E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC NEWS BREAKFAST
TUESDAY, 5 MAY 2020
SUBJECTS: The impact of Coronavirus on the economy; JobKeeper; Schools; Migration.
MADELEINE MORRIS, ABC BREAKFAST: Let's speak now to the Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers who joins us from Brisbane. Good morning to you Mr Chalmers.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Good morning, Madeleine.
MORRIS: First of all, that $4 billion per week is a really alarming figure and certainly will be sharpening the minds of attendees at National Cabinet today. When you hear that number, are you comfortable with the urgency and with the speed that we're starting to see as our attention turns towards lifting restrictions?
CHALMERS: It's a very confronting number and it's another reminder of the devastating economic consequences of this diabolical health crisis. We've been as constructive as we can be in supporting the Government in some of the welcome steps that they've taken to deal with this. But I think there has been a lack of urgency in getting this support into the economy. The feedback that we've received from the community, including the business community, is that the implementation of the wage subsidies for example has been too slow, it hasn't been communicated clearly enough, and there are too many gaps in the program which means that all of these workers being excluded from JobKeeper by the Treasurer will make unemployment queues even longer than they need to be because of the way that the Government has designed the scheme and refused to fix it.
MORRIS: JobKeeper is not on the agenda today of National Cabinet. As you say there are still over a million Australians excluded from that scheme at the moment. But just when we're looking at starting to ease restrictions, another number; we have fewer than 900 active cases in Australia now. Should we be taking more of a front foot on easing those restrictions?
CHALMERS: I think that the relatively low number of infections is a tribute to the way that Australians have worked together to deal with the worst impacts of this crisis. There have been some very welcome developments in recent weeks and that's obviously a very good thing. One of the reasons why Australia has largely succeeded where other countries have failed is that we have relied heavily on expert advice and the advice of the medical community in particular. We need to be relying on that same advice as our minds turn to how we reopen the economy. This has always been a complex task, balancing the saving of lives with the saving of jobs. The Government has had to try and keep the economy alive at the same time as they've shut down large sectors of it, so these are complex decisions. The best way to proceed is to rely on the advice. When the Government does that, we've supported them.
MORRIS: Just to take you to the schools issue which is still a real thorn in the side of the Government and certainly many parents around the country. We've now seen Queensland starting to let kids back to school as well. Victoria is really the holdout in this area. The Commonwealth Government's advice has always been that schools are safe. Are you concerned with your Labor colleague Daniel Andrews, that this is now going to impact the Victorian economy unduly because schools here remain closed?
CHALMERS: First of all, I think you're right. This is a very stressful time for parents, for teachers who we pay tribute to, and for kids. Speaking as a parent myself, I know that my five-year-old is very excited about the prospect of going back to school in Queensland on Monday and rejoining his classmates in Prep. But it's a very stressful time and I think one of the challenges that parents have had to deal with is the mixed messages from the Federal Government. We agreed largely with Scott Morrison when he said a few weeks ago that the reopening of schools was largely a matter for Premiers and Chief Ministers based on the advice that they are receiving at the state level. Unfortunately, since then the Government has intervened in quite unseemly ways, including on the weekend in that conversation. The point that we make is that it's stressful enough for parents and teachers as it is. Let's not make that more stressful by sending mixed messages. The Prime Minister was largely right to say that the states can rely on their own advice as to when to reopen schools. That's what Dan Andrews has been doing. Unfortunately, those mixed messages have made life harder rather than easier for families right around the country.
MORRIS: But just to go to the economic impact which is undoubtedly going to make life even harder for people, is Victoria going to bear the brunt of this longer than it necessarily needs to compared with other states?
CHALMERS: Every state makes their own decisions on schools, as I was saying. The longer that the economy is shut down, the more impact that will have on jobs, livelihoods, living standards and people's personal finances. Every decision-maker in the economy, whether it's the politicians, the employers, and the workers, have difficult decisions to weigh up. They need to come to the best conclusions that they can. That's what people have generally been doing. Australia has been remarkably successful so far on the health front. There is unfortunately a lot of difficulty to come in the economy and so we need to balance all of those considerations.
MORRIS: Just to another issue. Your Shadow Cabinet colleague Kristina Keneally put out an op-ed on Sunday, where she was essentially calling for Australians to be given jobs over immigrants, people on working visas, saying that Australia's immigration mix needs to change. There's been some disquiet expressed by Labor MPs. Were you aware that she was going to write this before she did, and is this Labor policy now?
CHALMERS: There have obviously been discussions in our team about what this Coronavirus crisis means for all the settings in the economy, including the migration settings. I think people do recognise that migration has slowed dramatically. That's a point that the Prime Minister and others have made as well. This is an opportunity to make sure that we have a conversation about getting the settings right going into the future. As you rightly point out -
MORRIS: So did you know that she was going to write the op-ed before she put it out?
CHALMERS: I did, yes. There's been a conversation behind the scenes in our team for some weeks now not just about this but about all the aspects of policy around this crisis and how we come out of it. I think it's a conversation that's appropriate at a time when the flow has largely stopped. We need to work out what the optimal settings for Australia are when it restarts again. It's about the mix between temporary and permanent migrants. It's about making sure that we have the training settings right to fill some of the skills shortages in the economy. It's about making sure that temporary workers aren't exploited by their employers. There are a whole range of issues here at play and I think it's reasonable that we have this conversation at this time so that we can get the settings right going into the future.
MORRIS: Okay, Jim Chalmers thank you very much for joining us from Queensland this morning.
CHALMERS: Thank you very much.
ENDS
