00:00Prime Minister, thanks so much for joining us.
00:04What an extraordinary setting.
00:05We're here in Al Parula, a station, a cattle station, Lake Nash, real cattle country, big
00:11sky country, like a movie set, I guess.
00:16What are you doing here?
00:17Well, Peter came to see me in Sydney, actually, last year, and just a couple of months ago.
00:28And he was talking about the industry, it was before we had seen the final lifting of
00:34any impediments to trade of box meat into China.
00:40And I committed then, I said, I'll come and have a look at your station.
00:45And here we are today.
00:46This is an extraordinary property, goes back generations, goes back to the 1800s.
00:53You have up to 60,000 head of cattle on this property.
00:59And I think as Prime Minister, I have a responsibility to not just represent all of Australia, but
01:05see all of Australia as well and engage with all of Australia.
01:09And the meat, beef industry is so important, whether it be live cattle, or whether it be
01:15box meat.
01:16It's an important industry to creating jobs and creating economic activity, as well as
01:22a mighty fine state.
01:24Campaigning in the north though, in the middle of the summer, the heat, that's pretty unorthodox.
01:28Is it maybe a little desperate?
01:30Are you trying to claw something back here or make a bigger point?
01:34I was here last year.
01:36Last year, I was in the north dealing with floods and the impact of the landslides that
01:42occurred around Woodgill, Woodgill and around far north Queensland.
01:47And the year before, I was in Northern Australia as well.
01:52And when the pandemic was on, I drove the length of the Bruce Highway.
01:58We did three road trips, including two from Cairns headed south.
02:05I work hard.
02:07And it's my job to get out there and to listen to people, where they are, where they live,
02:14where they work.
02:15And that's how you get an understanding of what this nation needs.
02:18Well, I have to say, you do look pretty rested and in good shape for the campaign ahead.
02:22It'll be a tough one, especially after a difficult year last year, where your poll numbers have
02:27gone down.
02:28Do you really think Australians will kill your majority after one term?
02:35We'll be seeking a majority government at the next election.
02:39And Australians will have a choice between a government that has provided cost of living
02:44relief, that has built the foundations of future growth for a future made in Australia,
02:53and an opposition that hasn't put forward an alternative plan that's just said no to
02:58all of our cost of living measures, and that doesn't have a plan for Australia's future
03:03that will take Australia backwards.
03:06So I'll be putting forward my optimistic vision for this nation.
03:10I think if we get this decade right, we can set Australia up for the many decades ahead.
03:16Politics is a pretty tough business, and I don't know, in this country we've got used
03:20to parties changing leaders.
03:22Is there anything, you know, that threatens you like that before the election?
03:27Will you be leading the Labor Party to the next campaign?
03:30Not at all.
03:31I've been in the Parliament for a while now.
03:36I have never seen a political party as united, as cohesive, and as determined as the Australian
03:44Labor Party is going into 2025.
03:48Inflation data was out a couple of hours ago.
03:51I know you love saying inflation has a two in front of it, but that's not how Australians
03:55really feel, is it?
03:56Prices are up 20 or 30 per cent.
03:59Do you sort of diminish their concerns when you use that, you know, reference the term
04:03about two in front of it, inflation?
04:05Not at all.
04:06We understand that Australians have been under financial pressure.
04:10We understand that global inflation has had an impact.
04:13But the truth of the matter is that inflation did have a six in front of it when we came
04:17to Government and was rising, and today it has a two in front of it, and it's falling.
04:23The truth of the matter is we've created, on our watch, over a million new jobs.
04:29And we've provided cost of living relief, including a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer,
04:35cheaper medicines, cheaper childcare, free TAFE.
04:39All of these measures have made a difference, and importantly as well, real wages have increased
04:44for four quarters in a row, and that makes a difference for Australians who are under
04:50financial pressure.
04:51It might seem a long way from here, but Parliament resumes in a couple of weeks, really, unless
04:57of course you change your mind.
04:59But what do you want to get done in those two weeks in February, given it might be the
05:04last chance to move legislation this term?
05:07We want to get, firstly, legislation for production tax credits through the Senate.
05:13It got carried as the last item of business in the House of Reps when we sat in December.
05:20That's about supporting new industries, particularly in the resources sector.
05:24We have, under the ground, every resource that will power the global economy in this
05:31century.
05:32Cobalt, lithium, copper, vanadium, all of these products.
05:37We have rare earths and critical minerals, and this will be important in setting Australia
05:42up for the future, and importantly, tax credits, of course, reward success.
05:48So we want to encourage that investment, because we think that we need to seize the opportunities
05:54which are there.
