JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING
TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2022
SUBJECTS: Budget 2022; Election 2022.
GREG JENNETT, HOST: Jim Chalmers, as you know, Budget night is very much for the Treasurer and all eyes will be on him. But pretty tricky for a Shadow Treasurer too, I guess. A small amount of time to get across a very big document and spool up. What hasn't been decided in your own mind about this Budget?
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Well, this is the sixteenth Budget lookup that I've done. Unfortunately eleven of those have been in Opposition. I'm trying to work to change that to get that number balanced up a bit! But we know a lot about what's in the Budget already. We already know there'll be a trillion dollars in debt, we already know real wages are falling, and there'll be some details that will be released in there. We get a few hours to go through the Budget papers, we try to come to a position on most of what's in there.
JENNETT: Well, that's the expectation isn't it, because by the time you emerge on ABC television and other networks tonight, you've got to have nailed Labor's position on every major announcement. Will you have?
CHALMERS: Well, mostly. Sometimes what we do is we come out and we say there's some detail to be worked through, or we want to have some consultation with colleagues or with stakeholders. But typically, we will have a view on the Budget and then we've got a couple of days, as you know, between the Treasurer's Budget speech, and Anthony Albanese’s Budget Reply on Thursday night, carried live on your network, which is a good thing, to come to a considered view on some of the bits that we might not be able to decide tonight.
JENNETT: And just on the mechanics of all of this, we know that for 40 years or so, Opposition's flagged through the money that is needed to run a government. This one's a little odd, though, when it comes to the specific announcements. Can everyone be certain that you and the Parliament are going to do what’s needed to be done by Thursday?
CHALMERS: We'll do the right thing by families and pensioners and the budget and the economy. We'll try and be as responsible and constructive as we can be. Most of the spending is caught up in what's called the Appropriation Bills, as you know, and so that could be taken care of pretty quickly. There might be a fuel excise bill that the Parliament is asked to consider, and we've said we're positive about that but we want to work through the detail and see how much it costs and whether it's responsible.
JENNETT: Right, so the real sweeteners for voters appear to be fuel excise cut, and some sort of cash splash. The very nature of the election we're about to roll into says you've got no room to manoeuvre here. You are supporting those, come what may?
CHALMERS: Well, I think the key difference here is that cost of living is obviously defining pressure in the economy, but it hasn't just popped up in the last few weeks. The Government wants to pretend now they care about it, because they know they have to call an election this weekend or next weekend or very, very soon. But the big issue here is real wages falling, and that's one of the reasons why families are falling further and further behind is because their wages aren't keeping up with the costs of living. And that's the difference between the parties. We care deeply about that, we understand real wage pressure on people. No matter what the Government announces tonight in the Budget, it won't deal with the fact that real wages are going backwards.
JENNETT: And therefore, you are duty bound to take that further in the campaign, yes? With your own set of promises that address wages in the near term?
CHALMERS: Yes we've got a policy on wages to get real wages moving again, we've got policies on cost of living. Petrol is a key part of the cost of living pressure on families but it's not the only part of the story. Child care, power bills, so we’ve got policies which are about easing the cost of living in those areas, but also delivering a longer term economic benefit. The government sees only until the May election, they can't see beyond it, and we need to have a plan for a better future in the Budget as well. If they don't, we will.
JENNETT: Alright, well, I'm going to ask you now to cast your own mind forward beyond the May Budget. If it all worked out for you and Anthony Albanese, you'll leave your humble premises here and move somewhere down the back of the building, take the pictures of the family with you then you would have your own Budget to prepare within six months. What would you be cutting in there?
CHALMERS: Well, first of all, we don't take any outcome for granted, obviously. There's a lot of work to be done to change the government, we don't take that responsibility lightly. We've got an opportunity to do that, but the election will be incredibly close and we take no outcome for granted whatsoever. But I have said, if we do get over the line, I will hand down a Budget before Christmas and one of the things that we need to do is go through the Budget line by line. There are opportunities to trim spending in areas like contractors and consultants. There's a whole lot of waste and mismanagement in the Budget. We think we could do a better job spending that money more effectively in areas where there's a dividend for families and communities and the economy rather than spraying money around unnecessarily as the government has.
JENNETT: So, Budget repair would be an immediate priority?
CHALMERS: Yes we want to improve the quality of the Budget. So, there's a trillion dollars in debt with not enough to show for it. That's an issue around quantity. Quantity matters because we're paying interest on that massive debt that the government has racked up but also the quality of the spending matters and what you do within the Budget. We think some of that money would be best spent in areas like those I've just identified. Cleaner and cheaper energy skills, childcare, digital economy, a future made in Australia, so there will be an element of reprioritisation.
JENNETT: All right, well, you've got a few months and a busy night ahead to prepare for that. Jim Chalmers, thanks for joining me.
CHALMERS: Thanks very much.
ENDS
