JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
BRISBANE
FRIDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2021

SUBJECTS: UK Free Trade Agreement; MYEFO should’ve been about skyrocketing costs of living and stagnant wages, instead it was about secret rorts before the election and secret cuts after it; Booster rollout; Julian Assange.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks for joining us here at the Port of Brisbane. I wanted to thank Neil, Brendan and Karla for having us here today. There's a lot of crucial economic activity that flows through this port and if you think about what Australia has been able to achieve throughout this pandemic, a big part of the story is making sure that our producers, and our employers, and our exporters, can get their product to market. This is a really crucial part of the national economy. We want to thank all the producers, all the exporters, all employers, the ports, and infrastructure providers of this country, for keeping the wheels of the Australian economy turning throughout the worst of this pandemic.

We know that there has been the signing of the UK Free Trade Agreement. Obviously, a big part of the recovery is going to be opening up new avenues for trade for our producers, our exporters, and our employers. We want to see those trade flows strong and further developed. We have been constructive about the UK Free Trade Agreement since the beginning. Obviously, there's now a parliamentary process and a committee process, where we will look at things like labour market testing and other important issues. Trade is crucial to the recovery. We want to see good agreements signed, we will go through the detail of this agreement in that light.  We've been constructive about this agreement all along. We want our exporters, and our producers, and our employers to succeed - because getting trade right means more jobs, and more opportunities, for more Australians. We will investigate and look into the detail of this agreement in all of that context.

Yesterday, of course, was a really important day in the national economy with the release of the mid-year Budget update. That mid-year Budget update should have been about the skyrocketing costs of living, and stagnant wages, and job insecurity, and pressure on supply chains, and all of the important challenges that Australian working families are facing. Instead, the mid-year Budget update was about two things - secret rorts before the election, and secret cuts after the election.

When Australian working families are falling behind because their real wages are going backwards, costs of living are skyrocketing, and they just can't get ahead no matter how hard they work - the mid-year Budget update was more or less silent on those important issues.

We desperately need a Government which cares about the skyrocketing cost of living, and stagnant wages, and job insecurity, and pressures on our supply chains pushing up prices. Instead, we have a Morrison Government which is focused on rorting the public purse and not telling Australians where the Budget cuts will come from until after the election.

The big risk in this election is more rorting and more waste and more spraying money around on the Government's political interests and not the national economic interest, and cuts which will come after the election which the Government won't come clean on before the election. That's what the mid-year Budget update was all about yesterday. It was a missed opportunity to do the right thing by working families in this country, just like much of the last 10 years of this Government has had in office. More about rorts, more about waste, a trillion dollars in debt and not enough to show for it, deficits as far as the eye can see, but silent on the big challenges facing Australian working families, and employers, and producers, right around Australia. Over to you.

JOURNALIST: With the Budget, when do you expect, when do you want the federal government to look at going into Budget repair, whether that's Labor next year or the Coalition?

CHALMERS: If the Morrison Government intends to cut the Budget after the election, they should come clean on what those cuts will be before the election. What we saw in the mid-year Budget update was another secret slush fund for their political purposes in the lead up to an election. They say that they'll cut the Budget after the election, but they won't say how. Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg need to come clean. What are their secret cuts? Will there be more attacks on Medicare and essential services, like we've seen for much of the last eight years that they've been in office. We have a trillion dollars in debt in this Budget and deficits as far as the eye can see, we don't have anywhere near enough to show for all of that debt and all of those deficits because the Government has wasted and rorted so much public money. If they're going to cut the Budget after the election, come clean before the election and tell us how.

JOURNALIST: Are you concerned about reports stating that there's not enough vaccine for boosters?

CHALMERS: It is concerning that we are at risk of repeating the same mistakes in the booster rollout that the Morrison Government made in the initial rollout of the vaccine program. One of the reasons why we had such a big economic downturn this year is because of the mistakes that Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg made not ordering enough vaccines, or getting purpose-built quarantine, and getting some of the economic support wrong.

We don't want the Morrison Government to repeat the mistakes that they've made on the vaccine rollout in the booster rollout. I'm worried that the Prime Minister is not telling us the whole story when it comes to the booster rollout. There's an election not far away, I'm worried that Scott Morrison is keeping to himself the legitimate concerns that people are raising about the booster rollout.

We can't repeat the mistakes that we saw from Scott Morrison earlier in the year. There is too much riding on getting the booster program right. There's a lot at stake for public health and also for the national economy. Scott Morrison needs to come out and tell us what is going on with the booster rollout and what steps is he taking to make sure that he doesn't repeat the diabolical mistakes that he made with the original vaccine rollout.

JOURNALIST: Would you like to see the federal government advocate for Julian Assange?

CHALMERS: The Julian Assange matter has dragged on for far too long now and we would like the Australian Government to make it clear to the Americans that this process would ideally run its course sooner rather than later. Whatever your views are on the allegations against Julian Assange, I think most people would agree that this has dragged on for far too long now. We should be making it clear to American friends that that process would ideally conclude sooner rather than later.

ENDS