JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
BRISBANE
THURSDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2021
SUBJECTS: MYEFO; Economy is recovering despite the Morrison Government not because of it; Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg can’t rort their way to recovery; Secret slush funds before the election and secret cuts to the Budget after the election; Labor’s positive plans to grow the economy the right way; Migration not a substitute for skills and training; Reported cyber-attack.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: It's an important day today with the release of the mid-year update. These are a crucial set of figures, a really important juncture for the economy. It's our opportunity to decide what kind of recovery we want as we emerge hopefully, in time, from the COVID 19 pandemic, and whether or not we can do better than just go back to all of the stagnant wages and insecurity which has characterised the last decade of this Coalition government.
A better future means cleaner and cheaper energy, it means more skills and more opportunities for more people. A better future means more support for working families, more secure jobs, and a future made in Australia. It means an economy and a recovery that works for everyone, an economy and a society which is stronger after COVID than it was before.
Today's mid-year Budget update from the Morrison Government says absolutely nothing about these key objectives or these key defining challenges in the economy. It completely ignores the issues in the economy around stagnant wages, and skill shortages, and job insecurity. And it does absolutely nothing to crack down on the rorts, and waste, and mismanagement which has characterised the Coalition's decade in office.
If anything, this Budget update actually doubles-down on the rorts and waste in the Budget. Remarkably, it pours billions of extra dollars into secret slush funds for the election. It shows that the Government has learned absolutely nothing from the furore over politically-motivated rorts and corruption, which has chased this Government for much of its time in office. This is a mid-year Budget update which has got lots of complacency, lots of self-congratulation, but nothing in terms of a plan for wages, or job insecurity, or skill shortages, or the other issues and challenges in our economy.
It's very clear to us now that the economy is recovering despite the Morrison Government and not because of it. We cannot be complacent about this economic recovery. We all watch with some concern the developments with the omicron strain of the virus. We all know that the Government's complacency is what stomped on the green shoots of the recovery this time last year and in the May Budget. This Budget update assumes that the Government gets everything right when it comes to managing the pandemic, when recent history shows that they've got mostly the vaccines, and the quarantine, and the economic support wrong over the last 12 to 24 months.
We can't be complacent about this pandemic, we can't be complacent about the recovery. We actually need a plan to deal with some of the issues that are in the economy, not just the last couple of years but for the last eight years or more of this Coalition Government.
Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg can't take credit for the recovery that hasn't fully played out yet, without taking responsibility for the economic carnage that flowed from their mistakes on quarantine and vaccines. They want you to believe that anything good that happens in the economy is all their doing but anything difficult in the economy is somebody else's fault or somehow entirely to blame on the pandemic. Many of the issues that we confront in the economy have been defining features of the economy for the last decade or so and not just for the last couple of years.
On the eve of an election, after a decade in office characterised by stagnant wages and insecure work, they want to take credit for the recovery and for wages growth that hasn't even happened yet. This is a Government which is notorious for over-promising and under-delivering on wages in particular. This Government's made 55 wages forecasts and on 52 occasions wages have fallen short of what they predicted. This time they want us to believe that their wages forecast will be realised, even though on 52 of the last 55 occasions wages have fallen short of what this Government has forecast.
Even with some welcome and unsurprising improvements in the Budget and in the economic forecasts, the Budget update today is still defined by real wages going backwards this year. Deficits actually get bigger in the third and fourth year of the forward estimates, and over the medium term. We've still got gross debt of a trillion dollars next year. The tax take is still substantially higher than under Labor. And we've got $16 billion in decisions taken not announced. $16 billion at the Government's ready for new rorts and new slush funds in the lead up to the election. Billions of dollars of your money stashed away to be spent on the Prime Minister's political interests and not on the national economic interests.
This Budget update is more of the same rorts, more of the same waste, more of the same missed opportunities which have characterised the last decade of this Government. Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have learned absolutely nothing from the furore over politically-motivated rorts. What they don't understand is this: you can't rort your way to recovery. We don't want to see secret slush funds before the election and secret cuts to the Budget after the election. But that's where we're headed.
The Budget would be much stronger if it wasn't riddled with rorts and weighed down by waste. The economy would be in much better condition were it not for the stuff-ups from the Prime Minister on vaccines and quarantine. And working families would be better off without the twin failures of stagnant wages and insecure work, which define the Coalition's economic mismanagement. If the Liberals and Nationals hadn't wasted so many billions of dollars on rorts and waste, there'd be more room to meet the costs of essential services like Medicare.
