Well, the Prime Minister is hoping the new financial year will deliver a long awaited face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump. And there's plenty to discuss with the US President.
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Let's get into it. Anthony Albanese joins us now live from Canberra. PM, good morning to you. Nice to see you. Look, every Quad leader has met him. It's all gotten a little bit embarrassing, hasn't it? Pretty simple question. When are you going to meet the Donald?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. Look, we will meet when we meet in coming months. But my priority has been on delivering for Australians and today is a day of delivery. Whether it's an extra two weeks Paid Parental Leave, super on Paid Parental Leave, superannuation up to 12 per cent, 3 million of your listeners will get a 3.5 per cent wage increase today. Paid prac for students studying to be a teacher or a nurse for the first time. I think most people would think that people undertaking to be a nurse would get paid when they're doing their prac work. But sadly that hasn't been the case until today. A 30 per cent rebate off batteries, if you've got solar panels on your roofs. All of these changes come in, making an enormous difference for cost-of-living. They're all things that we promised to do and put in our budget in March and they will make a real difference going forward on top of, of course, the fact that we've got inflation down to 2.1 per cent and we've already had two interest rate decreases this year.
ABO: Alright, we were going to come to all of that, but you've now got it out of your system. So, let's go back to the first question that Karl asked.
STEFANOVIC: I don't know that he has gotten it out of his system.
ABO: In coming months, you said, in terms of meeting Donald Trump, do you have a date? It sounds a bit open-ended, in coming months.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is at this point in time, but we'll have a meeting. We've had a few constructive discussions. I'm sure when we meet, it will be constructive as well. As you know, the President left the G7 because there was a war going on with Iran and Israel and the President's intervention is something that we supported and something that has led to a ceasefire, which is good news.
STEFANOVIC: Is Penny Wong going to meet with him?
PRIME MINISTER: Foreign ministers don't meet with presidents, leaders of countries meet with leaders. That's what happens. She's meeting her counterpart, Marco Rubio. And that's a good thing.
STEFANOVIC: I could be cruel and say neither do Prime Ministers.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Prime Ministers do meet with leaders. I met the former President a number of times. I was in the US just a couple of weeks ago, of course, in Seattle where we announced along with Amazon what is one of the largest ever investments from a US company into Australia. Billions of dollars creating thousands of jobs, which will make an enormous difference here. And that shows the strength of the economic relationship that's there between Australia and the United States.
ABO: Alright, well, when you, Prime Minister, eventually meet with Donald Trump, the President, what are you going to offer him to escape tariffs? I mean, remember tariffs? That feels like so long ago now in this climate. If it's not going to be a defence spending increase, what will you say to him?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have, to make this point - I know there's a bit of a focus on this in the media. The truth is that we have as a tariff, which is of course a cost on the US purchases of Australian goods and services, of 10 per cent. There's no country in the world that has a lower tariff than Australia. So, that's the starting point.
ABO: So you're not concerned by it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's the starting point. And indeed, if you look at our beef exports, we're up 91 per cent by value when it comes to April this year compared with April last year when there weren't tariffs. So, the goods are still being exported. It's just that those purchasing those goods are paying more for them. And that is why tariffs are an act of economic self-harm. That's why we haven't reciprocated by imposing tariffs on US imports into Australia consistent with our free trade agreement. But we'll have constructive dialogue as we have already about the strength of our economic relationship as well as, and our defence partnership, which is there. The United States is an important ally of Australia, but Australia contributes to that partnership. When you look at some of the coverage, you would think we were this country that just did nothing, contributed nothing to it. I will talk Australia up because we are an important ally. We contribute so much to peace and security in our own region by investing in our capabilities. But importantly as well, the role that we play in investing in our relationships in the region is absolutely critical. That's why my first visit -
STEFANOVIC: I agree, PM. PM, I agree with you completely. And I can't comprehend how the President, given how close allies we have been with the US for so long, couldn't give a rats about meeting with you. I think it's so disrespectful. And why don't you just tell him to bugger off?
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, I've lost the audio there.
ABO: Karl was just asking, why don't you tell the President to bugger off? He seems to be snubbing you, given our close ties.
PRIME MINISTER: No, not at all. And we've had really constructive discussions. They've been respectful, I've been respectful of the President and I must say that he's been respectful of me as well, when he rang to congratulate me on the election. And that's a positive thing. And I've also had of course, constructive discussions with members of the US administration, as have my ministers, but the President has a view about tariffs. It's different from Australia's view and it must be said that it's different from past presidents' views as well and what most economists realise, that free and fair trade is a good thing for the world and America has benefited from that. Now, this President has a right to adopt his America First policy, as he calls it. We have a right to represent Australia's national interests. That's what I will do.
ABO: Well, just on that PM, when you talk about Australia's interests, we need to be able to defend ourselves, right? And the Financial Review this morning has a story about Richard Marles, the Defence Minister, not actually being briefed by the ADF for two and a half years. How is that acceptable? How do you explain something like that happening or not happening?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's just absurd. That's just absurd.
ABO: So, he has been briefed in past two and a half years on our capabilities?
PRIME MINISTER: The National Security Committee - yes, of course. That's just ridiculous, frankly. I haven't seen that report. But we sit in the National Security Committee with the Chief of the Defence Force. We meet regularly. I certainly have met with heads of all of the armed forces regularly, and that is just completely incorrect. We came to office, we initiated a Defence Strategic Review that outlined what elements we need in the lead up to Budget - the idea of this - $57 billion that we've added to our defence investment of our capability has come directly after discussions and engagement, obviously with Defence. And in the last Budget in March, indeed, we brought forward a billion dollars of additional spending bringing to over $10 billion our additional commitments over the forward estimates as well.
STEFANOVIC: Alright. The Prime Minister has rightly angry at you, Sarah. I thought that was a silly question as well.
ABO: I'll never read the Financial Review ever again. That is my commitment. Thank you, PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Don't believe everything you read in the papers.
STEFANOVIC: Exactly.
