Karl Stefanovic grills PM Anthony Albanese over federal budget

Today show host Karl Stefanovic has grilled Anthony Albanese over his government’s inaugural budget.

Karl Stefanovic has grilled Anthony Albanese over his government’s first budget amid rising inflation and cost of living expenses.

The Today show host interviewed the Prime Minister on Tuesday morning after what’s been labelled a family-focused funds distribution.

Extended parental leave, more social housing, urgent care clinic and TAFE funding are among the sweeteners in Labor’s first budget for a decade.

“We’ve got $22bn of savings in the budget Karl, $22bn of savings is a substantial start,” Mr Albanese said.

“We know that people are doing it tough out there, but had we had a cash splash that would have just added to inflation and would have been counter-productive.

“So we made those difficult decisions in the national interest while fulfilling all of our commitments that we made at the election. I want to restore faith in our political system.”

However, Stefanovic was quick to point out the budget badly needed to fix Australia’s erratic economic issues.

Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers are all smiles about Labor’s first budget in a decade. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“At some point, you are going to have to muscle up and do it and there are serious calls that are going to have to be made very soon about the nation’s economy. What is the plan?” he asked.

The additional investments that we have in faster broadband, in infrastructure,” Mr Albanese retorted.

“The support that we have for skills Karl, we have a billion-dollar plan on skills and TAFE and training in partnership with state and territory governments.

“That’s about creating opportunities for our younger Australians as well as retraining people.”

Mr Albanese denied his government had broken any of its election promises.

“Cheaper child care, paid parental leave, cheaper medicine, more affordable housing and getting wages moving again, that’s a substantial cost of living plan,” he said.

“When you’re providing cost of living relief, if you do it in an excessive way or an indiscriminate way, you risk pushing inflation up and interest rates up even further.”

When appearing on Sunrise, Mr Albanese debated with host Natalie Barr about whether his party’s election promises were actually being fulfilled.

“We went to the election, we hear all your promises and the ordinary people in the streets who think ‘that sounds good, doesn’t it’, and they vote for you and a few months later here we are,” she said.

Mr Albanese acknowledged the cost pressures on Australians families.

“When it comes to power prices, there are real pressures out there. One of the things that you would be aware of, of course, is that there was a 20 per cent increase in power prices just a few months ago,” he said.

Karl Stefanovic grilled Prime Minster Anthony Albanese on the federal budget. Picture: Channel 9

“That was a decision that had been made before the election that the government changed a regulation so that people wouldn’t find out about it until after they voted.”

Mr Albanese also appeared on Sky News' First Edition where he doubled down on how taxpayers’ funds were being distributed.

“What we did last night was to fulfil our election commitments, provide cost of living relief with cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines, more paid parental leave, more support for affordable housing, and we want to get wages moving again,” he said.

“We did all that without putting pressure on inflation by targeting our investments in things like infrastructure, improving the National Broadband Network, making sure that there’s that growth in the economy without putting pressure on inflation.”

By the end of the year, Treasury estimates retail electricity prices will increase by 20 per cent nationally.

In 2023-24, that figure will blow out to 30 per cent.

Retail gas prices are also estimated to increase by up to 20 per cent in both 2022-23 and 2023-2024.

The high energy costs will mean the December inflation peak of 7.75 per cent will last longer than originally expected.

Food prices will be a major driver of the price pinch, with costs forecast to contribute 1.5 percentage points to the inflation peak in December.

Originally published as Karl Stefanovic grills PM Anthony Albanese over federal budget