E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
LOGAN
THURSDAY, 16 MAY 2019
 
SUBJECTS: Morrison-Palmer-Hanson Coalition of Chaos; Liberal-National civil war; Liberals need to reveal cuts in costings; Palmer’s disregard for Australian public; Hanson’s support for Liberals; Queensland seats; Ali France

JIM CHALMERS, LABOR CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: A quick recap for those who are following from home: the Liberals and Nationals are at total war with each other; Pauline Hanson's hopped into Clive Palmer; Clive Palmer's sunning himself on the back of a yacht in an undisclosed location saying he doesn't give a stuff what anybody thinks. And yet at the same time, they're all relying on each other to fall over the line in the election on Saturday. The Morrison Government is unravelling and with every passing day this coalition of cuts and chaos looks dodgier and dodgier.
 
We had Pauline Hanson on the TV this morning saying that Clive Palmer rang her during the big business tax cuts debate and asked her to vote for tax cuts for millionaires and multinationals because it would put more money in his pocket. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. This just shows that Clive Palmer would be one of the single biggest beneficiaries of Scott Morrison's unfair tax policies. They're all in cahoots when it comes to big tax loopholes and big tax breaks for the top end of town. This is a glimpse of what Australia would be like under this coalition of cuts and chaos. This Hanson-Palmer-Morrison three-ringed circus would be an absolute disaster for this country and for the economy. 
 
Clive Palmer's trying to buy himself a seat in the Senate for $50 million from the back of a yacht while he suns himself in an undisclosed location; trying to buy himself a seat in the Senate at the same time as he refuses to pay his workers. And doesn't that just say it all about Clive Palmer and his character, but also Scott Morrison's character in signing up for this three-ringed circus - this Morrison-Palmer-Hanson cluster - which would be an absolute disaster for Australia and for its economy as well. 
 
At the same time, we have the Nationals and the Liberals in a civil war which has entered a dangerous new phase in New South Wales and elsewhere. They've completely broken down all sense of coherence. They are a total mess, the Liberals and the Nationals. They are a dumpster fire of division and disunity. The Australian people have an opportunity on Saturday to end this chaos, to end this mess of a Government, where you've got the Liberals and Nationals at each other’s throats. You've got Palmer and Hanson waiting in the wings to inflict their dangerous ideology on the Australian people; this three-ringed circus of Palmer and Morrison and Hanson, which would be a total disaster for Australia and for its people as well. The only guarantee we have here is if Scott Morrison is re-elected on Saturday, there will be more chaos, there will be more cuts under this three-ringed circus.
 
The Government is finally releasing today their costings of their policies, just two days out from the election. What have they got to hide when it comes to their costings? They're releasing their costings a full six days after Labor released a comprehensive set of costings for our own policies. They've got a lot of questions they need to answer today when they release their numbers. What is the composition of the $40 billion of cuts that they've built into their Budget to pay for their tax cuts for multinationals and millionaires? How much of their income tax cuts will go to the people in the highest income tax bracket? We know from independent modelling that something like between $77 billion and $89 billion will be handed to the highest income earners in this country if Scott Morrison is re-elected on Saturday. But for 32 days now, the Government has been asked to come clean on that number. They need to come clean today. Mathias Cormann said more than a month ago that they would provide these figures. They're trying to limp to an election without coming clean to the Australian people just how many tens of billions of dollars they intend to give to the wealthiest Australians as a key component of their tax plan, which they say is their highest priority.
 
The contrast couldn't be clearer between the Morrison Government and the mess of a three-ringed circus, and Labor under Bill Shorten, which is steady and stable and united. We have released more rigorous and responsible costings than any Opposition has done before. We did it eight days before the election, six days before the Government. That's because we do have a plan for real change, and our plan for real change means closing down tax loopholes so that we can pay down the record debt that has accumulated under the Liberals. We can have those bigger surpluses, and we can make room for the nation's priorities, which are hospitals and schools and childcare and dealing with climate change after all of these years of chaos and division.
 
When Bill Shorten speaks today, he will speak about this election being an opportunity for real change, not more of the same. What this country needs is real change; not more of the same stagnant wages, more of the same cuts to hospitals and schools, more of the same chaos and division and dysfunction which has defined the last six years. When Australians choose on Saturday between Labor and Liberal, they're choosing between Labor's investment in hospitals and schools and real action on climate change, versus three more years like the last six years - three more years of chaos and division and dysfunction but this time turbo charged by Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson calling the shots.
 
JOURNALIST: The fact that Clive Palmer's party has put out all of these ads in newspapers and online, and then to be seen in Fiji holidaying - do you think that shows a bit of a disregard for the Australian people in terms of the election and the voting process?
 
