JAMES VALENTINE, HOST: The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins us this morning, Prime Minister. Good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be with you.
VALENTINE: How are you feeling? Are you over COVID?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, I'm getting there. Last week was a difficult one earlier in the week. But I I'm feeling much better now, thank goodness.
VALENTINE: How did it effect you? It affects everyone, we all get it differently, don't we?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah we do. I have had two bouts now. And I haven't had any headaches. I haven't lost appetite. A whole range of the symptoms haven't been there for me. It's been mainly just fatigue, particularly later in the day. On Tuesday and Wednesday, towards the end of the day, I was pretty tired and just needed to rest. They were particularly difficult afternoons, but I know that some people have had it a lot worse.
VALENTINE: Well, it's a reminder to us all that are still with us, isn't it? We are not in any way post COVID, that's for sure. Despite all that you're able to push on and try and deal with energy prices, with state premiers you've negotiated a cap of $12 per gigajoule for gas 125 per tonne for coal, but the process is not finished, is it? Parliament is coming back tomorrow, what do you have to do?
PRIME MINISTER: That's right, well, Parliament will be back on Thursday in Canberra. And we will have legislation for the temporary price cap that will be there for uncontracted gas of $12 per gigajoule. It will be temporary. It will apply for just 12 months. But we'll also have relief for electricity bills which is targeted. Nationally, we've set aside one and a half billion dollars to partner with the states and territories to provide support for people who are recipients of Commonwealth payments but also some for for small business. And that will be legislation, we will compose that.
VALENTINE: Any detail on that yet? How that's going to work? Who gets it?
PRIME MINISTER: If you're a Commonwealth recipient, that is if you're a pensioner, if you are on JobSeeker, if you receive Family Tax Benefit, you will receive support through a reduction in your power bills that will be paid through the states and territories that will be weighted towards those states and territories, including New South Wales, that are part of the National Energy Market, because that's where we're seeing these big price increases being anticipated. If you're in WA or Northern Territory, or Tasmania or the ACT, you're not as impacted. WA is, I think, reaping the benefit of the wisdom of the former Carpenter Labor Government a long time ago reserving some of the gas that was produced for domestic purposes so they haven't seen energy price increases.
VALENTINE: In this cap, does this guarantee that energy suppliers will have to sell into the Australian market because? Because they will say it will impact in the future, it will dry up investment in the local market. Do they have to sell to the local market right now?
PRIME MINISTER: No it won't, in reality, have any impact on that, because we're talking about just on uncontracted gas. So it will have no impact on the gas that's currently being exported and the price that's being received for that. Similarly for coal, it won't be impacted, it won't apply on any new investment. We had already negotiated, through a voluntary Code of Conduct agreement, for 157 petajoules of gas to be available next year to be used for domestic purposes so that the shortfall that was predicted won't occur. That was negotiated out a couple of months ago. So it applies just to that uncontracted gas and it is for for a temporary period.
VALENTINE: So if this goes through through on Thursday, what's your expectation in six months time? Will I be paying half what I might have paid? Will I be paying a third less? What's your expectation?
PRIME MINISTER: What the Treasury documentation has shown is a decrease, compared with what would happen without this action, of $230, that's the cap on on gas and the cap on coal combined. But on top of that, of course, is a relief that will be available for recipients of Commonwealth payments. So that in addition to that.
VALENTINE: All right, you're hearing from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this morning. The energy negotiations still have a little way to go to the with the Greens and independents to get that through. It's really your first year, but it's 2022 we're coming to the end of it. What are your reflections on the role, reflections on Australia? Maybe one of the things I'm sort of struck by in your current situation is how you've got this combination of sort of nitty gritty things of wages and inflation right here in Australia, daily things that are affecting people's daily lives. At the same time, we've got these enormous long-term issues of China, of Russia, of climate change; these vast global movements that only have long term solutions while we're dealing with things that need immediate short term things. Is it particularly challenging to get these balances right?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it certainly is. You've always got to have your eye on the long term: dealing with the challenge of climate change, dealing with strategic competition in the region with the rise of China, the competition which is there between China and the United States, the relations with our neighbours, the need to give young Australians opportunities for jobs to train and give them skills to the jobs of the future, the need to build more things here and be more resilient as an economy. I want to see Australia manufacturing more here, that's one of the lessons of the pandemic. So we have those, those long term issues. And of course, one of those issues about Australia's identity is recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our Constitution that we will do in the second half of next year through a referendum, we will give people the opportunity to vote on that. But then there are things that just come at you like the global spike in energy prices that has largely arisen from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That has had an incredible impact globally, and that is what is pushing up inflation globally, and that's placing pressure on interest rates. So we have to deal with those things as they occur. And they've got to be dealt with though I think in an orderly, sober way working these issues.
