SUBJECTS: 2022 Federal Budget; election; Labor’s policy agenda; Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.
 
MICHAEL ROWLAND, HOST: Let's get more reaction to the Federal Budget and bring in the Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, from Parliament House. Mr Albanese, good morning to you.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning.
 
ROWLAND: Close to $9 billion in short-term offsets and fuel excise cuts to help Australians deal with the rise in cost of living. Will Labor support each and every one of those measures?
 
ALBANESE: Well, this has all the sincerity of a fake tan. This is a plan for an election, not a plan for Australia's future. And I think people will see it for what it is. But, of course, we won't stand in the way of cost of living measures. Because we have been saying for a long time that the cost of everything is going up. Petrol hit almost $2 a litre before the invasion of Ukraine. The cost of grocery, the cost of rent, the cost of everything is going up except people's wages. What this Budget indicates is that wages will fall this year by $1,355. A 1.5 per cent decrease in people's real income in their pocket. These one-off measures from a Government that's desperate, that has been dismissing these issues up to a couple of days before they call an election.
 
ROWLAND: Okay. You'll support all those one-off measures. If Labor wins the election in May, I take it from what you have just said, you'll extend the fuel excise cut, you'll extend the $250 one-off payment, you might even extend the low- and middle-income offset for another financial year, right?
 
ALBANESE: Good try, Michael. We won't be making those sorts of commitments. What we'll do is, though, the real pressures that are on people, we understand that. They're on people because of this Government's actions. What we have is a plan to increase people's wages. What we have a plan is for a plan for cheaper child care. A plan for addressing housing affordability through our Housing Australia Future Fund. A plan for growth in the economy, through our National Reconstruction Fund. A plan for cheaper power prices through our Powering Australia Plan. $275 reduction in people's energy bills by the end of 2025 as a result of our policies that we have been putting forward, fully costed. They're permanent improvements in people's living standards.
 
ROWLAND: Yep.
 
ALBANESE: What this Government has is one-off payments. They may as well have stapled cash to people's how-to-votes when they hand them out
 
ROWLAND: Okay. But you can't criticise the Government for making these one-off payments and talk about the ongoing pressures. Why won't you extend the measures and you put your money where your mouth is and extend the measures if Labor wins the Government?
 
ALBANESE: We can call it for what it is, Michael. Well, Michael, it's a good question.
 
ROWLAND: That's what it is.
 
ALBANESE: No, it's not, Michael. What we won't be doing is governing for a three-year term where we increase the cost-of-living pressures on people for two years and 11 months and then in the last month we hand out cash payments and pretend that everything is all okay and that we have just discovered cost-of-living pressures. We will govern in Australia's interest for a better future with structural change, with real reform, with real policies to make a real difference to people in our cities and in our regions. This Government don't have a plan. They didn't have an agenda for their third term. Imagine how bad they will be in their fourth term, how arrogant they will be. And last night's Budget, I think, was a cynical exercise by a cynical Government that doesn't have a plan for Australia's future. They just have a plan for themselves.
 
ROWLAND: Jim Chalmers, your Shadow Treasurer, has acknowledged if Labor wins, the Labor Government will bring down another Budget later in the year. He's acknowledged as part of that Budget, there will be spending cuts. Will Labor be up-front in the forthcoming election campaign as to what those spending cuts would be?
 
ALBANESE: Yes, we will. But we have also been very clear, Michael, that there is an enormous amount of waste from this Government. What we won't be doing is doing what Josh Frydenberg did in the lead-up to the last election, for example, which was make a whole lot of promises, including $65 million for car parks in his own seat that are never going to eventuate, that have then just been withdrawn. Our promises, we will actually deliver on. And in this Budget, last night, there's $3 billion of cuts scheduled there that they won't tell you about and they won't tell you what it's for. This is Government decisions that already been made to cut spending after the election. They need to come clean about what at least those $3 billion cuts are for.
 
ROWLAND: Okay. Just about out of time. As we know, there's been a quite a lot of infighting within Labor in recent weeks, triggered by the tragic early death of your colleague Kimberley Kitching. This morning, it's clear there's turmoil on the other side of the aisle as well. That extraordinary spray last night by outgoing Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells calling the Prime Minister a bully and saying he lacks the moral compass, and in her view, is not fit to be Prime Minister. What did you make of that?
 
ALBANESE: These are extraordinary comments from a Senator who knows Scott Morrison well. Who assisted Scott Morrison's pre-selection after he only got eight votes after all in the first round for the electorate of Cook, and who has given a proper character assessment. He joins with his own Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, who made it clear that he doesn't trust the Prime Minister. The New South Wales Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, who said during the bushfires that it was all about politics, not about the people who are impacted by these bushfires. Those people who know Scott Morrison well attest to the flaws in his character. And last night it's extraordinary that a sitting serving Senator, who's been a former Minister, who has served alongside in the ministry with Scott Morrison, says that he is unfit to be Prime Minister. I think those comments do say a lot. And the Prime Minister who has been quick to talk about the need for reviews and the need for inquiries, I await his response.
 
ROWLAND: Anthony Albanese, appreciate your time this morning.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks, Michael.
 
ENDS