JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC BRISBANE DRIVE
MONDAY, 8 NOVEMBER 2021
SUBJECTS: : Economic recovery; The economy and the next election; Morrison and Frydenberg always claiming credit but never taking responsibility; Wages and the labour market.
STEVE AUSTIN, HOST: Jim Chalmers, is the Australian economy recovering first of all?
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: It is Steve and so it should be. We've been through a very bleak period. After a downturn as substantial as we had last year, and then again in the September quarter this year, you would expect the economy to rebound. But it's recovering despite the Morrison Government, not because of it. I see that Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison are out there taking credit for the recovery after having not taken responsibility for their part in the downturn. I think that speaks volumes about the Government. So if they want to have an election about that, let's have an election about the facts of the economy for the last eight years. As you just repeated from earlier on today -
AUSTIN: I was repeating your comments. I wasn't repeating his comments.
CHALMERS: Yeah, that's what I mean. We’ve had eight years of stagnant wages, weak investment, flat living standards and insecure work. We have had a budget which is shot through with waste, rorts and mismanagement. So, if they want to have an election about that, Steve, I'm very comfortable with that. I'd welcome that opportunity
AUSTIN: How can you say they've not taken responsibility for it when they brought in the JobKeeper program, did the cashflow boost, the Coronavirus supplement payments, changed or adjusted the apprenticeship wage subsidy scheme, the Home Builder program? I could go on. They got the banks to delay or forego interest payments, they got the tax office to suspend immediate payment of taxes - that's a massive financial action.
CHALMERS: We're talking about two different things though Steve. The point I'm making is that when the economy was bleeding $2 billion to $3 billion a week not that long ago, they basically went missing. It was all somebody else's fault. It was always the Premiers or somebody else's responsibility and somebody else's fault. That's how Scott Morrison rolls unfortunately, and Josh Frydenberg too, his little off-sider. But when things start to be picking up, then all of a sudden there's Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison saying it's all their doing. The point that I'm making is, the economy is recovering, that’s a welcome development, it’s a pleasing development and it’s a credit to the Australian people who've done the right thing by each other to limit the spread of the virus and try and look out for each other and look after each other. I think it makes people really annoyed when they see Morrison and Frydenberg out there taking credit when they didn't take responsibility when times were tough.
AUSTIN: In the opinion piece in the Australian today, Josh Frydenberg says in Australia, 1.4 million additional people are in work. The gender pay gap has narrowed. Unemployment is at a 12 year low. Australia has maintained its triple A credit rating, one of only nine countries on planet earth to do so. That seems like a pretty strong position normally.
CHALMERS: Give me those one at a time, Steve and I'll give you a one sentence response.
AUSTIN: 1.4 million additional people in work.
CHALMERS: After eight years, you'd expect that, the population is much bigger.
AUSTIN: The gender pay gap has narrowed.
CHALMERS: Still unacceptably large.
AUSTIN: Unemployment is at a 12-year low.
CHALMERS: Well there's been no migration, and people have given up and left the labour force. In the last month alone 129,000 people gave up looking for work and that has an impact on the unemployment rate.
AUSTIN: Australia maintained a triple A credit rating from three leading rating agencies and one of the nine countries in the world to do so.
CHALMERS: You know the first time that happened Steve? The first time in our history was under Labor, during the Global Financial Crisis. Not under Costello. Not under the Liberals. Under Labor we got those three triple A credit ratings. The government wants a big pat on the back for not losing any of them yet. I mean, give me a break!
AUSTIN: My guest Jim Chalmers, Jim Chalmers is Labor's Shadow Treasury spokesperson. This is ABC Radio Brisbane. Jim Chalmers is responding to the opinion piece in today's Australian newspaper, where Australia's treasurer Josh Frydenberg, details the strength, as he sees it, of the Australian economy. There were a couple of things that did catch my eye that were buried in his piece and that was, interestingly insolvencies are 40 per cent lower, now that is a surprise. Most people predicted that a whole raft of businesses would go belly up or bankrupt and I wanted to know why you think that hasn't been the case, Jim Chalmers?
CHALMERS: Well, I think overall people have done the right thing. You think about our performance here in South East Queensland we have had some scares when it's come to the virus but it hasn't kicked on here yet. We've had probably half a dozen times where if we're honest, you and I, we'd say this might be the one that really kicks on and becomes a Melbourne or a Sydney. It hasn't happened and I think that's a tribute to people who've done the right thing and tried to limit the spread of the virus. That's one reason why around Australia we're doing better than what some had feared. But when it comes to business closures and business insolvencies, just because it's not as bad as the worst fears that some people might have had, doesn't mean it's still not tough for a lot of businesses. I think that's the other thing that shines through from Josh Frydenberg's opinion piece. He wants a big pat on the back. He's sort of temperamentally incapable of understanding that people are still doing it tough in the economy, and not just because of COVID but for eight years, we've had people working their butts off, and they still can't get ahead. They're putting food on the table week to week, but they can't do anything much beyond that. I’m sick and tired of people thinking that the economy is just one or two abstract numbers on a page, which is what Josh Frydenberg thinks. He sees it as an opportunity for self-congratulation. What the economy really is, is how real people are faring in real communities. Whether if they work hard, they get rewarded for it and they can get ahead. On that measure, I don't think any objective observer would look at the last eight years, and think that that's been happening.
AUSTIN: One of the unexpected results, I guess, of the pandemic has been the shutting down of people being able to come into Australia and work here. That seems to have benefited unemployed Australians, more than anyone. In other words, unemployment is expected to go down to three point something percent next year isn't it, historic lows if that actually happens. That's what the RBA is expecting. Is that simply because we don't have people coming in from overseas, allowed to work in Australia?
CHALMERS: Well there's a couple of important things about that. It’s slightly more complex than that but that is an issue. I think your listeners would appreciate that the unemployment rate tells a story of the labour market, but not the full story. It captures people who are working zero hours or one hour. So I think a lot of people feel like it's a bit distorted. We have had a lot of people leave the labour market. But the thing that really, if there was one kind of set of numbers that I'd encourage your listeners to think about, is that we've got almost 2 million people in Australia right now who are either not working or aren't working enough hours to support their loved ones. Almost 2 million of us are in that position. At the same time, we've got skill shortages around the economy in different parts of Australia. I'm heading up to Far North Queensland and the North West of Queensland tomorrow and the day after. We've got this weird situation where the labour market is soft, and there are skill shortages at the same time. That comes back to those last eight years of not training people for these vacancies, not making sure that we can match people with opportunities in the economy. That is a stunning failure too when it comes to economic management. We need to do better. Skills and training is part of the story. Getting migration right when the borders open up again is part of the story. But also recognising that the unemployment rate is important but it's not the whole story. There is job insecurity. There is underemployment. There are statistical anomalies in that number. So we need to think more broadly about the labour market and that's what we've been trying to do.
AUSTIN: I'll leave it there, Jim Chalmers. Thanks. Thanks for your time this afternoon.
CHALMERS: Thanks Steve.
ENDS
