Joint doorstop interview, Taigum Kids Early Learning Centre, Queensland

ANIKA WELLS:

Good morning, everyone. I'm Anika Wells, the Federal Member for Lilley, Federal Minister for Aged Care, Federal Minister for Sport. This is Deputy Assistant Member for Lilley, Dashiell, and we're very honoured to have the Treasurer Jim Chalmers gracing us on the north side of Brisbane. You know it's an auspicious day when Jim's prepared to come to the north, to talk about such an important policy as this one, because Labor's childcare policy is an absolute game‑changer for 280,000 families across the state. Anyone who is paying for child care knows how expensive it is. In fact, child care has gone up 41 per cent in the past eight years alone. So Labor's childcare policy seeks to act on that and make something easier for families, to make a difference to cost of living. Budgets across suburbs like Taigum, right across the state. Labor's childcare policy is good for children, it's good for parents, and it's good for the economy. But also, we wanted to do this to show that we really respect the frontline workers like our early educators who got us through COVID. They were the first there to look after everyone when COVID descended, they were the first cast off the boat by the last government. And we want to show them that we respect them and the incredibly valuable work that they do for our littlest citizens. Right from people ‑ I'm thinking of nominating Grace and Ryan who are the educators for my twins ‑ for Australians of the year, right through to Miss Geetha, who is the longest serving educator here at Taigum ‑ she's been here for 12 years. We want to value them. That's why we're glad to be in government, and I'll hand over to the Treasurer to talk to you more about the national benefits.

JIM CHALMERS:

Thanks very much Anika and gang, and to everyone who welcomed us here today. This is my second visit to an early childhood education centre today to drop‑off, and then, as Anika said, headed north to come talk about the importance of early childhood education and the centrality to the Budget that we handed down last week. This is a family‑friendly Budget, which takes the pressure off mums and dads by making early childhood education cheaper. Cheaper childcare is cost‑of‑living relief with an economic dividend. It is good for mums and dads, it is good for the economy, and it's good for the country as well. This is why early childhood education was the biggest on‑budget investment that we made in Tuesday night's Budget. This is how we provide cost‑of‑living relief in a responsible way, which doesn't add to inflation. Australians all around the country are under extreme cost‑of‑living pressure, we understand that. And that's why the Budget provided seven and a half billion dollars in cost‑of‑living relief, but in a way that is responsible not reckless, because it doesn't add to the pressures on inflation.

This is all about mums and dads being able to work more and earn more if they want to. And it's all about businesses being able to find those workers that they need to. Now the reason this is so good for the economy ‑ what we're proposing to do with these game‑changing investments in early childhood education ‑ is because the economy is crying out for workers. There are a lot of mums and dads around Australia who want to work more and earn more. And this will make it easier for them to do so, providing cost‑of‑living relief in a responsible, affordable way that doesn't push up inflation is absolutely central to the Budget. And so were key investments in the care economy, whether it's early childhood education, aged care, disability care, health care, Medicare ‑ these are some of the biggest investments that we made in the Budget. We did that by being responsible elsewhere in the Budget, rearranging priorities, like we said we would. The reason why the Budget is so responsible ‑ when it comes to spending restraint, when it comes to trimming spending where spending has been wasteful, and when it comes to only promising what we can afford – is so that we can make room for these game‑changing investments in early childhood education, and in cost‑of‑living relief with an economic dividend. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to borrow more money and spray more cash around but that wouldn't have been right or responsible. My job is always to prioritise what's right and responsible and affordable, and not just what's popular. And that's why the Budget that we handed down on Tuesday night was responsible, it was right for the times, and it readies Australians for a better future. It does that by making room in the budget for the sorts of game‑changing investments that we're talking about today.

JOURNALIST:

According to tax experts, the Government could find billions of dollars in revenue [inaudible]

CHALMERS:

That's not something we're looking at, and those ideas aren't necessarily new. But I think it is self‑evident when you inherit a trillion dollars of debt and deficits as far as the eye can see, you need to see what you can responsibly change to make the Budget more sustainable. And Tuesday night's Budget showed remarkable spending restraint, it trimmed $22 billion in spending. And it raised billions of dollars from multinationals, making sure they pay a fairer share of tax here, and by cracking down on tax dodgers. Every dollar of tax that is avoided means a dollar that can't be invested in early childhood education or aged care or health care, or our other national priorities. So our commitment to Australians is to continue to do what we responsibly can to make the Budget more sustainable. We showed on Tuesday night that that can be a combination of restraint, trimming spending and acting sensibly on the tax side. And that kind of responsible approach will continue.

JOURNALIST:

You mentioned on Insiders yesterday that Treasury's undertaking a review of the petroleum resource rent tax. When do you expect to get that report?

CHALMERS:

We don't yet have a timeframe for the conclusion of that report, remembering that it was begun by Scott Morrison, when he was Treasurer. There was a report Josh Frydenberg then commissioned, a subsequent review of one part of it. We don't have a finishing date yet for the work that Treasury is doing. It paused that work for some time, while the resources of Treasury were focused more on the COVID response. And that work has recently restarted. Obviously, a lot of Australians would like to ensure that we get a decent return from our resources. And the work that Treasury is doing is ongoing. If and when they provide advice to me, I'll obviously take that under consideration.

