E&OE TRANSCRIPT
SUBJECTS: Coronation of Charles III; Budget Week; cost of living relief; birth rates in Victoria and New South Wales
SARAH ABO, HOST: Sing it, Katy. How good is that? That is the concert celebrating the coronation of King Charles III right now underway in the UK, the Royal Family joining thousands at Windsor Castle for the festivities, and joining us to discuss the coronation as well as the other headlines making news is Minister for Government Services and the NDIS, Bill Shorten in Canberra –
BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FOR THE NDIS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: Good morning.
ABO: And 3AW’s Neil Mitchell in Melbourne. Good morning gents. Thanks for joining us today. Now Bill, it's been a huge weekend in the UK, a slightly shorter affair than the last coronation, but no shortage of pomp and pageantry on display.
SHORTEN: Oh, hats off to the Brits. They know how to do big events well, and the coronation, hasn't been one for a very long time. So, it looked like it was a great party.
ABO: Yeah, absolutely. That's all you've got to say about it?
SHORTEN: Oh, well, it's very nice.
NEIL MITCHELL, 3AW: No, come on, Bill. Come on.
SHORTEN: Well, I did - full confession here. I did get asked Saturday night; I was at an event. I was picking up my 13-year-old daughter from a 14-year-old party. And so that was the coronation I went to, Sophia's 14th party.
ABO: Oh, you know, I did pop into a pub in Melbourne, and they weren't playing the coronation, they were playing the footy. So, I didn't think that was very cool. So, I got a bit of it on my phone. But anyway, Neil, what did you make of it all? Katy Perry we just heard from; Lionel Richie was also there.
MITCHELL: Oh, yeah, they know how to throw a party. And it had a sense of history about it. And look, I don't want to do a Stan Grant, but I watched a bit of it. I watched a bit of it, and I think it was terrific. But it just reinforced to me how far removed it's from Australia. You know, we don't camp out for Royals. We camp out for footy tickets. We don't do that sort of thing and good on them for doing it and it's terrific for the country and royalty, that's all great, but it just felt so removed from this country.
SHORTEN: Yeah. I have to say, it didn't feel like they were dealing with a head of state of Australia. I thought it looked like they were dealing with a head of state of the United Kingdom and great party, but I'm not sure it really was… Anyway, we get on with our lives, don't we? We've got things to deal with here.
ABO: Yeah. I mean, it was very old fashioned. I thought it was pretty spectacular though, given it was a little bit shorter as well. So, a bit more of an appetite for it. Hey, let's move on now, Bill. We've finally made it to budget week. Rates up again last week, many families are on edge around the country. How confident are you that your cost-of-living package will cut it?
SHORTEN: I know that Jim Chalmers and our economics team have been working very hard. The reality is cost of living is the number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, tenth issue, it's really tough at the moment. We've seen some tips about what will be in the budget. I think it's exciting that there could be up to $500 relief for family energy bills for up to 5 million households and a million small businesses. So, I think that's a promising sign, which we'll find out more about tomorrow night.
ABO: Yeah, I mean, Neil, you know just how tough it is out there. All the callers who speak to you every morning, I mean, this $1.5 billion energy bill relief package will only cover up to 40 or 50% of households. Is that enough? What more do you think we can do here?
MITCHELL: Well, it's tough to do anything. It's tough to live and it's tough to do anything. I mean, Bill’s on the talking points. But don't forget, we're paying 20% more income tax. $300 billion, 20% more, commodities are surging. The government's getting a lot of money coming in. And what they've got to do is manage it very carefully. Help us. I can't see how this cost-of-living assistance won't be inflationary and that's something they've got to balance very carefully. Bill, one of your bosses said you've got to look in the bottom drawer to save some money. What did you find in the bottom drawer? Forget the talking points. What did you actually find?
SHORTEN: Well, we've identified five areas of expenditure where we've got to tackle. I know that in the NDIS, the way we make that better is to focus on outcomes for participants and make sure that every dollar is getting through to the person for whom the scheme was designed. I think also there's a reference in some of today's papers about the petroleum rent review tax. So, on one hand - about making that fit for purpose - so, on one hand we've made sure our big LNG companies are paying their fair share but on the other restraint within government and making sure that we're focusing on effective use of government dollars, not just more dollars.
ABO: But that is the thing, isn't it? I mean, what you touch on there, Neil, Katy Gallagher, who is on the show in a little bit, was talking about each industry finding cuts, each sorry portfolio, finding cuts where they can. Neil it's going to it's going to be significant. You're going to have to find lots of cuts.
MITCHELL: Yeah. Well know fine cuts and they'll hurt and there'll be people screaming about them. That's, that's the difficulty. And I'll just repeat the point that the government's got a lot of money and it's got a lot more money through migration, through income tax, all these other things. And, you know, they'll say it's terrific financial management. It's not. We've thrown money at them. Now comes the financial management. Let's see how they do it. It's going to be a tough way to get that balance right. But look, budget's all about spin. That's all we get. It's all we're getting all this spin now. And we'll get more spin on them during the week and we'll just see where we end up.
ABO: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, finally, Victoria - you want to add to that, Bill?
SHORTEN: No, I just, I think you'll find that we'll see if we haven't got something that makes Neil smile tomorrow night. That's a challenge, isn't it? They're sorting out the budget. Then there's making Neil smile about it.
MITCHELL: Well, what about be honest about the debt? I mean, you keep going on about the debt. Half of the debt comes from pandemic relief which you approved.
SHORTEN: Yeah, I'm happy to be honest about the debt. There's $1.2 trillion of Liberal debt.
MITCHELL: And you approved half of it there.
ABO: All right, let's look -
SHORTEN: You can't blame us. We weren't co-conveners during that period, Neil. There was one mob in charge. I mean, actually –
MITCHELL: You approved more spending on – you approved spending on the pandemic
SHORTEN: Scott Morrison was co-convenor to himself, probably. Anyway. Who knows? Anyway, you're right. That's history. History, history.
ABO: Let's move on now, quickly. Victoria is producing far fewer babies than New South Wales, with some suburbs recording more deaths than births. Bill, what's going on down south?
SHORTEN: Oh, I felt patriotic when I saw that. I felt they can't say that about Melbourne! Apparently, it's the housing costs, that families in some suburbs of Melbourne, young families are priced out of the market. That's probably true. They also, I saw one theory which said that women find it easy to get jobs in Melbourne, so they're not having babies. I don't know if that's right. Sure. I know in my own household I seem to be accounting for three young people, so I feel like we're doing our thing in the Shorten household.
ABO: Neil, what do you reckon it is? I mean could it be cost of living?
MITCHELL: Nah, it’s Daniel Andrews. [laughs] Daniel, he's a walking contraceptive. Daniel Andrews.
ABO: Well, if all else fails, blame him.
MITCHELL: Why on earth would, why would you want to have kids when you can't get into school? Hospital trains, the roads are clogged. It's all Daniel's fault.
SHORTEN: I'm surprised you haven't blamed Daniel - I'm surprised you haven't blamed Daniel Andrews if the chickens don't lay eggs, mate.
ABO: Oh, that's coming.
MITCHELL: That's funny you mention that - and it's raining.
ABO: All right, guys, thank you so much for your time this Monday morning.
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: It's a brand-new contraceptive ad to the kids out there: when you're making love, think of Dan Andrews.
