Radio Interview – ABC Melbourne
CHARLIE PICKERING, HOST: Now to political news in Victoria and former union official Mary Doyle will be Labor’s candidate in the Victorian seat of Aston which will soon go to a by election. When Liberal MP Alan Tudge resigns, but as exciting as a shiny new candidate, is the Federal Government has headaches on multiple fronts. Inflation is persistent, interest rates continue to rise and, and really bite for homeowners. And yesterday, we heard news that the unemployment rate has also gone up. So with all that on his plate for breakfast, I’m joined by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Charlie. What a warm Melbourne day it is.
PICKERING: It is a warm Melbourne day and you’re sitting on something of a hot seat as Prime Minister as well. Now, obviously, you’re here to spruik your new candidate for the Aston by election. But how about we do that last? Okay, that way I know you’ll stay interested for the whole chat.
PRIME MINISTER: You’re in charge Charlie.
PICKERING: Yes that’s right.
PRIME MINISTER: You’re in charge. You’ve got the little button that indicates whether I’m even heard by your listeners or not. So I might be Prime Minister but I know my place in a radio interview.
PICKERING: Look, it’s not about power. Prime Minister, for me its showbiz. And whether I’m interviewing the Prime Minister or a musician, I save the plug to the end of the interview. It’s just, it’s just good practice. But anyway, so we’ll get to it.
PRIME MINISTER: Fair enough. Let’s get on with it.
PICKERING: All right, well, it’s been nine months since you took over the job as PM, is the economy officially yours now?
PRIME MINISTER: We inherited of course, a trillion dollars of debt. We inherited rising interest rates, that began, of course, before the election. But you know, our job is to manage what we have inherited. And that’s why we’ve got a plan, we understand that inflation is placing real pressure on households. And that’s why we have our three R’s we call it relief, repair and restraint. We have the plan for relief in terms of our Power Price Relief Plan that we brought Parliament back in December to implement. We’re implementing cheaper medicines from January 1, the price of medicines reduced by $12.50, the first decrease in the price of medicines in 75 years. We’ve got cheaper child care coming in on July 1. But we also want to make sure that we deal with what the Reserve Bank says is a big pressure, which is supply chains as well. So we’ve got our $15 billion Fund for industry for National Reconstruction. We’ve got fee free TAFE, 180,000 places. And we’re also showing restraint in our spending because we understand that you have to have fiscal policy that is that the Government’s Budget working in concert with monetary policy, that is what the Reserve Bank are doing on interest rates.
PICKERING: Well covered everything there. You’re absolutely ticked everything on the list. You’ve said everything in your press release on the economy. The interesting thing, though, that sounds great. And there are some measures in there that will make a difference. But the way that it feels is very different for people. Interest rates are really biting, the cost of living hasn’t shifted at all. And we heard that the unemployment rate has gone up. Are people right to feel concerned about the economy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, people are feeling the pressure from rising interest rates. But that’s a product of inflation, which is a product, in part of, the Russian invasion of Ukraine that occurred now a year ago that led to a global spike in the price of energy. It led to food security issues, it led to a considerable rise in inflation around the world. This is something that has been dealt with in many countries, of course, we’re seeing double digit inflation. Australia is faring much better than most places in the industrialised world. And we had more jobs created in our six months than any previous Government in in history, going back any previous new Government
PICKERING: But it does feel like the one measure that is available to do anything about inflation and the way that it stings average Australians is to pull this giant lever called interest rates, and that stings them even harder. Isn’t there anything else, you know that can be done in that regard?
PRIME MINISTER: Well there is. But there’s not, it’s not a light switch, you can just flick on and off. One of the things that you can do is to show restraint and in the Budget in October, for the revenue gains, that is a bit of a contradictory thing here, which is that energy prices are leading into inflation, but they also led to increased revenue to the Government because of the global price of coal and other resources. We could have spent that. We didn’t. Ninety-nine percent of that went straight back into paying off the debt that we inherited. And that was the responsible thing to do. And the Reserve Bank governor himself has said that that is one of the things that will put downward pressure on that inflation. And the way that we designed our Energy Price Relief Package as well. Rather than give cash checks to people that would have fed into inflation, what we’re doing is directly, it will be reducing in partnership with State Governments, people’s, taking some of the pressure off their energy bills. So we are very conscious of doing what we can to decrease that inflationary pressure because we understand that it has an impact on people.
