The prime minister's journey through northern Australia has taken him to the northern territory today and the lake Nash cattle station. Anthony Albanese used the visit to talk about his government's impact on the beef industry, as well as the sitting year ahead and of course the election campaign.
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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.