Scott Morrison's radio interview with Neil Breen
- Written by Neil Breen and Scott Morrison
NEIL BREEN: The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison is in Brisbane today for this big $1.8 billion infrastructure overhaul for South East Queensland. I've been telling you about it on the show. Interestingly, though, he'll be there shoulder to shoulder with the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Good morning to you, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Neil. Looking forward to being up there soon.
BREEN: Well, yourself and the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. You haven't exactly been best of friends over the last couple of years, but you've come together for this announcement after some tense negotiations, we believe.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. Well, it's a $1.8 billion investment across state, local and federal government governments, it is a super partnership for South East Queensland. And these are projects we've been working on for some time. And you know, the Premier and I, we just get on with the stuff that we, we, we have to do. We work together to deliver important projects. Always have. I mean, down to the Gold Coast, in addition to that, we've still got the Coomera Connector, that's a billion dollars alone and there's upgrades to the M1 and Varsity Lakes like too, that's $680 million. It's almost two billion in projects also down there on the Gold Coast, which aren't specifically part of this deal, but we've been getting on with those for some time. But the Brisbane city, the South East Queensland city deal, this is all about liveability. It's everything from waste management to improving local amenities to major transport infrastructure particularly out there at the Gabba Hub. And it's also about the jobs of the future and jobs and jobs and jobs.
BREEN: Yeah, the Gabba Hub is central to this. It'll get most of the attention today. It's a $450 million Olympics 2032 driven commitment for the Wollongabba metro station. It's the big interchange that'll be between the busway and Cross River Rail, so all the questions today will be about the Olympic Games. Has the state government spoken to you about the Gabba knock down rebuild? Is that going to be central to an Olympic Games or are we a way off that?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I wouldn't say, we're way off that, I mean, we've been working together ever since winning the bid for the Games. And in fact, the bid for the games was happening in parallel to bringing together the South East Queensland city deal that was originally the mayors who brought forward the idea of going to those Games. We were quick to get on board and we were up there in Japan, actually arguing very strongly for the Games and then working with the Queensland Government. We're thrilled about it. But to that all going ahead and we've got our infrastructure partnerships, as you know, that's a 50/50 arrangement on the major pieces of infrastructure. And we're sticking to that deal and the Premier and I, I'm sure we'll have more discussions about all that. So that's all proceeding and we're working together well on that. And the South East Queensland city deal comes in and connects to that programme, I think in a real positive way to the connectivity reasons you mentioned it. So it is really providing the platform for the Games.
BREEN: That's right, because people have to be able to get around easily, if we do have the Olympic Games. There's plenty of other things on the agenda. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, you'll be asked about all these today. The Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has done an interview with news.com.au and he he's hinted, he's hinted at a fuel excise cut, a temporary one in the budget next week. Do you think we'll be seeing or are we going to be seeing relief at the bowser?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the budget's just over a week away and we're still putting the final touches on all of that. We're very conscious of the cost of living impacts particularly caused by the war in Europe, which is obviously driven up our petrol prices very significantly. And we know that people are feeling that we know that, it won't go forever those spikes in petrol prices, but we know they're having a real impact on people right now. So we've been conscious of that. But what we do as a government, Neil, we don't have knee-jerk reactions. We think through carefully how we can best provide the sort of support that we believe the federal government can deliver. We think that through, we get the design right, we think about the broader issues in the economy and that's what the budget will be next week. It'll all be about that plan to keep our economy strong, for a stronger future, addressing those cost of living impacts where they're really putting pressure on families, keeping our small businesses going and ensuring that they can continue to grow out of this pandemic. Because Australia has an unemployment rate now four per cent, and whether it's on how many jobs we've been able to create the strength of the economy, a stronger economy than all the G7 countries Italy, Germany, France, United States, United Kingdom, Australia has outperformed all of those economies during the pandemic, while at the same time saving over 40,000 lives.
BREEN: Because cost of living has kind of emerged very late as a big election issue in 2022, we had all the other issues bubbling along COVID and everything. Everyone knows what they were. But pensioners, Prime Minister, pensioners are really doing it tough at the moment. And there's this push is being led by Gina Rinehart and all sorts of people about maybe allowing pensioners to work a bit more to supplement their incomes, is that in the government's thoughts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well what is in the Government’s thoughts is today the pension goes up, it goes up by a 15 bucks for a couple and 20 (sic) bucks for a single. And those pension increases, I think, will be welcome. We've already had pension increases up until now, but we understand that living on the pension is not an easy thing and that's why we support at significant cost, and we're very happy for that to be able to done. But you can't support pension increases unless you have a strong economy. And that's why the budget will focus very heavily on keeping that economy strong. We cannot take it for granted and we know our opponents, the Labor Party, they don't manage the economy well, they don't manage budgets well, and Australians know that and that's what's at risk and that's what's at stake in this election.
BREEN: Considering the pressure the Labor Party put on the Coalition over the last 18 months when it comes to the issue of women and Parliament and Parliament House, and the whole thing, is Anthony Albanese a hypocrite for not launching an investigation into the allegations of the late Kimberley Kitching?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you're right mate, it's Kimberley's funeral today down there in Melbourne and extend to her family and all of her friends who will be there. And there'll be many Coalition members there today, including the leader of the Government of the Senate, Simon Birmingham. He's representing the Government. There'll be many others there. So first and foremost, today my thoughts are with Kimberly's family and friends. It will be a very difficult day. But on the other matter that you raise, Neil, well, the Labor Party and Anthony Albanese in particular has been very quick to throw stones, very quick to make accusations, but when he has to do with the same issues in his own house, well, he shuts up shop and gets into the basement.
BREEN: Penny Wong did the same thing. She shut up shop as well. Does she have questions to answer here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, principally it's about Anthony Albanese. He's running that shop, he's running that show, and there are serious questions that have been raised and allegations, not made by the Liberal Party, by the way. Not made by Anthony Albanese's political opponents. They have been raised by his own members of Parliament, unions, others in the Labor Party and and it goes to senior people in the Labor Party. And these are not things that have happened a long time ago. These are things that have just happened within weeks, within weeks. So I mean, it really is up to him to address these things and take them seriously. At the moment, he appears to have just dismissed them out of hand.
BREEN: Prime Minister, just quickly, because I have to go. Does it look like President Zelenskyy might address Parliament next week? I know negotiations are underway.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, we're in regular contact with the President and the Prime Minister. And yesterday, you know, we made some significant announcements about further support, 70,000 tonnes of coal, which they need to power about a million homes there. And to fuel up their amazing resistance, we've put further resources some $20 million extra into our military support and $30 million going into humanitarian aid. And then we're providing the temporary protection visas for those who have come. 5,000 people have already applied to come, just normal visas to come to Australia, which we’ve approved. 750 have arrived and they'll be getting that full settlement service support, access to health care, accommodation support and able to work as well. So we're doing all the things that the President, the Prime Minister asked for me to do and very pleased to be able to do it and keep encouraging them and would welcome any opportunity for him to speak to the Australian people.
BREEN: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, thanks for your time.
