SUBJECT: Federal Budget 2021.

KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Albo, good morning to you. Anything you want to say to the Treasurer?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning.

STEFANOVIC: You got obviously everything you wanted.

ALBANESE: There is a gap between what the Treasurer says and what the Budget papers show. The Treasurer just spoke about wages. It shows that real wages will actually go down, having stalled for eight long years of this Government. He spoke about infrastructure investment. They say $10 billion of extra infrastructure investment. The Budget papers show that there is a cut of $3.3 billion over the forward estimates, over the next four years. The Treasurer spoke about a plan for jobs. This is a plan for Scott Morrison's job, no-one else's. There is no long-term plan here. The Treasurer spoke about state governments potentially closing borders. And we know they have opposed all of that, but they are closing our border until mid-next year because they haven't got their act together on the two essential jobs they had this year to get right - the vaccination rollout and quarantine.

STEFANOVIC: Albo, it does kind of jam you, it is out-Laboring Labor budgets.

ALBANESE: No, Karl, Labor budgets have plans to help people, to actually lift people up, to lift wages, to boost productivity. This isn't a reforming Budget. This is identifying where they had problems that they themselves had created with the aged care crisis, for example, with child care affordability, putting some money at it but not solving any of the fundamental issues there. Take child care. Their plan will help one in four of the people that we will help with our policy that we are announced just last year. On aged care, there is still no guarantee at all that there will be a nurse present in every aged care home at all times.

STEFANOVIC: It was Whitlam-esque though, you must admit?

ALBANESE: Well, the Whitlam Government, of course, would have put in place some bigger reforms but they had some economic problems. What the Treasurer also didn't say, when he spoke about debt and paying it back, is that, actually, debt peaks in 2025 as a proportion of the economy at 41 per cent. They inherited 15 per cent and they used to run around this building like chooks with their head chopped off saying it was a disaster. Now it is going to be triple that and it hasn't peaked yet. It doesn't peak until 2025.

STEFANOVIC: Alright.

ALBANESE: So debt going up, wages going down. That is what is happening as a result of this Budget.

STEFANOVIC: So hypothetically, you become the next Prime Minister, when will you deliver the nation's first surplus in a while?

ALBANESE: We will wait and see in terms of their pots that they have put out as well, Karl. The other thing that they have done is that there is a whole lot of decisions taken but not announced. They are not going to tell you how they are going to spend your money. In one program alone there is a line item that shows $3.8 billion next year. For what? Who knows. They won't tell us. Just slush funds using taxpayers’ money, your viewers’ money, for their own political purposes, rather than to actually build in structural reform that helps this and future generations, rather than a plan to lift wages, boost productivity, enter into the new industries that will create future prosperity. This isn't about the country's future, it is about Scott Morrison's next 12 months.

STEFANOVIC: Okay, so you have run the Budget down this morning. What precisely is Labor going to vote against, though?

ALBANESE: Well, where is the legislation? We obviously won't block supply. The other mob did that in 1975. So we will wait to see what is actually going to be legislated. 

STEFANOVIC: That is a big doughnut. 

ALBANESE: No, we will wait to see what is actually delivered, Karl. The fact is that last year the centrepiece of the Budget last year, remember this, was the JobMaker program that they said would create 450,000 jobs. It created 1000, 449,000 short. Missed by that much.

STEFANOVIC: Here is the thing, though, Albo. Normally after a Budget, the Opposition will be screaming from the rafters, they will be voting against something, but you can't even say what you will vote against this time?

ALBANESE: No, Karl, that is a nonsense question, you know better than that. We haven't seen the legislation.

STEFANOVIC: No, but you know what I mean.

ALBANESE: No.

STEFANOVIC: Is there any anything specific in the Budget that you fundamentally disagree with and so much so that when you see the legislation you will vote against?

ALBANESE: There is a range of things, some of which need to be legislated, some of which don't, that we regard as being totally inadequate. Child care is one that I have given you an example. Our plan will support 97 per cent of families. Their plan, you will need to have two children in care at the one time. Now, that represents one in four, at most, of Australian families. That is not child care reform. It is not what the business community have called for. And the logic of it is that Treasurer himself in his document says that the plan of $1.7 billion over four years will boost the economy by $1.5 billion each and every year. If that is the logic, if they have finally conceded that Labor was right last year with our child care plan, they haven't actually had the ticker to adopt it properly. What they have done is they are too busy saving money for their pork barrelling exercises during an election campaign to worry about the quality of the investment that will actually produce that long-term reform. And do you think, Karl, for one second, do you think there would have been any mention of women's policy issues in this Budget if it weren't for Brittany Higgins and the speech she gave right here outside Parliament House in the March 4 Justice?

STEFANOVIC: I think there is a huge element of truth in that.

ALBANESE: Last year they didn't even have a women's economic statement.

STEFANOVIC: True. Just before you go, Albo, are you preparing for an election this year or do you think it will be early next year?

ALBANESE: I'm ready, Karl. I am ready whenever it is called. If they do call one it is just because they can't sustain government into next year. We have three-year terms. They are too short in my view. We have tried a couple of times to make it four years. If they run to an early election it is because things are going to get worse, not better. And certainly, if you look at these Budget papers, things don't get better. There is no real plan arising from this Budget for the nation's future, just a plan to spend and to deal with political issues in the short-term.

STEFANOVIC: Good to talk to you, Albo. Thanks for your time today. We appreciate it.

ALBANESE: Good on you.

ENDS