Interview with Andrew Clennell, Sky News

ANDREW CLENNELL:

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, thanks for joining us from India. First of all, I might ask you for a reaction to Victoria pulling out of the Commonwealth Games. Is this a bit embarrassing for Australia?

JIM CHALMERS:

I think it's disappointing, Andrew. That's the truth of it. It's disappointing for Victorian sports fans in particular but we do understand that when you sign up for big events like this, it does have to be a good investment, you have to get value for money. So, disappointing but the Victorians have come to this conclusion. No doubt there'll be a conversation now about what happens next.

CLENNELL:

And can we have some reassurance over the Queensland Olympics?

CHALMERS:

Not just reassurance Andrew, but we're very excited about the Olympics in Brisbane and southeast Queensland. It will be good for the whole country. And even with this outcome today when it comes to the Commonwealth Games ‑ the green and gold runway, as my colleague Anika Wells calls it ‑ is still absolutely chockers with amazing events. We're very excited about the period between now and the Olympic Games in Brisbane in '32.

CLENNELL:

Now you're in India for this G20 Finance Ministers meeting. It's been well publicised you're there with Philip Lowe, how are you two guys getting on?

CHALMERS:

Well, we work very closely together, very professionally and very closely together. I've been spending a lot of time with Phil over the last day or so, we had a cup of tea and a good chat yesterday about the economic outlook and a whole range of other things, and we work very closely. You'll see from the comments that we made, the contribution that we made to yesterday's proceedings ‑ when it comes to the importance of not just tackling inflation but also trying to turn around this problem that we've got with productivity in the global economy, but also the Australian economy. So we're working closely together, we're making a contribution, we're representing Australia's interests and that's what people would expect from us.

CLENNELL:

All right, so Phil Lowe's comments on productivity ‑ in no way should we see that as a shot at you or your government then?

CHALMERS:

I don't think so. Phil's made these points, I think, pretty regularly over recent years, over the span of governments of both political persuasions. And frankly, he's earned the right to make his views known whether it be at these international forums, or indeed back home in Australia. And the thing that ‑ it would be good if your viewers would understand Andrew is ‑ I spoke just before Phil about a lot of the same things. And the point that we were making, is that we need to have the capacity as we deal with this primary challenge in our economy, which is inflation. We also need to be laying the foundations for a more productive economy after that. And from the government's point of view, that means the energy transformation, it means adapting, adopting technology, and it means getting human capital right, getting our labour markets right. And so a lot of what Phil said in his contribution is very closely aligned with the contribution that I made just before he spoke, and also some of the points that he made are very familiar to us, he's been making those points for some time.

CLENNELL:

Okay, so he said this, he said – ‘another reality we face is, the challenge is a political one. It's not about not knowing what to do, it's a political one. And the political challenge is to get these good ideas out, that are already out there through our political systems. And if we don't do that we have citizens with slower growth in real wages, smaller public services, and an increased tension on income distribution.’ What sort of reforms do you think Phil Lowe is after that might be politically difficult?

CHALMERS:

Well, I think the point that he was making ‑ and again, he's made this point pretty regularly over a period of time now ‑ is that in addition to this inflation fight that we're engaged in, working closely together, we've also got to make our economies more productive. Sometimes that means doing difficult things, for example, the energy transformation. The government's got a big reform agenda when it comes to the energy transformation. None of that is easy. Also, we need to do the right thing when it comes to technological change, adapting artificial intelligence and the like. And so there's a whole bunch of difficult and important things that we're doing as a government. Phil went out of his way, not to point to any one particular policy or another in his contribution, but to make it clear ‑ as I did when I spoke before him ‑ that we need to have the capacity to invest in productivity at the same time as we get on top of inflation. But not just that, one of the things that Australia is an absolute world leader in, and it's important to these meetings here in Gandhinagar in India, is that we're providing cost‑of‑living relief at the same time as we're actually repairing our Budgets. Australia's a world leader in that. So we need to be able to do those things simultaneously, at the same time as we get on top of inflation and make our economy more productive in the long run too. We've had a productivity challenge in our economy for some time now, a point that Phil has made. And the global economy has got a productivity challenge as well. We need to turn that around, we can't do that overnight. It requires governments to have an agenda like ours around energy and skills and technology.

CLENNELL:

Okay, and just finally, tell us about who you're meeting there. What are the main issues being discussed? Is it issues with China's economy or inflation in the Western world? And are the US inflation figures in that context encouraging?

CHALMERS:

Yeah, there's a lot going on in the global economy and the real purpose of these meetings or one of the main purposes of these meetings from an Australian point of view is to make sure that we understand these global developments, so we can carefully calibrate our economic plan for the conditions. And that's what we have been doing and that's what we'll continue to do. The best way to understand the global economy is some parts of the global economy have fallen into recession, some have proven to be more resilient, but all of us are facing a complex combination of risks. There has been some softer data out of China in the last little while that people are very focused on here. The Americans are seeing inflation moderate in welcome ways, but they're not out of the woods yet ‑ nobody is. And so it's a matter of calibrating our plan to make sure we're managing the Budget and the economy responsibly by providing that targeted cost‑of‑living relief, to take the edge off these pressures without adding to inflation at the same time as we're investing in a more productive economy into the future.

CLENNELL:

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, thanks for your time.

CHALMERS:

Appreciate it, Andrew, all the best.