HOST: Someone who knows all about the Budget, he is Anthony Albanese, our Prime Minister and he is on with us this morning. Thank you for choosing our show this morning, Prime Minister.
HOST: You haven't actually turned him on.
HOST: Oh my God. You haven't turned him on. Oh my God.
HOST: Sorry. Are you there?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I am here.
HOST: Sorry, Albo.
PRIME MINISTER: I just had pearls of wisdom that you muted.
HOST: No, no. Repeat it. Would love to hear it. Are you ready?
HOST: Good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Wonderful to be with you. And why would I not choose your wonderful program?
HOST: I know.
HOST: Appreciate it.
HOST: Tell us why you would. No, no, I mean, look, it was a big night –
PRIME MINISTER: You give me lollies when I go in the studio.
HOST: Are you saying bribery works? Is that what you're saying? Is this a Budget for the –
PRIME MINISTER: Aniseed lollies? Absolutely.
HOST: Now you, I mean, the big thing is, you know, the broken promises of how many times you said you're not going to touch the Capital Gains Tax and the negative gearing. And for a lot of people they go, ‘well, I don't really care about that, I'm not an investor’. But there does have a lead on effect to so many people that are listening that that rent as well and want to get into the market. Do you honestly believe that if you had been straight a year ago and not change your mind on it, that you would have got elected?
PRIME MINISTER: We've changed our position, that's the truth. And increasingly over a period of time, not just young people, but their parents and grandparents have said to me, ‘Look, I'm just worried my kids are never going to get into the housing market. They're never going to have the opportunity that we had’. And what this change will do is mean that 75,000 additional young people will be able to own the roof over their head.
HOST: How does that –
PRIME MINISTER: The system simply wasn't working for people. And it's also tax reform that values income got from work, income got from owning assets as well. So, that's a reform that has been spoken about for a long period of time. But we have changed our position. We're upfront about that, that we've changed that position. But it's the right thing to do. We can't just sit back and see that the dream of home ownership will be lost for this and future generations.
HOST: I totally agree, but there is a supply versus demand. At the same time, there's so many people that are renting that instantly can't go out and buy a house just because they're not competing with so called investors. Are you saying that's going to bring down the price so dramatically that they're therefore able to get in?
PRIME MINISTER: What it will do is increase supply. As a result of all of our measures, an increase in supply of 30,000 homes through the measures that are there in this Budget, including the $2 billion we have for infrastructure to help with sewerage or water or energy access through local government as well. And that if you look at all of the measures that we've put together, whether it's the Housing Australia Future Fund that boosts public and social housing, the Build to Rent scheme for private rentals, the shared equity scheme that allows for increased home ownership, the 5 per cent deposits that were put in place. We're throwing everything at housing because we know that's the number one issue that younger people raise with government members and I'm sure people who ring into your program as well, you'd be conscious of it. So, we're throwing everything at this and making sure that people can still invest in properties going forward to increase their own wealth, but by investing in new builds around the existing properties, what that will do as well is boost supply.
HOST: Did you ever feel like not grandfathering it and have to deal with half of the federal politicians that actually own investment properties? Do you reckon that would have went down?
PRIME MINISTER: No, well, there's two million Australians own investment properties. That's a legitimate thing for people to do. And if people make those investments, you know good on them, we're making sure that they're grandfathered, their arrangements won't change. And what's more, people can invest in properties in the future. It's just if they want to negatively gear properties, I mean, you can invest and you don't have to have negative gearing, of course. They will just have to do new builds, rather the existing homes. And that's about fairness and make sure that if a young person's going for an auction, they're not always outbid by someone who has a leg up, essentially, which is what the tax system was doing for them.
HOST: Quick question for you. My wife and I sit down every year and we discuss our budget. She finds it very unsexy, very annoying about it.
HOST: Does she say here, here?
HOST: No, no. I'm picking up a few things here and I don't know if I've got these numbers wrong. So, the revenue we're expecting for ‘26 to ‘27 is $815 billion, but the expenses are looking at $833 billion. That's exactly how my wife likes to set up ours. Spend more. Like should, should we not be spending less money so that we can kind of pay off some debt?
