Radio interview - ABC Sydney

CRAIG REUCASSEL, HOST: Morning, Prime Minister.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be with you.

REUCASSEL: So, who are the families who get free broadband through this School Student Broadband Initiative? How do they apply?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've now had, families can apply, that's done also through schools, so that 15,000 families we're announcing today have now been connected with free internet as part of our School Student Broadband Initiative. What we wanted to make sure was that no child was left behind so that young people who wouldn't have access to the internet without this support weren't put at a disadvantage at what is an important time in their life being able to study. So, it is really important. It helps them with thousands of dollars each. It connects them to a free NBN service for twenty-one months and more than a third of the people are in rural and regional areas. But today I'll be in Michelle Rowland's electorate in northwest Sydney, there at Stanhope Gardens, at St John the 23rd school, and we'll be meeting some students and families who've really benefited from this.

REUCASSEL: You say you don't want to let students get behind, on the text line we're getting quite a few reports or texts coming in about the fact that the funding hasn't still been settled for public school funding at the moment. What is happening with this? At the moment your Education Minister, Jason Clare, has kind of said it's a bit of a take it or leave it to take the 2.5 per cent that's on the table. NSW and many other states are not agreeing to this, saying that it just doesn't reach the target set by the Gonski review.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it does meet the target of the Gonski review. What it does, though, is say, as the Gonski review suggested, that state governments have to pitch in as well. The Gonski review wasn't let the Federal Government do all the heavy lifting and state governments be allowed to not do their share. So we have on the table a substantial deal for states and territories. WA and Northern Territory have already signed up and Jason Clare is working through that with states and territories. We want every single student to be able to reach the standard that was expected from the Gonski review.

REUCASSEL: Look, I know times are tight in terms of the budget, but your Education Minister has said if you're a child today from a poor family or from the bush, you're three times more likely to fall behind at school. Isn't this a kind of productivity thing, that putting more money into schools and making sure our kids are educated for the future is a positive productivity gain as well?

PRIME MINISTER: It certainly is. And that's why we have on the table a deal for states and territories that's worth double digit, with billion after that double digit. And so this is a substantial offer from the Commonwealth. We want to make sure that students aren't left behind, that every school is brought up to that standard, which we would expect. I think that we're working closely with NSW. I think the NSW announcement last week as well from Prue Car, I've got to say about the curriculum and what should be taught in schools is also a major step forward. And I think that NSW is leading the nation in this.

REUCASSEL: Now you must be relieved by the inflation figures yesterday, expectations that a rate drop is now more likely than a rise, but the underlying problem remains. You've got the Reserve Bank of Australia using this blunt instrument to try and bring down inflation in things like education, health care, insurance, things that aren't really affected directly by interest rates. Is the Government able to do more in these areas to bring down these areas that the Reserve Bank really is reaching for but not getting to?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we're doing is across the board trying to have policies that assist cost of living pressures, but which put downward pressure on inflation and therefore help the Reserve Bank as well by fiscal policy, that is budget policy, working with monetary policy, that's the responsibility of the Reserve Bank. So even this measure today, cheaper internet, is taking the costs for families down for those 15,000 families. The energy relief rebate of $300 is again reducing the cost. Cheaper childcare is reducing the cost. Freezing the costs of medicines. The Urgent Care Clinics that are opening right around the state and around the country at places like Penrith and Batemans Bay and the Central Coast and other parts of Australia, with 58 of them opened already. All of those things are designed at reducing costs. At the same time, we changed the tax cuts so that they benefit, all of your listeners who are taxpayers, will now get a tax cut. We rearranged them while keeping the amount the same. The $107 billion over the forward estimates. So, we want people to get that cost of living relief, but we've been very careful to make sure that we're putting that downward pressure on inflation. And one way, of course, we've done that is turning what were Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses for the past two years. And that, of course, assists the job of the Reserve Bank as well.

REUCASSEL: Look, yesterday, of the 222 recommendations made in the Disability Royal Commission, your government fully accepted 13 of them and accepted 117 in principle. Do you think that the people that gave evidence would feel like they've been listened to after that response?

PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I do. Because, of course, a whole range of the recommendations re disability services are not the responsibility of the Commonwealth Government. A whole lot of them are about state and territory governments to consider these recommendations, as well as some of the recommendations go to the private sector as well. So, this was a very comprehensive Royal Commission with a range of recommendations. We have either accepted or accepted, in principle, 130 of them. The remaining recommendations, which are the joint or the sole responsibility of the Commonwealth are for further consideration. There's a range of recommendations that require further consideration and consultation with people directly.

REUCASSEL: Now, cost of living is a big issue and one of those areas that constantly comes up is electricity. I do remember last year, I think, when the climate wars were declared over, I remember reading in the Daily Telegraph that, yes, solar and renewables were bringing down the price of electricity. But today in the Daily Telegraph, there's a RedBridge survey that says 54 per cent of voters believe Labor's rush to increase the amount of wind and solar in the power grid was driving energy bills through the roof. How do you explain to people the impact that renewables are having and how do you overcome this sense that that's what's pushing prices up?

