KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Let's further break down Budget 2022 now with the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, who is in Canberra. Good morning to you, PM. Thanks for your time this morning. Appreciate it. Everything all right?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Karl. Everything's pretty good here.
STEFANOVIC: Bit happening. I was expecting a responsible left hook to our economic melon last night. But in the end, it kind of whacked us with a little wet lettuce. What happened?
PRIME MINISTER: That's a responsible Budget. We are tackling global inflation. It's a responsible Budget that provides cost of living relief with cheaper child care, with cheaper medicines, with more affordable housing, more Paid Parental Leave, we're getting wages moving again, we're making sure that the investment goes in areas like infrastructure and an improved National Broadband Network without putting pressure on inflation. These are difficult times. But it's a responsible Budget. It's the right thing to do to reduce the deficit. We've taken all of the revenue gains, 99 per cent of them in the first two years, goes straight back into the Budget to pay off, or begin to pay off the enormous mountain of debt, almost a trillion dollars that we inherited from the former Government with not much to show for it.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. You've said there are hard days to come. You prepared that for us. The Treasurer said that repeatedly over the last few weeks, that we need to have a conversation. But you kind of squibbed anything tough. You just kicked that old can down the road.
PRIME MINISTER: We've got $22 billion of savings in the Budget, Karl. $22 billion of savings is a substantial start. But that putting 99 per cent of the revenue gain back into paying off debt is a good thing for us to do and a tough thing for us to do. We know that people are doing it tough out there. But had we had a cash splash that would have just added to inflation and would have been counterproductive. So, we made those difficult decisions in the national interest whilst fulfilling all of our commitments that we made at the election, Karl. I want to restore faith in our political system.
STEFANOVIC: So, that's as difficult as the decisions are going to be made with any kind of Labor Budget?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this was a Budget that was right for the times. It was right for now. We will have another Budget in May. We will continue to examine the global economy. We live in a world where the impact, for example, of Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been substantial on global energy prices, it's fed into global inflation, that's led central banks around the world to increase interest rates. The fastest and most consistent tightening of monetary policy we've seen for many a decade. These are the challenges that we're dealing with. But we're dealing with them responsibly, building resilience in our economy, which is what we need to do, whilst fulfilling the substantial commitments that we made during the election campaign.
STEFANOVIC: I get all that. But at some point, you are going to have to muscle up and do it. And there are serious calls that are going to have to be made very soon about the nation's economy. What is the plan?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the plan is what we outlined last night, Karl. Which is for building resilience in the economy. Making sure that we have programs like the National Reconstruction Fund to build new industries, to help transform existing ones, to provide that support. The additional investments that we have in a faster broadband, in infrastructure. The support that we have for skills, Karl. We have a billion dollar plan on skills and TAFE and training in partnership with state and territory governments. That's about creating opportunities for our younger Australians as well as retraining people. Our cheaper child care policy is about making sure that we lift women's workforce participation, that we boost productivity that, that we boost the population. The three Ps of economic growth are all covered by our cheaper child care plan that works hand in hand with our increased support that's coming for Paid Parental Leave as well to help working families out there.
STEFANOVIC: Will you increase taxes?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have no plans beyond what we announced last night, Karl.
STEFANOVIC: So, it could happen?
PRIME MINISTER: We have fulfilled the commitments that we've given. Look, if it was on our agenda, you would have seen it last night, Karl. What we're doing is what we put into the Budget last night that will make a difference for those families getting the kids ready for school this morning, watching your program. They will benefit if another little one comes along with cheaper child care. They will benefit from Paid Parental Leave. They will benefit from the increased support for schools, for TAFE, for universities as their young ones go through the education system. They will benefit from the cheaper medicines that we announced and that will begin on 1 January next year.
STEFANOVIC: But you're not ruling it out down the track?
PRIME MINISTER: Karl, it's a bit silly to ask a question about future budgets after we hand down a Budget.
STEFANOVIC: Is it though? Is it? I mean, surely that's an obvious question. You've got to reel in the spending, you've got to find that money somewhere. And taxes, I'm sure, is a part of that conversation.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we had our tax agenda announced last night which was our multi-national tax plans. They're the changes that we went to the election on. We're a Government that's fulfilling the promises that we put to the Australian people that they voted for in May.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, just one quick one before we go. You did promise Australians they would pay $275 less for their power bills. Now, it looks like it is going to be 50 per cent more. You've kind of junked that one. Are you looking at any subsidies on energy at all for people? Are you going to, you know, alleviate the burden on their wallets in regards to energy, given how much more it has increased?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we're looking at, Karl, is regulatory reform here. We already tasked the ACCC with examining the gas issue and they came up with a Heads of Agreement. We got the suppliers to all agree to it so that the non-contracted gas went to Australia were for domestic use. We will continue, though, to examine the potential for other regulatory change. We recognise that this is doing it tough. But we're suffering from not just the Russian invasion of Ukraine but 10 years of a failure to invest. We had four gigawatts of supply leave the system and only one gigawatt come in. That leads to a problem with the old supply-demand. We are getting it moving with our plan for Powering Australia. We had the biggest announcement in new energy investment since the Snowy Hydro scheme just last week in Tasmania and Victoria. And we will continue to work on that plan because we know that the cheapest form of new energy is renewables. We need to make sure that we get more and that the transmission is fixed so that the grid is brought into the 21st century. That's what we're doing.
STEFANOVIC: PM, good to talk you to. Thanks for your time today. Appreciate it.