JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
6PR MORNINGS
WEDNESDAY, 12 MAY 2021
SUBJECT: Budget 2021
LIAM BARTLETT, HOST, 6PR MORNINGS: The Federal Opposition is calling the Budget an admission of failure. Joining us is the Shadow Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Jim, good morning.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Good morning Liam, thanks for having me on your show.
BARTLETT: Pleasure. What do you mean by that?
CHALMERS: Well the admission of failure in the Budget is that despite spending $100 billion in new commitments and despite racking up over a trillion dollars in debt, the Budget still says that real wages will go backwards in this country.
So, the thanks the Australian people will get for getting us through this pandemic and onto the other side and into a recovery in the economy, is a real wages cut. And, I think that that’s an admission, that with all of this money spraying around and all of this marketing spin about the recovery – the Australian workers are at risk missing out on that – being left behind.
JOURNALIST: Real wages, you mean the value of their wages in the forward Estimates?
CHALMERS: Yeah, real wages, the value of their wages in relation to inflation. And what that really means is that people aren't getting in the Budget the wage increases that they need to keep up with the increases in their bills. And this has been an issue before the pandemic as well, we've had really stagnant - actually record low -wages growth in this country for a big chunk of the ideas of this Coalition Government, and what the Budget admits last night, not that the Government talks about this, they don't really want people to know that, despite all of that spending, we've still got a real wages cut. And so I think that that's a big problem, because it means that Australians aren't getting a slice of the action when it comes to this economic recovery.
BARTLETT: Jim, if we can leave aside, I know this is a big call, but if we can leave aside the political spin, if you will, being entirely honest, I mean, wouldn't you admit that this is a Budget, you would have loved to have called your own?
CHALMERS: No Liam, I mean, there are some aspects of it that we will support. You know, obviously, we like to see more investment in mental health, you mentioned that a moment ago. Obviously, there are some steps taken in relation to super that we support and they will no doubt the other things. And so, I don't want your listeners to think that we, you know, oppose necessarily every part of this Budget. But, I think it's a big missed opportunity, and the missed opportunities with all of that spending, that we can't get a better outcome in terms of wages, we can't implement the recommendations, all of them, of the Aged Care Royal Commission. And it doesn't undo a lot of the damage that's been done the skills and training over the past eight years. So, I think it's possible to point out where the Government's fallen short, while acknowledging there'll be some aspects of it that we will support.
BARTLETT: Well, what would you have done differently? Specifically, what would have been number one on your totem pole? What would it have been complete structural reform of the of the tax brackets, for example?
CHALMERS: Well, I think that the best way to think about it is that what the Government's done here is they've got a whole bunch of spending and it's designed to get through the next year or two, because there's an election in the offing. And, we will take a longer term view of things like cleaner and cheaper energy, things like the training system, we've got a proposal for a National Reconstruction Fund, which is all about getting jobs in advanced manufacturing so that we can diversify the economy and get it growing.
There are a whole range of things that we think we could grow the economy more effectively in a way that people, you know, where the benefits of that are broadly shared, and what was largely missing in the Budget, lots of deficits in the Budget, but perhaps the biggest deficit was a deficit of vision for what the future the economy looks like, and how we make it stronger after COVID than it was before.
BARTLETT: Well, you know, what would worry me, I think, and some of our listeners is the spending levels. Jim, I mean, for example, I mean, your party wanted to keep JobKeeper going which would have been a waste, wouldn't it, the numbers have shown it was the right thing to do to stop it?
CHALMERS: I don't accept that Liam, there are still pockets of this country where industries which are suffering from the closure of the international border, which is a consequence of this mess that the Government's made of the vaccination rollout, there are still some parts of the economy doing extremely tough. There's almost two million Australians who can't find a job or enough work to support their loved ones and so we've still got an issue here. The Treasurer talks about the economy as a as an engine, which is coming back to life. And, there are parts of the economy, which are recovering, and that's a good thing. But our economy has got a number of gears, and for too many Australians, they're still stuck in reverse. And that means that the Government needs to step in and help.
Now, you rightly asked about the level of spending. I mean, how much better would the debt be if we didn't have all of these rorts that have been uncovered in the last year or two - sports rorts and dodgy land deals and all the rest of it, JobKeeper money wasted on companies that didn't need it? They were returning a profit already. So, we think it's possible - the level of debt matters a great deal - but we think it's possible even beyond that, to consider what's the best way to spend this money? What's the most effective way? I don't think anyone objectively would say the Government spent effectively.
BARTLETT: What would you buy into the borders debate? Because the tourism industry, as you know, is saying this morning, that that'll be the death of them if they have to wait until mid-next year?
CHALMERS: Yeah, I think there's a big problem here in the Budget in that it doesn't actually come clean, first of all, on what the costs and consequences have been of getting the vaccines and quarantine wrong, which is why the border will be closed for longer than it would otherwise be. But secondly, there's no clarity and therefore the tourism sector or other important parts of our economy about when it will open up. I know that there's an assumption that the economy will open up in the middle of next year. There's all kinds of weasel words in there about the vaccination rollout and we all know that the opening of the economy depends on getting vaccines right. The Government's been getting it wrong to here. And that's one of the reasons why there's so much uncertainty in some of those key sectors of the economy.
BARTLETT: Well, they're buying, they're buying more vaccine, but it's a question of getting into people's arms, isn't it?
CHALMERS: Yeah, and there's a whole range of issues there. I mean, you know, failure to involve the states from the beginning, the role of GPs, there's not sufficient progress on max vaccinations sites - a whole range of issues. Other countries are doing it much more effectively than us. They put the thinking into it - the US is getting millions away every day. We seem to, when I say we, the Government seems to have over promised and under delivered and that has costs and consequences for the economy.
BARTLETT: Jim, we’ll leave it there. Thanks for your time this morning.
CHALMERS: Appreciate it Liam, thank you.
ENDS
