JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
WEDNESDAY, 21 JUNE 2021
SUBJECTS: Morrison Government’s wage stagnation costs families $254 a week; National Party more concerned about their jobs than jobs in regional Queensland; Coalition divisions over emissions; Coalition dinosaurs and childcare; Intergenerational Report cannot be another missed opportunity; Morrison Government’s failures on vaccines and quarantine.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: There’s important new analysis out today from the McKell Institute that says that working families are $254 a week worse off because of this Government's attacks on wages over eight long years.
This is the price that Australian working families are paying for the Liberals' and Nationals' attacks on wages.
These attacks on wages aren't accidental, they're deliberate. We know that this is a deliberate design feature of the coalition Government's economic policy.
These attacks on wages are the defining feature of the coalition's economic mismanagement.
What this Government doesn't understand is that you’re not managing the economy well if working families are going backwards. $254 a week is the bill that Australian working families are paying for these attacks on wages and we know from the Budget that the Government expects things to get even worse.
The big risk in re-electing Scott Morrison and the Liberals and Nationals is that wages, which have been stagnant for eight long years, will get even worse. Real wages will go backwards under this Government, after eight long years of attacks on wages, which have seen working families worse off by something like $254 a week.
JOURNALIST: Barnaby Joyce, are you concerned about the problems that he may pose for Labor in Queensland?
CHALMERS: Not for one second. I think that the change in the National Party leadership shines a light on the divisions, not just within the Nationals but within the coalition, over climate change policy, over cheaper and cleaner energy, over a whole range of issues.
What the people of my home state want is a government which can deliver wages growth, which cares about their jobs, which is on their side when it comes to labour hire and all sorts of issues which are really important in regional Queensland.
What Barnaby Joyce has shown for the last three years, is he couldn't give a toss about jobs in regional Queensland, he only cares about the job that he regained during the week. And that's the point that we'll be making and regional Queensland.
JOURNALIST: You talk about divisions over climate change policy, doesn't Labor have deep divisions on this front on its own right?
CHALMERS: We agree 100% that this country needs to get to net zero emissions by mid-century. We've said that for some time now. As have all the States and Territories, the peak business groups, a lot of the countries with which we compare ourselves.
We don't want to see action on climate change and the jobs which will flow from cheaper and cleaner energy held hostage to more political games between the Nationals and the Liberals.
JOURNALIST: The debate on climate change has cost Prime Ministers on both sides of politics. After more than a decade, why is this still such a deep, divisive issue.
CHALMERS: It doesn't need to be. I mean, it is true that there have been those in this building who have sought to divide the Australian community when it comes to the jobs which will flow from cheaper and cleaner energy, but it needn't be that way.
Taking real action on climate change, securing the jobs which will come from cleaner and cheaper energy, ought to be a big national project that all sides of politics and all parts of the community can sign up to.
It needn't be a polarising issue. What we need to do in this country is get that cheaper and cleaner energy into the system, create those jobs, so that we can have economic growth, and wages growth, and jobs growth well into the future
.
The Intergenerational Report will be released on Monday. We want the Intergenerational Report to take climate change seriously, to take cheaper and cleaner energy seriously. It's one of the key determinants of whether or not this nation can prosper after COVID-19 better than it was in the lead up to COVID-19.
JOURNALIST: Do you think childcare is outsourcing parenting?
CHALMERS: No, and I find it offensive that the dinosaurs in the National Party room see it that way.
What Australia's working families need is the capacity to make the best decision for their own families when it comes to how they make that difficult juggling act between work and family.
I think a lot of working families right around the country would be incredibly disappointed to see the dinosaurs are in charge again in the National Party and in the coalition more broadly.
The Treasurer, the Prime Minister, and others, should come out and repudiate those comments that were reported out of the coalition party room yesterday.
What the working families of this country need and deserve is cheaper, more accessible childcare so they can put food on the table at the same time as they make the best decisions for their kids.
JOURNALIST: As the Shadow Treasurer who's looking at the books of the nation, would you support Queensland shutting New South Wales and Sydney out of their own State?
CHALMERS: These decisions are difficult decisions taken by Premiers and State Governments of both political persuasions based on the best advice that they have available to them.
We wouldn't be in this position if Scott Morrison hadn't completely stuffed-up vaccines and quarantine.
The two big things that the Prime Minister needed to do this year was to build purpose-built quarantine and to fix the vaccine rollout that he has bungled so badly.
The fact that he hasn't been able to do that means that we will have more lockdowns for longer.
The Commonwealth Budget released by the Treasurer says that they expect lockdowns for the rest of the year.
We wouldn't be in that position if the Prime Minister had done those two jobs - get vaccine right, get quarantine right - his failure to do so has forced State Governments of both political persuasions into difficult decisions.
JOURNALIST: The vaccine rollout has had plenty of problems, no doubt, throughout since it started but it the cure that's being prescribed for this not economically damaging? Shutting down cities, shutting down States, locking people out?
CHALMERS: The virus itself is damaging for the economy and the worst thing that we can have when it comes to small businesses and the economy more broadly, is to have the virus run rampant.
That’s been recognised by all sides of politics for some time now. Nobody wants to see economies and communities closed down for any longer than is necessary.
That's why it's so disappointing that the Prime Minister's failures on vaccines and quarantine have got us in this position.
If he had done his job, rather than spend all of his time trying to point the finger and pass the buck, then we wouldn't need these lockdowns for as long as the Treasury is expecting. Thanks very much.
ENDS