VALENTINE: I suppose whenever anybody is in power there's all the big ticket items to deal with, there's the local things as well. But I think to many these times feel unrelenting. We go from from COVID, to Ukraine, to cyber-attacks. Things come at us very, very quickly now, don't they? And yet, then you've got the day to day sort of stuff. I'm just wondering whether you feel a sense of being overwhelmed? Or how do you deal with people's sense of the overwhelming nature of our times?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm very fortunate to have a quite extraordinary team around me. I'm the captain of the team, but I don't have to make every run and make every tackle because I've got people: Jim Chalmers and Katie Gallagher are looking after the main economic portfolios and Penny Wong is doing a fantastic job in international relations, Richard Marles in Defence, Tanya Plibersek in the environment, Amanda Rishworth in social policy, I've got Ed Husic is the world's biggest nerd on industry policy.
VALENTINE: So you haven't felt as though you have to appoint yourself into any of those roles yet?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I haven't. I've only got one job and it's a big job. And my job is to get the best out of the team, to get the best out of the public service. One of the things that I've sought to do is to elevate the public service and restore faith in it as well. I think that had been undermined in in recent years. And also to work with the private sector and to be open for ideas. The Jobs and Skills Summit is an example of bringing people together, Out of that came the Paid Parental Leave expansion to six months that will apply from July next year, as well as other ideas about fee-free TAFE, the 180,000 fee-free TAFE places that will apply from next year. I think we all need to work together as as a nation to meet these challenges. Government doesn't have all the answers and an individual certainly doesn't have all the answers. But together, I'm very optimistic about Australia not just meeting these challenges, but really being much stronger in the future.
VALENTINE: Hearing from the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this morning. He's not really wrapping up here because Parliament is coming back on Thursday to deal with the energy issue. Prime Minister, Ian has texted and says this: "I don't receive any government support. Neither does my family, but we're still paying these increased high prices on energy. I'm doing all I can to control my usage with no air conditioning at the moment, things like that. A benefit should be available to everyone that pays a bill or not." Is that in any way possible?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the price cap will benefit everyone. That's the point of putting the cap on both gas and coal, it will benefit all energy users by reducing the wholesale price. So that is why we have recognised the need to take action. There are a range of options open to the government. We think this is a responsible and measured and temporary way to do it. And the states and territories all agreed with us. Here in New South Wales, working constructively with Dominic Perrottet shows that you can work across the political spectrum to achieve a constructive outcome.
VALENTINE: Is there a need for a bigger fix on energy? Are you looking ahead at wider energy reform? It's it's a patchwork arrangement at the moment, isn't it, between states suppliers and all the rest? We need a national energy policy.
PRIME MINISTER: We do and we have one. On Thursday, we agreed to support our Capacity Investment Scheme. And what that will do is shore up the energy grid, it will put additional capacity into the grid. But we've also, as part of this, we have our Rewiring the Nation program which, put simply, is about fixing transmission. At the moment, there's been a growth in renewables, including Snowy Hydro which will come online in the future as a major source of clean energy, which will help with energy security. But it wasn't plugged into the grid. We are doing that through a specific project called Hume Link to link it into the grid. And that was part of the discussions with states and territories including in New South Wales for that as well as for making sure that the Renewable Energy Zones that have been established in New South Wales can also be plugged into the grid. We need to make sure that the grid is fit for purpose for the 21st century and, unfortunately, up to now it hasn't been
VALENTINE: Prime Minister I appreciate you coming on to talk to to our listeners. Just put your DJ hat on for a moment. Song of the year? Music event of the year, for you? I saw you were posting from Gangs and Youth, you were posting with Nick Cave. What was the best?
PRIME MINISTER: Song of the year, a new-ish band, King Stingray, who from Yolngu, some of them are from up there in Arnhem Land and from from North Queensland, 'Get Me Out' is a fantastic song. And it's just a great album. It's been described as Indigenous surf music. Unusual genre, I've got to say.
VALENTINE: 'Get Me Out' is a very interesting tune for a politician to choose.
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly, approaching Christmas, I am looking forward to having a few days off I hope and I hope everyone, all of your listeners, have a very peaceful and safe Christmas with their familes.
VALENTINE: Prime Minister thanks very much.