HOST: Good morning, Albo.
HOST: Hi, Albo.
HOST: You're back again. You brought the Cabinet with you.
PRIME MINISTER: Wonderful to be. I brought all my friends. Yeah, we're here en masse. I've been here since Sunday.
HOST: Is everybody else is happy to be dragged over here?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. We had a full Ministry meeting yesterday. And yesterday morning, were down at HMAS Stirling and I got to go on a nuclear-powered sub, a Virginia Class.
HOST: Did you press a big red button?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we were very careful not to press the buttons. They let us sit in all the control areas and everything.
HOST: Did it feel claustrophobic, the sub?
HOST: Well, no, the reason is we've been asked, we did ask, if we could get on a submarine and we had the Head of the Navy of the US made some phone calls for us trying to get us onto a submarine.
HOST: And you just waltz in and do it just like that.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, not quite like that.
HOST: He's got one skeleton key that opens everything.
PRIME MINISTER: But it was fantastic to meet, one of the people we met there is an Australian who went over, did the nuclear submarine course in the United States, came top of his class. He's been working on the sub for four months, embedded in with the US Navy to learn the skills so that when we get our subs, we'll have people who are skilled up. It's a fantastic idea. And yesterday we announced more apprenticeships for people here in WA, another 200, they'll be high wage, high skilled, really interesting jobs.
HOST: So, that's to work on submarines?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, the maintenance and everything else. This sub that's being fixed here, the Hawaii, is the first time that maintenance has been done on a nuclear powered submarine outside of the United States.
HOST: Wow.
HOST: Can we call the next submarine the six inch?
HOST: Sub.
HOST: The six inch.
HOST: Hey, Albo -
PRIME MINISTER: Do you notice the way I just let that go through to the keeper? Just pretended it hadn't happened.
HOST: That's why you're the Prime Minister.
HOST: I haven't heard of a lot of people who have got kids, that are around my area anyway, ever mentioned that they wanted their kids to go into the armed forces, for example. But I was just at a do recently where one dad said, 'Oh, I was telling my son he should maybe apply for the Army and stuff because of all the benefits you get apart from, you know, you're serving the country and stuff, you’re getting travel, and you're getting insurances and all that'. So, it actually, when he was spelling it out, I was thinking, geez, this is a really good avenue.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I met about 50 Australians who are serving in the Navy yesterday, doing everything from electrical engineering to a range of tasks. All of them loved it. Many of them, three of them, many of them, literally three were from Rocky, were from Rockingham, from the local area, but they were from all around Australia. They're engaging with each other. They get to see the world. Many of them have been, we've got people now in the United States, in the UK as well, picking up skills, getting to travel. Exactly.
HOST: And you don't have to do it forever.
PRIME MINISTER: No, that’s right.
HOST: You can get skilled and then move on to other things, like become, for example, the Premier of Western Australia, like Mark McGowan. He came from the Navy.
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly. I mean, a whole lot of people who go into the Air Force, for example, will end up being pilots for commercial airlines.
HOST: There's always the fear that I'll be sent to war. And that's where when you're discussing these decisions with your parents, that's where their fear goes straight away.
PRIME MINISTER: And that's why every single one of them deserves our respect and our thanks, because we rely upon these people to keep us safe. And it's a very brave thing to do and we should honour them.
HOST: I mean, I'm going to bring up something you've heard a lot, cost of living, but I've come up with a plan. Right.
PRIME MINISTER: You have a plan?
HOST: Sort of. I think so. Let's just run it by you.
HOST: We're just going to pay less for things. Is that okay?
HOST: That is sort of the plan.
PRIME MINISTER: So a shoplifting plan?
HOST: Supermarkets will drag their feet as long as they can. They can come out and say, 'Oh, we've got 150 products that are affordable'. –
HOST: And then they declare their profits.
HOST: Yeah, it's ridiculous, right. So, I know that's something that we’ve got to try and control. So, I'm just thinking, what can we do inch by inch. So, maybe can the Government each week declare one item to reduce the price of, say, I buy Anchovette fish paste –
HOST: Very specific.
