Interview with Georgie Gardner, Today Show
17 September 2018
GEORGIE GARDNER: The Prime Minister joins us now from Canberra. Prime Minister, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER: Hi Georgie.
GARDNER: If those polls are accurate, you’re in dire straits.
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve got a big job ahead of us and I know Bill Shorten believes he’s got the next election won. But that just means Australians would be closer to higher taxes and a mismanaged economy. That's why we're working hard to demonstrate that we're focused 100 per cent on the needs of the Australian people. I think what I announced yesterday with the Royal Commission into residential aged care, demonstrates that. We need to get on with the job and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
GARDNER: Yeah, we’ll get to that in a minute. But you are taking notice of this poll then?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you listen to the Australian people all the time. I'm not surprised that after the events of several weeks ago the Australian public are going to mark us down. But as we continue to demonstrate the Government getting back on with the job, focusing on keeping our economy strong, keeping Australians safe and importantly, keeping Australians together, that they will see between now and the next election, which is not due until next year, that we are the trusted choice for Australians to do all those things.
GARDNER: This poll did deliver you one positive. One on one you are ahead of Bill Shorten by 10 points as preferred PM. What does that say about Bill Shorten?
PRMIE MINISTER: Well, it says that the Australian people have had a good look at him for five years and they don't believe he's the right choice for Australia.
GARDNER: So that feels good?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's their assessment, that's for them to make that assessment. It's for me to focus on my job. You know, there's a lot of fighting in Canberra about lots of issues. I'm keen to try to bring Australians together to focus on getting the fix in and the solutions in, on those issues that are most troubling them. Whether that's electricity prices or quality standards in aged care. These are the things I think Australians want our focus on, not on ourselves.
GARDNER: Let's talk about aged care. Your Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt denied the aged care sector was in crisis when I put it to him on this very program a few months ago. What has changed?
PRIME MINISTER: Well first of all, whether there is a crisis or not will be determined by the Royal Commission, I said that yesterday. What I’m looking to do here is get ahead of these problems. What we've been doing as a Government, a Liberal-National Government, is putting increased resources into the policing of standards. That's what has revealed these rather alarming and disturbing increases in risks and poor standards of care in the sector.
So I asked a simple question; “How widespread is this?” Until that question can be fully answered then I don't have the confidence and I think the Australian public won't about when they make the hardest decision they ever make about their loved ones, they need to do that with confidence. I want to give them that confidence.
GARDNER: But your Government through Ken Wyatt denied a Royal Commission was necessary?
PRIME MINISTER: No, what he said was he would rather see the money spent on frontline services. He was talking about a figure of around $200 million. Well, that's exactly what I have invested in the last Budget in frontline services and aged care. Over $80 million for mental health support and residential aged care. We’ve got over $100 million going into better policing of standards, greater capacity, lifting the quality of residential aged care services and additional residential aged care places in rural and regional areas.
So, we’ve got to do both Georgie. We’ve got to have the Royal Commission to give people the confidence and get to the bottom of the issues. But equally we have to keep on with the strong programme we have been running. A billion dollars in aged care investments every single year since the 2016/17 Budget.
GARDNER: Okay, can you understand though why the voters are cynical when your Government backflips on a Royal Commission when there’s an election is looming?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s not what he did. He said he would rather see the money -
GARDNER: He said it wasn’t necessary.
PRIME MINISTER: No, he said he would rather see money invested in frontline services. That’s what he actually said. But as a new Prime Minister, I have the opportunity to make these decisions and get on with it. That's what our government is doing. I think Australians care about what's happening frankly, not the to-ing and fro-ing of politicians in Canberra.
GARDNER: Yeah they absolutely do care. How much of the crisis the aged care crisis, do you attribute to ripping almost $2 billion out of the Aged Care system?
PRIME MINISTER: We have been putting $1 billion extra into Aged Care every year, so I don't know how one plus one equals zero. I don't understand that math.
GARDNER: But you, you acknowledge that the system is broken.
PRIME MINISTER: I acknowledge that a Royal Commission is necessary to understand the full extent of the problem that our increased policing work in the sector has been revealing. That's why we need a Royal Commission. I mean this week alone we're going to have the legislation for the Quality and Safety in Aged Care Commission, brought into the Parliament. We're lifting the standards, we're policing the standards. The Royal Commission is an addition to all of that work.
Now, as far and wide as this goes, we will see and the recommendations will come forward. But what is clear from the work that has already been done; it's not just in the profit or not-for-profit sector, it's not just in rural centres or urban centres or large centres or small centres. Our work shows that there is a problem potentially and actually in each of these areas. So we want to get to the bottom of it. I don’t want to fight about it. I just want to fix it.
GARDNER: It is wide spread. Authorities have closed one aged care centre a month?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right.
GARDNER: Since the Oakden nursing home scandal in Adelaide last year.
PRIME MINISTER: They were our authorities who did that.
GARDNER: So what do you put that down to? Why are you having to close them?
PRIME MINISTER: Because they're not meeting the standards. We're policing the standards. That's what happens when you send the police in. That's what happens when you actually take an interest in the care, you find there is a mismatch there and then you act on it. So, we have been acting on that.
GARDNER: So why has it taken so long to call a Royal Commission, is what so many people want to know?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve been Prime Minister for three weeks, I think that’s a pretty quick time.
GARDNER: But you were part of a government that could have called this a long time ago?
PRIME MINISTER: I can take responsibilities for my actions as a Prime Minister and that’s what I’m doing.
GARDNER: Alright, moving on, allegations of appalling behaviour and bullying towards women have emerged within your Party. Have you spoken to those who’ve experienced that bullying?
PRIME MINISTER: I have spoken to the women of my Party about the events of several weeks ago. We’ve worked that through as a team, with the same process the Labor Party does. What's known as the party whips are effectively the pastoral councillors of colleagues in the Parliament of both sides of politics. That's where that issue is best managed.
But I know that everybody is more interested in the welfare of the Australian people. I mean I have no truck with bullying in any workplace Georgie, in any workplace. That's certainly my standard. That's the one I live to and expect my team to. But I also expect us to not focus on the dust being kicked up here in Canberra, but to look through that dust to the real needs of the Australian people who are our primary focus.
GARDNER: Sorry, can you just elaborate on what you’re doing to address the bullying?
PRIME MINISTER: Supporting members. Well, first of all there are a range of different views about what occurred several weeks ago, I mean it was a leadership ballot. Leadership ballots, there's intense lobbying that takes place. But since that time, people have been getting back to work and getting around each other and supporting each other. I’ve been part of that process and I think that's how it should be addressed.
GARDNER: But when female members of your party say that they have been bullied and they're calling that out, what is your response to that as Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Ensuring that it if those things had happened - and I should stress that cases that when I have spoken to people specifically, it actually referred to what was happening back in their state divisions of the Liberal Party, it wasn't about what was actually happening here in Canberra. So, I have been raising that with the party organisation itself. I think in the events of a few weeks ago there were some mixed messages about where things were occurring. So that was the result of my own direct personal discussions with people. But honestly, our Party, our team here in Canberra wants to focus on the issues that matter to the Australian people, not ourselves.
GARDNER: We will leave it there for now. Prime Minister thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Georgie.
