JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
BRISBANE
MONDAY, 3 MAY 2021
SUBJECTS: Labour Day march; Workers and the recovery; Scott Morrison’s vaccines and quarantine debacle; Deloitte Access Economics Budget Monitor; Morrison Government threatening to jail and fine citizens returning home from India; Morrison Government delaying childcare concessions; Small businesses in the recovery; Port of Darwin.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Australia's emerging from the deepest, most damaging recession in almost a century. The credit for that recovery belongs overwhelmingly to these workers, and workers right around Australia, and everybody who did the right thing to limit the spread of this virus.
The economy is recovering despite the government, not because of the Morison Government. The recovery would be stronger if Scott Morrison wasn't stuffing up the vaccine rollout. There’d be more jobs, if Josh Frydenberg hadn't made such a mess of the JobMaker Hiring Credits. The Budget would be in better condition if it wasn't riddled with rorts, and weighed down with waste and jobs for mates.
We've had a new report out overnight from Deloitte Access Economics, and so many of the things that are responsible for the recovery in our economy have absolutely nothing to do with Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg. We’re talking about what Australians have achieved together to limit the spread of the virus. We’re talking about the difficult decisions taken by State governments to keep people safe. And we're talking about extraordinary prices that we're getting for our commodities. None of these things are the responsibility of Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison.
The recovery in our economy is welcome, and it's expected, but it's patchy, and it's uncertain, and it's hostage to that vaccine rollout.
It's not a recovery in our economy if Australian working families are left behind. It's not a genuine recovery, if workers like these can't get the wage increases that they need and deserve to make sure that they can support their loved ones.
What we want to see in this country, is an economy, and a society, better after COVID than it was before COVID. But the risk we have from this Morison Government, despite whatever their marketing, and their rhetoric, and their spin says, we risk going back to all of the wage stagnation, all of the job insecurity, which has characterised their economic mismanagement for eight long years – and they'll be asking for twelve at the next election. This pandemic should have been a spur to ensure that Australian workers get a fair deal, and that we can make the economy and our society stronger after COVID than before. The Morison Government instead sees this pandemic as an excuse to go after workers, to go after wages and conditions, and job security, and to go after people's superannuation. Instead of that, we should be thinking about how we make the economy stronger after than it was before. How do we make sure that there are more secure jobs, and more opportunities for more Australians.
That's really the test for this Budget, after eight long years of this government. Next week's Budget can't be another missed opportunity to invest in people, invest in opportunities, invest in their jobs, and invest in their future. What we want to see in the Budget, is something done to turn around the abysmal record that we've seen in this country for eight years when it comes to wages and job security. The workers who are lined up behind me deserve the lion's share of the credit for what Australians have been able to achieve to limit the spread of the virus, and emerge from this recession, and begin to recover.
Just because this recession could have been worse, doesn't mean that it couldn't have been better. And what the workers here have done is the right thing by each other, and the right thing by the country. We want to see that rewarded, and that's why so many people are marching here today.
JOURNALIST: On childcare, the Government says IT issues are the reason why its subsidies can't start until mid mid year. What do you think of timing?
CHALMERS: Well, the Government’s got an excuse for everything, having they? I mean, they're always blaming someone else or something else. They've been in office for eight long years now, and they're asking for twelve at the next election, and childcare has been a mess throughout that period. So, to blame IT systems for eight years of increasing pressure on Australian working families when it comes to childcare is very disappointing, but not especially surprising given their form.
JOURNALIST: Alan Tudge says your childcare policy will give subsidies to families earning over a million dollars and spray money everywhere. Do you think it's too generous?
CHALMERS: Well, the problem that we've got is this Morison Government, whether it's Alan Tudge, or Josh Frydenberg, or Scott Morrison, they can't fix the problem that they don't actually understand. This Government sees childcare policy as a way to get themselves through an election, not as a way to get Australian working parents back into jobs. And what Alan Tudge said, I think, really highlights the fact that these Ministers don't understand.
We're not talking about a welfare measure here, we're talking about a genuine economic reform. Australian working families, and parents in particular, have been under too much pressure for too long. Our policy recognises that the Government’s policy is a stop-gap to get them through an election, and it misses an opportunity not just to take some of the pressure off Australian families, but also to reform the economy, in a way that is beneficial for everyone.
JOURNALIST: India, how do you feel about fines and jail time for Australians who do manage to make it home?
CHALMERS: Well, this is a very drastic measure. And one of the reasons the Prime Minister has gone missing on it, one of the reasons why it was announced in the dead of night, when they hoped that they wouldn't have to answer for it immediately, is because all of this comes back to the Prime Minister's failures on vaccines. If the Prime Minister hadn't comprehensively stuffed up the vaccine rollout, if he hadn't comprehensively stuffed up quarantine, then some of these drastic measures wouldn't be necessary. I think everybody's uncomfortable with it. Obviously, we’ll do what is necessary to protect people from the virus, and it’s very concerning what's happening in India, and we try our best to be constructive, but it is a fact that these kind of drastic measures wouldn't be necessary, were it not for Scott Morrison's failures on vaccines.
(Inaudible) To add to that, I see this morning the Government has been saying for some time that these penalties are based on health advice. Well, the Chief Medical Officer, this morning, has blown that out of the water. The Government has been caught red-handed attributing these penalties to medical advice which doesn't exist. We take the medical advice seriously. Clearly, there needs to be steps put in place to protect us from the outbreak in India, and we are constructive about that, but the Government shouldn't be lying about health advice to justify these penalties on Australians who want to get home. These Australians have been trying to get home for a long time. Scott Morrison said they'd be home by Christmas. They stuffed up vaccines, stuffed up quarantine, and that means too many people are stranded.
JOURNALIST: To small businesses, they’ve been through, obviously, a very, very torrid time. Increasing wages, wouldn't that make it more difficult for them to actually survive? What are you going to do to ensure that small business, who says, sorry, if wages go up, we can't employ more people, what would you do?
CHALMERS: One of the reasons why small business has been doing it so tough, not just during the pandemic, but for much of the last eight years, is because people don't have enough disposable income to spend in our shops, to spend in our retail sector, to spend in tourism. And one of the problems in the economy, not just recognised by Labor, but by the Reserve Bank and others, is that when people don't have that disposable income, they don't have the capacity to support their local small businesses, then the whole economy suffers. And I think small business recognises that. I have a lot of very constructive conversations with their peak organisations, and also with local small businesses. If we don't turn wages around, we won't get the kind of recovery that we need, we won't get the spending in our shops, and small businesses, that they desperately need, either.
JOURNALIST: One more for the ABC. Should the Government act now and end the lease on the Port of Darwin.
CHALMERS: The leasing of the Port of Darwin is an incredibly concerning decision, which jeopardises, in my view, the robustness of our foreign investment screening regime. We’ve said for some time that that deal should not have been approved. Clearly, there are some issues now in trying to unwind that. We have been trying to play a constructive role throughout in saying that, ideally, that lease wouldn't have gone ahead. And if there's steps that can be taken, they should be taken. Thanks very much.
ENDS
