Interview with Paul Murray, Sky News
8 October 2020
PRIME MINISTER: The success criteria is more jobs and businesses employing more people. Businesses responding to what we've put in this budget, which is a recovery plan. It's a recovery plan for their businesses, a recovery plan for people's livelihoods. And an enormous part of what this budget does is seeks to bring forward decisions that we're keen for people to make, you know, bring forward the tax cut so people can bring forward spending decisions that they're going to make. We want to bring forward the investments that businesses are going to put in place with this new, very large investment allowance. And we're going to bring forward what we want to see people do in terms of the hiring decisions they're making as businesses with the JobMaker hiring credit. So there's a lot of bring forward and plans, bring forward the infrastructure investments, some $7.5 Billion extra we'd put in this programme to have like Dunheved Road, which you'd know out there in western Sydney and a range of other important projects, Mulgoa Road and others. These are important bring forwards that will get the economy moving forward. And when that happens, then if people get into jobs, people get that confidence that businesses are moving forward again. I mean, 8 out of 10 jobs, you know this, your viewers know this, 8 out of 10 jobs are in the private sector. And so that's what has to go forward. 8 out of 10 jobs aren't in the public sector. They're in the private sector by people who risk their own money and employ people. And they believe in their fellow Australians to give them a job. And that's what we have to get going again. And so far, 760,000 jobs have come back that were either lost or reduced to zero hours. And and we've seen, of the jobs that came back, some 60 per cent of those were actually for women. So that's that's good news because they're, women lost a lot of jobs, in particular during the course of the COVID recession. And of course, when we put JobKeeper in all those things in place, as Treasury told us we prevented another 700,000 people becoming unemployed. So what we've done so far as has had the effect, but it's still been a big blow Paul. It's I mean, this COVID recession is a big hit to everyone. But, you know, Australia is faring so much better than most of the other countries around the world. We're in a very small handful of countries that are managing to cushion the blow like we have.
PAUL MURRAY: Which gives us the advantage to really just start to unblock the pipe and, you know, I'd liked it when you were Treasurer and I've advocated it since you've been Prime Minister about that asset write off, which was pretty good the first time it got announced. But now basically you could run off anything that you buy for your business. And that means the only way to get that used to be able to go and physically buy something. And it doesn't matter if you're a bloke who's running a business or a woman running a business. This sort of gendered stuff about the budget, I'll get to in a second because I think it's garbage, but the whole point is that if you are a worker, male, female, gay, straight, black, white, brindle, you're going to get a tax cut. And if you run a business, gay, straight, young, thin, fat, whatever, you're going to be able to go and buy something for your business and write it all off on tax.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's right, in this year. And better than that, the losses that you might make this year and most businesses will be in that situation, many businesses will be in that situation through no fault of their own. But basically, the customers and the business went away because of what has happened with COVID-19. Now, normally, what you'd have to do is you would have to wait several years if you can get through to that when you're making a profit again so you can write that loss off against that future income. We're saying no no, you can write that loss off this year, your COVID loss against the tax that you paid a couple of years ago. And that means you can get a rebate through your tax return, which means you can invest it either back into your business or it might help you with the cash flow. You need to keep people in work. But again Paul it's about bringing forward decisions, things that might have been put off for a couple of years because of a lack of confidence or how they were seeing things. This is saying, let's go, let's get through this. And we're backing people who are going to make those decisions and the whole country will benefit from them doing it. The government will benefit, obviously, because people will be in jobs and paying taxes, businesses will be making money and paying taxes. And that means we can keep all the other parts of the programme going as well. So it is a massive vote of confidence in Australians who are going to have a go.
MURRAY: I remember way back when they have one for yourself, one for the country about baby bonuses. But when it comes to tax cuts, there are people who obviously have bills that always rack up. But is there a scenario here where you need to spend a dollar for yourself and a dollar for the country?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, we'd like people to be spending it in the economy, but, you know, I feel very strongly about this Paul and particularly when it comes to tax cuts. A tax cut is not something the government has spent. The Labor Party talks about it that way. We've spent this much money on tax cuts. No, you haven't. Well, I never give a tax cut. But what does happen is it just says, you know, that money you earned, it might have been in your small business or the wage you got. You got to keep more of that. So it's your money. You earned it. And I would never be so, so rude to say to any Australian how they should spend their own money. That's their business. But the way we've targeted these measures and it is a very targeted plan, we've targeted those on low and middle incomes, particularly those on incomes less than $90,000, that's where the majority of the money is going, because that's where the majority of the taxpayers are. You know, we know that in those income ranges, the people are more likely to spend it than they are to save it because they've got many commitments. They've got kids, they have their challenges that they're facing each and every day. And this will help them get through and make life just that, just that little bit easier because it's really tough.
