JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW

BLOOMBERG DAYBREAK AUSTRALIA
WEDNESDAY, 12 MAY 2021

SUBJECTS: Budget 2021

PAUL ALLEN, HOST: Jim Chalmers is the Shadow Treasurer with the opposition Labor Party. Mr Chalmers, thanks so much for joining us. So a big spending Keynesian style stimulus, it does look a lot like the sort of Budget that a Labor Government would put out.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: I think most people are expecting it to be an election Budget. And there is by Australia's historical standards, very high debt, very high deficits. And I think the most important thing is that the country's got something to show for all of that. When you look at that Budget we've got some issues with wages growth, we've got some issues with growth more broadly, but Australia is recovering. We want to make sure that more Australians get a slice of the action as the economy recovers.

ALLEN: So what would you have done differently? I mean, I know you have your Budget Reply speech coming up, how would that money be better deployed?

CHALMERS: I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity to do things, including cleaner and cheaper energy, in terms of diversifying our economy, advanced manufacturing apprenticeships, there are a whole range of missed opportunities in the Budget. And we'll have more to say over the next day or two via our leader Anthony Albanese but I think if the Government is going to rack up that much debt, which is as far as the eye can see, then we need to have more to show for it than we currently do.

ALLEN: S&P, I was talking about before, has identified a number of potential risks for Australia going forward. There's trade tension with China. Also, the very slow pace of the vaccination rollout. Quarantine continues to be an issue. Has there been enough attention paid to these matters?

CHALMERS: I don't think so. I think the recovery is welcome. And it's pleasing. And there have been some good developments in the Australian economy, but it's hostage to a lot of uncertainty. The China relationship is one of them but I think in the nearer term the vaccine rollout is slower than countries we compare ourselves with. And we've got an issue with quarantine, as you rightly point out. So I think it is hostage to a lot of that uncertainty, the Budget was an opportunity to fix some of those things. And unfortunately, I think we're still a bit behind the eight ball when it comes to those things.

ALLEN: We did discuss just a little earlier, off camera, when there was a crisis of the size of this pandemic, you do have to lean in a little with your spending. But as S&P says the triple-A rating could be at risk. Is this something you're concerned about?

CHALMERS: Yes, but I think overall, when the economy's weak as it has been, there is a responsibility for Government to lean in with the Budget and support people and their jobs. I think that's really important. When it comes to the credit rating, triple-A from all three ratings agencies was actually first achieved by Labor during the Global Financial Crisis, it would be good to defend that rating.

ALLEN: Just for the sake of our viewers, we do have a few protests going on here, which is not unusual on Budget Day, so we'll just continue on. Also, in that Budget, a large amount of money, billions even set aside, the decisions taken not yet announced. Does that say to you election coming imminently?

CHALMERS: Yeah, I think so. First of all, welcome to the robust Australian democracy. Yes, there are a lot of slush funds in the Budget which concern us. When you've got debt as high as it is and deficits as high as they are you want to make sure you're getting value for money. We don't want to see money just spread around for political reasons. It does feel like a political Budget but what the country really needs is a plan for the future.

ALLEN: In terms of the future, there is a plan here for bringing back international students towards the end of this year, a reopening of migration in 2022. Does that seem like a reasonable target?

CHALMERS: Well, it's all dependent on the vaccine rollout. The vaccine rollout is much slower than we would like, much slower than the US, the UK, and other places we compare ourselves to. So I think it all hinges on that. There hasn't been enough rolled out fast enough, effectively enough. We need to fix that. If we fix that, then we can get some of those parts of the economy which are heavily dependent on international traffic, we can get them going again.

ALLEN: Just finally, this was meant to be a female friendly budget. There's $3.4 billion worth of spending in this for women's safety, for childcare issues, proving women's opportunity in the economy. Has it done enough?

CHALMERS: We'll go through the detail of it. Some of it is just extending existing programmes. We'll go through it. Our spokespeople, including Tanya Plibersek, will work closely with them to see that we're getting maximum benefit out of that money that's been allocated.

ENDS