Interview with Allison Langdon, Today Show, Channel 9

ALLISON LANGDON:

How do you reckon it went?

CHALMERS:

I’m pleased with it, and I’m proud of it. And the reason I am is because we found a way to provide some cost‑of‑living relief for people doing it tough at the same time as the Budget was really responsible and it made some really important investments. So, I’m pleased with what we were able to do. Obviously when you’re in these uncertain times you’ve got to be as responsible as possible. It’s got to be suited to these economic conditions. The global economy is a pretty difficult and dangerous place right now, and so the best defence against that is a solid and sensible Budget, and that’s what it was.

LANGDON:

Look, we’ve been talking to some families this morning who are saying that there’s nothing really in this Budget for those really struggling right now who are already going, say, without food or having to skip meals or unable to cover their rent.

CHALMERS:

It’s really important when we’re providing this cost‑of‑living relief that we do it in a way that doesn’t make our inflation challenge worse, and I think people do understand when you’ve got inflation which is higher than we’d like for longer than we’d like you’ve got to be careful not to make that problem worse in the way that you provide that relief.

So, to people who are on pensions and payments, there’s something like $33 billion of extra indexed payments in the Budget which we hope will help a little bit. It’s not ever enough but we hope will help a bit. About a third of that is age pension, another third is JobSeeker. So that’s part of it but also the minimum wage rise flowing through to workers on the lowest pay, which we supported as one of the first acts of the Government. These are all important ways that people – that we can help people deal with these rising costs of living. We know that it’s going to be tough. We know that people are under the pump, and we’re providing help where we can.

LANGDON:

Look, petrol going up something like – what – 40 cents in the next week. You’ve also got 56 per cent hike in power bills. I mean, had the Coalition promised a $275 cut to those bills and then served this up, you’d have had them for breakfast, wouldn’t you?

CHALMERS:

I think what we’ve got to recognise is since that modelling was released when we were in opposition last year, we’ve got a war in Europe which has dug in, and that principally what’s creating havoc in energy markets right around the world and the consequences of that unfortunately are felt right around the kitchen table.

LANGDON:

But this is all stuff that was going on before the election, Treasurer.

CHALMERS:

But these challenges have intensified. I think that’s pretty clear. Some of these electricity price rises, by the way, were happening under our predecessor. They tried to hide it during the election. So, some of that 50 per cent forecast is already happening. But I think more broadly war in Ukraine is causing havoc with energy markets. It’s pushing up electricity prices. Our job is to get more renewable energy into the system, which is what we’re doing. It’s to empower the regulators, which is what we’re doing as well. There might be other things that we can do in electricity markets to make things a little bit easier for people, and we’ll explore all of those options.

LANGDON:

Hey, Treasurer, I can hear the PM beside you. Do you want to tell him to pipe down? Dare you.

CHALMERS:

I won’t be doing that.

LANGDON:

Look, I want to bring this up, though, because for the past couple of months you’ve been really buttering us up that we’ve got tough decisions and hard times ahead. Where were those tough decisions last night?

CHALMERS:

There were our $22 billion in savings from the Budget which is a lot of savings compared to recent practice and there are hard decisions contained in that. At the same time as we showed real serious spending restraint –

LANGDON:

I sort of disagree there just on that note, before you move on. Because, I mean, that came from soaring commodity prices and more people working. That’s not exactly a tough decision.

CHALMERS:

No, the $22 billion in savings are unrelated to commodity prices. The part that is relevant to commodity price assist we did get a windfall for this year and next year, and we let 99 per cent of that return to the Budget so that we could have lower debt over the forward estimates of the Budget so that the interest costs are down. So, we’ve got lower debt over the four years of the Budget. We’ve got more to show for it. We have shown restraint. There have been difficult decisions associated with that.

But I think inevitably when you hand down a Budget some people will say you should cut harder, some people will say you should provide cost‑of‑living relief. The Opposition says both things simultaneously somehow. The reality is you’ve got to strike the right balance. There are hard decisions here, but there’s also cost‑of‑living relief for Australians right around the country provided in a responsible and targeted way because we don’t want to make this inflation challenge, which is doing such damage to household budget, we don’t want to make that worse.

LANGDON:

I mean, the issue is you’re not raising enough money to cover the services. You’ve got aged care and hospitals; they’re going up about 6 per cent per year each. NDIS will cripple the country if you don’t reform it. So, what gives? Are you going to cut spending, or will you raise taxes?

CHALMERS:

I think inevitably there is a combination, like there was in yesterday’s Budget, of spending restraint, spending cuts and sensible tax changes. We saw that in the Budget yesterday, and we’ve made it clear that there is ongoing work in each of those areas. We do have a structural problem in the Budget that you rightly identify in your question. And if we want to fund these services that people value, then we need to find a way to pay for them.

We’ve done a lot of good work in this Budget to put it on a more sustainable footing, to make it more responsible, but there is more work to do. The fastest growing area of spending in the Budget is actually the interest that we pay on the trillion dollars of debt that we inherited ‑ that’s the fastest growing. But the NDIS and some of these other areas are growing quickly as well, and so we need to find ways to make that more sustainable.

LANGDON:

Are you willing to make those tough decisions for the May Budget next year?

CHALMERS:

Of course. I think it’s a job for every Budget, frankly, to get more value for money. That’s what we did yesterday and that’s what we’ll continue to do.

LANGDON:

And just, lastly, to prove that you are a far more interesting interview than Matthew McConaughey, he can do this – let me just show you – and now that I’m seeing it, don’t worry, Treasurer. I mean, unless you want to.

CHALMERS:

I’m very worried about what you’re playing.

LANGDON:

Karl wants to see it.

KARL STEFANOVIC:

We want to see him budget.

LANGDON:

Thank you, Treasurer. Really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.