HOST: But to lead off the hour it's the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese. Prime Minister, good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. You can dream of being on that course and actually competing there. So, that's, that's something that you've got.
HOST: It's a bit better than that course in Marrickville in the seat of Grayndler, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: There is nothing wrong with Royal Marrickville. It is one of the world's great par-62 courses.
HOST: Yeah, we should get you over for it for a hit here. It is looking good. Prime Minister, can I just ask obviously the, the story over the last two weeks has been the rise and rise of One Nation. We've seen increased support over the last month, and a lot of the analysis has gone to the damage that it's doing to the Liberal Party. Can I ask you though, do you think that One Nation also poses a threat to Labor? And what would your message be to people who are thinking about voting for One Nation?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, more important than just the politics, raw politics and that of course will always be taken into consideration by any politician, is the concern that I have is for the fabric of the nation. One Nation have played a divisive role in Australian politics over a long period of time. They identify what they see as issues and don't come up with solutions. Now, the fact that their vote has risen means that it needs to be taken seriously. What it signals to me is that there are many people who are frustrated with the existing system and that's understandable given that there are real cost of living pressures there. And that's why we're acting on cost of living, not just sitting back and identifying it, but coming up with practical ways to make a difference. And in South Australia, one of the things that we're doing very strongly is working with the Malinauskas Government on Australian jobs, whether it be the intervention that we've worked together in Whyalla, or whether it be particularly the AUKUS related jobs that are going to lead to significant high wage, high value jobs, particularly in manufacturing.
HOST: Can I take you back to the Voice Referendum? We had the part of Adelaide where you and Noel Pearson and everybody, when you came here to launch the Yes campaign, you went out to Elizabeth, in the seat of Elizabeth and, sorry, in the seat of Spence, which contains Elizabeth and Salisbury, that had the highest No vote in the end in Australia for the referendum, which seems to me to be a pretty strong indicator of what you could call like blue-collar, One Nation style sentiment. A lot of those people feel sort of disenfranchised and that, you know, neither of the major parties are really talking to them. What's your, what's your message to those blue-collar voters who historically have been Labor people who are worried about things like immigration?
PRIME MINISTER: My message to them is that we're standing up for your interests. Net overseas migration was always going to spike after COVID because all of our borders were shut. We have cut that down to almost half. We're making sure as well that we deliver for your community, whether it be through Free TAFE, where we've had over 700,000 people be able to take up apprenticeships for free. We're providing $10,000 incentives in electrical and construction. We're making sure as well that we provide support for people, whether it be that creation of Australian jobs through industry policy by making sure we back Australian manufacturing. I want a Future Made in Australia and we're working really closely on that. We're also making a difference over areas like the Urgent Care Clinic, including the one that we've opened there in Spence, so people can get that mid-tier, if you have a health issue, but it's not life-threatening, you can go there. It takes pressure off emergency departments. We've tripled the bulk-billing incentive that has seen bulk billing rates rise substantially in just a few months. We're providing for 1800MEDICARE so people can just get on the phone and get that support and not have to go to the doctor. We're providing a tax cut in July and another tax cut in the July after. So, we're not just identifying issues, we're trying to work with the community, work with the State Government on solutions and that is our objective. We're also providing for, well, I was there in the electorate of Spence just a week ago with the Premier where we're building 17,000 new homes, 7,000 of which were identified as has been targeted, just available for first homeowners. And I met a family there, lovely family, who have settled into their first home. That's something they didn't think they'd ever be able to achieve. And they've been able to get there because of that combination of the Commonwealth working with State Government to make a real difference to their lives.
HOST: Prime Minister, you say you're working with the State Government on some solutions, but are you handballing others? Because we currently have a situation in South Australia where we have hospitals full of elderly Australians that are unable to get into appropriate care. The State Government in recent days has announced hundreds of millions of dollars worth of interest free loans to stimulate building in the aged care sector. They've committed to using the old Women's and Children's Hospital for aged care. Now this is a federal responsibility. Why should state governments be forced to clean up what is by definition your mess?
PRIME MINISTER: Let's be very clear here. It's a mess that we inherited. When there was a Royal Commission into aged care that was identified by its title, neglect. One word. And what we've done is the biggest reform in aged care this century. We've provided $25 billion to the states of additional hospital funding. We identified $2 billion of that for the states was available for dealing with the issue that you talk about, of aged care. Now, there are a range of issues. One was the frankly, just the financial viability of building new aged care facilities. We've addressed that through the legislation which to be fair, was passed with the support as well of Peter Dutton when he was Opposition Leader. But we're also providing that significant additional funding. We've put nurses back into nursing homes 99 per cent of the time. We've provided for an increase in aged care wages. One of the issues with aged care was that people weren't staying in the workforce. So, the wage increase that costs a lot of money has increased the pay for people in the aged care sector by around about 20 per cent and that's made a substantial difference as well. People aren't leaving the sector and there are literally millions of additional minutes every day for people who are in aged care.
HOST: And yet I'm not talking about a historical problem. This is a problem right now in our hospitals.
PRIME MINISTER: Of course there is, because you can't change a system to encourage building of aged care beds and they're built and opened the next day. That's the truth. There's no point gilding the lily there. What we have now, though, is an incentive for that to occur and to be addressed. We also need, one of the things I've discussed with state and local government, is planning approvals for aged care centres. There are areas around Australia where approvals have been in place for years and councils knock back the approval of aged care centres, facilities, because for whatever reason they don't support them. Now, what we have with an ageing population, we will need more centres. In addition to that, we want to address the aged care packages at home as well that we've cut down the approval times to almost half, in between an approval and then it being in place. And older people of course want to prefer wherever it's possible to be able to stay in their own homes.
HOST: Prime Minister, just want to ask you about some revenue measures that you see appear to be both actively introducing and also contemplating at the moment, namely the reintroduction of the super changes that the 'Tister has written about this morning, albeit slightly changed, and Capital Gains Tax. The potential that there's either a halving or removal of the Capital Gains Tax discount at the moment. We have a situation in Australia at the moment where between March and December last year spending blew out by $55 billion. Government spending on goods and services is at 26.9 per cent of GDP. It's the highest it's been since the pandemic. The NDIS has blown out 43 per cent in four years. Why does it make sense to tax Australians more ahead of tightening your own budget?
PRIME MINISTER We're taxing Australians less. Every one of your listeners will get a tax cut -
HOST: Yeah, but Capital Gains Tax changes will be, that's, that's more tax if you change it -
PRIME MINISTER: Well -
HOST: Taxation of super balances is new taxation.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there'll be speculation - that's not right. What we are doing actually in superannuation is giving greater benefit to people who are low and middle income earners. People like your listeners that you spoke about in Elizabeth will get more support and people like me will get less support. That's a good thing. They're the super changes that we are bringing in. We're giving every single Australian a tax cut in July and another one next year, and that is what we went to the election on. And of course, Angus Taylor went to the election as Shadow Treasurer saying that he would reverse that and introduce legislation to have high taxes for all 14 million Australian taxpayers. And when it comes to the figure that you use, we just spoke about hospitals and aged care. $25 billion of that is our Hospitals and Health Agreement that we put into the Mid-Year Economic Forecast. We made provision for it, now it's been completed. That is the major new expenditure. Now, I think that putting additional money into hospitals and healthcare is worthwhile and so does everyone in my government, and I suspect that every one of your listeners do too, as well.
HOST: We'll have to leave it there. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, thanks for joining us this morning on FiveAA.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much guys. Enjoy the golf.