Podcast interview - The Daily Aus

BILLI FITZSIMONS: Prime Minister, thank you for joining The Daily Aus.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Great to be here in your new studio.

FITZSIMONS: You are our first guest in our new studio.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I should be opening something.

FITZSIMONS: Yeah, it's only right that the Prime Minister is our first guest.

PRIME MINISTER: Putting a plaque on the wall or something. Well, congratulations.

FITZSIMONS: Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER: It's good to see independent media growing.

FITZSIMONS: Thank you. Well, we don't have a lot of time, so we're going to keep the interview focused on the war and its impact on Australians. To start, how do you feel about the current state of the world?

PRIME MINISTER: It's very turbulent and we're not participants in this conflict, but that doesn't mean that we're immune from its impact. Right around the world, this is having a major impact on the global economy. That will last for some time as well. If the conflict ended today, there would still be a long tail. My job as Australia's Prime Minister is to do what we can to shield Australians from the worst impacts. We can't be immune, but we do what we can to make a difference.

FITZSIMONS: We're recording this interview on Wednesday morning. US President Donald Trump has just announced the ceasefire for the war in Iran will be extended. What's your response to that?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's a good thing. We want to see a ceasefire permanently. We want to see a de-escalation and we want to see an end to the conflict. We want to see Iran not be able to get nuclear weapons, but we also want to see normal economic trade continue.

FITZSIMONS: In terms of long-term peace, if the US's core demand is for Iran to limit its nuclear program and Iran has been clear that it won't do that, is lasting peace in the region possible?

PRIME MINISTER: It is possible. And we saw in the past, we saw an agreement with the Obama Administration and Iran that did see a reduction in their upgrading of uranium to levels that enable it to pursue a nuclear weapons program to continue.

FITZSIMONS: But did it, if we're now in this position?

PRIME MINISTER: I certainly believe that it is in the globe's interest to do so, and that is what we want to see, and I think the whole world wants to see as well.

FITZSIMONS: You were one of the first world leaders to announce your support of the US and Israel's attacks on Iran. Do you maintain that full support today?

PRIME MINISTER: We support very much the declaration that Iran couldn't be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. What we have called for is for de-escalation. We've been critical and have called out some of the statements that have been made. It's not appropriate or acceptable to say that you're going to destroy a civilisation. And so, we've done that. We are allies with the United States, but that doesn't mean that we're automatically participants in any conflict and we haven't been.

FITZSIMONS: US President Donald Trump said just last week that he's not happy with Australia because 'they were not there when we asked them to be there'. [CLIP] Have there been direct requests from the US Government to help with this war that Australia has refused?

PRIME MINISTER: No, there hasn't been. So, President Trump has made these statements. It's a matter for him, though, to explain what he meant by that.

FITZSIMONS: Unfortunately, I don't have him on speed dial. So I can't ask that question to him.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, but he has been asked and hasn't given an answer in the follow-up questions that were done at those press conferences. We were asked to provide support for defensive capacity by the UAE. We did so. But we were not advised in advance of the decision by the United States and Israel, and we haven't been asked to provide any direct support for any offensive attacks or anything else that has occurred.

FITZSIMONS: If there was a request from the US Government to provide more support, would we do that?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've said -- look, they're all hypotheticals, but we've said we're not participants.

FITZSIMONS: But it's not hypothetical if he's saying that he has asked.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, he hasn't.

FITZSIMONS: Let's turn to fuel. How many days worth of petrol do we have as we speak this morning?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, as we speak, we have 46 days of petrol. We have less than that of diesel and of jet fuel, but that's remained pretty constant. Fuel has continued to arrive here and indeed there is more fuel available today than when the conflict broke out at the end of February.

FITZSIMONS: I want to get to how much petrol we had at the start of the conflict. So, Australia is a member of the International Energy Agency along with about 30 other countries. When the war started, we had 36 days worth of fuel, which was the worst stockpile of any IEA country. Why?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Government - importantly, the fuel stockpiles are for international release.

FITZSIMONS: But we still had the lowest domestic supply.

PRIME MINISTER: That's right. That's about international security. But we had, importantly, the largest supplies that Australia has had in 15 years. Under the former Government, not only did four of the six refineries in Australia close, but their emergency supplies, their secure supplies were held in Texas, in the United States.

FITZSIMONS: I want to focus on the current Government.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we have done with the current Government is lift up our supplies to the highest they have been in 15 years and bring those supplies back onshore.

FITZSIMONS: But despite that, you've now released a $20 million marketing campaign, asking everyday Australians to do their part to save fuel for the country. Shouldn't it have been the Government's job to save fuel in the first place?

PRIME MINISTER: But we have done that by having the largest supplies, as I've said, we've had in 15 years.