05:55So that's a priority.
05:56Do you have a deal with the Coalition on electoral reform, changing the caps, changing the amount
06:01of money that's in politics?
06:02No, we don't at this point in time.
06:06We have 25 votes out of 76 in the Senate.
06:09There's a range of legislation that we didn't get through in the last sitting of Parliament,
06:15but we did carry, of course, 45 pieces of legislation in a single week.
06:20That bill, though, I understand you were very close to getting that over the line.
06:25Is it worth another shot?
06:27Well, you can be very close to not get there, but what we won't do is compromise our values
06:32on any of the legislation which has been put forward.
06:36We want to make sure that there's accountability.
06:40People should be transparent about who's donating money during election campaigns, and we think
06:47that as an integrity measure is really important.
06:50It's one of the things that we're committed to, just like we're committed to the creation
06:56of ANAC, an anti-corruption commission at the national level.
07:00That was promised by previous oppositions that stayed then in government under the Coalition.
07:08They never delivered it.
07:10We have delivered it, but we also want to deliver greater transparency and integrity
07:16in our electoral system.
07:17So that sounds like it's still alive.
07:19What about Environmental Protection Agency reform, approvals for the mining industry
07:26while protecting some of these things like native forests?
07:29Greens have said they'll pass your bill.
07:31No, only if they get what they want.
07:33And what we won't do is compromise on the values that were put forward, and importantly
07:39as well, in the Senate, Labor plus the Greens is not a majority.
07:45And so at this stage, there's not a majority for a range of legislation that we tried to
07:52progress at the end of last year.
07:55But we were successful across so many areas, including 11 Treasury bills, including the
08:01ban on social media for under-16s, including migration legislation, social policy legislation,
08:09the reform of the Reserve Bank.
08:11We had a very good last week of Parliament, and I'm confident that when we come back as
08:17well for the sitting period that we have ahead of us, we will continue to pursue our agenda.
08:27But it's hard when you have a Coalition that's committed to saying no to everything and you've
08:32had a Greens political party that have combined with them to form a no-elition, blocking housing
08:38investment for example.
08:40With the election sort of around the corner, obviously, as we've been saying, how's the
08:44universal childcare package looking?
08:46Is that something Australians could sort of expect something on?
08:50Well we made our major announcement of course just a little over a month ago, I did in Brisbane
08:58where we said we'd give a three-day guarantee for childcare assistance, and we also there
09:05announced a billion dollars for infrastructure to make sure that childcare is available in
09:14remote communities, regional communities, out of suburbs, where it's not available at
09:19this point in time.
09:21And importantly as well, our 15% increase in the pay of childcare workers, just like
09:28our aged care pay increases, is about making sure that there's a workforce there, as well
09:34as when you combine that with free TAFE, training more people to go into childcare
09:39and aged care, that's an example of my Government's commitment to look after all Australians from
09:45the very youngest to certainly the oldest, so that older Australians can have the dignity
09:51and respect that they deserve in their later years.
09:54Can you confirm also that you're considering changes to bulk billing as was reported in
09:59the Sydney Morning Herald not so long ago?
10:02Look, we'll make all of our health announcements at the appropriate time, but we've already
10:06tripled the bulk billing incentive, and during this week, I was in Rockhampton just a couple
10:12of days ago at an urgent care clinic, that's one of the 87 urgent care clinics that we've
10:19opened.
10:20We promised 50, we've delivered 87.
10:22That's delivering free care, all people need is their Medicare card, not their credit card,
10:28and that has been a great success.
10:31So what we understand is that in order to take pressure off emergency departments of
10:36hospitals, we need to improve primary health care.
10:40That's been our focus, and it stands in contrast with Peter Dutton, who the last time Government
10:46changed, he became the Health Minister, cut $50 billion from the health budget, tried
10:51to introduce a tax on every single time people visited the GP, and froze the Medicare rebate,
11:00which led to a steep decline in bulk billing.
11:04Prime Minister, I'll wrap it up with one more.
11:07Elon Musk obviously likes to throw his weight around.
11:11He's attacked progressive leaders in the United States and the UK, Keir Starmer, Kamala Harris
11:15for instance.
11:17How worried are you that he's now got you personally in his sights, and what does that
11:22mean for the election?
11:24How damaging is that for someone who has such a big influence on social media?
11:29I'll stand up for Australia's national interest, and won't be intimidated by anyone, particularly
11:34not an area of foreign interference.
11:39So Mr Musk has his views, what I will do is represent Australia's national interest without
11:46fear or favour, and part of that is making sure that social media is held to account,
11:51because social media has a social responsibility.
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