MRS MELISSA MCINTOSH MP, MEMBER FOR LINDSAY: Hi, everyone, I'm Melissa McIntosh, the Member for Lindsay, and it is fantastic to welcome the Prime Minister to Jamisontown this morning with Katie and Lachlan, who have recently purchased their very first home, along with their little dog Gizmo. It's fantastic to be here today. Western Sydney is the heartland of young families who are working so hard to get ahead to buy their first home, to also get that local job so they don't have to do that long commute, whether it's sitting in their car or on a train to work, and to secure a stronger future, a better future, a brighter future for their families. And the Morrison Government is backing that. We're backing it through our Budget. We're backing it through our policies, and we're backing it with our plan, the Prime Minister's plan for a stronger future for families, just like we have here today. Thank you very much, and Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you very much, Melissa. It's great to be here, and Katie and Lachlan, thank you very much for having us in to your home, your home …
KATIE AND LACHLAN: [CROSS TALK] No, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: … your first home, today, and it was great to be here with Dani and Chris also and to be able to talk to them about their aspirations to be doing exactly what Katie and Lachlan are here doing today.
Before I talk about how that's all been made possible, I just want to make some remarks about the very moving address we had yesterday from President Zelenskyy from Ukraine to the Australian Parliament last evening. I invited President Zelenskyy to come and speak to our Parliament, and it was a truly momentous occasion, and I can tell him after yesterday we announced $25 million in further support, military support. We're not just sending our prayers, we're sending our guns, we're sending our munitions, we're sending our humanitarian aid, we're sending all of this and body armour and all of these things, and we're going to be sending our armoured vehicles, our Bushmasters as well. And we're flying them over there on our C-17s to make sure they can be there to support.
And so I thank President Zelenskyy for coming and addressing our Parliament and reminding, not just all of us who were in the Parliament last night, I think, but all Australians, of what is at stake here. When you have one nation bullying another, a democratic nation whose territorial sovereignty has been violated and war crimes being committed in the Ukraine by Russia, then this is something that Australians will never stand for. And so we stand with Ukraine. But President Zelenskyy had a, had a key warning, I think, for the whole world: that if you let it, a bully do this in Ukraine, then there are bullies elsewhere, and there are those in our own region who should be watching on to see how the world, and the western world in particular, stands together and stands up against bullies, and though we might be half a world away, as I said last night, Australians are standing with the people of Ukraine. And I was heading, speaking to the, to the head of the Ukrainian Association here in Australia once again last night who I invited to join us for that address, Stefan Romaniw. And Stefan has been in the Ukraine, and he said what Ukrainians are saying on the ground is they are just so encouraged that Australia, half a world away, has been at the leading edge of providing support. So as they keep asking and they keep working with us to define what they need to save their country, we will continue to support them.
But here today, I'm very pleased to be here with Katie and Lachlan because they have achieved something that so many Australians aspire to. You know, there are the great aspirations in life - to be able to buy your first home, to get a great education, to be able to raise your kids and give them the best opportunities in life, to buy your own home, and then to save for your retirement and be independent in your retirement. These are the great goals of Australians. These are their aspirations, and our job is to try and help Australians achieve those aspirations. And that's exactly what my Government has been doing.
Before the last election, I said that we're going to help more Australians get into their own homes. It was one of the key commitments we made at the last election, and we came up with a plan, a fully funded plan, a well thought through plan that understood the challenge that young Australians, in particular, were facing. And that is, saving for that deposit can just get beyond people and people give up hope. And many were, and we had to change that. And so we came up with the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, now called the Home Guarantee Scheme, and that means that you're not saving for a deposit of some 20 per cent of a price that's, is so hard and is increasingly making owning a home a challenge. But you need to get to five per cent, and that is a game changer, and it certainly was for Katie and Lachlan.
I've spoken to people around the country and it's saved them up to eight years to get into their first home. Now through this program, the HomeBuilder program, the First Home Super Saver Account, and support we've put through the National Housing, Finance and Investment Corporation, we have got more than 300,000 Australians into owning their own home. That's what we've delivered. That's what our economic management, that's what our careful planning and discipline in Budget has delivered for Australians. More than 300,000, and Katie and Lachlan are two of those Australians, and I couldn't be more thrilled to be standing with them here in front of their own home, that's theirs, and that we have had a direct role in ensuring that they could walk in the front door of their own home.
Now, in the Budget, we have extended that program. You know, when you're doing something, it's working, you keep doing it. You don't change course. You don't go off on another track. And the Home Guarantee Scheme is working. So we're expanding it to 50,000 each year, with 10,000 places specifically reserved for those in the regions. But there are many others, I know, who will continue to rent. My grandparents rented for their entire lives, and there are many Australians for whom home ownership will be beyond their reach. And that's why there's 1.4 million Australians every year who get the support of Commonwealth Rental Assistance. It's $5.1 billion that we put in to help them with the cost of their rents. It's an important scheme, and it's one that we're very committed to.