PRIME MINISTER: We have made $64 billion of saves in this Budget and we have made across the forward estimates, the Budget's $45 billion stronger than we predicted in the last economic update. So, we have –
HOST: We're still going to spend more. Shouldn't we like, spend a little bit less to save a bit more?
PRIME MINISTER: We do have this thing called a global fuel crisis at the moment.
HOST: Oh, there it is.
PRIME MINISTER: One of the things that we've had to do, we've cut the fuel excise by half. We're investing something like $14.5 billion in our Fuel Security Plan. I think that's the right thing to do. It's extraordinary, I'm really proud that we have more fuel in Australia today than we had on February 28 when this conflict, the other side of the world, we're not protagonists in it, but gee it's having an impact right around the world.
HOST: Do you think it's hard for the average Australian to understand because no country is without debt in the entire world. There isn't a country that has no debt. Maybe some small islands, but they're not dealing on the big. No country in the world has no –
HOST: Saudi Arabia still does?
HOST: Does Saudi Arabia have debt Anthony Albanese?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not an expert on that, I haven't brushed up on my Saudi Arabian fiscal policy –
HOST: You're only looking at small little –
HOST: All right. I just wanted to make sure the statement was true.
PRIME MINISTER: What you can say is that no Western country is debt free. Our debt, our gross debt will peak at 35 per cent of GDP in 2028-29. We've changed that as a result of savings that we've made. Our Budget today is $173 billion better today than the one we inherited in 2022. That's a result of responsible spending and revenue measures put in place by my government.
HOST: Right.
HOST: Can I put forward an idea for the next election?
HOST: Here we go.
HOST: Since 2028, do you reckon you'll be going for it?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. With this idea, I think that will put it from the almost certain into the absolute. Let’s see what it is.
HOST: Here we go.
HOST: Yeah.
HOST: No more beer tax.
PRIME MINISTER: No more – we've frozen the beer tax.
HOST: No beer tax.
HOST: No beer tax. Not like the ones that you get from the cans or the ones you get from the thing. And then you can get wine, but not that - just alcohol.
HOST: And you could do it. Well, no, this is whatever, alcohol tax. And you could say, ‘the beers are on me’. And you dress up as the Milky Bar Kid.
HOST: Oh, that's good. That's really good.
PRIME MINISTER: That's a bit different from, you know, ‘A Better Future’ –
HOST: Depends who you look –
PRIME MINISTER: ‘Building Australia's Future’. They're the sort of slogans that normally feature on posters. I've got to say, there are some student elections I've seen in the past, I'm sure it still happens, which essentially comes down to free beer, vote for me and I'll give you a free beer. But I think running the country is a bit more complex than that. But we have frozen the beer excise. And it's the first time that that has happened.
HOST: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: Ever. Frozen for two years.
HOST: Yeah. Well, I guess we'll have to watch how this all plays out. And look, at the end of the day, we hope what you're hoping it does, does come true. Because at the end of the day, you know, we want people to be able to get housing –
HOST: We want people to be better off.
HOST: We want life to be a little bit easier. People at the moment, and I know a lot of my friends and a lot of people listen to this show, they work and they work and they work and they come home and they're like, ‘I don't feel like I get to live with the money I've got’. So, fingers crossed.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s the point. We want an economy that works for people, not people working for the economy. And too many people feel like that. They feel like they aren't getting a fair crack. And that's why every single dollar of revenue that's raised as well, we're giving back through the tax cuts, through the Working Australian Tax Offset as well. So, we're making sure that that as well lifts up low and middle income earners and that particularly benefits young people starting off in life.
HOST: All right. Well, Anthony Albanese, we know you've got a big day ahead of you, mate.
HOST: Long day.
HOST: So, we really appreciate your time this morning. So, thanks so much for calling through to the show.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks so much, guys and enjoy Magic Round up there in Brisbane.
HOST: Yeah, I'll be there tomorrow. And hopefully the Dolphins absolutely pump the Rabbitohs.
PRIME MINISTER: Latrell's back.
HOST: That's all we need.
HOST: That's all we need.
HOST: Prime Minister, thanks so much.