FITZSIMONS: We're now in a position of asking Australians to turn off their air con in their car to save fuel for the country.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, right around the world there is a reduction in global fuel supplies. Now, saving fuel also saves people money. So, common sense measures, voluntary measures that we have asked people to consider with the Every Little Bit Helps campaign is common sense. We want to be very clear that we're in quite uncertain times. We have a fuel security plan with four levels. We're at level two, which is Keeping Australia Moving. We don't want to have to move to level three. If we do, that will require some further measures to be put in place.

FITZSIMONS: How likely is that?

PRIME MINISTER: We're in really uncertain times. That's the truth, Billi. And we can't determine that. What we can do is to prepare as best as possible by common sense measures, but also how do we increase the supply which is there?

FITZSIMONS: All right. I want to turn to the gas industry, which is a big conversation online at the moment. Australia exports the large majority of our gas, but the exporters pay very little tax to the Australian Government. Why is it that gas exporters pay so little tax?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, some of the facts haven't been out there. The truth is that the gas taxes in the last financial year, completed, were around about $22 billion. So, I've seen there are reports suggesting that there's more on beer tax than gas. It's just not true.

FITZSIMONS: But you can't dispute that they pay very little tax.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, $22 billion is a substantial amount.

FITZSIMONS: What are their profits?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it depends. There's not 'they'. There are various companies involved. And I understand that people would like to see more taxes paid, but we need to have an honest debate about it as well. And some of the debate has distorted some of the facts which are there.

FITZSIMONS: There are calls, including from within your Government, for a 25 per cent tax on gas exports. Is that something that your Government is actively considering at the next Budget?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, we will have our Budget on May the 12th. One of the things that we certainly will always stick by as a principal, and it's important that governments do, is to honour contracts which are made.

FITZSIMONS: But there are ways to honour the current contracts and then bring in new legislation to change future contracts. They're not mutually exclusive.

PRIME MINISTER: No. And that is something - the Government will always, in budgets, we look at the full suite of measures. What I am saying very clearly though, is that we honour contracts and we honour those arrangements with countries.

FITZSIMONS: Just before we move on, the $20 billion figure that you referenced for the tax that we earn on the gas exports, when I looked into it, it was about $1.4 billion in tax, and that was from a government source.

PRIME MINISTER: It's wrong. You might have been talking about the PRRT or one of the measures.

FITZSIMONS: Yes, I was.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, they have something called company tax that they pay on their profits. Companies pay company tax in Australia, and the figure was in 2024-25 was just under $22 billion.

FITZSIMONS: Alright, let's lastly look at the economy. The International Monetary Fund, a UN financial institution, last week warned that if this war continues, we could be on the brink of a global recession. Do you believe Australia is heading into a recession?

PRIME MINISTER: That's not the advice that we receive from Treasury. When we've been dealing with the deliberations about the Budget. We go into this period from a position of strength relative to the rest of the world. And our work that we've done on the Budget as well, where we had two budget surpluses, none achieved under the former Government, and we reduced the deficits.

FITZSIMONS: But just looking at the future, are you preparing for a potential recession?

PRIME MINISTER: What we're doing is preparing to make the economy as strong as possible, employment as strong as possible, to achieve future growth. We want an economy that's more resilient.

FITZSIMONS: Two more questions. In terms of the way that this is impacting Australians day-to-day, farmers are warning of a 20 per cent price increase for essential groceries. Is that correct?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we will, of course, do what we can to minimise. That's the job that we're doing. That's why the increased fertiliser is so important, for example, at this point in time. Because farmers, at the moment, it's planting season here in New South Wales, for example, in Western New South Wales. We want farmers to have the confidence to be able to plant and use the fertiliser.

FITZSIMONS: But even with that extra fertiliser, they're still saying that there will be a 20 per cent increase to groceries.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's uncertain. What we know is that there will be an impact. What we are trying to do is to limit and restrict the impact which is there.

FITZSIMONS: Just lastly, as we have established, you are currently preparing for the Budget next month. Will there be anything in that Budget for young people?

PRIME MINISTER: There certainly will be. As there has been --

FITZSIMONS: And you want to give us the exclusive now?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, if you look at what we've been doing for young people, the reduction in debt of student debt that helped three million Australians, largely young people. There will be, I can confirm that the tax cuts that we put in place for this coming July 1 and then next July 1 will make a difference, particularly for young people, because we're lowering that first marginal tax rate.

FITZSIMONS: Those things have already been announced though. Any new announcements for young people?

PRIME MINISTER: There will be in the Budget.

FITZSIMONS: Okay. I'll hit you up then.

PRIME MINISTER: We will always look at - intergenerational equity is something that we are concerned about. How do we improve opportunities? So the extension of Free TAFE, for example, the university hubs in our regions. To the very, very young people, the measures that we've put in place for early learning, has been so important going forward.

FITZSIMONS: Prime Minister, thank you so much for making time for us this morning.

PRIME MINISTER: Great to be here in your beautiful, luxurious new studios.