There are many other programs we're doing to support Australians with the cost of living pressures. On the way here, I saw petrol in just over $1.80 a litre. Now that is flowing through to the bowser, our halving of petrol taxes, far quicker than even we had anticipated. Now I welcome that, and I thank the the petrol companies for moving quickly on it and passing on those savings straight away, because Australians need that cost of living relief, they need it now, and we're delivering it now. And the reason we can do it in such a targeted way and a responsible way is because we've turned the economy around.
Australia is experiencing the biggest recovery that we've seen economically in 70 years. Unemployment has fallen to four per cent, from 5.7 per cent when we came to government. And because we've run a strong economy, because we have a plan to keep our economy strong, it means that we can invest in providing that cost of living relief right now and also plan for the future, with more apprenticeships, keeping electricity prices down by eight per cent, building for our energy economy of the future, ensuring that we're making things here, and as Melissa and I love to say all the time, we make things in Australia, but we really make things here in Western Sydney. So the jobs are here, and not just the opportunity to own your own home. So it's great to be here with you, Kate and Lachie. And I congratulate you for everything you've achieved, and it's great to be here as your dream has been realised, and they renovated as well during a pandemic. So, you know, well done. Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on sending the armoured troop carriers to Ukraine, we've heard in Estimates that could be up to four. Do you have an indication how many carriers will be sent and when that will be [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Defence Minister and I discussed this last night and again today. We'll be confirming those details and I'll be confirming those with the Ukrainian President as well, and their Prime Minister and their Defence Ministers. We've been in constant dialogue around a whole range of issues. And so we'll confirm the details of that, but I think you can anticipate that the support will be greater than that.
JOURNALIST: Bob Katter is calling for national service to be used to bolster defence in Australia. Do you back this?
PRIME MINISTER: Ah, no, that's not one of our plans. Our plan for defence is to put 18,500 additional people into the Air Force and the Army and the Navy, and that starts now. We're at 60,000 now. This will go to 80,000, and we'll keep building up year on year on year as we recruit. And one of the reasons we'll be able to recruit them in is because of what we're investing in Defence Force capability. We've lifted our investments in the Defence Forces from where we had it under Labor, which was around 1.56, 1.57 per cent of the size of our economy, up to two per cent. Now what does that do? What that means is if we'd left defence spending at where it was, at where it was when we inherited it and we came into government from Labor, $55 billion less would have been spent on our Defence Forces. You know what that would have meant? It meant that we wouldn't be able to be providing the support we're providing to our neighbours in the Pacific, which we've been able to do. To be able to be here in Western Sydney just recently as the terrible floods came through and the Defence Forces were able to respond. It would mean that we're not able to do what we're able to do right now to support Ukraine. We've invested in our Defence Force capability and people who go into Defence Forces want to be able to know that they've got a Government who believes in what they're doing. When Labor were in government, they cut defence spending. They actually said, "No, you should get less." What sort of a message is that to people who are prepared their own life on the line to defend their country, when they had a government under Labor which cut defence spending. We knew it was a priority. We restored it, and we've ensured that we're spending on the things they need to do their job and keep them safe at the same time.
JOURNALIST: On aged care workers, if the Fair Work Commission does approve a pay increase for those workers, will the Coalition pay for that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, we'll have to ensure, working with the industry, that Fair Work Commission decisions are honoured. And so this is, this is a false sort of policy that Labor's running around with. Even their own aged care spokesperson has had to admit this. Anthony Albanese's great policy is to write somebody a letter. That doesn't change anything. The Fair Work Commission will make their decision.
Aged care is a very complex and challenging area of policy. And the issues in aged care require careful thinking, deliberation and decisions. Now what's important about that is I called the Royal Commission into Aged Care, and in the Budget last year we handed down a comprehensive package - $17.7 billion, the biggest ever increased investment in aged care the country has ever seen, because we understand how serious and difficult this issue is. Now, with what we've put in this Budget, that is now up over $19 billion. And so, you know, you've got to understand what you're doing in this space. It's very complex. Even the leader of the Labor Party Anthony Albanese said, he said nurses are hard to find, so it hasn't got any easier. They're not just going to turn up. And so you face the situation with what he's spoken about is that you could see aged care facilities close, particularly in regional areas, because of their inability to get nurses. Now these are aspirationally good things to do, but you've got to know how to do them. And, you know, if you don't know what you're doing, you only make the situation worse. May be seeking to try and make the situation better, but if you can't deal with the details of of government, and this is why, this is my, been my eighth Budget. I did one on the, on the Budget Committee, three as a Treasurer and then four as Prime Minister. And when you've done that, you understand the complexity and the detail.
