Prime Minister, welcome back to the program.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, James. This is a great day and I'm very proud to be the Australian Prime Minister on a day in which Australian families, parents have campaigned for this, young people themselves have said enough is enough. This is the day when Australian families are taking back parents power from these big tech companies and they're asserting the right of kids to be kids and for parents to have greater peace of mind. So this is a proud day. It won't be simple, it'll be a difficult period. Going through any transition is, of course. But we also want to have those discussions between parents and teachers and young people and to engage. This is a very important reform.
GLENDAY: We've had a lot of people on the show who are very supportive of this, saying it's going to help people take back childhood, ensure that kids don't get addicted to algorithms early. But on the other hand, we've also had some parents worried about the mental health of their kids, that they're going to be cut off from friends, worried what it's going to do to their social profiles that they've built too. I mean, what's your advice to parents and kids this morning as they adjust to this?
PRIME MINISTER: Please have the discussion. Talk it through. One of the things that parents and kids can do, of course, is talk to each other. One of the dynamics that has occurred over a period of time is people being addicted, effectively. It has an impact on brain functions. It is addictive. The way the algorithms work is literally to encourage, by the release of chemicals into parts of the brain, young people, or anyone else for that matter, to continue to scroll and to engage in that. So we understand that this is going to be difficult, but it is so important that young people are given the opportunity to actually grow as young humans and to differentiate as well between what is real in human interactions and what they can often be exposed to online. Some 7 out of 10 young people on social media will show, the evidence is that there's been some level of harassment. The figure is greater than 1 in 10 who have been encouraged to engage in some form of self-harm, including the most acute form of self-harm that there is. And it is out of these tragedies that this campaign, not from government down, but from parents and families up to government pleading with us to join with them. I give credit where credit is due, Peter Dutton, for the bipartisan way in which this legislation was passed a year ago through the Australian Parliament. The world is watching. This is a global issue and a global problem. Malaysia kicks in on January 1. Indonesia is bringing in reforms. I note the report that you've just had about actions in the European Union, New Zealand - Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is very supportive of this reform. And so this is about people taking back power. New technology can do wonderful things, but we need to make sure that humans are in control of our own destiny, and that is what this is about. Particularly focused on our youngest Australians.
GLENDAY: All right, Prime Minister, we're going to get some reaction to your comments from young Australians throughout the morning here. I just wanted to take you to a different issue and that is expenses. Obviously, we were expecting your Communications Minister, Anika Wells, to be out and about trying to sell this policy to Australians today. She's not, and I'm guessing that's in part because of this expenses saga. Do the rules for politicians for family travel need to be tightened?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, these rules were put in place, of course, under the former government after the now Opposition Leader travelled to the Gold Coast and there was the issue of her purchase of real estate. So, she ended up having to resign and these rules were put in place. Very importantly, there's independent management of this through IPEA, the Independent Parliamentary Entitlements Agency. They scrutinise all of these measures. Minister Wells has self-referred all of her issues just to check that it's all within the rules which are there.
GLENDAY: It's probably not the case that any rules have been broken here. I mean, most politicians seem to think that this is within the rules. Seems like the bigger question is, do the rules themselves need to be changed?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Parliament has changed and that's a good thing. I make this point, James. It's no longer, like I was the, I replaced a woman, Jeanette McHugh, who was the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives from NSW, our biggest state, in 1983. For 83 years, every electorate, every political party, every seat in NSW delivered basically a bloke who looked pretty similar to the Parliament. One of the issues of Minister Wells, for example, has three young children. She gave birth to twins while in office. I think it's a good thing that Parliament is more representative than it used to be. People have a long time away from their families, from their children and from their partners. And the rules are in place for that.
GLENDAY: I don't think anyone would dispute that it's a good thing for families to be able to catch up, things like that. I'm guessing, is it a good thing though for those catch ups to be at AFL grand finals, Grand Prix, at ski resorts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the rules are in place independently. I tell you what's not a good thing is for politicians to rule and manage themselves. It's important that they be arm's length - that is what has been put in place. And so IPEA do their job and that's important. Just like we don't set our own pay or other issues are done independently by the REM Tribunal, the creation of the Independent Parliamentary Authority to manage these things has been an important step.
GLENDAY: It feels like, Prime Minister, just if I can ask one more on this, that this comes up every decade or so. Are you expecting other members of the Parliament to be referring themselves over the summer months as more and more journalists dig through expenditure records?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the important thing here is 'dig through' is the term that you just used. They're all declared, they're all there, it's there for everyone to see. There's a monthly report, people have to sign off on all of the reports. They're all published. Every single airfare, every single expenditure, every single communications or phone bills, they're all published in great detail. That's important for transparency and so that's available. And yes, I expect that members of Parliament across the board, we do things like have a parliamentary family day we had prior to Parliament sitting this year, hosted by Her Excellency the Governor-General. That was a pretty nice day at Yarralumla there, where there are lots of kids, lots of family members there, all celebrating the effort that their mum or dad or husband or wife, partner had in going through what was an extensive election campaign and being elected. So, there for the swearing in of the new Members of Parliament, those entitlements are there. I don't know of any member of Parliament who has never used any family entitlement. It might be that that's the case. I, you know, obviously, though, that's all above board for all to see.
GLENDAY: I feel like the controversy about this is the way it's been used, the events that it's been used for. Can I just take you to interest rates? The RBA yesterday seemed to indicate that the only way might be up next year. Does that mean that your government will be looking to cut spending to try to cool inflation in the economy?
PRIME MINISTER: We always look for savings and there'll be further savings in the mid-year economic update that will be handed down in the coming weeks. We'll have further savings in our budget. Every single budget we have had savings in and that has made a difference. We want to make sure that the budget is as good as it can possibly be. And that is why we went to a great deal of effort. In 2022 I wasn't elected promising budget surpluses, but I delivered two which were announced by Jim Chalmers and delivered in our first two budgets. And our budget deficits have been much smaller in the third year than what was predicted by the former government in the budget that they left us that they handed down in March of 2022.
GLENDAY: Prime Minister, before I let you go, just briefly how is married life? It's the first time we've had you back on since your very, very secretive wedding.
PRIME MINISTER: Well yeah, we had, it was a wonderful day spent with celebrating the fact that we want to spend the rest of our lives together and a marriage is a wonderful thing and it was a joyful day for myself and Jodie. I do want to take the opportunity to thank all your viewers for the really warm wishes that we received. We had a very short honeymoon, four days, but back at work over the weekend and it is a good thing that - we had to delay it, of course, with elections and it's a busy timetable - but we got it done in front of close family and friends and it was just a lovely. It was pretty informal, you know, it wasn't a sit down, allocated meal. People got their food and sat at wherever they wanted to sit. And people, there was a bit of dancing went on, I can confirm. There was a lot of joy. It was great.
GLENDAY: Marriage is a great institution. Prime Minister, congratulations from us here at News Breakfast.
PRIME MINISTER: It is indeed.
GLENDAY: And thanks for joining the program this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you so much.
