Politicians have returned to Canberra for the resumption of Federal Parliament this week. It comes as the Government announces initiatives it hopes will fast track the building of new homes. The Prime Minister joins me now. Anthony Albanese, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Sally.
SARA: On housing, today you've announced the expansion of the First Home Guarantee will be brought forward by three months. How much of a difference will it make?
PRIME MINISTER: It will make an enormous difference because we know that a five per cent deposit rather than sitting around paying someone else's mortgage, makes an enormous difference. And on top of that, the fact that they'll save thousands of dollars in lenders mortgage insurance will make a difference. Over the next year first home buyers using the scheme are expected to avoid around one and a half billion dollars in mortgage insurance. The fact that we're making this First Home Buyer Scheme available to everyone with no income limits and that we are also increasing the property price caps to set them higher in line with average house prices. So, I think this will make an enormous difference, together with the announcements that we've made on the weekend of pausing the National Construction Code for four years, more prefab housing and the fast tracking of some 26,000 homes that have been stuck in the approvals process.
SARA: As you say, you've promised to pause the National Construction Code. The Opposition proposed doing that during the election campaign and the Government criticised the Opposition for that. Why is it a good idea now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have a different plan. We're pausing it for the rest of this decade. They had a plan that was for longer, but at the same time they were slashing support for housing. We have a $43 billion Homes for Australia plan. It is comprehensive. It's about more social housing, something that they opposed and said they'd abolish the Housing Australia Future Fund. We have the Build to Rent Scheme that they also oppose, that's about more private rentals. And in addition to that, of course, we have these home ownership schemes as well. Also where they opposed our Shared Equity Scheme that's been so successful in Western Australia for many decades now.
SARA: Let's have a look at the economic roundtable. At this Economic Reform Roundtable you got agreement on the principles for tax reform. Can you explain for us what reforms you're willing to introduce this term and which reforms you think need to be put to voters at the next election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the economic roundtable wasn't about just this year or this term, it was about future issues enabling them to be raised in a way that wasn't playing the old 'rule in, rule out' game. What we are focused on in the immediate sense is the reforms that we took to the election that includes a tax cut for every taxpayer next year and the year after. The big tax fight at the election campaign was between Labor promising lower income taxes and the Coalition extraordinarily promising, having opposed those tax decreases, actually proposing to increase income taxes for all 14 million Australians.
SARA: In your first term you didn't have a direct mandate to change Stage Three Tax Cuts, but you did it anyway, citing changed economic conditions. Could new economic conditions make you reconsider tax breaks for retirees or negative gearing for property investors?
PRIME MINISTER: Well importantly, what we did in that first term was take account of the fact that we had a cost of living pressure because of global inflation. Now what we did was take $106 billion of tax cuts, we not only kept them, we increased it slightly to $107 billion over the forward estimates. And what that did was redistribute it so that everyone got a tax cut rather than just some. And we explained why we were doing that, we argued our case. The Coalition said that they'd roll it back and they opposed it, then they said we should have an election on it before they voted for it. So it was a common sense change which we argued the case for. And I'm proud of the fact that we've not only done that, but at the election we added to it with our top up tax cuts as well.
SARA: If economic conditions change again, could that lead to further adjustments in tax policy that hasn't yet gone to the electorate?
PRIME MINISTER: - towards making the tax system more efficient and fairer. Of course. And that's what we did when we changed the tax cuts to make sure that everyone got a tax cut rather than just some.
SARA: You've got agreement around tax reform from everyone who was at the Economic Reform Roundtable. Do you now expect their support for policies you plan to put forward to meet those principles?
PRIME MINISTER: What we find consistently is that when you get more specific, you have more opposition. But it's a good thing that there's been a recognition about intergenerational equity issues around the roundtable. A roundtable that included not just Labor representatives, of course, but representatives of business, representatives across the political spectrum, representatives of unions and civil society organisations and academics as well - and that's not surprising. And that is one of the reasons why one of the first things, indeed the first piece of legislation that we have passed in this Parliament, is the cut to student debt. A 20 per cent cut to student debt that has made a difference and has been warmly received in spite of the opposition of the Coalition.
SARA: When we're looking at this Economic Reform Roundtable, you asked the Grattan Institute's CEO to address the talks last week. She told you that Australians expectations on service delivery will have to be cut if you don't hike taxes. Is she right?
PRIME MINISTER: Academics talk in academic world, what I do is live in the real world. And in the real world, my Government's focused on delivering for people. Our focus has been on cost of living and dealing, whether it's cheaper medicines that we've done. The cut to student debt, which we've done. The cutting of income taxes that we've done, and we'll do some more on. The Energy Bill Relief, the batteries that now are heading towards 30,000 that will reduce power bills permanently.
SARA: This is someone that you invited to the Roundtable. Are you suggesting that they're not existing in the real world?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm suggesting that people were invited to the Roundtable who have ideas. They weren't government representatives and as I said prior to the roundtable, it's a meeting in the Cabinet Room, It's not a meeting of the Cabinet. So ideas are welcome, including from the Grattan Institute and others. That was the whole point, was that you would have a range of ideas put forward for consideration to promote community debate. Dialogue is always a good thing. My Government is an inclusive government. We listen to people from across the political spectrum, from academics, from others who have these ideas. But it doesn't mean that that is automatically government policy. That's the point of having a roundtable rather than just us having the Cabinet meetings, like we will have this morning.
