SUBJECT/S: Polls; tax cuts for small and medium businesses; Five years of a united, stable Labor team; stopping discrimination against children; Wentworth by-election.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Over to you.
 
JOURNALIST: Welcome back. Polls suggest that Labor would win the election and win the election quite comfortably. Does it give you a boost going into the final few sitting weeks before Christmas?
 
CHALMERS: Look, polls aren't the main game. We don't obsess over the opinion polls like our opponents do. Whether we have been up by a lot or up by a little, we have always maintained that focus on people, on policy and on reversing Scott Morrison's cuts to schools and penalty rates.
 
JOURNALIST: Was Labor dragged kicking and screaming to supporting company tax cuts as the Prime Minister said this morning?
 
CHALMERS: Of course not. The Government shifted their position on tax cuts for small- and medium-sized companies. Within 24 hours of that happening, we convened our Expenditure Review Committee, we convened our Shadow Cabinet, we indicated our enthusiastic support for the tax cuts for small- and medium-sized businesses and we did something else as well. We said how we would pay for them by making room in our alternative budget to pay for those tax cuts for small and medium sized businesses in the country. Now, it’s been five days since the government announced their shift on that policy and we still haven't heard from Mathias Cormann or Josh Frydenberg or Scott Morrison how they intend to pay for that $3.2 billion policy that they announced on Thursday.
 
Under Labor, small- and medium-sized businesses will get their tax cuts without more cuts to hospitals and schools or without adding substantially to national debt. The Liberal Party cannot make the same claim and what that means is that this tax cut to small- and medium-sized businesses which the government has proposed, has not been funded which means the only way they can pay for it is to jack up debt, which has doubled on their watch, or after the election, come back to the table with more harsh cuts to schools and hospitals.
 
JOURNALIST: Is Bill Shorten likeable? Why is Scott Morrison so far ahead as preferred Prime Minister?
 
CHALMERS: Well, Labor has been in an election winning position for two years now and Bill Shorten has been the leader for every single day of that two year period. And the fact that we are in such a competitive position is a tribute to Bill's leadership and his capacity to unite a stable team, to unite on policy and to maintain a focus on middle Australia - all of the things that the Liberal Party under three Prime Ministers and three Treasurers now, has spectacularly failed to do.
 
JOURNALIST: Is there a concern though that if these polls get closer, Mr Shorten doesn't appear to have the likability in the electorate that perhaps Labor would like him to have?
 
CHALMERS: I just don't accept that conclusion.  Bill Shorten has lead the Labor Party now for five years.  He has lead on policy.  He has empowered his colleagues.  He has built remarkable stability, unity and cohesion and that is reflected in the opinion polls and the fact that we have a suite of policies that are out there which are supported overwhelmingly by the Australian people over the alternative which is Scott Morrison's cuts to schools and hospitals and penalty rates. 
 
JOURNALIST: There is a bit of confusion - is Labor working with the government this week to change those laws which allows schools to discriminate against gay students and teachers? 
 
CHALMERS: Well, we were encouraged when the Prime Minister indicated that he would adopt Labor's position on improving the laws around anti-discrimination for gay kids in schools. We were very encouraged by that. We also want the Prime Minister to release the full report which lead to this debate which he has been sitting on since May.  This report which lead to this discussion, has been sitting in Scott Morrison's top draw since May and he refuses to release it. It would help immeasurably if Scott Morrison would stop hiding this report, if he would release the report and come clean on its full contents so that can help inform the work that we need to do collectively in this parliament in a bi-partisan way to strengthen anti-discrimination protections against kids.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you think the Liberals will hold on to Wentworth?
 
CHALMERS: I think it is remarkable that we are even talking about Wentworth. Wentworth is a blue ribbon Liberal seat. Wentworth is absolute Liberal Party heartland. It has a massive margin and the fact that it is even in play this weekend is a reflection of the chaos and division and disunity on the Liberal Party side. And what this Saturday gives the people of Wentworth the opportunity to do is to cast their judgement on a government which has been focused entirely on themselves, focused internally, looking inwards on themselves for so long now that ordinary people in middle Australia just don’t get a look in. 
 
ENDS