Interview with Karl Stefanovic, Today, Channel 9

KARL STEFANOVIC:

Jim Chalmers joins us now. Treasurer, good morning to you. What do you say in response to that? $1.80 a day, lifting only by 4 per cent - it's not enough for those people and what do you tell them?

JIM CHALMERS:

Unfortunately the situation confronting Jennifer and Mark is a situation that's confronting a lot of Australians as the cost of living goes through the roof. As a government, we obviously are listening to people who are doing it tough right around Australia. The payment that went up last Tuesday - from memory about $26 a fortnight in JobSeeker - is important, but we know that not in every situation will that cover the increasing cost of living that people are confronting. We've been upfront about that. What we're trying to do as a government and in the Budget that I hand down in October is to provide some responsible cost-of-living relief in a way that doesn't force up inflation further and make the job of the independent Reserve Bank that much harder. So obviously, we've got policies that we'll be implementing to make medicine cheaper, to make TAFE fees cheaper. I understand Mark and Jennifer have got a teenage daughter who'd been thinking about the training and education options going forward. We want to make childcare cheaper. We've supported an increase in the minimum wage. But all of this together is part of our effort to deal with these cost-of-living pressures in a responsible way. Pensions and payments went up last week as they should - every little bit helps - but we know that some people are still doing it really tough. Now, we've got three and a half per cent unemployment in this country, which is historically low. We need to get better as a country and frankly as a government to making sure that people who are not working and want to work can access the opportunities that come from unemployment being that low.

STEFANOVIC:

You can see how difficult it's going to be. Come Wednesday, the excise cut ends, and that's a $100 hit for basic budgets, a lot of bread and butter. The Reserve Bank says we need higher taxes to compensate for all this. Will you listen to the Reserve Bank, will you increase taxes?

CHALMERS:

There's a few things in your questions. We will change taxes for multinational corporations in this first budget that I hand down. We want to make multinationals pay their fair share of tax where they make their profits and there'll be some steps in that direction in the Budget next month. But I think more broadly, people understand that the global economy is in a difficult and dangerous place right now. We've got our own share of challenges here at home: rising inflation, falling real wages, and rising interest rates are a big part of the story. And this trillion dollars of debt that we've inherited constrains our choices, particularly when rising interest rates mean that we're paying more and more to service that debt.

STEFANOVIC:

So you're opening the door for an increase in taxes down the track?

CHALMERS:

They'll certainly be more tax collected from multinationals, that'll be our priority. And what I've said more broadly, and the Governor of the Reserve Bank said this, the Treasury Secretary and others have said this in recent months, we do need to have a big national conversation about how we fund the things that we care for not just in our economy, but in our society. We've got these growing areas of spending in defence, NDIS, aged care, health care, and the cost of servicing the trillion dollars in debt. That's a combination of spending which is either unavoidable or desirable - the sorts of services that we want to provide people in a country like ours. We need to have a conversation about funding that. The October Budget won't be the end of that conversation, but it will be the beginning.

STEFANOVIC:

Okay, that's all so depressing Jim and what we all need now is just chill out a little bit. The Greens are pushing to legalise cannabis. I can see you moving a little bit there.

CHALMERS:

I wasn't expecting Bob Marley this morning, Karl, I have got to be honest with you.

STEFANOVIC:

Expect the unexpected on our show on Monday morning, my friend. Is it something you support or not?

CHALMERS:

It's a matter for the Health Minister. Let me finish Karl - there's a sensible way obviously to provide medical cannabis, that's something I support. Beyond that these are issues I'm not focused on right now, I'm putting the Budget together.