PAUL MURRAY: Prime Minister, nice to see you again. 

 

PRIME MINISTER: Good to see you, Paul. 

 

MURRAY: Now before we get into everything, I've got a selection of breads here, I need you to rank them from most expensive to the least expensive. We might do that a bit later.

 

PRIME MINISTER: Sure. We'll make some toast. 

 

MURRAY: Our mate, Chris Kenny has a great line about the National Press Club that it's it's a home game for Labor people and an away game for Liberal people. 

 

PRIME MINISTER: Sure. 

 

MURRAY: They came at you really hard yesterday and that's fine. People can come hard, but it seems so personal. So what's happening inside you when it's that personal? 

 

PRIME MINISTER: You have the same human reactions as anyone else does, Paul, but at the same time, you know, I never let that sort of distract me. I know what they're trying to do. And yes, it was one of the more brutal outings at the press club. I've been there many, many, many times and there's been some experiences there, and that's okay. But I just expect them to apply the same blowtorch to the to the to my opponents. And if they do that, fair enough. But if they don't, well people make up their own mind what that's all about.

 

MURRAY: Why do you think when people go you that it is always personal? It's very rarely about the idea or the policy, or it's always seemingly personal? 

 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I remember they used to do the same thing to John Howard, remember? And so, you know, when you've got unemployment down to 4.2 per cent, when you've got youth unemployment to under 10, you have 220,000 trade apprentices in training, the highest level since 1963. You know, you've got one of the lowest fatality rates from COVID in the world, strongest economies, highest vaccination rates. Well, I'm not surprised they're going to come after me on personal attacks, and that's what my opponents have done over the last three years. I mean, they've had one job get up every day and sledge me. The jobs I've had over the last three years are about keeping Australians safe. I mean, COVID has been a big part of that. But one of the things I said yesterday was COVID hasn't been the only thing going on, and we can't forget that. I mean, the world we're living at the moment, we know, I'm not just talking about Ukraine, I'm more significantly talking about what's happened in our region, while we're battling COVID, we were putting together AUKUS. While we were battling COVID, we were finalising an agreement which took us three years to do with Japan on defence. These were the things that were going on at the same time, as well as obviously dealing with big challenge with veterans services, aged care reforms, the royal commission response. So it's been very busy. And when you go to the press club, these are the things you like to talk about. But instead, we talk about, you know, text messages between people somewhere else. But what does that mean for someone's job? Nothing. The stuff that we were talking about and I brought to the press club yesterday was about things that put people in work. And, you know, we're looking at an unemployment rate with a 3 in front of it. That hasn't happened for 50 years. 

 

MURRAY: So can you do that as well as eventual international border changes? Or is that something that can only happen when you know the February numbers come in and we're past the Omicron stuff? How do we get to 3? 

 

PRIME MINISTER: One of the things that is honestly kept inspiring me over the pandemic has been how quickly our economy has bounced back after each of these shocks, whether it was the initial waves, whether it was the lockdowns, whether it was, you know, what we're even experiencing now and the resilience of the Australian economy. Now that didn't happen by accident. When the pandemic hit, the Australian economy was strong and we worked very hard to achieve that. And the balance sheet of the country, you remember that we brought the budget back into balance and got there just before the pandemic hit. So that meant we could respond and invest. But the things we've invested in, not just keeping businesses alive and people in work. We've been investing in manufacturing capability. We've been investing in our defence capability. We've been investing in our agricultural sector and soils and these issues and making sure that our ag sector there is doing well. We're investing in energy, we're building, we're building gas fired power plants in Kurri Kurri. I've always been for it and we'll build it the way we designed it …

 

MURRAY: And each way is now on board with it, it's okay!

 

PRIME MINISTER: Well he is, he is. But you know, you know, next week could be a different thing. Who knows? 

 

MURRAY: Yeah. 

 

PRIME MINISTER: You know, all about it. But all of these issues are building the economy. And the reason we're on our way to an unemployment rate with a 3 in front of it is because of that economic plan that we have been implementing and now expanding. 

