JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC BRISBANE DRIVE

MONDAY, 21 JUNE 2021

SUBJECTS: Morrison Government’s failure to outline a recovery roadmap; Morrison Government’s failures on vaccines and quarantine; Scott Morrison’s secret side-trip during the G7 Summit; Latest iteration of the Abbott/Truss, Turnbull/Truss, Turnbull/Joyce, Turnbull/McCormack, Morrison/McCormack, Morrison/Joyce Government.

STEVE AUSTIN, HOST: Jim Chalmers is the Shadow Treasurer for the Opposition in Canberra and the federal Member for Rankin. Jim Chalmers, what's Labor's solution or thinking on this question of some sort of roadmap to opening up the borders for different industries?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: I think when it comes to international students, Steve, it's not an unreasonable ask given the job losses and the campus closures that we've seen already. Higher education is actually our fourth biggest export earner, something like 260,000 jobs in the sector, so I don't think it's unreasonable that the universities want some kind of plan here.

We'd support anything that's sensible, that's consistent with strict health requirements, but I think it all comes back to getting quarantine right. This is one of the two things that we've spoken about before that the Prime Minister is bungling - quarantine and vaccinations.

If we got quarantine right, we could get through more of the 35,000 Australians who are stranded overseas at the moment, and once we do that, we could turn our mind to students in the higher education sector.

AUSTIN: It's not unreasonable to ask just for at least a roadmap. These different sectors - airlines, the cruise ship industry, universities - they realise that it's dependent on vaccine rollout, but what they are looking for is some sort of timeline, roadmap, so that they can actually plan because they can't just open back up, it takes months, and months, and months to restart their industries.

CHALMERS: Yes, of course. And I think like the rest of Australia, they are hostage to those two stuff-ups. Yes, it would be good to have a plan. Yes, it would be good to have a timeframe for these various industries that we rely on so heavily to employ people, so that people can put food on the table. But it comes back to really the two jobs that the Prime Minister had this year - to get quarantine right, to get vaccines right. And in the absence of that, then all of these industries are being left hanging.

AUSTIN: Does Labor have a preferred plan or preferred idea?

CHALMERS: Well, as I said, Steve, we're obviously consulting, whether it's with higher education or some of the other sectors that you mentioned, and our message to them privately is the same as what I've said to you publicly, which is if there is a sensible plan which adheres to really strict health requirements, then we've have an open mind to it. But really our focus is on ensuring that the PM gets those things right.

We've got a four-point plan to deal with, in the near term, what's going on here. Obviously, that's purpose-built quarantine, fixing the vaccination rollout, having a mass advertising campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated, and to build the manufacturing capacity for the mRNA vaccines. Those are the four things that we need to see happen.

The Prime Minister has made a mess of the two most important of those. And that means all of these industries which employ literally hundreds of thousands of Australians are being held hostage to that debacle, that incompetence, from the federal government.

AUSTIN: Federal Labor's Jim Chalmers is my guest. This is ABC Radio Brisbane, it's a quarter to five. Let me move on then, Jim Chalmers. I'm keen to know what you think of this. The Prime Minister went overseas for the G7, fair enough, he's a world leader, he was invited by a couple of our major trading partners, good idea to be there. But it caused a little bit of a stir when it was discovered that he took a bypass, had a few pub lunches and traced his roots back to the Cornish part of England, sort of tracing his ancestral history, and a few people here have sort of objected to this saying 'come on mate, no one else is allowed to do this sort of stuff'. What does Labor think about this? I mean he was there, he was in the region, he was in the area, is it unreasonable for him to do that?

CHALMERS: I just heard Lynette was pretty fired up about this and I think there is a bit of concern in the community. What we've said is, we of course support the Prime Minister of Australia being at the table for some of these important conversations. We haven't quibbled with that for one second. We want our voice to be heard at the top table and the G7 is a really important forum. So, at that level, we don't quibble.

I think what's making people angry about the side trip that he took to look into his family history isn't even necessarily that he had some downtime there. I think the big issue here is the deceptiveness, the sneakiness. The only reason we know about this side trip is because a local historical society put it on a blog and then the local newspaper picked it up. The journalists who are travelling with the Prime Minister were kept in the dark.

So I think what that tells you is if he thought it was above board then he wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to hide it. There are other issues around his explanation, whether or not it was on the way to the airport and all sorts of things, but I think the main issue here is really the sneakiness around it and the fact that he obviously tried to hide it. Because he's got form with that Hawaii trip that he took during the bushfire season.

AUSTIN: So it looks like a pattern?

CHALMERS: Well, I heard someone say it was like Hawaii in winter.

(LAUGHTER)

CHALMERS: And so I think people, they're sort of onto him, they're onto him when it comes to these sorts of things. They know that he's a bit deceptive and a bit sneaky when it comes to this sort of stuff. If he'd been upfront and said I'm going to look into my family history, I'm going to have this side trip, I think people will be more forgiving. But he's tried to hide it and I think that's made people suspicious.

AUSTIN: Twelve to five, speaking with the Mayor of Logan City in just a moment. Before I do that, Jim Chalmers, Barnaby Joyce is back as a another stint as Nationals Leader and as a result of the coalition agreement, Deputy Prime Minister, after beating Michael McCormack in a leadership spill this morning. It's not clear to me whether he actually knew it was going to be on or not. Is the Opposition surprised that he's back, given some of his past indiscretions?

CHALMERS: Not necessarily surprised, I mean he's been trying to come back for some years. Just when we thought the Nationals couldn't get any more ridiculous, they've gone and done this during a during a pandemic. The last leadership spill they had was during the bushfires. So, it's all a bit absurd.

It's actually the sixth combination of Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister this Government's had in the last eight years.

At a time when there's something like 1.7 million Australians who can't find work or enough work, these characters, in their typically self-indulgent way, are just focused on themselves, and I think they’ll be judged harshly for it.

AUSTIN: Thanks for your time.

CHALMERS: Thank you, Steve.

ENDS