MURRAY: For my sins I watched a little bit of channel two last night and the best that they could throw at the Treasurer was word games about what you said during the GFC, versus what you said now. Means you've probably got a pretty good budget if they can't throw any numbers back at the Treasurer in instant analysis. For those who want to say, you know, something happened 10 years ago versus now, how is this different than the GFC? And how is this response better than the one that obviously we all criticised 10 years ago?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. Look, I stand by all those comments. I mean, first of all, I think people facing challenges now probably couldn't care less what happened 10 years ago. They're more worried about what's happening right now, which is what we're concerned about. But I mean, what the Labor Party taught everybody when the GFC happened is what not to do in a crisis. And they made every mistake you could possibly make. And the key mistakes they made is it wasn't targeted. It just sprayed everywhere. I mean, cheques went to dead people. It was not temporary. I mean, they, when we came to government, they were still trying to build school halls, almost six years after the GFC actually happened. And they built school halls in places where the schools actually closed down. This was a stimulus programme where they just created new programmes that they couldn't implement and they baked in spending for years and years and years to come, which has been one of the big challenges that we've had in getting the budget back into balance before we hit this crisis. So Cash for Clunkers and I said today in the parliament, the last time that the Labor Party put money into housing, they put it into people's roofs and they caught on fire with the programmes that they ran. So Labor showed everyone how you don't do it. I think, you know, they had not been those those those instances because the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg and I and Mathias Cormann and the whole team we've been very careful to to engage in what is, I know, a very big investment to get Australia out of this COVID recession. But we've done that in a way that's targeted 90 per cent of the additional spending that's happening in this budget happens this year. Next year. Done. Okay. It doesn't run for five years. It's not used as an opportunity to bulk up all sorts of public spending for years and years to come, employing more and more public servants. That's not what this is. We know we need to act now. I mean, take, for example, the funding that we're putting in some $2 Billion into road safety and the $1 Billion we're putting into local governments to get all those little projects done right around the shires, whether they're the shires out of the bush or my own Shire down in southern Sydney. These projects are use it or lose it money. It's there to happen now. We don't want that money spent five years from now, six years from now. That's not the plan. The plan is to make it happen now because they're the things we need to bring forward to create the jobs and the confidence right now.
MURRAY: I know that you can't pick a favourite, but I'll make you do it anyway, which is regardless of the headlines, regardless of the big numbers. What is one of the decisions that have been made in this budget that you are genuinely pleased you were able to get through? It seems that things like the changes about superannuation was something that Josh was talking about a lot last night and this morning didn't quite translate to the front pages. But is there a pet project you've got in this budget?
PRIME MINISTER: Look there are so many things in this budget Paul. I mean, I always do get quite moved when we're able to do things in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and by listing these drugs for ovarian cancer. I mean, we all know someone I suspect. ovarian cancer touches so many lives and ends them around the country. And the fact that we can do that in the middle of a COVID-19 recession, I think says a lot about us as Australians, and it says a lot about what we prioritise as a government. Yep. We've got to do all these things which we've talked about - the tax cuts and bring forward investment and all of these things, the infrastructure, that's all true, but the essential services that Australians rely on each and every day. And if you've got ovarian cancer, that is a game changer for you, a drug that costs about $140,000 and if you're not a concession card holder it'll cost you around $41 and around $6.60 if you have the concession card. I mean that's important. The other one, I mean, there's about $100 Million for veterans. And I know that will be really important to you, Paul, and continue to deal with the challenges there, the money we're putting into mental health. All of this is continuing to make a big difference in people's lives each and every day. So, look, I could mention many more programmes, but, you know, these are the things you've got to keep doing as a government. You've got to walk and chew gum at the same time. You've got to fight the virus. You've got to fight this recession. You've got to create the jobs. And then you've got to give people confidence to go out there and hit it again. And I I thought about it again last night, and Josh and I were talking yesterday morning. We wanted people to wake up this morning and just know this government's got our back. We know this is a big commitment, but, you know, the alternative would have been just devastating. You can't let people fall out of work and not get back into jobs. We would pay for that for a generation, a lost generation, in fact. And that's why we're so keen to see young people get back into work, because I know well, our Social Service Minister probably told you many times Paul, but we know that if a young person starts their working age life on welfare, they are more likely to stay on it than any other person who goes onto a welfare payment. And I don't want Australians, young Australians to do that. I want them to have a fulfilled life where they have a job, where they have choices, where they can make a contribution. Where they can participate and you get to do that with a job. And that's what this budget's about.
MURRAY: Well, Prime Minister, we had no doubt today that the government's got our back and you certainly know many of the people watching this show and myself have got yours. Thank you also about the ovarian cancer stuff. It's how we lost my wife's mum, beautiful Noni 10 years ago, so well and truly something that we noticed in the budget and plenty of families who are fighting that battle. There's lots of those things that go onto the PBS that I always think are the great mark of our country, the safety net and trying to make those drugs as affordable as possible.
PRIME MINISTER: And Paul that reminds me of another thing in his budget, sorry, and another thing in this budget, which got a lot of publicity for sufferers from thalidomide. We are righting that wrong in this budget. There's some $45 million in this budget to support those who are affected by this. It happened many years ago and they live with it each and every day. And I've met many of the sufferers from that. And we are righting that wrong in this budget. We haven't, you know, made it a big deal about it. But I know it's going to be a big deal to them, and I'm so pleased we're able to do that.
MURRAY: Good man. So, as I say, you know, trillion dollar debt. There'll be people watching. And certainly if we had had this conversation two years ago about what the budget would be in two years, both of us would have gotten no chance. Have we fired every shot? Is this every, every silver bullet’s been fired out of the cannon at once?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've certainly thrown everything at this and we have to add it in this budget, and this is the most important one to to make these investments that we're doing to get Australia out of this COVID recession and to create jobs and and build our economy back for the future. That's certainly the case that we came into this Paul with a balanced budget. Having seen the economy generate 1.5 Million jobs since we were first elected in a triple-A credit rating. And that gave us the firepower to deal with this, whether it was JobKeeper of the start or indeed this budget. And we will continue to deal with the information and deal with the situation as we find it. But in each of these decisions, I think Australians have seen us on every occasion stump up to do what's best for them, their families, for their jobs and their futures, so look we will continue to do what is necessary. But we believe that the plan that we put into this budget will enable Australians to get back up on their feet. I know they're working hard to do that. This is a budget that I think matches the spirit of Australians that they've shown during this very difficult time. And we're meeting their mark. They've said it and, and we will meet it and we'll walk this journey with them.
