Radio interview - ABC Melbourne

RAF EPSTEIN, HOST: Anthony Albanese is the Prime Minister of Australia, at the end of a big week in Australian politics. Good morning.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be with you.

EPSTEIN: Thank you for joining us. If I'm saving for a house deposit by investing in shares, you've just increased my taxes on the deposit I'm trying to build. Is that fair?

PRIME MINISTER: What we just did, Raf, was to change the system so that you will take account of real gains. That was a system that was there before 1999, and it is a common-sense thing. So, you only get taxed on your gains after inflation. And that's a sensible thing to do because what we want to do - I tell you what's not fair, is people having such a gap between our tax on income earned from working and the taxation that's applicable for other forms of legitimate income raising such as assets and wealth. Because unless you do that, unless you have that tax reform, what you're increasingly doing is entrenching that divide. And so, this is -

EPSTEIN: The reason why I raise the fairness question, if I can PM. A whole lot of people have built their wealth in one way. Your argument there is why that way should change. How do you address the fairness though? People have built their wealth, negative gearing, capital gains, now they can't access that. And people who've got a house in the market, they keep those benefits. People trying to enter the market now won't get those benefits.

PRIME MINISTER: The example that you just used.

EPSTEIN: Yes.

PRIME MINISTER: The example that you just used of someone trying to get into their first home. I tell you what - I've just been with Matt and Mika in Kingston in Canberra and their lovely golden retriever, Pikelet. They are one of the 250,000 people who've benefited from our 5 per cent deposit scheme. What we are doing when it comes to helping people to get into their first home is we are throwing everything at it, whether it be the Housing Australia Future Fund, it's about public housing and affordable housing that the Coalition opposed and that they now say they will abolish. Or whether it be the 5 per cent deposit scheme. Or the Build to Rent Scheme, that's about increased private rentals. All of these measures are making a substantial difference going through.

EPSTEIN: Is that Pikelet in the background or is that your dog?

PRIME MINISTER: No, that is Toto who doesn't like the fact that the Australian Federal Police come to take me to my next event.

EPSTEIN: Ok, well, I better get my next question in before you go to your next event.

PRIME MINISTER: Indeed.

EPSTEIN: Is it - are you surprised, the broken promise thing, which you've been asked about all week, has that become less of an issue than you expected?

PRIME MINISTER: People worry front and centre about, is this good policy. And you know what I found interesting about Question Time, on yesterday and the day before, was that the questions weren't about our policies, they weren't about what we'd announced, this big reform. They were all sorts of nonsense before the train wreck, that was the Budget Reply last night.

EPSTEIN: Just back to my question, I guess I'm asking you about the broken promises' thing. I am effectively asking you if you wish you'd propose this stuff at the last election. Maybe it's less of an obstacle than you thought.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've said that we changed our position and the circumstances have of course changed in so many ways. The world moves very fast and these days and we made the difficult decision to not do the easy political thing, which is just to stand still and say it's all too hard, but we couldn't just kick the can down the road. Our policy has changed, like we changed stage three, like we changed our fuel excise position. We've changed our position, we're explaining why and it will make a difference and Raf, this is something that's been raised with me not just by young Australians but by their parents and grandparents who are just so worried that the generation that's there today and the generations to come unless we do something about it increasingly will do it tough when it comes to getting in the housing market and I don't want to see the great Australian dream of owning your own home disappear for this generation. Matt and Mika were great examples of that this morning.

EPSTEIN: I'll invite people to pass their judgement on your ideas on 1300 222 774. Just on migration numbers PM this Budget, you expect 10 per cent more people to come, 10 per cent more than you forecast in your last Budget. People coming to this country, is that going to cost you votes?

PRIME MINISTER: That's not right. When it turns to come, that's wrong. The net overseas migration is number of people essentially here. So, some of those forecasts are about people staying. They're not additional people coming. There are people staying for longer, is part of the issue -

EPSTEIN: Your Budget forecasts go up. Do you think it's going to cost you votes or not?

PRIME MINISTER: I think that people know that we have reduced migration by 45 per cent from its peak, that it goes from 295,000 - the net overseas migration from 295,000 in the current year to 245,000 next year and 225,000 the year after. And I tell you what people will be worried about, including some of your listeners, the distinction that was drawn last night by the alternative Prime Minister or one of the alternative Prime Ministers that's around at the moment in Angus Taylor speaking about Australians and migrants as if people who weren't born here aren't Australians. That's what they'll be worried about.

EPSTEIN: Is that dog whistling?

PRIME MINISTER: People will draw their own conclusions, I think -

EPSTEIN: Do you think it's dog whistling?

PRIME MINISTER: People will draw their own conclusions. I'll leave it -

EPSTEIN: You clearly don't agree with that categorisation.

PRIME MINISTER: It's a wonder why these things - I tell you what I do, I agree that Australians are Australians. And what I know is that people who are loyal to this country aren't just people who were born here like myself. They were people who've come and helped to build this country.

EPSTEIN: Is it a prejudiced policy?

PRIME MINISTER: People will draw their own conclusions. But it's very clear that Angus Taylor is focused on fighting One Nation. The Labor Government is focused on fighting for our nation. That's the difference in Australian mainstream politics, because we're the only political party at the moment that's in the mainstream. More and more, this contest on the hard right is being fought in full public view and it was on display last night.

EPSTEIN: Did you watch Delta's Eurovision performance this morning?

PRIME MINISTER: She is awesome and she's through. I had a chat with her earlier on in the week.

EPSTEIN: Will she win?

PRIME MINISTER: I hope she does. I think she's a ripper. She's so proud. I'll say this about Delta Goodrem.

EPSTEIN: Quickly.

PRIME MINISTER: Yes. She's at the stage of her career. She doesn't need to do this at all. She's doing this because she wanted to represent Australia. The Australian government supported her doing this as well.

EPSTEIN: Yes.

PRIME MINISTER: And it just shows her character. And I wish her, you know, I hope that she cracks it. She deserves it.

EPSTEIN: I've only got 30 seconds. Some countries boycotted this one because Israel is participating. Should Australia have boycotted?

PRIME MINISTER: No.

EPSTEIN: Why not?

PRIME MINISTER: Because we should participate. And you know, the idea - you can have a disagreement with a policy of a government. As I've been critical and will continue to be critical of what has happened in Gaza. That doesn't mean that I believe Israel doesn't have a right to exist. It does. I want it to exist side by side with a Palestinian state.

EPSTEIN: Thank you for your time this morning.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Raf.