HOST: No, no, I'm just using my example. This is my country as well. It's getting to be $5 a jar, which is ridiculous.
PRIME MINISTER: Tiny little jars too.
HOST: Anyway, it's getting to be, it's getting up there. So, like one week we go, 'Okay, we've gotten Peck’s down'. Then next week, what? What do you want, Nat? What is so expensive for you at the moment?
HOST: Oh, I reckon washing powder.
HOST: Washing powder. So, we can just chip away and just see.
HOST: I’ve just got to jump in, yesterday I bought some, it was on special, half price at Woolies at the moment. Go and get the Sensitive brand.
HOST: Have you even tried to buy, I don't use my dishwasher, dishwashers tablets are like $60.
HOST: Nathan, once again, you got to shop around because you can get them for half price.
PRIME MINISTER: Maybe what you need is just a friend like Shaun. But in all seriousness, we’ve got the ACCC, the competition tribunal essentially is, they’re getting in there.
HOST: Are they?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, they are.
HOST: Because it doesn't seem to be doing any look.
PRIME MINISTER: It's still tough, but it is having an impact. And one of the things that we're doing is to take what was a voluntary code of conduct, you know like, 'Please', seriously, what we're doing is mandating that and that will make an enormous difference.
HOST: So, when does that mandate kick in?
PRIME MINISTER: We need to work with the ACCC. It's essentially, some of it's happening already. We are seeing better competition, not enough, but we are seeing that happening.
HOST: So, Albo, Nathan brings up the shopping, which is affecting everyone day to day. But the reality is Woolies and Coles make about a billion dollars each, right. So, a billion dollars. But then our banks are doing profit for the year, we're talking $10 billion. Now that's the thing that's affording everyone, the mortgage. Mortgages are going up twelve fold, as you know. So, when Jim was talking yesterday that, you know, the global economy is having the impact on what's going on with interest rate rises and the Reserve Bank and, you know, you've been asked these questions a hundred times. What's the answer? What's the real answer?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there isn't a magic tick. The real answer is hard work, doing measures on cost of living that make a difference. So, things that we've done, tax cuts for every taxpayer, the Fee-Free TAFE –
HOST: Energy rebates.
HOST: But it’s not doing anything.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there is. You check your pay packet. You've got more money on July 1 than you had on June 30 in your first pay.
HOST: If inflation is still at a high level –
PRIME MINISTER: But inflation is coming down. It is down to half of what we inherited down. The sort of monthly annual figure is 3.5, down from 3.8. So, it's heading in the right direction. The other thing that we've had to do to help with that is to produce budget surpluses, which is a hard thing to do. If it was easy, the former Government would have done it. They were none out of nine. We're two out of two for the last two budgets.
HOST: But you also got, when they were in power, interest rates went up. And Jim was, you would have seen the vision, too, with Jim Chalmers saying, they’ve fallen asleep at the wheel. And if I'm in Opposition, I'm saying that right.
PRIME MINISTER: But they did on inflation. It peaked under them at the beginning of 2022. And then they had a budget in March 2022 that predicted a $78 billion deficit. Like they just splashed money everywhere before the election. And what we've done is to turn that $78 billion in the red into $22 billion in the black.
HOST: Okay.
HOST: We gotta let you go.
HOST: No, no, we've got something to do, Nathan. We're gonna prey on the Prime Minister's talents right now.
PRIME MINISTER: I did well on coits, and I do want to point out, and I was one for one on coits, and then they took away, they took away our coits.
HOST: You nailed it.
HOST: You know what? We've got vision of Peter Dutton breaking in and stealing those coits.
HOST: Harry, hit it.
[JINGLE PLAYS]
HOST: Now as you know, mental health is very important and we know that arts can help. So, this week we're completing a series of art challenges where you could win $500 towards your next art endeavour. Thanks to Good Arts Good Mental Health.
HOST: Now, Nathan, you've thrown the question to the Prime Minister. Can he draw?
HOST: Well, there's a reason for that, because we're playing a game.
[GAME]