E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
BRISBANE
TUESDAY, 10 MARCH 2020
SUBJECTS: Economic impact of Coronavirus; Consumer and business confidence; Casual workers; Small business; Updated forecasts; Labor’s GFC response; Interest rates.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Today there are new figures out which show that consumer confidence is declining in the ANZ survey and that business confidence is declining in the National Australia Bank's survey. We'll get another handle on consumer confidence tomorrow in the Westpac numbers. The economic impact of this Coronavirus will be substantial and we have been acknowledging that for some time now. In difficult times like these confidence inevitably will take a hit. The Government's mixed message on the economic impacts of this Coronavirus are making things worse. The Government's mixed messages on the economic impact are not helping whatsoever.
One week, Scott Morrison plays down the economic impacts of the virus and the next week, he talks them up. Without any analysis, facts or the release of any new information he tries to argue simultaneously that this will be bigger than the Global Financial Crisis but argues that a smaller policy response is warranted. He says that nobody could have seen the surplus disappearing at the same time as he bizarrely claims that this is what he's been warning about all along. He's all over the shop when it comes to stimulus in general and cash payments in particular. He's hemmed in and hamstrung by his past overblown rhetoric about cash payments and what Australians were able to achieve together under Labor during the Global Financial Crisis. We saw all of those mixed messages in the speech that he gave this morning and in comments by the Mathias Cormann and other senior figures in the Government.
The Australian people deserve better than this from their Government. People are looking at their superannuation balances and the volatility in the stock market. People are worried about their job security, and how they'll afford to live and eat if they have to stay at home. People are worried about their physical and financial wellbeing. Australians are anxious. We need calm, confidence and consistency from the Government. We need a leader, not a salesman. We need substance, not spin when it comes to dealing with this crisis.
Slogans won't get the Australian people and their economy through the worst impacts of the Coronavirus, only substantial action will do that. And it can't just be any kind of action. It needs to put a floor under falling confidence, and to be big enough and fast enough to make a genuine difference. It needs to keep people in work, businesses afloat, and it needs to avoid recession.
We need to see proper support for casual workers who don't have access to sick leave. No Australian worker should have to choose between doing the right thing by their co-workers and being able to afford to live and eat. When Australian workers do the right thing by each other, businesses and governments should do the right thing by them.
We need to see substantial support for small business as well. Small business was already doing it tough enough in this economy before the fires and the virus, and things are getting tougher still. The Prime Minister was talking about big business paying small business suppliers today. What he didn't say is that for 18 months now the Government has been promising to do something about payment times for small business. saying that we need a register of payments for the biggest 3000 companies, and that we need to make sure that big business pays small business within 20 days. But they've been dragging their feet on that and they need to act. 18 months is too long to implement this. Now we hear from Brendan O’Connor and others that they don't intend to fully implement that policy until the end of next year. Scott Morrison's words about paying small business will ring hollow for as long as he continues to drag his feet on small business payment times.
We need to see substantial evidence, analysis, and updated forecasts and Budget bottom lines released alongside the stimulus package. There's a precedent for this. In the Global Financial Crisis when Labor acted swiftly and substantially to save jobs and prevent recession, we presented a detailed set of updated numbers, forecasts and the impact on the Budget bottom line. The Government needs to release that information to establish a benchmark so that we can evaluate whether or not the stimulus that they announce in the next day or two has been successful in meeting all of its objectives.
Labor stands ready to do the right and responsible thing. Labor is inclined to do what we can to support the Government and their actions at this difficult time for the Australian people, the economy and our broader community. Our priority always will be jobs, workers, small businesses, employers and the communities who support them. We will do the right, responsible and constructive thing here.
Australians and their Government passed the test with flying colours during the Global Financial Crisis. To do that again we'll need confidence, calm and consistency. We'll need a well-designed stimulus package which is big enough and fast enough to do the job that we need it to do. We will wait to see what the Government announces at some point this week and we'll play a constructive role in the lead up to that, and after that.
JOURNALIST: Do you think that the changes in the interest rate are enough to combat this virus?
CHALMERS: Four interest rate cuts from the Reserve Bank in the last 10 months have not been enough to deal with the relatively recent issues in the economy from the Coronavirus, or all of the longstanding issues that we've had in the economy either. Four interest rate cuts in 10 months have seen interest rates the lowest they've ever been and one sixth what they were during the depths of the Global Financial Crisis. Three of those four interest rate cuts happened before anyone had even heard of the Coronavirus. For some time now we've had a problem with slowing growth, stagnant wages, insecure work, productivity, business investment and household debt. Josh Frydenberg says that we enter this period from a position of strength but the facts tell an entirely different story. It’s a story of an economy which has been weak for some time and a story of economic weakness which can't be explained solely by the relatively recent outbreak of the Coronavirus, a story of economic weakness which predates that, and a story of economic weakness which has been unattended for too long while the Reserve Bank does their best to boost the economy. The Government's been sitting on its hands.
JOURNALIST: There's been a bit of talk about comparing fiscal to monetary. What's your take on that?
CHALMERS: We need to see the Reserve Bank not left to do all of the heavy lifting in the economy. For too long the Reserve Bank has been doing what they can by cutting interest rates while the Morrison Government sits on its hands. For some months now we've been saying to the Morrison Government that there are issues in the economy which have been left unattended for too long. The Reserve Bank can't do all of the heavy lifting on its own. We need the Government to come to the table with some support for the economy. They have flagged that they will be doing that in the next day or two. Every Australian has a stake in that stimulus package working. We want to make sure it's big enough and fast enough to do the job that it's intended to do. We want to make sure that we can get fiscal and monetary policy working hand-in-hand again so that we can get Australians through a very difficult period. Thanks very much.
ENDS
