E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
BRISBANE
SUNDAY, 4 OCTOBER 2020
 
SUBJECTS: Apprentice wage subsidies; Federal budget; President Trump and coronavirus; ADF and the Queensland border.
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: I might just say something about the Government's training announcement today and then the budget more broadly. 
 
Labor welcomes any support for apprentices, trainees, young people in particular, and any efforts to undo the mess made of training by the Liberals over the last seven years or so. We can't afford a lost generation of workers sacrificed to this recession and unable to get ahead in the recovery. This announcement today from the Government doesn't make up for the 140,000 fewer apprentices and trainees on their watch. It doesn't fully restore the billions of dollars which have been ripped out of training over the last seven years. There is no vision for the future of training in this announcement, nothing for young people and how they grasp the opportunities of the recovery and make sure that we can teach and train people for technological and economic change. It doesn't make up for the fact that this Government is notorious for making big announcements with big dollars attached and then not following through on it. We'll take the time to go through this announcement made by the Government today. We'll go through all of the details. We'll want to make sure that it is properly implemented and properly designed. Subject to that we hope to be able to welcome and support this announcement today even though it doesn't undo all of the damage done to training and apprenticeships by this Government over seven long years.
 
The budget on Tuesday night can't just be another marketing exercise which treats Australians as mugs. We can't have just another series of announcements, big dollar figures, all of the fawning headlines, and all the pats on the back without the follow through for Australians doing it tough. There are almost a million Australians unemployed and that's expected to get worse before it gets better. We're in the teeth of the deepest, most damaging recession in almost a century. We're confronting a full-blown jobs crisis in this country. The budget needs to be about jobs, it needs to be about supporting people, it needs to be about investing in the future so that we have something to show for trillions of dollars in debt. 
 
If the Government's budget on Tuesday nightdoesn't prevent unemployment being unacceptably high for unacceptably long, then the budget will have failed. This budget should be judged on whether or not the Government can prevent unemployment being too high for too long. It can't be another marketing exercise. It can be another set of announcements without follow through. Too many Australians are relying on the Government to get this right in the labour market, in our communities, and to make sure that we're properly investing in the future. We need to make sure that the legacy of this first recession in almost three decades isn't just high unemployment for longer and trillions of dollars in debt. We need to make sure that the budget invests in people, invests in the future, invests in jobs, and supports people who are doing it really tough.
 
Over to you.
 
JOURNALIST: Just back on the wage subsidy, what are your concerns that women won't get as much value out of this as [INAUDIBLE]?
 
CHALMERS: This announcement on its own for apprentices and trainees is obviously not a substitute for a more comprehensive jobs plan which recognises the disproportionate impact on women of this deep and damaging recession. We need to make sure that there is proper investment in jobs that recognises that women are concentrated in industries like the care economy. We need to make sure that as we invest in jobs and invest in the future, that Australian women aren't left out, left in the lurch, and left behind.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you think it would be enough to keep young people out of the unemployment queues in big numbers?
 
CHALMERS: That remains to be seen. This announcement won't make up for the 140,000 fewer apprenticeships and traineeships in the system since the Government came to office. This is the Government which promised 300,000 new apprenticeships, and instead has delivered 140,000 fewer apprenticeships. We need to ensure that young people, apprentices, trainees, and workers more broadly are invested in not just to get them through this difficult period but so that there's a vision for training so that young people aren't sacrificed to this recession, so that we don't have a lost generation of workers, and so people can grab the opportunities of the recovery and benefit from technological and economic change, not just be its victims.
 
JOURNALIST: Would you like to see people who are on the JobKeeper payment, when it runs out, transition into this scheme?
 
CHALMERS: Our concern with JobKeeper is that it's being withdrawn too fast. We can't have a situation where the Government, having implemented JobKeeper too slowly and too narrowly, now withdraws it too quickly and too bluntly. Pulling hundreds of millions of dollars each fortnight out of the economy before it's ready risks cruelling the recovery before it even gathers pace. What we need to see on Tuesday night is an extension of JobKeeper, a reconsideration of the Government's JobKeeper cuts, and also a recognition that it's far too early to cut JobKeeper without something substantial to replace it.
 
JOURNALIST: How worried are you about the political stability in the US over President Trump's hospitalisation and how that might impact Australia's economy?
 
CHALMERS: We want for President Trump and Mrs Trump what we want for everybody impacted by this virus: we wish them a speedy recovery. Clearly, the whole world is watching with some interest what's happening in the United States. This is a virus which has impacted every country. We wish for them what we wish for everybody; a speedy and full recovery. We need to get on top of this virus. That means taking sensible measures here at home. It means sensibly deploying a vaccine when it's available. All of these things will matter greatly but clearly the world is watching very closely what's happening in the US.
 
JOURNALIST: One last thing about the troop withdrawal from the Queensland border, there's been a lot of argy bargy and some claims yesterday from the Deputy Premier that the Federal Government misled the state over the withdrawal. The Defence Force has said that the Government's not been misled, and the PM's refused to comment. Do you have anything to say on that?
 
CHALMERS: As always, when the Prime Minister says we're all in this together, it's just a marketing slogan. We know that from the way that he is so desperate to point the finger at states, to try and obscure the fact that he has failed on aged care and it's costing lives, and he has failed on jobs, on the COVIDSafe app, right across the board. This Prime Minister is notorious for shifting the blame and pointing the finger. He says we're all in this together at the same time as he picks fights with the states. If we're all in this together that means the Prime Minister needs to focus less on picking fights with Queensland, Victoria, and elsewhere and more on trying to give the states and more importantly people, workers, businesses, and communities the support that they need and deserve so that we can all get through this very difficult period together.
 
Thanks for that.
 
ENDS