JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
 
KRISTY MCBAIN
MEMBER FOR EDEN-MONARO
 
 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
JERRABOMBERRA
WEDNESDAY, 1 DECEMBER 2021

SUBJECTS: National accounts; Cost of living pressures; Wages; Local businesses.
 
KRISTY MCBAIN, MEMBER FOR EDEN-MONARO: Good morning and welcome to Suppeto Cafe in Jerrabomberra. I'm pleased to be joined by Shadow Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Businesses right across my electorate have been doing a really tough and we've spoken to business owners, both here in Jerrabomberra and with the dance studio next door, and they have been doing it really tough over the last couple of years. We need to concentrate on making sure that we are supporting local businesses right across the region. This electorate has been impacted more than most through the Black Summer Bushfires and through four border closures as a result of COVID. We have absolutely copped it in terms of natural disasters. We've had 36 declared natural disasters since 2016. So I brought Jim here today to talk to business owners because we need to be supporting them now and into the future.
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks very much, Kristy. It's great to be here at Jerrabomberra with you and with Anthony here from this great cafe and Kim from the dance studio next door. There is no better representative of their local community than Kristy McBain and we see that again here this morning.
 
Today, we get a really important snapshot of the national economy in the national accounts. What the national accounts will show is that Scott Morrison's mistakes on the initial vaccine rollout, quarantine and economic support means that our downturn is expected to be the worst in the advanced world of those countries that have already reported. This time last year, and in the May budget, Josh Frydenberg was saying that recovery was well underway and the economy was roaring back but the Government's complacency has led to the second biggest downturn on record, and the worst in the developed world of all the countries that have reported so far.
 
So as we know, talking to local businesses, we can't be complacent about the national economy. We can't be complacent when there's all this uncertainty around the Omnicon strain of the virus, and all of the other uncertainty as well. We want the national economy to recover strongly and that means local economies like this one need to recover strongly. We want the recovery to be broad, sustainable, enduring and strong. We can't be complacent about that. We don't want to see small businesses and workers left behind. There are still a lot of challenges in the national economy.
 
Today when Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg want to pretend that everything is fine in the economy, and the recovery is well underway, remember that they’ve said this before. They said it this time last year, they said in the May budget. We can't be complacent about the recovery. This Morrison Government's complacency on the economy is what stomped on the green shoots of the recovery this time last year and we don't want to see that happen again.
 
What we will see today in the national accounts is that we enter this new period of uncertainty from a position of weakness, when it comes to the September quarter in the economy. That's because of those mistakes that the Morrison Government has made. Economists expect our downturn to be the worst in the developed world for all the countries that have reported. That's not good enough. We need to see this economy recover strongly. We don't want small businesses and workers left behind.
 
When it comes to the economy more broadly, the economy under Scott Morrison is defined by skyrocketing cost of living and falling real wages. We've got the cost of petrol, rent and other essentials going through the roof at the same time as real wages are going backwards and the economy is shrinking in the September quarter. We'll see that today in the national accounts.
 
ENDS