E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC NEWS BREAKFAST
THURSDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER 2020
 
SUBJECTS: Recession; Tax cuts; The Morrison Government’s lack of a jobs plan.

LISA MILLAR, HOST: Jim Chalmers is joining us now. Good morning. Welcome to Breakfast. We've been following this story in Victoria of this draft document that the Herald Sun has published. There’s lots of talk about Victoria being a weight on the national economy. What would it mean if this lockdown continues or if it's a very slow exit from the current lockdown?
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Good morning Lisa. Obviously what's happening in Victoria is having an impact on the national economy. That's not contested and we'll hear what Premier Andrews says about the future of the lockdowns. There's not much point, in my view, in jumping the gun on that. There is an impact clearly, but not in the numbers which were released yesterday which showed the deepest, most damaging recession of our lifetimes. That wasn't a story about Victoria, that was a broader story. We think that one of the reasons why the Government is so keen to talk about what's happening in Victoria is because they want to absolve themselves of the responsibility for that broader economic weakness.
 
MILLAR: A lot of it has been blamed on the borders being closed though and that's on the state Premiers and leaders?
 
CHALMERS: Obviously the restrictions have an impact on the economy but so does withdrawing JobKeeper too early, which is the Government's current plan, and so does the absence of a plan for jobs which is unfortunately the state of affairs here with the Morrison Government. There are a lot of factors feeding into what is the deepest, most damaging recession in almost a century. There's not one explanation or another. What matters here in the national parliament is what the national government is doing about it. Our fear is that they're in a rush to withdraw support from the economy without a jobs plan to replace it.
 
MILLAR: One of the options that may appear in the budget in a month's time is the bringing forward personal tax cuts. Will Labour support those efforts?
 
CHALMERS: We haven't seen what the Government is looking at. They haven't made any announcements yet. They haven't come to us with any concrete proposals.
 
MILLAR: They've given a few hints.
 
CHALMERS: Well they've been giving hints for some time.
 
MILLAR: Is Labor going to be supportive to try and make this happen or be obstructive?
 
CHALMERS: Lisa you're asking me to respond to something we haven't seen. We've been constructive and responsible throughout this recession, throughout this jobs crisis. We've been as constructive as we can be. If they come to us with concrete proposals, we'll engage with them, discuss them at their end and come to a view. The point that we would make about these tax cuts is that they are no substitute for a comprehensive plan for jobs. At the moment the Government's plan is to wind back JobKeeper, wind back JobSeeker, freeze the pension and slash wages. That will be part of the problem, not part of the solution. We need a jobs plan, and tax cuts being brought forward on their own is not a jobs plan.
 
MILLAR: It was raised quite a few times yesterday that you and your leader had both said it's not an endless bucket of money, that those JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments do have to be tapered?
 
CHALMERS: That's a thoroughly uncontroversial position to take Lisa. That the JobKeeper payment won't be in the economy forever is universally accepted. JobKeeper needs to be tailored to the conditions in the economy. The economy, in particular the labour market, has deteriorated since they announced those changes. We said that they should reconsider them because pulling support out of the economy when unemployment is rising and we expect another 400,000 Australians to join the job queues between now and Christmas doesn't make a lot of sense. The rate of JobKeeper is up to the Treasurer. We want him to reconsider those reductions because they will do damage to the economy when it's at its weakest.
 
MILLAR: That is one part of it, but the Treasurer has said he's going to be ambitious with the budget, and that means workplace reform, industrial relations, and other tax effects may come into play. What do you want to see? I take your point on JobKeeper and JobSeeker in the budget – what else do you want to see?
 
CHALMERS: We'd like to see some investment in social housing for example. It's labour intensive, has a local benefit, and a lasting benefit for the most vulnerable people. We’re going to need to see more investment in the care economy. There'll be a need for local jobs programs in the hardest hit areas. If we want to get business investment going again we need to settle energy policy so business can invest with confidence in Australia and in Australian jobs. All of these things would be sensible parts of a comprehensive jobs plan. We haven't got a comprehensive jobs plan. Now the Government tells us we have to wait another month.
 
MILLAR: I just want to ask you one last question about those personal tax cuts. It's $158 billion worth. You know that the stages exist, a now there's talk of them being fast tracked. Why can't you say whether you would support fast tracking all three stages of the tax cuts?
 
CHALMERS: Because the Government hasn't announced that. They haven’t said that that's exactly what they're going to do. They've hinted that they might change some of the existing tax scales, thresholds and rates. I think it's entirely responsible for us not to sign up to something that we haven't seen. There's not a blank cheque here. We'll be responsible and constructive. We’ll engage with any concrete proposals, but it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to sign up for something when the Government still doesn't even know what they're going to do.
 
MILLAR: Alright, Jim Chalmers, thanks for your time.
 
CHALMERS: Thank you Lisa.
 
ENDS