Interview with Peter Stefanovic, Sky News

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Do you honestly believe this (COVID) inquiry is worth its salt?

JIM CHALMERS:

Of course I do. This is a really important opportunity to learn the lessons from the recent past so that we can anticipate and respond to pandemics and other crises into the future. It will be a comprehensive look at what the Commonwealth can do, how it can better discharge its responsibilities when these sorts of things happen, learning from the quite remarkable and incredibly difficult period that Australians have just been through.

STEFANOVIC:

But it was the actions of the states that caused the greatest personal and economic impact. The shutdowns, kids kept away from school, families not being able to say goodbye. When you talk about comprehensive, how can it be a credible inquiry if that sort of stuff is ignored?

CHALMERS:

Well, it will take into account all of the decisions that the Commonwealth took and all of the decisions that the Commonwealth will be asked to take into the future –

STEFANOVIC:

But not the states, that's the key here, Treasurer.

CHALMERS:

We take responsibility for our part of this, we take responsibility as a Commonwealth for the big, impactful decisions that our predecessors had to take and often with our support to be fair and so our job as a Commonwealth government is to take responsibility for learning the lessons from the past, to apply them to the future so that the Commonwealth can make better decisions. It's also important to remember Pete that there have been, I think, something like 20 different reviews and inquiries and some of those have picked up some of the issues that you're referring to so that will bring all of that together. There's nothing preventing the states from participating, making submissions to this review.

STEFANOVIC:

There is no coercive powers, though.

CHALMERS:

I don't accept the characterisation that you've put and others have put about this review. I think it will be a really important opportunity to get to the bottom of what happened, the sorts of decisions that were taken at a Commonwealth level and how we can make them better into the future and that's where the focus should be.

STEFANOVIC:

I do get your point about the Commonwealth. But you know, we remember very well the states were running the show.

CHALMERS:

There were substantial decisions taken here in Canberra though Pete as well, we can't ignore that. In my own portfolio we're doing some work to learn the lessons from the waste in the JobKeeper program, for example, that was a Commonwealth program. It did a lot of good but it also had a lot of waste – tens of billions of dollars wasted on businesses that were already profitable getting JobKeeper – businesses whose profits went up got a lot of support and so in each of these areas, there's some really substantial Commonwealth responsibility and we need to make sure that if and when this happens again, and we'd be silly to assume that we won't get something like this in the future, then the Commonwealth's got a lot of decisions, a lot of levers that were pulled in the recent past, we want to make sure that we do a good job in the future and that's what it's about.

STEFANOVIC:

I mean, you've even got folks from human rights who are critical of this. I mean, so you've got to admit, it's toothless, isn't it with the with no coercive powers, without the states being involved, I mean, it is a toothless tiger, this one.

CHALMERS:

I just don't agree with you, Pete and I disagree with you respectfully. I know that there are a range of views, I'm not pretending otherwise, there are a range of views about this, there is certainly not a unanimous view about it and I think we've got it right.

STEFANOVIC:

I recognise this isn't your call by the way, as well. But just one more final one on this one – is it running protection for Annastacia Palaszczuk who's up for re-election next year?

CHALMERS:

Of course, it isn't. Of course it isn't and the people who make that accusation including Peter Dutton who basically spends his day looking for things to be angry and negative about and he's done it again in this instance, rather than taking a constructive approach he's taken the usual angry, divisive and negative approach and he's made that accusation that you just repeated and what it neglects, what it ignores is that half the premieres during COVID were Liberal Party premiers and so that accusation that people have made just doesn't stack up.

STEFANOVIC:

Into your wheelhouse Treasurer, big surplus, that is good news. So how much of that though is down to you as opposed to circumstances ie mining and bigger tax intakes driven by inflation?

CHALMERS:

When you get an improvement in revenue like we have had as a consequence largely of a stronger labour market but also good prices for our exports, what matters is what you do with that and what we've been able to do is to bank almost all of it to get the Budget in much better nick at the same time as we're rolling out billions of dollars in cost-of-living help. Our predecessors used to spend most of these revenue upgrades, we have banked almost all of it and that's because we want to pay down some of this Liberal Party debt that we inherited but also we're rolling out cost-of-living help and we're also getting the Budget in much better nick because a year or two in the global economy will be especially uncertain. We've got the Budget in better nick, we're rolling out cost-of-living help and that puts us in a stronger position.

STEFANOVIC:

So with that said, are you considering extra cost-of-living relief measures now or are you going to keep on banking it?

CHALMERS:

Our focus is rolling out literally billions of dollars right now in cost-of-living help, that's the government's number one –

STEFANOVIC:

Any we don't know about?

CHALMERS:

We're working on rolling out the cost-of-living relief that I've budgeted for at the same time as we've got this surplus. It will help take some of the edge off these cost-of-living pressures without adding to them, that's a key part of our economic plan as is getting the Budget in much better nick, at the same time – we've been able to do both of those things – cost-of-living help and a big surplus to get the Budget in but better nick at the same time.

STEFANOVIC:

Okay let's finish on a lighter note here Treasurer. Are you a gambling man?

CHALMERS:

Not anymore. No, no, but I'm looking forward to a big weekend.

STEFANOVIC:

That's what I was going to say, are you going the double, the double, the Brisbane double?

CHALMERS:

I couldn't because the AFL in their wisdom are starting the Lions game after five and the Broncos start at 7.50. I was going to do the double when I thought it was going to be four and eight but it's more like five and eight and that's going to make it too tough. I'll be at the Broncos and I'll watch the Lions on the TV as well. It's so amazing – two Brisbane prelims on the same afternoon is absolutely magnificent. I'm quietly confident we'll get the Lions and the Broncos through.

STEFANOVIC:

Brilliant, brilliant. I agree, I agree. Treasurer Jim Chalmers, thank you so much. We'll talk to you again soon.