JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC AM
MONDAY, 11 APRIL 2022
 

SUBJECTS: Federal election; Australians can’t risk another three years of Scott Morrison; Unemployment; Anthony Albanese is a Leader who takes responsibility; Our commitments are a tiny fraction of the total rorts and wasteful spending from this Government.

DAVID LIPSON, HOST: Labor needs to win seven seats if it wants to govern in its own right. The Shadow Treasurer is Jim Chalmers, and he joins me on the line. Jim Chalmers, thanks for your time. We're in the midst - as we just heard - of very uncertain times in terms of security, the world economy, the pandemic. Why is now a good time to change the government?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Because we can't risk another three years of the mistakes that this Prime Minister has made, which has held Australia back. Whether it's during the floods, the bushfires, the pandemic - time and time again - Scott Morrison has gone missing and we can't have another three years of that. What we need is a plan for a better future. We've got one - a plan to strengthen Medicare, and cheaper child care, and cheaper power bills, and more secure well-paid jobs for Australians, and a future made here in Australia. The Government's just got a plan to get them through an election. We've got a plan for a better future. That's the difference.

LIPSON: Right now, unemployment is at 4%. It's headed for 3.75% - a near 50 year low - despite all of these challenges. Does that number worry Labor?

CHALMERS: We want the unemployment rate to be as low as possible, David. It's down now around where it was in the last Labor Government.

LIPSON: I just mean in terms of your reelection chances. It's a pretty good number, isn't it?

CHALMERS: I think when you look at the economy in its entirety, the Government has not done a good job managing the economy. Even with that unemployment rate falling in welcome ways to back where it was during the last Labor Government at one point, we've still got real wages going backwards, we've still got everything going up except people's wages, we've still got this trillion dollars in debt and not enough to show for it, and no plan for a stronger economy beyond the election. We're happy to have a contest on the economy during this election. The Prime Minister says he wants that too. We say bring it on. Because as you've just heard in that interview that you ran from the Prime Minister, you can't believe a word that he says about the economy. He lies about taxes. He lies about spending. He lies about debt and deficit. He lies about the economy more broadly. That's because he needs to distract from the mistakes he's made, which has delivered a legacy of falling wages and a trillion dollars in debt with nothing to show for it.

LIPSON: Labor's only won from Opposition three times since World War II - Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, Kevin Rudd. And in all three cases, it was an already popular leader, a leader people knew well, who inspired an impetus for change. This time though, you're running ads introducing Anthony Albanese to voters. Isn't it a bit late for that?

CHALMERS: I think in every election there's an element of that - an element of describing the attributes that our leader brings to the country and is offering up to serve the country. Anthony Albanese will be a Prime Minister that doesn't go missing when the going gets tough. You can't say that about Scott Morrison. Anthony Albanese will show up, he will take responsibility, and he'll work every day to bring the country together. You can't say any of that about Scott Morrison. So we're comfortable and confident with the comparison between this Prime Minister who's gone missing when people need him most and tried to shift the blame for his own mistakes, versus our leader in Anthony Albanese, who will be a Prime Minister who can deliver a better future for Australians, who'll show up and take responsibility, and try and bring us together again.

LIPSON: You're saying you're not going to raise taxes, and yet you're promising to spend more than Government in some pretty expensive areas like aged care and child care. So will that just drive the nation further into debt?

CHALMERS: There's a few things to say about that, David. First of all, what we've seen for the best part of a decade is tens of billions of dollars spraying around in wasteful spending. Whether it's the money wasted on JobKeeper for companies that didn't need it because they were already profitable, whether it's five and a half billion dollars on submarines that will never be built, whether it's sports rorts, and car park rorts, and regional rorts, and all the rest of it. What we've had for the best part of a decade is the most wasteful government since Federation. What we need to do is we need to reorient the Budget towards quality spending in areas like cleaner and cheaper energy, and cheaper child care, and a future made in Australia, and strengthening Medicare - the types of things that deliver genuine bang for buck in the Budget. Whenever the Government talks about this, they talk about the two and a half billion dollars that we committed to aged care so that people can get decent care and decent food for older Australians. What they don't mention is that they committed $39 billion in spending in the Budget that wasn't offset. They committed $70 billion between December and March alone.  Plus they've wasted all of that money. So we're up for a contest about better ways to invest the people's money. We think the best way to invest it is in things like Medicare, and child care, and cleaner and cheaper energy. The Government has sprayed all this money around in waste. We will not be taking lectures from them on responsible economic management.

LIPSON: Jim Chalmers. Thank you.

CHALMERS: Thank you, David.

ENDS