Australians know dealing and fixing the problems in aged care is not simple. A speech doesn't solve the problem in aged care. And if he thinks what he's talking about only costs $2 billion, that only underscores that he really doesn't understand the detail and the complexity of these issues. Things we're working towards there, I believe across the Parliament, are shared. I think we're trying to achieve the same things. But the difference is, we've got a plan to pay for it. We've got an economic plan, which he didn't deliver last night, and we've got an understanding of the complexity of these problems and a package of over $19 billion to deal with it.
JOURNALIST: How much has the Government set aside in any contingency, though, to pay for increases?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's impossible to know what that is. And so we're aware of those risks. But Anthony Albanese has signed his opposition up, and he can't tell you what that's going to cost. He just can't tell you what it's going to cost. And, you know, this is the thing - he knows the cost of nothing. If you know the cost of nothing, well, you can't trust him with the finances. And I think at the first hurdle, the first hurdle today, last night, where he had to put forward an economic plan as to how he was going to take the Australian economy forward, he didn't do it. That's what he had to do last night. Josh Frydenberg set out a very comprehensive economic plan on Tuesday night on behalf of our Government. On Thursday night, didn't get one. Fail. And then today, he was asked point blank, there on the Today Show, "Will you increase taxes?" Not just once, not just twice, but on three times, he was asked, "Will you increase taxes?" He fudged it, couldn't answer it.
Well, let me be very clear, because it's a very simple question to answer. There are no increases in taxes or new taxes in the Budget we handed down this week and there won't be any under the Government that I have led and will continue to lead. It's a very easy question to answer, Anthony. And if you can't answer on the first day we've got out of Parliament that you won't increase taxes, well, people are starting to get a good look at you. And that's what the election campaign is all about. Scrutiny that will come. Australians will make an important choice. And you've got to be able to bear up to that scrutiny. And if you don't know that detail, if you haven't put a Budget together before, like the Labor Party hasn't in Anthony Albanese, well, you just don't have, you just don't have the skills and experience to be able to deal with these difficult issues.
JOURNALIST: Zali Steggall says that she's more likely to support the Coalition in a hung Parliament if you're not leader. Would you stand aside if it helped the Coalition retain government by securing supply of people like Zali Steggall?
PRIME MINISTER: As we go to this election, we've set out a very clear economic plan, and that economic plan is backed up by the delivery of a strong economy, stronger than we've seen in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Japan. And we've done that through a pandemic that has saw unemployment fall from 5.7 per cent down to four per cent. When Labor were in power, they took an economy with 4.2 per cent unemployment under John Howard and took it up to 5.7 per cent. And you know what happened in the Parliament this week? When we said that in the Parliament, Anthony Albanese came across the table and he said to me, "Well, you know, you're forgetting the GFC." Seriously? The GFC, compared to the global pandemic and the global recession that we've been in. That's what we've had to deal with as a government. And we got unemployment down. Under Labor when they were in government and they were faced with challenges, a fraction of what we've dealt with, unemployment went up. And so I'm leading a government, and I'm leading a Liberal National team that is putting itself forward for re-election in its own right. And just as we did last time, that's what we plan to do again on this occasion.
JOURNALIST: So you wouldn't stand aside?
PRIME MINISTER: No, the people of Australia get to make their choice about who should lead this country. And it's, the key decisions are around economic security and national security. Who can keep Australians safe, who's demonstrated that? Who will keep our economy strong for a stronger future, and who has demonstrated that with the experience and the track record, and most importantly, the plan for the future? That's what I've put forward. Anthony Albanese has done none of that. So that's the choice.
JOURNALIST: You're a long way behind in the polls. How are you going to turn it around?
PRIME MINISTER: I've heard that many times before.
JOURNALIST: Just to be totally sure on aged care, though, you did mention your work with the sector? Are you saying the Coalition will pay for any increase?
PRIME MINISTER: We'll, the Fair Work Commission finding has to be honoured, and of course it will be.
JOURNALIST: Apparently your car ...
JOURNALIST: This is a lighter note. I know the Budget's very important, but obviously you're in Penrith today. We're the local Penrith paper, so I have to ask you …
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
JOURNALIST: Do you think Panthers is going to be able to beat Rabbitohs again in the grand final match that's tonight? Be very careful with your answer.
PRIME MINISTER: I believe the Panthers would beat the Rabbitohs.
JOURNALIST: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: But Sharks are playing too, and you know who I back on that score.
JOURNALIST: Are you waiting to call the election because the New South Wales candidates haven't been finalised?
