DAN TAYLOR, HOST: My first guest this afternoon, it's a bit of a late booking. He joins us, he's the 31st Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese. Good afternoon.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G’day Dan. What a stunning day it is here today.
TAYLOR: Oh, isn't it just. And you did a little bit of an update on that $130 million redevelopment of UTAS today. You did a bit of a press conference. How's it looking down there?
PRIME MINISTER: It's just looking fantastic. It's looking as good as the weather is here. We completed the western stand here. That means an extra 1,500 seats. And once the entire redevelopment is complete, it's going to boost capacity to 17,500. But it's just going to be superb. The seats are right down next to the action. There's additional space as well for people with disabilities to be able to have space and good seats there as well. It's just going to be fantastic and will attract not just of course footy here as well, but hopefully more world class acts like – the Foo Fighters played here of course a little while ago. So, whether it's the Fooeys or the footy, this is going to be fantastic. So, it was great to be there today with Jess Teesdale and a whole bunch of Senators were there, Tammy Tyrrell and Helen Polley and the Premier was there as well, Jeremy Rockliff. It's jointly funded by the Commonwealth and the state. So, we had Catherine King, our Minister for Infrastructure was there as well. 560 jobs created directly there, and we were able to meet and thank some of the workers who are there. They're going to be so proud. They're locals, of course, and every time they go to the footy there or go to any event there, they'll know that they helped build it.
TAYLOR: And, well, what does this mean for the north? I guess local jobs, the future of footy. But I guess we go down to the south and look at the stadium down there too. And if that budget does blow out, which everyone is worried about, will the Government put in any money?
PRIME MINISTER: Our contribution there is capped, so we'll stick with that. We made sure when we committed funding that we wanted to commit funding to both the north and the south. And that's precisely what we've done. And you know, we've put in a whole range of additional infrastructure funding, health funding here into Tassie, of course, as well. But I'm sure that Hobart, the development at Macquarie Point, that's a big urban redevelopment project as well, that's about housing and hospitality venues and a whole lot more than just the stadium. And it will mean that that site there on the Derwent River is actually brought up to scratch, it's been frankly a bit of a wasted space. So, it will enable that great city of Hobart to come down to the waterfront, just as Launceston uses the facilities around the water here, around the river is a great site with the redevelopment and projects that have taken place over the years.
TAYLOR: And Prime Minister, you were asked about this today, but will the Federal Government financially support Bell Bay Aluminium as they try to work out a power deal with Hydro Tasmania? Because that needs to be thrashed out pretty soon and there's a lack of a deal that's causing anxiety for a lot of the north.
PRIME MINISTER: We want to get a deal done. And I've brought my industry minister, Tim Ayres, down. He's talking with the Tasmanian Government and with the company, with Rio Tinto as, as we speak. Discussions have taken place this afternoon. And we want Bell Bay Aluminium to have a good future. These are good, well-paid jobs for Northern Tasmania, that's also about Australia's national sovereignty. I want us to make more things here, is what we need to do. And so, we're engaging on these issues. We certainly are prepared to make a contribution, and we're working constructively with the company and with the Tasmanian Government, with the Premier here to try to resolve these issues.
TAYLOR: And how close to a deal are the feds and the state in achieving this rescue package?
PRIME MINISTER: I hope it's pretty close because we want certainty for the workers and for the industry there as well. It's vital that in today's uncertain world, we need to be more resilient. And we have supported a range of projects here, of course, in Tasmania, Nyrstar and others, to make sure that we build that resilience and to make sure that we keep those good, well-paid jobs here.
TAYLOR: And are you hopeful of a deal then in the future, in the near future?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm certainly hopeful, but I don't want to preempt the discussions. We don't just give a blank cheque. But what we do is make sure that there's value for both the Commonwealth and for the Tasmanian Government, but also for the business as well. And so, what we're looking for here is a successful outcome. I hope that it occurs. We certainly are entering into the negotiations in good faith and are prepared to make a contribution, as we have for a range of other supports here in Tasmania. Whether it be the upgrade of the Launceston Hospital there or the opening of Urgent Care Clinics or Free TAFE, or the infrastructure investment that we're making to the highways as well, like the Bass and both East and West Tamar Highways.
TAYLOR: And Prime Minister, millions of Australians with mortgages like myself are watching tomorrow's decision on interest rates tomorrow. What's your message for households bracing for an interest rate rise?