JOURNALIST:

Treasurer, the energy regulator says any actions to intervene in the gas market or impose a cap must happen by the end of November, do you expect to take action by that deadline or will it wait until the new year?

CHALMERS:

We're putting in a lot of work behind the scenes working closely with the ACCC and the other regulators, and with my ministerial colleagues. We recognise that very high gas prices are doing a lot of damage in our economy and making life harder for Australians everywhere and for Australian industry, particularly the manufacturing sector. And so we have already taken some steps by Chris Bowen and his state and territory colleagues. We've empowered and funded and resourced the regulators ‑ the three main regulators ‑ in the Budget to do more work here. And as we've been flagging throughout the course of last week, and subsequently, if there are more steps that we can responsibly take, of course, we'll consider them. Now we understand what high gas prices and high electricity prices do to family budgets, and to local industry. And so any responsible government would be considering its options. We are prepared to contemplate options that might not have seemed possible a year or two ago. We've said that publicly and when we're ready to say more about it, we will do so. I don't think it's helpful for the Treasurer of this country to engage in a running commentary about specific options that might be being considered. There's a lot of market sensitivity, we've got to make sure that we're conscious of our international partnerships with the investment that's gone into the industry but I think most of all, what this means for the cost of living and what it means for local employers.

JOURNALIST:

Britain has imposed a gas price cap and a windfall tax to address prices, how much are you learning from their policy response?

CHALMERS:

Obviously, as we finalise our own approach here, we are conscious of what's happening around the world. But we've also got a set of pretty specific local factors to consider as well. When gas prices are high and electricity prices are high, it means Australians are under the pump and it makes life harder for local industry. And that's why I'm working with Minister Bowen, Minister Husic, Minister King, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and others, to see if there's more that we can responsibly and sensibly do here, which weighs up all of the pressures on the market and on local industry. I think it's really important to understand that when you've got a situation like this, action is warranted. There are broadly three ways you can go about it ‑ on the tax side, on the spending side, or on the regulation side ‑ we've made it pretty clear that we are working right now on the regulation side. And when we've got more to say about that, we'll say it.

JOURNALIST:

How quickly is the Government going to tighten the screws on gas companies?

CHALMERS:

We're doing the work now, and we're working closely with ACCC, the other regulators, with state and territory governments and with different ministers in different portfolios in the Cabinet. This is a complex area of public policy, the pressures are obvious, the solutions are less so, but we will work through all of the options, we will work through people's views, we will consult where we can, we'll lean heavily on the work of the regulators, we'll recognise that a lot of these levers are held by state and territory governments. So amidst all of that, if there's something that we can do additional to what we've done already, to get more energy into the system, to empower and fund and resource our regulators, to provide energy efficiency grants to small business, if there's more that we can do, we'll do it.

JOURNALIST:

And how long can Australian families last without government intervention?

CHALMERS:

That's really our prime motivation here, is to recognise that Australians are under the pump, and higher electricity prices will be a bigger and bigger part of the inflation challenge that the Budget was designed to deal with. We've been up‑front with people about that, we've levelled with people about those pressures. If you think about those two years of price rises in the Budget, the first of those are partly a consequence of the price rises that Angus Taylor hid during the election, and they are already flowing in the economy and into electricity bills. And unfortunately, because of the war in Ukraine, we expect there to be more of that. So Australians are under pressure, we recognise that, we've done what we can in the Budget to provide cost‑of‑living relief in the most responsible way that doesn't push up inflation. And we're doing more work specifically in energy markets to see if we can provide some more relief from these punishingly high prices.

JOURNALIST:

We know that funding for road and rail programs in Queensland over the next four years has dropped by 1.3 billion. But there's no real clarity on what projects have been axed or otherwise, don't Queenslanders deserve that transparency?

CHALMERS:

What happens under budgets of either political persuasion is that the profile of infrastructure spending is identified in the Budget. And there's a process of working with state and territory governments subsequent to that, that's the normal process ‑ that's usually how it happens. We've done some consultation with states and territories. My colleague, Catherine King has done a great job on that front, and she will do more of that. But what's happening in Queensland is that some of these projects where the price has come in substantially higher than anticipated ‑ recognising we've got labour and skill shortages and inflation when it comes to building costs ‑ where we can sensibly reprofile that but still build projects, that's what we intend to do. We flagged that before the election as well. Inevitably, when you've got pressures on the construction sector like we have right now, you need to be sensible and reasonable about the profile of this spending. Our intention is not to knock over projects unnecessarily. Our intention is to profile them more responsibly, with more common sense, and that's what we're doing. We have still got more than $120 billion pipeline of infrastructure investment in this country. We are investing huge amounts of money in infrastructure in Queensland and around Australia, and that will continue. Thanks very much.