They say they'll fix the Budget after the election, but they won't tell us what cuts there will be before the election. As I said, secret slush funds before the election, secret attacks on Medicare and other services after the election. You can't rort your way to recovery and they shouldn't be keeping the slush funds secret now before the election and the cut secret for after the election.
We desperately need this to be the right kind of recovery - broad, and enduring, and inclusive, and strong. But it isn't a real recovery if Australian working families don't share in the benefits.
We need an economy and a society which is better and stronger after COVID than it was before. That's why we need Labor's positive plans for cleaner and cheaper energy, more secure work and better skills, support for working families, and the future made in Australia. The Government, once again, was silent on those key opportunities and those key risks in the economy for Australia in this mid-year Budget update. It was long on complacency, long on self-congratulation, but short of anything meaningful to say about the skyrocketing costs of living. Nothing to say about wages, and skill shortages, and insecure work. Instead of addressing the rorts which have riddled their Budget for the last eight years, the Government has doubled-down on rorts and waste. That's what they’re saying. The defining feature of this Budget update, another $16 billion in rorts and waste. You can't rort your way to recovery. The Government has learned nothing from their last decade of failures in the Budget and in the economy.
JOURNALIST: Mr Chalmers, the November unemployment figures show more than 366,000 jobs have been created, which is a monthly record. Is this a clear sign that the economy is recovering from COVID?
CHALMERS: The economy is recovering, despite the Government not because of it. Even when there are welcomed developments - we want the unemployment rate to be as low as possible - but even that lower unemployment rate masks the fact that we've got 1.7 million Australians who are still looking for work or looking for more hours at the same time as we've got skill shortages in the economy. The unemployment rate, we want it to be as low as possible, but it doesn't tell the full story of the labour market. The labour market has been defined by stagnant wages, underemployment, insecure work, and skill shortages as well.
JOURNALIST: Wages are rising but it's not until 2023 that there's solid growth. What can be done to improve these figures sooner?
CHALMERS: Well, first of all, real wages go backwards in the Government’s Budget over the next year. The thanks that the Australian people get for all they've done for each other to get through the worst of this pandemic, is a cut to their real wages. Despite the trillion dollars of debt in the Budget, despite all the money that's been spraying around, ordinary working families in middle Australia actually go backwards over the next year. We hope that there is strong wages growth into the future, but there's nothing from the last decade under this Government which would tell us that that will be the case. This Government has made 55 wages forecasts in their time in office and 52 times those wages forecasts have come up short.
We hope that this is an exception, but we are sceptical about the Government's record on wages. What we need to see is two things. First of all, we need to grow the economy the right way. That's why our investments in cleaner and cheaper energy, and the NBN, and skills, and training, and education, is so important. At the micro level, we need to make sure that people can turn insecure work into more secure work. Fair Work Australia has a role to play there, dealing with labour hire has a role to play there as well. We've had a lot to say about positive policies to get wages growing again, it's been a problem that has defined the last eight years of this Coalition Government, even well before the pandemic. It will take us some time to turn it around but it is a high priority for us to do so.
JOURNALIST: Should the Government keep migration at lower levels to ensure wage growth?
CHALMERS: Migration is a really important part of our economy. It's been an important part source of growth in the economy. The point that we've made repeatedly in different ways is that migration will return and that will be helpful to the economy, but it's no substitute for training people for the opportunities as they arise. As I said, 1.7 million Australians, on today's figures, either can't find a job or can't find enough hours to support their loved ones - at the same time as we've got these rampant skill shortages and labour shortages in parts of the country. Migration has a role to play in that but it's not the whole story. It shouldn't be a substitute for doing the right thing and training people for those opportunities. Instead, this Government has been attacking skills, and training, and TAFE over their time in office. And we're seeing the consequences of that now.
JOURNALIST: And finally, a number of federal government departments and agencies have been hit by a suspected ransomware attack overnight. Have you been told anything about that?
CHALMERS: I'm broadly aware that that's been the case but I haven't been briefed on it, I'm not sure if other colleagues have. So I'm reluctant to weigh into it. Obviously, this is an issue that is becoming increasingly important, increasingly dangerous and risky - not just to governments but to the private sector as well - and we need strategies to keep up with it.
Okay, thanks very much.
ENDS
