SUBJECTS: 2022 Federal Budget; election; Labor’s policy agenda.
 
SABRA LANE, HOST: The man who desperately wants Scott Morrison's job is Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese. He joins us now. Good morning and welcome.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Sabra.
 
LANE: In 2007, your mate and former PM, Kevin Rudd, said this reckless spending must stop. What do you think of this spending?
 
ALBANESE: Well, this is a Budget that's not about Australia's future, it's about their tactic to try and get themselves re-elected. The spending is all aimed at what happens on May 14 or May 21. I mean, there's one-off payments in April. They may as well have stapled cash to their how-to-votes.
 
LANE: If you don't like it, particularly the fuel excise measure that will be separate from the appropriation bill, will you block it?
 
ALBANESE: Look, no. We're not like the Prime Minister, who has just discovered, apparently, that cost of living pressures are real. We're been saying, for years, that wages aren't going up, but the price of fuel, the price of groceries, the price of rent, the price of everything that people have is going up except for their wages. So, these pressures are absolutely real. But people will have a look at this Government and say they've been in office for almost a decade and now, a few days before they call the election, they've now discovered that there are cost of living pressures out there. There's no plan for sustainable growth. There's no plan for productivity. There's no plan to lift wages in this Budget.
 
LANE: Alright. You've dodged the question. Excise. Are you going to pass these cuts?
 
ALBANESE: Of course, we will pass the fuel excise cuts. Because we know, and we've been saying for a long period of time, that there's pressure on family budgets. Petrol was almost $2 a litre before the invasion of Ukraine.
 
LANE: And if you become Prime Minister, it will become your problem in September when the excise ends. Magically, things aren't going to change for motorists then. What are you going to do?
 
ALBANESE: Certainly, we're not getting ahead of ourselves. But we also understand the pressures that will be there on the Budget because of this Government treating taxpayers' money as if its Liberal Party money. And we see more of it in this Budget. We will have a Budget in the second half of this year, whereby we'll have to go through line by line, through the rorts and the waste that characterise this Government.
 
LANE: Employment is at its lowest level in nearly 50 years. It's forecast to drop to 3.75 per cent next year. And that's where Treasury and the Government wanted it stay. They say that there's no reason, really, for it to go back up.
 
ALBANESE: But they project that it will go back up, of course.
 
LANE: Does the Government get credit for that 3.75 per cent?
 
ALBANESE: Have a look at what's going on with underemployment out there as well.
 
LANE: Still, it is a pretty good figure.
 
ALBANESE: The big problem out there, though, is insecure work. That's the big issue. And that's why there's pressure on family budgets. People are having to work two and three and four part-time jobs. You have an increase in casualisation. You have an increase in the use of labour hire. You have people in the gig economy, who this Government can't even promise that they support people being paid the minimum wage. There is so much pressure on people out there. And what we need is a plan for more secure work. We need a plan to lift wages. We need a plan to take pressure off family budgets in a permanent way, in the way in which our cheaper child care plan will do.
 
LANE: The public might actually, though, like what they hear. And once the cash hits their bank accounts from next month, they might think that's a good thing, record low employment, handouts to help with these hard times, a boost in defence spending. The Government points out that eclipses anything that Labor did. How will you outmanoeuvre the Coalition on all of those points?
 
ALBANESE: Well, I think that the public will have a look at this Government and will be quite rightly cynical about a Government that doesn't have a plan for them. They just have a plan for themselves. They have a plan to get through the election campaign. Once we get through, there's $3 billion of hidden cuts that are identified. They're there. But they won't say what the cuts are for. So, this is a Government that have a plan to hand out cash before the election, but they won't tell Australians what the plan is for the cuts after the election.
 
LANE: So, these Budget measures that have been announced today, given that if you win, you've flagged another Budget later this year, are you letting business know, for example, that those measures to them could be all unpicked under you?
 
ALBANESE: No. We support many of the measures are in there. We'll have a look at all of the detail. But we support increased support for business that encourages investment. But have a look at the skills package, for example. One of the things that we're supporting is fee-free TAFE. We think that's the big incentive that's needed there. We will create Jobs and Skills Australia in partnership with the business community, so that we plan for what the labour force will need in one year, five years, 10 years' time. And put in place the measures to make sure that we don't have these skill shortages that have been identified. One of my concerns, Sabra, is this. During the pandemic, it's shown the strength of Australian society, but it's also shown the vulnerabilities in our economy. And none of those vulnerabilities are addressed by this Budget.
 
LANE: We're going to be into an election very soon. Many voters are still very unsure about you. They might just opt, to borrow phrase, to stick with the devil they know.
 
 
ALBANESE: Well, what they'll get is cuts. What they'll get is no more plans. This Government have not had an agenda for their third term. Imagine how bad they'll be and how arrogant they'll be if they get a fourth term.
 
LANE: Anthony Albanese, thanks for joining the program this morning.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Sabra.
 
ENDS