PRIME MINISTER: I think you have to continue to advance the facts, and the fact is that the cheapest form of new energy overwhelmingly is renewables. We know that that is the case. We know that the unreliability of the old coal fired power network is one of the reasons why costs have been difficult to bring down as much as we would like. And we know that the alternative plan that is out there for some time in two decades time of nuclear power, is the most expensive form of new energy that is possibly available. That it's too costly and that it will take too long. So we'll continue to put the case. People know, just as your listeners who put solar panels on the roofs of their homes have done so in part, perhaps, because of environmental considerations, but also a big factor of why people have done that is that it reduced their costs. And for that very same logic, extended to the broader economy, is why the advances in solar energy and batteries and storage are resulting in lower costs, not higher costs.

REUCASSEL: It's interesting, you say you just got to keep presenting the facts. But sometimes you feel like in political debate, sometimes facts don't matter or people don't necessarily listen to them. I know you're caught up in the day to day hassle of politics, in the day to day stories, but I guess, do you ever take a step back and look at the kind of perception of democracy? The most recent Essential report found widespread dissatisfaction with democracy. Only 37 per cent of people are satisfied with democracy. Only 25 per cent are satisfied with political debate. How do we repair that trust with democracy and institutions of democracy? Not about your party or the Liberal party or other, just that kind of, have people have that trust in democracy?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, these are big questions for this time of the morning Craig, I've got to say. But one of the, I like the old great quote of democracy is the worst system of government there is, except for everything else, all the alternatives. And it does give people a direct say. We should cherish our democratic institutions. I think that -

REUCASSEL: But I think saying there's nothing else that we can go to is kind of worse. I think we have seen a lessening in people's satisfaction and satisfaction with political debate. Surely we need to repair that so that we don't see people shifting towards more extremist forms of democracy, or indeed shifting away from democracy.

PRIME MINISTER: Oh, we do. And one of the things that I said prior to the election was that people had conflict fatigue, and I think that is the case. I think we do need to move away from some of the arguments which are there for its own sake. There's a range of reforms, for example, at the moment, on the table in the federal Parliament, that should be areas of consensus. Reforms such as making sure the NDIS works for everyone and is sustainable in the future. Aged care is something that, at the moment, in terms of the projections with the ageing of the population, is not sustainable. Now there's been an Aged Care Royal Commission, like the Disability Royal Commission. These are things that shouldn't be the subject of partisan politics. I think that climate change, and action on climate change, I find it astonishing that in 2024 we're still having to argue in national Parliament over whether we need to reduce our emissions or not. And I think that the comments of Barnaby Joyce over the weekend, using analogies of bullets and guns, again, is the sort of thing that just drags down our democracy and in that case is quite dangerous.

REUCASSEL: Absolutely.

PRIME MINISTER: I do think we need to cherish our democratic institutions. We need to value them. We need to engage in a constructive way. One of the things that gives me hope, I'll be in the school this morning with Michelle Rowland. Whenever I go to a school it really lifts me up. I find it incredibly positive the experience of engaging with young people who want to know about the world and want to engage constructively, aren't interested in just partisanship. And that's really positive. And tomorrow I'll be going to the Garma Festival, Australia's largest Indigenous cultural and political festival that takes place there in Arnhem Land. And that's always a really uplifting experience as well. Talking with First Nations people, seeing everyone from High Court judges, to CEOs of companies, to people in civil society, wandering around that site, talking with First Nations people from all over Australia, but particularly from that wonderful part of Arnhem Land and wonderful part of the Northern Territory.

REUCASSEL: Absolutely. A final question, by the way, we know you're a bit of a rugby league tragic. Do you have a favourite Olympic sport? What do you sit down on the couch to watch?

PRIME MINISTER: I do love the swimming, maybe that's because we do pretty well in it historically. And maybe that's because they're so much better than I was when trying to compete for the South Sydney swimming team that was based there at Central Railway, at the pool that's now been refurbished.

REUCASSEL: There you go. We might look into the archives and see if we can find your records.

PRIME MINISTER: Oh no, it's pretty ordinary. No one needs to see that. Thank goodness social media wasn't around in those days, and I'm sure that there's no footage. But it's just fantastic. And the other thing about the Olympics, when the Sydney Olympics were on, the surprise packet for me going, was weightlifting, because tickets were $20 each and I went along with a whole lot of friends to the entertainment centre there. And the great thing about it is everyone wants every athlete to succeed. There weren't many Aussies there, they were mainly Greeks and Eastern Europeans and these very large men and women who are very strong and everyone goes for every athlete. And I think that was very uplifting.

REUCASSEL: There you go, that's the right spirit. There you go, the Prime Minister a bit of a weightlifting fan. Thanks for speaking to us, Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Craig.

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