JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW

ABC NEWS BREAKFAST

TUESDAY, 29 JUNE 2021

SUBJECTS: Morrison Government’s failures on vaccines and quarantine means more lockdowns for longer; Labor’s four-point COVID-19 plan; Morrison Government’s commuter carpark rorts; 2021 Intergenerational Report.

LISA MILLAR, HOST: Labor's accused the federal Government of overpromising and underdelivering following the release of the latest Intergenerational Report. It shows Australia's population is not going to grow as quickly as previously thought, meaning a smaller economy, a more rapidly ageing population, and government debt for decades to come. Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers joins us now from Brisbane. Good morning to you, welcome to News Breakfast.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks very much, Lisa.

MILLAR: I want to get into the Report in a minute, but there's been so much happening on the vaccine and COVID front, so let's talk about that first.

CHALMERS: Yep. 

MILLAR: Last night's press conference with the Prime Minister making these announcements on the changes to the vaccine rollout. Is that what we need to turbocharge what's happening in Australia?

CHALMERS: We certainly need to turbocharge the vaccine rollout, that's for sure. And I think a lot of Australians watching their Prime Minister last night would have been scratching their head wondering why a lot of these things weren't happening already.

The reason for that is we've got a Prime Minister who spends all of his time trying to avoid responsibility rather than take responsibility. That's why Australia is hopelessly behind when it comes to the vaccine rollout. It's why we haven't built those purpose-built quarantine facilities that we need to contain the virus. That’s why, in the absence of leadership from the Prime Minister, we'll have more lockdowns for longer. And it's why these lockdowns have Scott Morrison's name on them.

MILLAR: Epidemiologists say even if we have vaccines, all have vaccines, that there's going to be rolling lockdowns. And the Prime Minister does point to what's happening in Europe and the UK. It's pretty grim reading this morning I've got to tell you for Australians waking up because we're seeing what started in Sydney now spreading across the nation and people really worried about where we're heading with this.

CHALMERS: I think they are, and that anxiety is all around Australia today. A lot of Australians waking up in locked-down cities and they'd be wondering how it got to this, how is it that we are so far behind other countries when it comes to vaccinations? Why haven't we built that purpose-built quarantine?

I think Australians who are anxious and worried about these lockdowns, worried about their jobs, worried about their small businesses, they have Scott Morrison to thank, unfortunately. It has been his failure of leadership, his incompetence on vaccines and quarantine, that has got us into this position. And we need to see it fixed.

There are four things that need to happen, Lisa - we need to fix the vaccine rollout, we need purpose-built quarantine as a matter of urgency, we need a proper national information campaign to deal with vaccine hesitancy, and we need to have the capacity to manufacture these mRNA vaccines. In the absence of leadership, in the absence of those four things, then Australia will be locked down longer than is necessary and more frequently than is necessary.

MILLAR: Jim Chalmers, can I just ask you about this audit that came out as well with the $660 million commuter car parks project that the Auditor-General found half of the grants chosen the day before the Government went into caretaker mode in 2019. More than three quarters were for coalition seats. Does the grants program and how all that works just need to be absolutely thrown out because it appears that it's being abused?

CHALMERS: I think this is emblematic, unfortunately, of the waste and rorts that characterises much of the Budget under the coalition. We do have some substantial issues uncovered here by the Auditor-General, but also sports rorts, we've got dodgy land deals around Western Sydney Airport, all kinds of issues have come to light. And what they show is these generations of debt which has been racked up by the Government, a lot of that is from wasted money and rorted money, rorted taxpayer funds, so we need to clean that up.

MILLAR: Well the Intergenerational Report suggests also, if we turn to that, 40 years down the track we're going to have an older, more-costly population. Deficit and debt is here to stay. Is there anything facing us except higher taxes and spending cuts?

CHALMERS: Unfortunately, the Intergenerational Report yesterday did paint a pretty bleak picture, not just of those issues that you raised but an economy which is smaller and slower and more stagnant. We do have those generations of debt without a generational dividend, without enough to show for all of this debt that the Liberals and Nationals have racked up. This can't be the thanks that Australians get for the sacrifices they've made throughout this pandemic. They deserve better than the bleak future which has been painted by the Intergenerational Report.

I refuse to believe that Australia has peaked, which is the main take out from the Treasurer yesterday. We can do better, we can have a stronger, more inclusive, more sustainable economy into the future, but not if we continue on this path that Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have us on.

MILLAR: Alright, Jim Chalmers, got to leave it there. Thanks for your time.

CHALMERS: Thank you, Lisa.

ENDS