SARA: On corporate taxes, the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said yesterday the Government is open to changes which incentivise investment. What sort of things are we talking about here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we already have, of course, an incentive that we again took to the election, the $20,000 Instant Asset Write Off. What that's about is encouraging businesses to invest in themselves - to get a new ute or to get new equipment, new technology in their business. And that has been very beneficial for small business in particular. But there are a range of issues which will be raised. We, of course, want to see more business investment. We have seen business investing since we came to office, but we want to create an economic climate where businesses are encouraged to invest because that's how they grow and we want to see jobs continue to grow. But this summit, of course, took place at a time when we have inflation decreasing now with a two in front, it had a six in front when we were elected. At the same time, we have real wages growing and we had in the latest unemployment figures, seeing 25,000 jobs created and unemployment actually decreasing. But it's been consistently at a reasonable rate, at now 4.2 per cent.
SARA: Prime Minister, let's move on to Gaza. Tens of thousands of Australians took to the streets yesterday in support of Palestinians. You're committed to recognising a Palestinian state, but what else can the Government that you lead do to dissuade Israel from continuing its military campaign in Gaza and also persuade it to get further aid in into Gaza? Particularly when parts of the territory are now declared to be in famine.
PRIME MINISTER: Well Australia is, of course, not a major power in the Middle East. And in spite of some of the rhetoric which is out there, Australia for example, does not provide arms to Israel. We have consistently advocated, both directly to the Israeli government, but also through our vote in international forums for aid to be allowed to get into Gaza. We've consistently advocated for a ceasefire and for the hostages to be released and Hamas to be disarmed. We will continue to use our voice in international forums and continue to be a strong advocate for the long term solution as well, which, of course is the State of Israel and the State of Palestine living side by side in peace and security.
SARA: You're talking about Australia being a strong voice in international forums, and there's this sense of trying to build international momentum around statehood. Have you been in contact with New Zealand and other Pacific nations that don't recognise Palestinian statehood to join Australia's position?
PRIME MINISTER: I talk regularly with my colleagues, but I do that in a diplomatic way rather than through the media.
SARA: Have you raised this issue?
PRIME MINISTER: I do that in a diplomatic way rather than through the media, as the way that I engage with my international colleagues. I, of course, was very recently with Prime Minister Luxon in New Zealand for our Annual Leaders Meeting and we were asked about these questions publicly at a press conference and we gave very consistent answers.
SARA: The Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, who we interviewed on this program in the past couple of weeks is touring the Pacific. Will the Federal Government be launching its own further visits into the Pacific to counter that?
PRIME MINISTER: No, what we do in the Pacific is talk about Australia's national interests and our specific interests.
SARA: Is Palestinian statehood in Australia's national interest?
PRIME MINISTER: What we do is we advocate for Australia's national interests and primarily about our relationship with those Pacific neighbours is, of course, what we concentrate on and we'll continue to do that.
SARA: Would you welcome the Pacific and New Zealand joining Australia's position on Palestinian statehood?
PRIME MINISTER: They're sovereign states and I welcome their sovereignty is what I do and I respect it. And they'll make their own decisions. Australia will make our decisions without concern for anything other than our national interest and for doing the right thing. I believe it's very firmly doing the right thing to be a part of what the UK, Canada, France and other nations are doing, which is to try to break the cycle of violence that's been there for far too long and to find a path to peace.
SARA: The Federal Government is allowing a debate today on Barnaby Joyce's private members bill to abolish the net zero target. If the Government is serious about climate change action, why don't you give that time to teal independent Zali Steggall's bill on the risks of climate change, rather than deciding to allow Barnaby Joyce's bill to go ahead?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Barnaby Joyce is a member of the alternative government. Independents will come up with things from time to time, I'm not aware of the details of Zali Steggall's private members bill or others. It is reasonable that there's an allocation between government and opposition time for private members business. That's business as usual. That's the way the Parliament operates, and that's the way that it operated when I was Leader of the House and Manager of Opposition business for 10 years.
SARA: So, this is not about politics playing out today with Barnaby Joyce's private members bill?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it certainly is about politics. It's about politics and chaos on the other side. The fact that some people on the other side don't support net zero, want to go back to the climate wars. And we saw that play out at the LNP Conference in Queensland where the Leader of the Opposition gave a speech about the need to modernise and look forward, and what the LNP decided to do there overwhelmingly, including with the Leader of the National Party, is to look backwards for climate wars and to pretend that climate change wasn't real. If you don't support net zero, you don't support action on climate change - it's as simple as that. And the fact that the Coalition have become more right wing and more entrenched in their opposition to climate change action than the Morrison government was, is rather extraordinary.
SARA: Prime Minister, thank you for your time again on Radio National Breakfast this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Sally.
