E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
THURSDAY, 16 AUGUST 2018
 
SUBJECT/S: House of Representatives united against racism; Turnbull Government energy crisis and division; Liberals’ big business tax handout; Great Barrier Reef Foundation
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: I was really proud of my colleagues yesterday, and I'm proud to stand with them always against racism and bigotry and ignorance of the kind which spewed from Senator Anning's mouth on Tuesday night here in the Parliament of Australia. One of the greatest ever poets, Maya Angelou, once wrote that "prejudice is a burden which confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible". I think what Senator Anning said did all of that and more. What Senator Anning did and said on Tuesday night demeans and diminishes people, further marginalises people, and it threatens the cohesive, inclusive society that the rest of us want in Australia. It is beyond appalling that Senator Anning has not apologised for those hideous remarks, and it's disappointing in the extreme that Bob Katter has apparently backed them in yesterday and overnight. 
 
While this has been going on there's been a number of other important issues which the Parliament has had to deal with, and which Malcolm Turnbull has made a mess of. The first is obviously energy policy. Malcolm Turnbull ends the week as he started it: with a Government hopelessly divided over energy policy. Nobody believes that Malcolm Turnbull can lower their power prices, because the Liberal Party has spent five years brawling with each other over energy policy. We've had ministers threatening to resign, backbenchers threatening to cross the floor. What used to be seen as extreme occurrences have now become the norm in Malcolm Turnbull's hopelessly divided Liberal Party. The only thing that the National Energy Guarantee, as it's currently constituted, guarantees is more coal and higher prices for Australians and for Australian businesses. Labor's role is to engage constructively so we can get more ambitious targets for emissions reduction and so we can get genuine downward pressure on prices by encouraging more renewable energy into the system. Malcolm Turnbull's hopelessly divided Liberal Party is incapable of putting the downward pressure on prices that Australians need and deserve.
 
On company taxes, Scott Morrison has just been on radio a few moments ago. The Government has been unable to confirm all week whether or not they will take their company tax cuts for big businesses, big multinationals and big banks to the next election. Whatever trick they try to pull, whatever deals they try to do, every Australian knows that Malcolm Turnbull will always bend over backwards for the top end of town. That means that the only way that Australians can kill the big businesses tax breaks, which sees $17 billion go from taxpayers' pockets to the bottom line of big banks, is for Malcolm Turnbull to take that policy to the election and for the Australian people to vote Labor. Malcolm Turnbull has not listened and he has not learned after the humiliations that were dished out to him in the recent by-elections over company taxes. He will not confirm whether or not he'll take it to the next election. The only way to prevent $17 billion flowing from Australian taxpayers to the four big banks is to vote Labor at the next opportunity.

Finally, on the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann have very seriously questions to answer about their role, if any, in this dodgy grant being given to the Prime Minister's mates without proper processes. They have been unable to outline what role they played as Treasurer and Finance Minister of this country in almost half-a-billion dollars being shovelled out the door without a proper process, which will cost the Australian public dearly, and which demonstrates once and for all that this Malcolm Turnbull Government is a Government for Turnbull's mates at the top end of town. There has not been a proper due process here. The Treasurer and the Finance Minister should hang their heads in shame over being unable to prevent this grant going out the door. They should answer questions about what role, if any, they played in half-a-billion dollars being granted to this organisation without proper process. Over to you.
 
JOURNALIST: Labor has an opportunity to offer stability in the energy sector. The AWU wants Daniel Andrews to back in this Bill. Are you going to get alongside the unions? Obviously the CFMEU is also supporting the passage of the NEG. Are you going to get alongside the unions and give Australians some kind of certainty?
 
CHALMERS: We will make our own decisions about our position in the Parliament. We've made that position very clear: that we intend to be constructive. We intend to play a constructive role when the Bill comes before the Parliament, and we said what the principles are that we will apply to our considerations. There is a very clear choice here. Labor is for more renewable energy and lower prices. Turnbull is for more coal and higher energy prices. As the National Energy Guarantee is currently constituted, it is not ambitious enough when it comes to emissions reduction. It fails the test on renewable energy in the system.  Our job as the Labor Party, as believers in renewable energy, and as the party that wants to genuinely lower power prices, is to engage constructively with the Government on their energy policy if it survives this serious internal dissent and to do what we can to get a proper system in place. We would like there to be a system in place, but that system needs to be sufficiently ambitious when it comes to reducing pollution. It needs to be sufficiently ambitious when it comes to encouraging renewables in the system, because that's the only way to get prices down for Australian families and businesses.
 
JOURNALIST: If you're believers in renewable energy, why do they need encouragement? Why won't investment certainty allow them to rise to the top themselves?
 
CHALMERS: The modelling that's been done for the National Energy Guarantee as it's currently written shows that there wouldn't be a major renewable energy project entering the system over the next decade, and that's very worrying. Australians understand that if we want to get prices down in this country, we need more renewable energy in the system. The Prime Minister and his Government have become anti-renewables, and that's out of sync with what the Australian people want.
 
JOURNALIST: If they're not going to be ready for another decade, doesn't that show that something like the NEG is suitable policy because it allows coal-fired power plants to continue to exist until we're ready?
 
CHALMERS: What it shows is that failing to get more renewables into the system will fail to put the downward pressure on prices that we all want to see. The choice is very clear here, as I said. Malcolm Turnbull's policy means more coal and higher prices for longer. Our job is to engage constructively, to ensure that we're more ambitious on pollution reduction and we're more ambitious on renewables, because that's how we get prices down.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on the Reef Foundation very quickly, obviously the Department recommended the Great Barrier Reef Foundation as suitable for that funding. Do you distrust the Department's recommendation?
 
CHALMERS: We don't trust the Government to have done the right thing. The target of our questioning is Malcolm Turnbull. There was a closed-door meeting which saw this money go out the door. We've asked him repeatedly whose idea it was to give half-a-billion dollars in taxpayers' money to this private foundation and he has refused to answer that question repeatedly in Question Time in the Australian Parliament. There has been something very dodgy going on here. The Finance Minister also needs to answer questions about his role, if any. The Treasurer needs to answer questions about his role, if any. Because what we've seen here is a failure of process; half-a-billion dollars in taxpayers' money has gone out the door without the appropriate level of due diligence. That has been coming to light in the last couple of weeks. There are more questions for the Prime Minister to answer. But not just the Prime Minister; the key economic ministers in the Government have questions to answer as well.
 
ENDS