JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC AM
TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2022
SUBJECTS: Budget 2022; Fuel excise; Costs of living; Debt and deficits; Passing of Senator Kimberley Kitching.
SABRA LANE, HOST: Jim Chalmers is Shadow Treasurer and he joins us in the Parliament House studios. Good morning and welcome.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Good morning Sabra.
LANE: The Government's going to be forecasting three and three quarter per cent jobless rates - lower than before when you were born - driving strong wages, growth, and it's going to cut fuel excise, billions more for Aged Care Worker traineeships. How do you compete with that?
CHALMERS: Well, I think this is going to be desperate, panicked, tapped out Budget from a desperate, panicked and tapped out Government. They can release all the forecasts that they like, they can spray around all the money that they want on the eve of an election, it won't change the reality for Australian working families that their real wages are going backwards. We don't have anywhere near enough to show for this trillion dollars in debt. This Government is temperamentally incapable of seeing beyond the election, so there won't be a plan for a better future.
LANE: How do you compete?
CHALMERS: We've got an alternative out there, which is not just providing cost of living pressure in the near term in areas like power bills and childcare - as important as that is - but making sure we've actually got a plan to grow the economy the right way, and then a recovery that works for everyone beyond the election. That's why we've got plans for cleaner and cheaper energy, for cheaper and more accessible child care, for a TAFE policy to deal with this skills shortage, for the digital economy and the NBN, and for a future made in Australia.
LANE: There's going to be cost of living measures in this Budget, will Labor oppose those? Or will you criticise them heavily and do the political equivalent of having your cake and eat it too? Just pass them?
CHALMERS: Let's see what they say, but we've made it clear for some time - I've certainly made it clear many times in the last few weeks - that we think that Australians are doing it tough, there is a lot of uncertainty, and so there is a role for genuine cost of living relief. We'll have a look at what's actually proposed, we’ll respond in a responsible and constructive way, as we always do.
LANE: You won't have much time, the Senate's not going to sit long.
CHALMERS: That's true, Sabra. You know, this is the last setting week of a government that's been there for almost a decade. And the parliament will rise at some point this week, and they will have to call an election in the next week or two. And that really is the defining motivation for this government behind the budget. They've got to call an election in the next week or two. They're hoping if they spray enough money around, people will forget almost a decade of attacks on wages and job security and pensions and Medicare. But no matter what they say tonight in the budget, Australians won't easily forget, they will see through a government that has spent the best part of a decade attacking their living standards, now spraying money around on the eve of an election.
LANE: Let’s now talk about Labor. You point out the Government spent $70 billion worth since the Mid-Year Budget Update in December. Will you spend less if you win?
CHALMERS: Well, it depends what Budget we inherit tonight. We don't know the Budget bottom line. So no Opposition would release their alternative bottom line before they've seen the Government's. It’s just normal that at some point in the election campaign we will tally up our commitments and people can make that comparison. But what I would really urge your listeners to do is not just to think about the quantity of the spending - that's important - but really the quality of the spending. One of the reasons why we've got a trillion dollars in debt with nowhere near enough to show for it is because the Government's engaged in all this rorting, all this waste, all this mismanagement. We think that we can invest the public's money more responsibly and more wisely and secure a better future, not just try and secure one election campaign from another to another.
LANE: You’ve brought up the debt question. No one's talking about paying back the debt yet. How high a priority will that be for Labor if you win?
CHALMERS: Well, inheriting a trillion dollars of debt is a serious challenge. No incoming government has inherited a Budget in worse condition than we will if we win.
LANE: Sure, but the Coalition weaponised debt and deficit successfully against…
CHALMERS: …a fraction of what it is now, and that's why they're a laughing stock when it comes to debt and deficit. It’s why we won’t be taking lectures.
LANE: Will it be a priority?
CHALMERS: It will be in time, but now is not the time to flick the switch to austerity. Now's the time to flick the switch to quality, and that's our intention. We can invest the public's money more wisely. The only way to end the rorts, and the waste, and the corruption of the Budget, is to end this Government – so that we get better value for money. People understand that there is a need sometimes to borrow, what they can’t understand is borrowing money to spray it around for political purposes, not for an economic dividend. That's how we will be different to the Government.
LANE: There were condolence motions yesterday for Kimberly Kitching in the Senate, and again appeals from your own side to be more respectful, kinder and gentler. How worried are you that this is going to cost you votes, and possibly it might even cost you government?
CHALMERS: We haven't thought about it that way Sabra, genuinely. This has been a horrible time for Kimberley's family and for the broader Labor family. We've got a responsibility to each other, to get around each other and support each other through a difficult time, and we've got responsibilities to the country as well. If you think about Kimberley's immense contribution, she was a Labor warrior, and she desperately wanted to see a change of government, and if we can change the government, one of the satisfying things about that would be that we would be finishing a job that she was so intimately involved in.
LANE: Jim Chalmers, thank you very much. We'll hear Labor's response to the Budget on Thursday night.
CHALMERS: Appreciate it, Sabra. Thank you.
ENDS
