E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
BRISBANE
TUESDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER 2017
SUBJECT/S: Final Budget Outcome
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: The expected and minor improvements to the Budget outcome for 2016-17 do very little to change the fact Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann have made a mess of the Commonwealth Budget. Even after these figures have been released today, the deficit for 2016-17 is three times bigger than it was in Joe Hockey's first Budget. Even with the expected improvements today in the Budget outcome, we still have a debt and deficit higher than inherited by the Government. We still have gross debt at half-a-trillion dollars and rising with no peak in sight. We still have gross debt at record highs. We've got $147 billion in new net debt today in these figures, compared to what the Government inherited in September [2013]. Now Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann expect a pat on the back for a Budget Outcome today, which is more about good luck than good policy. If the Government was serious about repairing the Budget, they wouldn't be giving $65 billion to multinational corporations and the four big banks and they wouldn't be giving tax cuts to the top end of town at the expense of everybody else. If the Government was serious about repairing the Budget in a fair way, they would pick up Labor's sensible tax reforms to negative gearing and capital gains and trusts. Over to you.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
CHALMERS: Well the expected and marginally better outcome that we're seeing in the Budget for the year that ended in June was more about good luck than good policy. We've got underspends for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, we've got increased rebates paid by pharmaceutical companies and we've got delays in infrastructure spending because they couldn't get the money out the door. Now Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann expect you to pat them on the back for this outcome, which is more about good luck than good policy. We've got debt skyrocketing, we've got record gross debt, we've got record net debt and this Government is out there crowing about an expected and very minor improvement to the Budget when their record overall has been dismal.
JOURNALIST: What’s the good luck you're talking about?
CHALMERS: The Government's not responsible for the fact that pharmaceutical companies have paid higher than expected rebates, or that they couldn't get the money out the door for the NDIS or they couldn't get the money out the door for infrastructure. This is this Government's form: they've got a woeful record when it comes to managing the Budget. They're failing the test that they set themselves. Their entire reason for being was that they could manage the Budget better than the Labor Party. They are accumulating debt something like $1.4 billion faster per month than Labor did under the former Labor Government. So they're failing the test that they've set for themselves. We've got debt blowing out. We've got the deficit for the year in these figures three times bigger than expected in Joe Hockey's first Budget, the deficit for the year we're in now is expected to be 10 times bigger. On every conceivable measure, this Government has been a failure when it comes to managing the Budget.
JOURNALIST: Scott Morrison said today that Labor initially doubted the 4.4 per cent growth and it's six per cent. So do you eat your words on that one?
CHALMERS: (Laughs) Of course not. When you listen to Scott Morrison today, you can see why nobody in Australia takes him especially seriously anymore. He's someone who is not up to the job of being the Treasurer. He should account for the fact that on his watch, the Budget is substantially worse than it was even under Joe Hockey's watch and worse than it was under Labor. He's accumulating debt faster than Labor was. He should take responsibility for that. He should stop cherry-picking figures. He should stop blaming the Labor Party for everything. He should take responsibility for the mess that he's made of the Budget.
Thanks very much.
ENDS
