JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
6PR BREAKFAST
MONDAY, 11 APRIL 2022
SUBJECTS: Costs of living skyrocketing under Scott Morrison while real wages go backwards; Labor’s plans to ease the costs of living beyond the election; Scott Morrison spent $39 billion on Budget night without mentioning offsets; Labor’s commitments cost a fraction of the tens of billions of dollars the Coalition has wasted.
GARETH PARKER, HOST: The man who would be in large part responsible for the economic policies of an Albanese Labor Government is the Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Jim, good morning.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks for having me back on your show, Gareth.
PARKER: It's a pleasure. And nice to talk to you for the second time today. We did this earlier on the Today Show.
CHALMERS: We had a warm up, we warmed them up!
PARKER: Exactly, in the bright and early hours for East Coast time for TV. There's a lot of talk about character and about Albo versus ScoMo, and who you can trust and all that, but I want to get into policies here. You have announced some policies already. You've promised cheaper child care, you've promised there'll be more nurses in aged care, and you've promised pay rises for those nurses. You say you want to make things in Australia. You say you want more investments in renewable energy. They all sound good, but how much are they going to cost and how are you going to pay for them?
CHALMERS: First of all, they're going to cost a tiny fraction of what the Government's wasted in the Budget. So the best way that we can get that meaningful, responsible spending into the Budget again is to crack down on all the rorts and waste which have cost Australian taxpayers tens of billions of dollars over the last best part of a decade. As your listeners probably know - and anybody who's been following the bouncing ball of the Budget the last little while would know - there's something like $20 billion plus that the Government's given to businesses that didn't need it because they were already profitable. We've had $5.5 billion wasted on submarines that won't be built. We’ve had sports rorts, and carpark rorts on the East Coast, and all the rest of it. What we've said is, for a tiny fraction of what the Government has wasted in the Budget, we can get some decent care for older Australians and decent food in aged care homes. We can make life easier for working families by making their child care cheaper, so they can work more and earn more if they want to. Cleaner and cheaper energy. All of these sorts of things. These commitments that we've made have been very responsible, are quite restrained in terms of spending, and a tiny fraction of what the Government's wasted.
PARKER: When you say money given to companies who are profitable, I presume you're talking about JobKeeper there are you?
CHALMERS: I am.
PARKER: You wanted JobKeeper extended though, didn't you? That’s what you said at the time.
CHALMERS: JobKeeper is a really good idea which was really badly implemented. We said that every dollar that went to a business that didn't need it meant that it couldn't go to those small businesses and workers that did need it. That's been our position. We've been consistent all along. The Treasury actually warned the Treasurer that there was money being wasted here and there were ways to tweak the program. That was our suggestion too. Because there was a way to provide help for people who still needed it, by not giving it away – tens of billions of dollars away - to businesses that were already profitable. That's just one example, Gareth. This is the most wasteful government we've had since Federation. There's been rort after rort after rort. That's why we've got a trillion dollars of debt with not enough to show for it. What we've said is imagine the value for money we could get if we crack down on the rorts, and waste, and mismanagement, and invested wisely instead in cheaper energy, or cheaper child care, or fee-free TAFE so that we can deal with these skill shortages which are an especially big issue in the West. All of these sorts of things are far more responsible investments in a better future for this country than the tens of billions of dollars that this Government wasted.
PARKER: Cheaper child care, how much? What's the price tag on that?
CHALMERS: That's about $5.4 billion.
PARKER: $5.4 billion. More nurses and pay rises for them in aged care? And food too, which is important.
CHALMERS: The part of the aged care policy that can be costed is $2.5 billion dollars.
PARKER: And what about the part that can’t be costed?
CHALMERS: There will be a decision taken by the Fair Work Commission later in the year, no matter who's in government. The Prime Minister has said, and we have said, that whoever is in government will need to fund that. But we haven't got that decision yet and we don’t know how that would be phased in. So neither side of politics can cost that.
PARKER: But either way, both are going to have to pay for it.
CHALMERS: Correct.
PARKER: Energy policy, renewable energy, how much for that?
CHALMERS: There's about $700 million in commitments in cleaner and cheaper energy, in total. But that breaks down into a whole bunch of commitments, about $200 million for community batteries, about $50 million for new energy apprenticeships. There's a range of programs in there, and there's some off-Budget co-investments as well.
PARKER: So just on those three policy areas alone - acknowledging that we can't yet put a full cost on the aged care policy - we're up to $8.6 billion if my back of the envelope is correct. And you're saying what, there'll be no new taxes to pay for it?
CHALMERS: We've said repeatedly we're not proposing anything beyond what we've said already about multinational taxes, which is a global movement, all the comparable countries with which we compare ourselves are moving in that direction. But I'm really pleased Gareth, you asked me about spending, because there are some facts here that the Prime Minister has been lying about. When it comes to spending, the Government spent in their Budget - only a week or two ago - $39 billion in new spending, without any talk of offsets. They committed $70 billion between the December Mid-Year Budget Update and the March Budget, plus all of that waste that I mentioned before. So there seems to be a double standard here Gareth, where the $2.5 billion that we committed to aged care - the Government jumps up and down and says where's the money coming from? They had a Budget that spent $39 billion without any talk of offsets. We think that there is a much more responsible way to invest in a better future for this country than the rorts, and waste, and mismanagement, we've seen for the best part of a decade under our opponents.
PARKER: The multinationals tax, how much does that raise?
CHALMERS: We will announce our policy on multinationals between now and the election. Because the Budget’s just been handed down, we need to feed in all of the new parameters and take into account all of the international developments. So, we'll make that clear before the election.
PARKER: Ballpark, do you reckon it's hundreds of millions or is it more significant than that? It's like billions and billions of dollars?
CHALMERS: Well, it depends on the final settings in the policy, which we will make clear. I’m not going to pre-empt it today.
PARKER: I'm sure that we will talk more between now and May the 21st. Jim Chalmers, thank you very much for your time this morning.
CHALMERS: Appreciate your time Gareth, all the best.
ENDS