PRIME MINISTER: The fact is interest rates are rising right around the world as a result of global inflation, unfortunately. Most of which, or a lot of which, has arisen out of the war in the Middle East that's causing petrol prices to increase and therefore flowing through to a range of areas. We know that people are doing it tough. The Reserve Bank makes decisions independently. We'll see what they decide tomorrow. But that's one of the reasons why we've looked at cost of living measures wherever we can, be it tax cuts or that support for increasing bulk billing and health care, or whether it be Free TAFE or other measures as well, including increases in the minimum wage. We've looked at how can we provide cost of living support, because we know that people are doing it tough.
TAYLOR: And Prime Minister on that, I guess many Australians are struggling with the cost of living. Is the Government considering any changes to the fuel excise to help motorists?
PRIME MINISTER: e had the short-term temporary relief. What we've also done though is to make sure that we secure supply. There's a considerable cost to that. You would recall prior to Easter, some were saying it was inevitable we'd have fuel rationing and we're going to go back to the days of odds and evens availability at petrol stations. Now, we have secured supply, that's been our big priority to make sure as well that for our farmers, of course, need diesel as well as people just needing petrol and diesel to get around. We need that to get to shops as well, to get goods on supermarket shelves through our trucking industry. So, look, we're very conscious of these issues. We're also conscious, though, of not doing measures that would increase the chances of the Reserve Bank saying oh well, we will use the interest rate levers. So, we've got to be careful about these things. But we'll continue to monitor, but continue to do what we can when it comes to cost of living.
TAYLOR: And Prime Minister, you caught up with Donald Trump, I think it was last week. Diplomatically, what is Australia saying to President Trump and his administration to try and stop this war in the Middle East?
PRIME MINISTER: What we say publicly is, what we say privately as well. That we want to see a de-escalation and we want to see an end of the conflict. It's having a massive impact on the global economy. US interest rates went up a fortnight ago, and it's happening right around advanced economies and it's placing pressure on people in communities. And there needs to be an end to the conflict, an end point. And we're certainly, we have encouraged a de-escalation and we want to see, of course, Iran as well, we call for them to stop their provocations and their attacks on countries in the Middle East that have nothing to do, aren't protagonists in the conflict. What people know, I think, is that since 28 February, even though we're not protagonists, we've been impacted by this and we've been impacted adversely, and it's having a real effect on households here in Australia like it is in the United States and around the world.
TAYLOR: And I guess on that note, what does a successful outcome look like for people affected by the conflicts? And how do you get that international cooperation when trying to end a war?
PRIME MINISTER: We of course, don't want to see Iran have access to a nuclear weapon. They need to stop any attempt to get one. And that's obviously vital for peace going forward. Otherwise, we want to see the Strait of Hormuz opened. We want to see the passage of trade occur without restrictions. That's really important for a trading nation like Australia, where we depend upon those sea lanes, of course, in our own region and right around the world to get our goods to and from this island continent of ours.
TAYLOR: And Prime Minister, just jumping from that to health, we keep on hearing about the backlog in the health system, largely due to the inability to discharge people from hospital into aged care places. Why won't the Federal Government fund more places to free up the chain?
PRIME MINISTER: We've got a massive increase in aged care funding. We've put an additional $700 million into Tasmanian hospitals in the latest agreement. And on top of that, of course, we have the investment we're making here in Launceston. We've delivered eight Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, including one here in Launceston, another one in Burnie. We had boosted bulk billing as well, is making a big difference. 72 clinics now are fully bulk billing. There was only 26 before we tripled the bulk billing incentive. So, all of that is making an enormous difference. And in aged care, one of the things that we've done is to properly fund nurses and staff in aged care with a considerable increase because they were in danger of literally being in crisis because of the workforce leaving in droves. So, we're continuing to invest. Of course, aged care facilities need to be built and we're encouraging that to occur as well as providing additional funding for home care. That is so important because a lot of people, of course, want to stay in home for as long as possible.
TAYLOR: Well, Prime Minister, thank you for your time. Mr Anthony Albanese, thanks for stopping by the north of the state and sharing your thoughts with Tasmania today.
PRIME MINISTER: My pleasure. It's always great to be in Tassie and particularly good to be in Launceston.