JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC BRISBANE DRIVE 
MONDAY, 2 AUGUST 2021

SUBJECTS: Federal Parliament, Scott Morrison’s Failures on Quarantine and Vaccinations, AstraZeneca, YouTube Banning Sky News for Misinformation. 

STEVE AUSTIN, HOST: Let's talk federal politics with Jim Chalmers the Shadow Treasurer for Federal Labor and Federal Member for Rankin. Jim were you on this charter flight into Canberra on the weekend?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: No I wasn't. I did come in on Saturday but I wasn't on that particular flight.

AUSTIN: So 20 MPs apparently were on this charter flight. Does that sort of thing ever happen normally?

CHALMERS: Well it's not normal times. I'm not sure how many were on it but a bunch of colleagues came down on that flight while others came here commercially. I think everyone's just trying to do the best they can to balance all the various considerations of home and work and try to do our job effectively. So a bunch us came down on Saturday, had a test and had to stay at home until we got that negative test and then there's some additional restrictions and precautions on top of that.

AUSTIN: So what are the restrictions? You go to federal parliament but wear a mask and once you've finished in Parliament, you have to go back home to you apartment in Canberra or something?

CHALMERS: There's that but also we're not moving around the building much, there's mask wearing and a whole bunch of things like that, things that people would expect basically. A lot of workplaces are trying to do the best they can and it's no different here.

AUSTIN: What's on the agenda today that stands out to Federal Labor?

CHALMERS: Parliament comes back officially tomorrow, today was really the opportunity for meetings of the Shadow Cabinet and the parliamentary party. From my point of view there's a bit of legislation this week about how we get some of these payments out the door that the government has announced, like making sure that the feds can work with all the various state systems to get that support out the door and making sure it's tax free. So that's been my priority in a strict parliamentary sense, but I think more broadly, it's the issues we've been dealing with and talking about like how do we get more vaccinations done? How do we get purpose built quarantine? How do we do these things which have been obvious for some time that we desperately need if we're to avoid the kind of lockdowns that we're seeing at the moment in Southeast Queensland.

AUSTIN: My guest is Jim Chalmers. Jim Chalmers is the Federal Labor Member for Rankin, he's also the shadow Treasury spokesperson for the ALP. It's 12 minutes to 5. Today in the Australian newspaper, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison has written an op-ed and I want to run some of the lines by you and see how much of it you agree with. Scott Morrison says we've done better than almost any other country in the world in saving lives and livelihoods. Do you agree?

CHALMERS: We had a really good start but we're flagging now because the things that we needed to do early on in 2020 like do the right thing by each other to limit the spread of the virus I think Australians deserve a heap of credit for the way that they went about that. I think we are falling behind a bit now, because the things that we desperately need are the things that Scott Morrison hasn't provided, like the vaccination rollout, purpose built quarantine, a good information campaign, capacity to manufacture mRNA vaccines. These sorts of things that have been obvious for some time we haven't been doing as a country. We did have a really good start. 2020 was a credit to the Australian people but I think 2021 has been difficult because of those things that government hasn't done.

AUSTIN: We do have truckloads of AstraZeneca vaccine doses and there's been discussion up here in Queensland about why our own Chief Health Officer is undermining its apparent efficacy or reputation. So, the Prime Minister isn't responsible really for something like the undermining of the AstraZeneca vaccine?

CHALMERS: The Prime Minister is responsible for supply and the Prime Minister is responsible for the messaging that he uses about vaccines -

AUSTIN: And we have an abundance of supply of AstraZeneca, we have an absolute overabundance.

CHALMERS: I don't know about that. There is a lot of AstraZeneca, I don't know if I would use exactly the same words you used.

AUSTIN: What words would you use?

CHALMERS: There's more AstraZeneca than there is Pfizer. Our view in Federal Labor all along has been get whatever vaccine you can consistent with your health advice and your medical advice. There's been mixed messages coming out of Canberra too unfortunately in that in that regard. Greg Hunt not that long ago was telling people that they could hurry up, then they could just see what happens and so that's been damaging. I think that's pretty much uncontested. What we need is a consistent message. If you're eligible and your doctor says go for it and get AstraZeneca I think that's wise advice.

AUSTIN: Let me go back to the Prime Minister's op-ed. He says the overseas evidence clearly shows that if we had the same experience of other advanced economies where their COVID death rate has been almost 40 times greater than in Australia, more than 30,000 additional Australians would have died. Together we stopped, this says the Prime Minister. Does Labor agree?

CHALMERS: Yes, but I think we should be in that position. We've got a continent to ourselves. We've got people who are remarkably adaptive, who want to do the right thing by each other. I think that's part of our egalitarian heritage. We should be doing better than other countries. But I think one of the problems with not just that opinion piece you're reading from but more broadly, is the Prime Minister is more interested in giving himself a big pat on the back than he is on actually making sure that we can maintain that lead and don’t fall behind. I mean he wants to use Olympic analogies in that piece that he put in the Australian today. Let's be brutal about it: we're at the arse end of the medal tally when it comes to vaccinations. We are well behind the countries with which we compare ourselves. So I'm not sure why he pats himself on the back when that's the case. The reason why we're having these lockdowns, is because vaccinations are way behind where they need to be and we don't have the purpose built quarantine that you would expect 18 or 20 months into a pandemic. So how about a little bit less of the patting himself on the back, and writing love letters to himself, and maybe a bit more of sorting out the things that are his responsibility. The Australian people have done, and are doing, their bit it's time for him to do his.

AUSTIN: He does take responsibility in the piece. He says as Prime Minister I take responsibility for the early setbacks in our vaccination program.

CHALMERS: In the spin and marketing that is in a heavily workshopped, focus grouped and scripted opinion piece maybe. But when you watch him in those press conferences, you'd see them too Steve, where he gets a bit shirty at the questions you know what he's really trying to do here is make sure that everything that goes bad is the states’ fault, and everything that goes well is to his credit. I think Australians are seeing through that increasingly. More people will see the kind of bad behaviour at those press conferences and all the duck shoving and avoiding responsibility then will have read that piece today,

AUSTIN: My guest is Jim Chalmers shadow Treasury spokesperson for Federal Labor and the Member for Rankin. Jim Chalmers just before we let you go. Today, YouTube has suspended Sky News Australia for a couple of weeks for some of the comments some of their people have made. How comfortable is Federal Labor with a US controlled digital platform, blocking Australian media organisations from being on page on the website?

CHALMERS: I think we should be doing what we can to stop the spread of misinformation. There's a role for the platforms in that and there's a role for the government in that which they haven't taken up. The government should be the primary mover when it comes to stamping out misinformation, it shouldn't get to the platforms, to have to do this. We've got regulators, but more importantly I mean we've got people in the government's own backbench who are going to these rallies and spreading all of this rubbish on social media. I mean if we had a Prime Minister prepared to lead on these issues, then it shouldn't be the responsibility of YouTube, they're doing what they can -

AUSTIN: Shouldn't it be the responsibility of the Australian Communications Media Authority to look at this? Not an American media organisation but ACMA?

CHALMERS: ACMA should be looking at it too. I know that a lot of the commentary since YouTube made this decision has been, how do we make sure the regulator is playing a proactive role too but I guess the point I'm making here is that when it comes to misinformation the fish stinks from the head down. There are members of Scott Morrison's own government spreading misinformation. He should be putting his back into stamping it out, it shouldn't fall to individual companies to take this kind of action.

AUSTIN: I'll speak to you again, thanks for your time.

CHALMERS: Thanks for your time, Steve.

ENDS