 

MURRAY: When you talk about the alternative, is that they've got runs on the board from when they weren’t in government 25 years ago, but when they were there last time with Rudd-Gillard-Rudd-Rudd, good luck with KK on the borders. Good luck with, you know, the brother of the union bloke in defence versus Peter Dutton. 

 

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. 

 

MURRAY: You name it, but these are always, a lot of people talk about presidential campaigns. They all are to some degree. But how important is people seeing what comes with the alternative? 

 

PRIME MINISTER: Oh, well, I think it's vital because you've gotta weigh both of them up and that's, you know, everyone has a role in I think bringing that to the fore so Australians can understand the choice and the consequences of those choices. But you make a very good point about the team, and I've got a great team and I'm very proud of my team. I mean, we've been able to take Australia through this very challenging time because I've had very good people doing their jobs and doing them so faithfully each and every day. And you do have to line up well, who's the Defence Minister for my team? Well, it's Peter Dutton. Theirs is the guy who was one of the failed immigration ministers, Brendan O'Connor. I remember because I was the shadow minister at the time, who was one of their worst, arguably their worst. He couldn't secure the borders. And Anthony Albanese thinks he's the right bloke to defend the country. So there's a lot of them. Josh Frydenberg has delivered three budgets now. We've done those together and he has done a terrific job, whether it's JobKeeper or very targeted ways we've spent. Now I know a lot of your viewers are going, gee, you guys have had to spend a lot. It's not something we do instinctively, but we've been able to maintain our AAA credit rating. And when they look at your AAA credit rating and what they assess, because as a Treasurer, I remember it, I did three budgets of my own, they look at not just what the level of spending is, but what you're spending on. So take JobKeeper, for example, saved the economy, saved businesses, saved lives, I believed. And they looked at how it had a start date and a stop date. Now our opponents, they were going to keep going, $11 billion a month. They wanted to keep going and said, well, we're going to fall off a cliff. That didn't happen. Employment actually went up. Same thing, $6 billion to pay people to get a vaccination they've already had. And this stuff goes on and on. There's the discipline of the way Josh has crafted this, this investment, and particularly we are talking about young apprentices. That's an investment. That's a big investment. That is why they've looked at how we manage the finances and said, you've been making the right calls. We know the debt is increased. We know you've had to spend more, but you've done it in a disciplined way and you have turn off points. You know, this is not for government to be in there forever, and you're protecting your longer term budget by turning a lot of this stuff off when it's no longer needed. 

 

MURRAY: So last question, a lot of people watching this show are deeply invested in your prime ministership. They want you to go around for another three years, so talk to them about why they should fight just as hard as they did last time, this time.

 

PRIME MINISTER: Everything we said at the last election remains true. All the things that we were fighting to ensure we could do for this country remain exactly the same challenges we keep fighting now. And there are many of them. But the two big ones, I mean, at an election, the country will go in one of two directions. Paul Keating said that. Change the government, change the course of the country. And that's true. 

 

So what is the course we're on? The course we're on is an economy that's bouncing back and coming back strongly with a strong and resilient health system. We're investing in the essentials that Australians rely on in the health system and their education. But what makes all of this possible is a strong economy. And strong economic management is more important now than it's ever been, and we have the runs on the board here. We've got the experience and we've got the plans that are achieving those results. So that is at stake. 

 

What else is at stake is the security of our nation and the safety of Australians. Now, no one doubts my resolve when it comes up to standing up to those who are going to have a crack at this country. I always put Australia first. I never take an each way bet on national security. I don't think, I saw what Anthony Albanese said the other day when he talked about how we should be dealing with China. Oh, you know, we'll have to get rid of some of those things. So what is he saying to the Tasmanian lobster farmers or the beef producers up in central Queensland, up there in Rockhampton or the wine growers down there in South Australia? Which one of these is he going to trade off? Because in national security, there are only really two courses you can go down. You can appease or you can stand up for what you believe in as a country. And no one has any doubts, I think, about our government when it comes to which path we take.

 

MURRAY: PM, nice to talk.