because I never launch a book that I haven’t read.
AUSTIN: Second question, when was the last time that you put on one of your LPs, on your turntable at home and listened to it? And what was it?
PRIME MINISTER: Over the weekend. And it was actually the Ramones, the old famous, I think it’s called –
AUSTIN: You still got a streak of punk in you have you?
PRIME MINISTER: I can look at the cover, ‘From Russia with Love’, I think it’s called, or something. ‘Russia’, is in the title of the album.
AUSTIN: When was the last time that you cooked for your partner at home? You cooked a meal? Takeaway doesn’t count.
PRIME MINISTER: No. Well, that is a while ago, I’ve got to say. So, I’ll take the fifth on that, I think.
AUSTIN: When was the last time that you saw a movie at the theatre from beginning to end? And what was it?
PRIME MINISTER: Not since I’ve been Prime Minister, and it is some time ago, I’ve got to say.
AUSTIN: Go and see the movie, Oppenheimer. You have to do it. It’s amazing.
PRIME MINISTER: That is something that I really miss. One of the things about being Prime Minister, is it ruins spontaneity. And the great thing about sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon, is you could say a few years ago, oh, let’s go to the movies and go and do it. Now, it’s a bit more difficult.
AUSTIN: ‘Rocket to Russia’ is the Ramones album.
PRIME MINISTER: ‘Rocket to Russia’, that’s it.
AUSTIN: According to my producer. Anthony Albany, thanks for coming in. Just a quick point, one of my listeners, Bruce from Banksia Beach, sent me a record, an LP, that was actually done by two journos, Peter Luck who used to work here, and Mike Carlton, it’s called, ‘And the word was Gough’. It’s an LP, it’s a funny sort of parody album. I think one of your political heroes, Gough Whitlam. I rang Bruce and said, can I give this album to the Prime Minister because he has a turntable? And Bruce said he’d love it. So, that’s from a listener, Bruce.
PRIME MINISTER: Can I thank Bruce and Betty very much for this very generous gift and I look forward to spinning it at The Lodge.
AUSTIN: Thanks for coming in.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Steve.