E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC WEEKEND BREAKFAST
SATURDAY, 20 APRIL 2019
 
SUBJECTS: Liberals’ cuts to penalty rates; Liberals’ cuts to hospitals; Labor’s game-changing health investments; Liberals’ secret cuts to pay for tax cuts for the top end of town; Liberals’ water buybacks scandal: Peter Dutton’s slurs against people with a disability; superannuation; climate change; Adani
 
ADRIAN RASCHELLA: To get his take on how the ALP fared this week, we're joined by Shadow Finance Minister and Labor Campaign Spokesperson Jim Chalmers, who's in Brisbane. Good morning, Mr Chalmers.

JIM CHALMERS, LABOR CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: Good morning, Adrian.
 
RASCHELLA: Before we look back over the week, campaigning resumes today. Sunday penalty rates are a focus for Labor. What are your plans should you win the election?
 
CHALMERS: Well Adrian, for a lot of Australians, Easter and the time around it means time with families, but for a lot of people, hundreds of thousands of Australians are working on the public holidays and the Sundays around Easter, and because of Scott Morrison's cuts to penalty rates, some people will be up to $370 worse off. We have been very clear that we will reverse Scott Morrison's cuts to penalty rates. We gave him eight opportunities in the Parliament to reverse these cuts to penalty rates and Scott Morrison voted to cut penalty rates eight times. So for all of your viewers who might be working this weekend, or in the public holidays around the two weeks around Easter, if you are not getting your penalty rates anymore, you have got Scott Morrison to thank for that. This is a guy who's cut your penalty rates at the same time as he is cutting your hospitals and schools, and Australian workers are worse off for it.
 
RASCHELLA: So what's the strategy should you win the election? Will you bring this to the Senate before the current Senate expires? Do you think you'll have a greater chance of getting penalty rates back with the current Senate in place?
 
CHALMERS: It remains to be seen what the Senate looks like after 1 July, but we have made it very clear for some time now that this is a top priority to restore the cuts that Scott Morrison's made to penalty rates in this country. We said we will move as quickly as possible in the first 100 days to get this legislated, so that people who are working on Sundays or public holidays, whether it be in pharmacy or retail or hospitality or fast-food, that they get their penalty rates back. They are giving up time with their families on the weekends and on public holidays that other people might take for granted, and they deserve to be fairly compensated for that.
 
RASCHELLA: Alright, well the AMA's hospital report card is out today. It says our hospitals are in a depressing state. Patients are waiting longer than ever before for care and doctors are demanding that both sides of politics dramatically improve funding. Will wait times come down under a Labor Government?
 
CHALMERS: Yes, they will. We have got a blitz on waiting times. We've got a $2.8 billion investment in our hospitals, including our emergency departments. We've got important game-changing investments in cancer treatment, MRIs, right across-the-board. So yes, there will be a substantial improvement in healthcare under Labor. What the AMA is talking about today is the inevitable consequence of six years of cuts and chaos. Six years of cuts to health, and especially our hospitals, and Labor will restore the $2.8 billion that Scott Morrison wants to pull out of our hospitals. What we have in our hospital system, is we have emergency departments which are over-stretched. We have doctors and nurses and health professionals which are over-worked. We have waiting list times blowing out. These, as I said, are the consequences of six years of cuts, and Labor, as a high priority, will start to undo the damage done by Scott Morrison here.
 
RASCHELLA: Alright, let's look at the first full week of election campaigning for Labor. There were some bumps along the way. How do you rate how your first full week went?
 
CHALMERS: I'm very pleased with how the first full week of the campaign went, Adrian. Campaigns inevitably have ups and downs. You have good days and bad days, but we have been speaking about our game-changing investment in cancer treatment. We have been speaking about restoring the cuts that Scott Morrison has made to our hospitals, and on the other side they haven't been able to explain why they want to give $77 billion in tax cuts to people in the top tax bracket. They haven't been able to explain the $40 billion in secret cuts, which they've baked into their Budget to pay for those tax loopholes for the top end of town. They have serious questions to answer about these water buybacks, which is developing into a full-blown scandal that Scott Morrison must respond to in the coming days. You've had Peter Dutton running down people with a disability saying they use it as an excuse. Right across the board. We're happy that we're talking about health. We're talking about climate change. These are the issues that Australians want us to deal with after six years of chaos and cuts under the other mob. 
 
RASCHELLA: Your leader had some trouble explaining a couple of things too this week, didn't he? He had trouble explaining superannuation taxes and where they'd go. Was that a real set-back for him and his credibility?
 
CHALMERS: Not at all. In fact, I think after Bill misheard the question or misunderstood the question on the first day, he fronted up on the second day and said that and outlined our policy which was already announced. We said we had no further announcements to make. I think Australians actually mark people up when they concede something like that rather than mark them down. He said he misunderstood the question. He cleared it up. He outlined our policy very effectively, which is to close down some of the loopholes at the top end of the tax system so we can make those investments in hospitals and schools. I think people understand that.
 
RASCHELLA: Labor also seems to have had some trouble explaining away its climate policy and in terms of what it will cost the economy. Why is Bill Shorten so reluctant to say what your policy will cost?
 
CHALMERS: I don't think he is, Adrian. Our policy is good for the economy. The economy will continue to grow strongly. There will be investment in renewable energy. There will be downward pressure on energy prices. There will be new jobs created in the renewable energy sector. All of these things are good for the economy and we've had a former governor of the Reserve Bank come out today and say that these assertions made by the Government and their cronies over the last week or so have been crazy, based on absurd assumptions and stupid arguments. I think the Australian people see through these scare campaigns. They've had a decade of them now. They want us to act on climate change and Labor will act on climate change and we will do so in a way that keeps the economy growing strongly, with jobs being created, less pollution and lower energy prices.
 
RASCHELLA: So what is the cost then?
 
CHALMERS: The cost to business depends on the cost of international permits. It depends on what steps they take to adapt to the safeguard mechanism that we will put in place, but overall, the cost to the economy will be greater without acting. The CSIRO said the cost per household will be something like $14,000 if we didn't meet our Paris commitments, so the cost of inaction is greater than the cost of action. Under our policy, which includes things lik    e international permits, which business overwhelmingly supports, we will do this in a way that the Australian people can support us dealing with climate change at the same time as we grow the economy, create jobs, have lower energy prices and lower pollution.
 
RASCHELLA: As you say, climate and the environment are big policy areas for you. So what exactly is Labor's policy on Adani as we are now only four or so weeks away from election day?
 
CHALMERS: We have said repeatedly that we didn't want to see public money go to Adani. We said that if we are called upon as a government to make decisions about the outstanding steps that haven't yet been concluded then we will do that based on the best possible advice and we will do it consistent with the law. We said it has to stack up commercially, environmentally and scientifically, and our position hasn't changed.
 
RASCHELLA: Jim Chalmers in Brisbane, thank you so much for talking to us today.
 
CHALMERS: Thank you, Adrian.
 
ENDS