JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
BLOOMBERG TV
WEDNESDAY, 30 MARCH 2022
SUBJECTS: Federal Budget
PAUL ALLEN, HOST: I'm here in the courtyard of Parliament House in Canberra with Jim Chalmers, the Shadow Treasurer and a man that hopes by May 21 or perhaps later might be the Treasurer. Mr. Chalmers, thanks so much for joining us.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Good morning Paul.
ALLEN: Every year we have a budget reply speech, perhaps this year's budget reply speech is even more important than usual for you because it might include measures that you could be introducing. What would you have in the budget were you presenting it this week?
CHALMERS: I think the big gap in the budget if you go beyond the short term cost of living relief, which is presented very much in election context, is there needs to be a long term plan to grow the economy in a way that doesn't add to these inflationary pressures that we're seeing. So the difference in approach is, Labor can see beyond the May election, we think that there's a role for investment in cleaner and cheaper energy, TAFE and training to deal with this skill shortage that we have; child care, advanced manufacturing, the care economy, there's a range of things which were missing from the budget, which are absolutely crucial to our growth prospects going forward. We're attentive to that even if the government's not.
ALLEN: I do want to return to some of those issues raised in a moment but just in terms of this one-off relief, the cutting of the fuel excise, these one-off cost of living support payments. These are issues that face Australians today. They'll come before the House is; Labor going to vote to support them?
CHALMERS: We will. We've said for some time that we won't stand in the way of cost of living relief which was made necessary by the fact that real wages are falling in this country. We've got cost of living going through the roof, we've got real wages falling so a lot of Australians are falling further and further behind. We won't stand in the way of some cost of living relief for them, even if it's presented by the government as a short term election fix. We want to provide that cost of living relief. But more than that, we want to have a plan for the future and that's what's missing.
ALLEN: But there's a real conundrum though, providing support without stoking inflation? How do you do it?
CHALMERS: You need to be attuned to what else is happening in the budget, what else is happening in the economy. It is possible to grow this economy and invest in the drivers of growth without adding unnecessarily to those inflationary pressures. The government's got some near-term support, which we will provide some support for in the parliament. But beyond that, we need a plan to grow the economy without stoking that inflation, which is punishing so many Australian working families.
ALLEN: So what is your plan?
CHALMERS: It's a combination of things to get the economy growing the right way and make sure the recovery works for everybody. We've got skill shortages that need fee-free TAFE in areas where we need training, and that's been a big issue of the last decade which has been neglected. We need cleaner and cheaper energy to get input costs down, get people's power bills down, we've got a policy there. We need a bigger workforce and child care is a big part of making the workforce bigger so people can work more if they want to. We want to modernise the digital economy by investing in the NBN, improving and modernising our digital capacity. We want to co-invest in areas like advanced manufacturing and the care economy so that we can have a future made in Australia; recognising the severe pressure that's been put on our supply chains, seeing how much value we can add here. All of those things would increase the capacity of the economy and get it growing without stoking those inflationary pressures.
ALLEN: You do have to pay for this, would you consider raising tax rates for wealthier Australians or changing the corporate tax structure?
CHALMERS: We're more interested in the multinational tax fairness agenda that has been promoted by President Biden, Secretary Yellen, the OECD and others. We would look to work with other like-minded countries to make sure that multinational corporations pay their fair share of tax where they're making their profits. That's our priority. We're not anticipating a big broad tax agenda.
ALLEN: The budget is in deficit again but that's not unexpected considering what's been going on the past couple of years. But when do you forecast to return to surplus?
CHALMERS: There is no forecast for a return to surplus. We've got deficits unfortunately, as far as the eye can see in the budget. There’s no surpluses in the next 10 years. We've got a trillion dollars in debt and in my view not enough to show for that debt. We need to make the spending in the budget more focused on quality, not just quantity to improve the quality of our budget. We do have, I heard you say before, there was a modest improvement in the budget. That's important. Commodity prices are a big part of the story there. But we still have deficits around $80 billion for this year, and next year; we still have a trillion dollars in debt. People understand there's a need to borrow sometimes, but we need to be borrowing for good, productive purposes. I'm not sure that the government has been.
ALLEN: I want to circle back to your remarks earlier on climate policy. Of course, we've had devastating floods in parts of northern New South Wales, underwater for the second time in a month right now. What concrete measures are you going to take towards addressing the climate should you become Treasurer in a couple of months?
CHALMERS: Our Powering Australia plan, which we announced in December is all about getting emissions down. But more importantly, or as importantly, getting the costs of energy down. There is an energy transition underway. We think that we can leverage our traditional strengths, particularly in the regions to create more jobs and boost investment and to grow the economy based on increasingly cleaner and cheaper energy. The whole world's moving in that direction. The business community here in Australia is moving in that direction. The only ones preventing that has been the incumbent government. We want to change that.
ALLEN: Very quickly in terms of improving growth prospects is some sort of reconciliation with China going to be needed?
CHALMERS: Well, we need a productive relationship with China but we don't kid ourselves that the relationship has gotten more complex and more difficult to manage. China has become more assertive, if not more aggressive in our region, and obviously that has economic consequences. There is a bipartisanship or there shouldn't be about partisanship when it comes to managing that complex China relationship. We've got a lot at stake there. It is a massive export market for us. So we need to manage that relationship carefully and in the interests of our exporters and our employers.
ALLEN: Alright, Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Thanks so much for joining us.
ENDS
