Doorstop interview, Parliament House, Canberra

JOURNALIST:

Is the Government going to race through reforms to protect people's financial security from data hacks like we saw with Optus?

JIM CHALMERS:

What we saw with the Optus data breach and the hacking around that is incredibly concerning. And Ministers and officials right across the Government led by the Minister for Home Affairs have been making sure that we're working with the company and with other interested parties to make sure that we're responding adequately and if there are changes to the arrangements that need to be made in the future, the Minister will make that clear. We encourage Optus to work closely with their customers to make sure they have all the information that they need to deal with what has been a really concerning cyber attack.

JOURNALIST:

Should Australians expect to see taxes increased under your government or that the legislated stage three tax cuts will be pulled?

CHALMERS:

In the October Budget, we'll take some important initial steps when it comes to ensuring that multinationals pay their fair share of tax in Australia. That's been my priority in tax reform all along. In addition to that, in October, there'll be responsible cost‑of‑living relief with an economic dividend. There'll be investments in skills and energy and childcare. And it'll be an effort to trim some of the wasteful spending which has been a hallmark of too many Budgets for the best part of a decade.

JOURNALIST:

Beyond the Budget, will taxes be increased? You keep talking about this conversation we need to have going forward. Are tax increases part of that?

CHALMERS:

There will be tax increases for multinationals in the October Budget that I hand down.

JOURNALIST:

Treasurer, at the end of this week, Australians are going to be paying more for petrol. What's your message to them when they're already struggling with cost of living?

CHALMERS:

We know that this won't be easy for a lot of Australian motorists. And what we say to them is that the job of the Government is to try and manage the Budget as responsibly as we can. We've been up‑front with people before the election, during the election and after the election, that it's not possible to responsibly fund this petrol excise relief indefinitely. It costs about $3 billion for every six‑month extension of the current arrangements.

Our predecessors legislated this relief to end on Wednesday night, and that's what will happen. Our message to suppliers and servos is don't treat Australian motorists as mugs when the petrol excise relief comes off. The ACCC is watching and one of the things that they are very aware of which I've spoken about before, is that there are hundreds of millions of litres of fuel in tanks underground at servos which were bought at the cheaper price. And so we don't want to see suppliers and servos take advantage of the end of this petrol excise relief. What we're seeing with petrol prices ‑ they're bouncing around considerably still, but in all cases they are below the peak that we saw a few months ago.

In southeast Queensland where I was yesterday, it was possible to get petrol at $1.49. I know that there is much more expensive petrol around the country as well but the point is this ‑ petrol prices are well off the peak that we saw a few months ago. We want to make sure that the servos and suppliers are doing the right thing. There's a role for the ACCC there, and that's why I've maximised it.

JOURNALIST:

Is the Government close to striking a deal with the Liberals on the federal ICAC?

CHALMERS:

This is not something I've been working on, not conversations I've been engaged in. Mark Dreyfus has done a mountain of work on this over a long time. I pay tribute to him working closely with the Prime Minister and with other colleagues. But my focus has been the Budget.

JOURNALIST:

Would you prefer, though, a deal with the Liberals rather than getting the independents and minors’ hands all over this bill?

CHALMERS:

We want to see a workable national anti‑corruption commission. For too long there's been a hole in the Commonwealth arrangements when it comes to dealing with issues of corruption. That's what this national anti‑corruption commission is all about. We want to see a workable model landed with the Parliament. The Prime Minister and the Attorney‑General have been in discussions with all parts of the Parliament in recent times and we'll see the fruits of those discussions in due course. Go John and then Trudy.

JOURNALIST:

Thanks, Treasurer. Just on the extra cost of servicing the debt over the next decade ‑ you said $24 billion extra in there. I think that Fairfax had a different figure, so could you just clarify that? And also Treasury's consulting on a franking credit change. Could you just explain the Government's rationale and thinking on that issue as well?

CHALMERS:

So the figure I'm referring to on Radio National is the $24 billion difference at the end of the decade in 2032‑33. The Budget that my predecessor handed down said the cost of servicing the debt would be around $40 billion then, $41 billion. Now we expect it to be more like $65 billion ‑ the $24 billion difference is in 2032‑33.

JOURNALIST:

For that single year?

CHALMERS:

For that single year at the end of the decade.

JOURNALIST:

And the 120's more the accumulation?

CHALMERS:

It will cost the Commonwealth Government tens of billions of dollars extra to service the trillion dollars in debt. This is one of the fastest growing areas of spending in the Commonwealth Budget. We've inherited a trillion dollars of debt from our predecessors. As interest rates rise, the cost of servicing that debt increases as well and that puts additional pressure on the Budget.

JOURNALIST:

And just on the franking change?

CHALMERS:

This is a Liberal Party policy announced by Treasurer Scott Morrison in the 2016 mid‑year update. And this is a very minor change proposed by the Liberals who couldn't get their act together on legislation, another mess that we've been asked to clean up which wasn't done by our predecessors. It's a very minor measure. It's about capital raising and franking credits. It's nothing like the proposal that we took to the 2019 election and have since abandoned ‑ the Liberals know this because they proposed it in the first place. Proposed by the Liberals in 2016, left for us to legislate and implement, nothing like what's been proposed in earlier years and since abandoned.

JOURNALIST:

Treasurer on cost‑of‑living ‑ cheaper medicines not until January 1, cheaper childcare not until July 1. Is your message to Australians they just have to deal with cost‑of‑living pain until next year?

CHALMERS:

I think Australians are realistic about the Government's capacity to solve this inflation problem overnight. We've said for some time we need to provide cost‑of‑living relief in a way that delivers a genuine economic dividend and doesn't make the job of the independent Reserve Bank even harder. And that means providing that cost‑of‑living relief responsibly. And we will make medicines cheaper, childcare cheaper, we've got cleaner and cheaper energy coming into the system. We want to make TAFE fees cheaper as well. And in all of these cases, what we're talking about is cost‑of‑living relief with an economic dividend. You can't flick a switch and make all of the problems in the economy or in the Budget disappear. There is no quick fix to our economic challenges or our Budget challenges. It requires a government prepared to act responsibly. And that's what the October Budget will be all about.

Thanks very much.