JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN


E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC BRISBANE DRIVE
MONDAY, 25 JANUARY 2021

SUBJECTS: Return of Parliament; Australia Day; Federal Labor’s Policy Agenda; Anthony Albanese.

STEVE AUSTIN, HOST: In the studio with me is Labor's Jim Chalmers. Jim joins me each Monday to talk federal politics from the Labor perspective. Welcome back to the studio.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks Steve, you're giving the people what they want.

AUSTIN: One, AM radio. Two, streaming. Three, digital radio. Four, the Listen app. Five, channel 25. Five different ways, just to listen to the wireless.

CHALMERS: When much Steven Austin is never enough!

AUSTIN: Too much, Steve Austin is always too much. Welcome back to the studio. It's good to see you again. When does federal parliament return?

CHALMERS: This time next week. It sits formally on the Tuesday, but I think most people will be back in Canberra Monday of next week, the 1st of February.

AUSTIN: Does the ALP have a tiny policy agenda, quote-unquote, as former Labor leader Bill Shorten reportedly thinks? He's quoted in today's Australian after writing an essay, called The Write Stuff, which was released, apparently, on Friday, on the weekend. Do you have a tiny agenda this time around?

CHALMERS: No, we don't, and I don't think that was the point that Bill was making. Bill, like a lot of us, wrote a chapter for that book called The Write Stuff, a little while ago, with some thoughts about the future of the country and the Labor Party's role in that. He did an event, I think on the weekend, and he wasn't saying that we have a tiny agenda, he's saying that we shouldn't have a tiny agenda. We don’t and we won't.

AUSTIN: He's warning against.

CHALMERS: I think what he's warning against is, all of us recognise who were involved in that last election campaign in 2019, the one that we lost, for many people that was unexpected. One of the lessons from the review we did of that election, one of the conclusions we all drew I think in our own way, was that we probably had too many complex policies out there at once. So, the job for us and the point Bill's making, Anthony Albanese's making and I've made before...

AUSTIN: I think Wayne Swan's been making it too, the Federal ALP President.

CHALMERS: ...the point we're making, is that we can dial down the number and complexity of our policies without dialling down our ambition for the country in our policy agenda. And that's our job. I don't think anybody who looks at the substantial announcements that Anthony Albanese has made in terms of changing childcare - making it cheaper and more accessible for more people - modernising the electricity transmission network so we can get cleaner and cheaper energy to more homes and businesses, he's announced some big changes to apprenticeships, making sure we get more apprenticeships out of government projects in particular. So already - and we're still a little way away from an election - already he's got a big policy agenda out there. It's all about recovering and making sure the economy is stronger after COVID than it was before. That is already the beginnings of a substantial policy agenda.

AUSTIN: He's very personable, Anthony Albanese. Does that mean he doesn't get the sort of the clarity or cut through with someone who's more gruff and blunt? Like, he's actually quite pleasant to interview, which is sometimes rare in politics.

CHALMERS: No offence taken!

AUSTIN: No offence meant! But he's a personable kind of character and he answers questions. Does that mean that you don't get the same sort of cut through? There's been a bit of commentary about a supposed disgruntlement in federal Labor about his leadership, but his leadership style is one of being quite personable, I'm wondering whether that's when you want to communicate a message, is that a drawback?

CHALMERS: I don't think so. I think what people like about Anthony is that he's authentic and he speaks like a real person. I don't accept the criticism that's made from time to time. I think it's harder for opposition leaders generally, around the world, around the states, to make as big an impact during crisis times, as we've seen in the last year. But I think Anthony's method of communication is authentic, it's real, it's grounded in the realities of people's lives and I think people warm to that.

AUSTIN: My guest is Jim Chalmers. Jim Chalmers is the Shadow Treasurer for the ALP and the Labor Member for Rankin here in Queensland, which is an electorate on the southside of Brisbane. Is there any dissatisfaction with the way he's leading the party? I mean, some of the conservative papers - or the Murdoch papers, I guess - are running frequent stories, implying or indicating this. What's happening in Labor caucus, is anything being said there?

CHALMERS: No, I think we're on the same page, Steve. We've got a big job to do. We've got a big responsibility to the Australian community. And we're focusing on, as I said before, trying to make sure that the country, the economy, our society can be stronger and more inclusive after COVID than it was before. The thing that we're really worried about is that Morrison and Co. seem to want to just kind of fast forward, back to the past where we had all that job insecurity, stagnant wages and all of those sorts of things. What the Labor team, in a united way, wants to do is to say we can do better than that. That's what our policies that we've already announced are all about. That's what the policies that we are yet to announce will be all about. And that's got to be our focus. I think that parties that spend their time focused inwardly on themselves get punished rightly by the electorate. Our job is to remember why we're here, what our mission is and I think on the main, that's what we're doing.

AUSTIN: What are you doing tomorrow, Australia Day? Or do you call it something else?

CHALMERS: I'm leading a citizenship ceremony tomorrow. This will be I think the 8th consecutive time I've done it as a federal MP, I do it in my local community and it's a terrific way actually to spend the day. I've spent Australia Day for a couple of decades now first thing up in the bush, I go for a run in the bush near my place amongst the eucalypts which seems kind of fitting for Australia Day, a citizenship ceremony after that, and then, hopefully, a bit of time with the kids.

AUSTIN: How do you feel about Australia Day? It's my understanding it’s supposed to be a day that brings the country together. Increasingly, it's been seen as one of the more divisive days of the year. I don't know whether it's the fault of the national broadcaster, us, or something else, but in my mind, surely there's one day of the year, I mean - just one out of 365 days - we can say, okay, for all our faults, for all our problems, for all the things we haven't yet done - it's not a bad place, we've got some things right. How do you feel?

CHALMERS: That would be ideal, Steve. Ideally, there would be a day that we could all get behind, but if you care about unity, that requires healing, and if you care about healing, that requires truth telling.

AUSTIN: Didn't Labor leaders do that? Kevin Rudd gave the apology in parliament, a pretty significant moment. Paul Keating, some years before, gave the Redfern Speech. I mean, they were pretty significant national moments by Prime Ministers of Australia on behalf of all Australians?

CHALMERS: They were wonderful statements from both of those leaders, and they are rightly regarded as that. But I think what we need to recognise is, that if we want a day of unity, then we need to recognise that for some people it's a difficult day. If we want to heal our community and move forward...

AUSTIN: That would mean that any day is a difficult day.

CHALMERS: I'm not proposing we change the day, but what I am saying is that we need to do a much better job recognising that if we care about unity, we need to care about healing. And if we care about healing, we need to care about truth telling. That's one of the whole bases of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the idea of a Makarrata Commission, which is about truth telling, getting our history right, so that we can we move forward together. I don't think it's unreasonable for us, those of us who mark Australia Day on the 26th of January, it's not unreasonable for us to try and understand where First Nations people are coming from here. It's incumbent on us to recognise that yes, we have good things in our history, but we've got difficult, traumatic parts of our history, as other countries do. We’ve discussed that before. We need to do a better job recognising that if we are to move forward together.

AUSTIN: Thanks for coming in once again.

CHALMERS: Thank you, Steve.

ENDS