CHALMERS: Clive Palmer thinks he can throw $50 million at buying a Senate seat at the same time as he doesn't pay his workers and suns himself on the back of a yacht in an undisclosed location. This just shows the contempt that Clive Palmer - but also Hanson, also Morrison - have for the Australian people. Clive Palmer, remember, is the guy who said, literally, I don't give a stuff what anybody thinks. He's the guy who rang Pauline Hanson and said you need to vote for these big business tax cuts because it will mean more money in his pocket. These are the characters that Scott Morrison has done a preference deal with. These are the characters who will be calling the shots in a re-elected Morrison Government if the election goes that way on Saturday. Australia can't afford another three years like the last six years, turbo-charged by Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson around the Cabinet table calling the shots, making sure that there are even more - and bigger - tax cuts for multinationals and millionaires; rewarding a guy who won't pay his workers; rewarding the divisive figure that is Pauline Hanson. This would be a three-ringed circus for Australia if these guys get over the line. It would be a disaster for Australia, its economy, its community and its people. 
 
JOURNALIST: On morning TV, Pauline Hanson was grilled about I guess who she supports and she said she doesn't support any particular party, she supports the Australian people. Do you think that's a good enough answer?
 
CHALMERS: I think it's laughable. Pauline Hanson has made it very clear that she is in cahoots with Morrison and Palmer. Pauline Hanson has voted more than 90 per cent of the time on key issues in the Senate with the Government. It's hard to know where Morrison ends and Palmer and Hanson begin. They are in cahoots. They are genuinely a three-ringed circus of chaos and cuts and division and dysfunction, and if Pauline Hanson is given the opportunity, she'll go back down to Canberra with Clive Palmer and with Scott Morrison. She'll vote against the interests of workers and pensioners, and in the interests of the multinationals and millionaires. That's why she's such a dangerous and divisive figure, and that danger and that division would be multiplied if she is in cahoots with a re-elected Morrison Government.
 
JOURNALIST: So many electorates in Queensland, of course, have wafer-thin margins. What's the feeling like among the party ahead of the election?
 
CHALMERS: We're giving ourselves every chance in Queensland. We've got amazing candidates right up and down the coast and right around Queensland, right around the suburbs of Brisbane; one of the strongest fields of candidates we've put forward. We've got an agenda that we are proud of. We want to fund hospitals and schools properly, not give bigger tax breaks to the top end of town. So we've got a message as well. We'll know on Saturday night how we've gone, but we've certainly given ourselves every chance. We've put our best foot forward. Bill Shorten has been in Queensland I think 100 days or more just since the last election. It's like a second home for him, and so Queensland is a massive, massive priority for us. 
 
JOURNALIST: In terms of Dickson, obviously Peter Dutton against Ali France. Do you think Ali France has enough experience to lead if she does win the seat?
 
CHALMERS: Ali France is a remarkable person. She has the capacity to lead, she has the capacity to represent people. She's got an outstanding, amazing life story. She's been through so much in her life. She wants to give back to the community, and I think she would make an outstanding Member of Parliament. You contrast her with Peter Dutton, who says that people with a disability use that as an excuse. That was how he began this campaign and I don't think the people of Dickson have forgotten that, despite Peter Dutton's attempts to paper over that. Peter Dutton has been a source of so much division - not just in the Morrison and Abbott and Turnbull Governments, but in the broader community as well. The people have Dickson have got a golden opportunity to end that chaos, to end that division, to send Peter Dutton on his way - and replace him with a remarkable person who has so much capacity, she has a massive heart and she really deserves the opportunity to represent people there.
 
JOURNALIST: On yesterday's news when it came to the religious battle, Scott Morrison saying it shouldn't be included in politics. Of course, we saw him inviting news crews into a church. Where do you think politicians need to draw the line in terms of their religious views?
 
CHALMERS: It's up to the individual politician, but you're right, you can't have it both ways. Scott Morrison can't have it both ways. He can't use his religion sometimes and not other times. It's important that we are consistent. The point that others have made, rightly, in my view, is it took Scott Morrison a full day to come to a view on whether or not gay people in this country are going to hell. And I think it's entirely reasonable for people to ask him about that - to ask him if that is his belief, absent any of his religious beliefs, and people are entitled to their own religious beliefs obviously. But I think the Australian people deserve an answer to the very simple question. It took him 24 hours, that's not acceptable. It was a very divisive period and now to see him pointing the finger at others and blaming others for the fact that he couldn't come to a view earlier than 24 hours, I think that's a bit ridiculous. 
 
ENDS