PICKERING: You brought up the RBA governor Phil Lowe, you’re gonna give him a second term as governor of the RBA?
PRIME MINISTER: He’s doing his job now and we have we have confidence in him.
PICKERING: He’s doing his job now? That’s hardly a ringing endorsement Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: A decision has not, he has the Government’s confidence and the Reserve Bank of course make these decisions independently. And it’s very important that they be allowed to do that. But as for future appointments, that will be a decision down the track.
PICKERING: Do you feel though that he perhaps lost the confidence of the Australian people when he gave assurances that interest rates would remain steady, and then became the face of raising interest rates? After a lot of people have relied, justifiably relied, on that information from the Reserve Bank?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll let the RBA do its own job. We have made it very clear that the Government hasn’t come to a view on a reappointment into the future. We will have that discussion down the track. That will be the decision for the Treasurer. But our job, we’re focused on our job, which is making sure that we do what we can to do with the inflation challenge which is out there.
PICKERING: Well, Pride starts in Sydney over this weekend. You’re going to be the first PM ever to march in Mardi Gras. Have you picked an outfit yet?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll wear probably jeans and a T shirt as I’ve done many a time. I first marched, I’m showing my age here, forty years ago with young Labor when we first marched around 1983, five years into Mardi Gras. It’s changed a lot since then, of course it was then very much a protest. It still has a political element to it. But it’s also just a great celebration of the diversity that is a part of modern Australia. And they’ll also be a walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge, which will be on a Sunday morning I think. I hope it’s not the morning after Mardi Gras because it might be a bit, it might look a bit untidy shall we say, as people walk across the bridge if it’s the morning after. I hope it’s the week after but I’m not quite sure the dates but my diary is pretty crazy. As you can imagine.
PICKERING: I can imagine almost as busy as mine, I’m sure Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Well you’ve got TV and radio, popping up everywhere.
PICKERING: That’s right. I do I do both of them to a mediocre standard. But with the outfit I have to ask, a lot was made of your body transformation leading up to the election, you got very fit. No chance at all of a midriff, just for Mardi Gras?
PRIME MINISTER: No one wants to see that Charlie, and you’ll show it, I’ll be cancelled on the Weekly.
PICKERING: You have been paying attention. Well, let’s get to what you want to talk about this morning. Which is the seat of Aston. Mary Doyle is the Labor candidate for this by-election for the secrets opened up since Alan Tudge is going to resign. She’s a former union official, quite a surprise for Labor.
PRIME MINISTER: She’s a great candidate. She ran in, less than a year ago since the people Aston voted, and she received almost an 8% swing. So it’s now sitting around about 53%, whereas it was, it was above 60, only before the election. So she’s a great candidate. She works in the finance sector. She has lived in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, for a long period of time. She studied performing arts at TAFE. She is someone who’s also had real world experience with the health system. Mary got breast cancer when she was just twenty. And going through that treatment and recovery has meant that she is a passionate advocate of Medicare. And she’s got a couple of kids. She’s a she’s a single mum. And she’s someone who I think would make an outstanding Member of Parliament.
PICKERING: But your chances are pretty unrealistic. I don’t think Government has ever won a by-election for something like 100 years. The stakes are pretty low for this one aren’t they?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s a pretty tough ask to win a position from Government during a by-election, as you say it hasn’t been up for 100 years. But Mary’s gonna have a crack and see how it how it all goes. We think that it’s the right thing to do to contest the by-election so we’ll be doing so. Of course the Liberal Party will be hot favourites if they get around to selecting a candidate. A bit of chaos on their side at the moment in the in the big branch I think. But we very early on, selecting our candidate. Mary was pre-selected unopposed, because the locals really wanted her to run again and when Alan Tudge announced his resignation last week, but he hasn’t actually resigned yet. So the by-election date hasn’t been established, I’m not quite sure what’s going on there. But when it is called Mary Doyle will be the candidate.
PICKERING: Thank you very much for your time this morning Prime Minister. I’m sure you’ve got far more important things to do today than talk to me, but thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: I just gave you the hint that I even watch your show. Thank goodness for ABC iView.
PICKERING: Well, thank you, Prime Minister and hopefully we can talk again soon. Have a good day.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Charlie. Same to you and all your listeners.