JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
LOGAN CENTRAL
WEDNESDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2021

SUBJECTS: Real wages going backwards while petrol prices are skyrocketing; Scott Morrison’s scare campaign a dumpster fire of desperation and dishonesty; Scare campaigns and Labor policies; Craig Thompson.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: We've got new numbers from the Bureau Of Statistics today which show that real wages in this country have gone backwards by 0.8%.

Under Scott Morrison the costs of living have skyrocketed, wages have gone backwards, and working families are falling behind.

This is yet more evidence than under this Prime Minister and this Liberal National Government working families are struggling to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living because the Government's record on wages has been so appalling.

Under this Government, petrol prices in the last year have gone up by 24% at the same time as real wages have gone backwards by 0.8%. No wonder Australian working families are falling behind, when under Scott Morrison the costs of living are skyrocketing and wages are stagnating.

These numbers today from the Bureau of Stats prove beyond doubt that Scott Morrison's scare campaign is nothing but a dumpster fire of dishonesty and desperation. Scott Morrison's scare campaign on petrol prices and the cost of living couldn't survive from Monday to the end of Wednesday.

This scare campaign from Scott Morrison has been built from the beginning on a toxic combination of desperation and dishonesty. This pathetic little scare campaign from Scott Morrison is falling down all around him under the weight of this new wages data that we've received today.

Australian working families are doing it tough. Australian working families are falling behind because their costs of living are skyrocketing, while their real wages are going backwards. So enough of these pathetic little dishonest scare campaigns from the Prime Minister. Petrol prices are skyrocketing on his watch. The costs of living are going up on his watch. Wages are going backwards on his watch. And working families are going backwards on his watch as well.

Now, I've got two questions sent to me from Canberra bureaus.

The first one is about Scott Morrison's scare campaigns in relation to Labor's policy agenda.

We said from the very beginning that we won't be taking an identical set of policies to the 2022 election that we took to the 2019 election. That is thoroughly unremarkable, no political party takes exactly the same suite of policies from one election to another. We expect that as Scott Morrison becomes even more dishonest and even more desperate, we will see more of these kinds of scare campaigns between now and the election.

We know that Scott Morrison will continue to lie about the cost of living to try and distract from his own shameful record on wages, and rorts in the Budget, a trillion dollars in debt, and all of the other things that show just how badly he has mismanaged this economy, him and his colleagues, the last eight years. So we expect more of these scare campaigns. Australians are seeing through this Prime Minister, his dishonesty, and his desperation.

Our policy agenda will be right for working families. It'll be right for secure jobs. It'll be all about a future made in Australia. We won't be distracted or deterred by the Prime Minister's ridiculous scare campaigns, which are falling down all around him under the weight of this new wages data today, which shows that real wages are going backwards while prices of petrol and other essentials are going up.

The other question is about a legal matter involving Craig Thompson.

I haven't seen the details of this news. I understand that it's come out quite recently. I understand it's about a legal process and so I don't intend to comment any further. Thanks very much

ENDS