ANGELA COX:

Treasurer Jim Chalmers joins us from the Great Hall at Parliament House tonight. Thanks so much for your company. The real focus today seemed to be on women. The great untapped resource. There's a lot of pressure on your Government to bring forward your childcare relief to January 1. Are you going to do it?

JIM CHALMERS:

Yes, there are parts of the community that would love to fund this a bit earlier than July and in truth, it's something that we had a good look at, but it's very expensive to do that.

COX:

So that's a hard, no on January one?

CHALMERS:

It's going to be too expensive. I've been up front about that, Angela. I get asked from time to time about it. We had a good look at it before the election and subsequently, it's a big, almost $5 billion commitment that we're making. It's actually the biggest on‑budget commitment that we've made as a government. It will be there in the October Budget. It will begin in July and when it comes in, it will be a game changer for Australian families and particularly for Australian mums.

COX:

Okay. A billion dollars promised for fee‑free TAFE training. Is this just for specific sectors that have really chronic shortages of staff? How is this being paid for?

CHALMERS:

This is a really crucial investment. We've got these skill shortages right around the economy which are holding our economy back and they're making it harder for people to access the opportunities that come from an economy that's got 3.4 per cent national unemployment. And so what we've done today, what Anthony Albanese and Brendan O'Connor have announced is we will bring forward fee‑free TAFE places in areas where there are genuine skill shortages. That's because we do recognise that businesses of all sizes in every corner of Australia are finding it really hard to find people. So we've got to get cracking on training people for those opportunities

COX:

Tomorrow the Summit will be looking at how to bring in more skilled migrants. There's a huge backlog of visas to be processed. How much money will have to be thrown at it to fix that?

CHALMERS:

We do have these skills shortages right around the economy. And I think we need to recognise our first priority obviously is training people locally for those opportunities and also making sure that people can participate in the workforce if they've had kids relatively recently and they want to. Those are the two most important things, but there is a role for a sensible migration program when we've got skills and labour shortages like this.

So we've been consulting really widely. My colleague, Clare O'Neil and another one Andrew Giles have been doing a heap of work in this area to try and make sure that we get those migration settings bang on.

COX:

There are a few harsh words today about the absence of Peter Dutton. Your thoughts on him not being there?

CHALMERS:

He's made himself irrelevant, hasn't he? I mean, this room is full of people who want to have a go and Peter Dutton wants to have a whinge. He probably wouldn't fit in if I'm honest. But we’ve got the National Party here. We’ve got the Greens, we’ve got the cross benchers. We’ve got a cross‑section of employers, business groups, unions, community groups, experts, academics and others.

The room is chockas with people who want to do the right thing and work together ‑ to come together around our big economic challenges. Peter Dutton just wants to throw his toys out the cot and in the process, he's made himself completely and utterly irrelevant in a way that makes Tony Abbott look constructive and Scott Morrison look like some kind of unifying figure. Peter Dutton is the worst elements of both of those guys and we've seen that in this quite childish refusal of an invitation to genuinely be part of a big national effort. That's happening here to strengthen our economy and the interests of our people.

COX:

Well, you've got a big job ahead of you that's for sure. Thanks so much for your time, Jim Chalmers.

CHALMERS:

Thanks so much, Angela. All the best.