JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
LOGAN 
TUESDAY, 31 AUGUST 2021

SUBJECTS: Tomorrow’s National Accounts; Economic consequences of Scott Morrison’s failures on vaccines and quarantine; Harvey Norman repaying JobKeeper despite the Treasurer not lifting a finger.  

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: The National Accounts for June are out tomorrow. What we want to see is the economy recovering strongly. We want growth in the economy to be strong, and inclusive, and sustainable.  But most economists expect that economic growth in the June quarter was very soft and that the economy is actually going backwards in the September quarter.

For most Australians this already feels like a recession. No matter what the numbers say tomorrow, we already know that the economy is bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars a day and billions of dollars a week as a consequence of Scott Morrison's failures on vaccines and quarantine.

We have said all along that the economic recovery in this country is hostage to those twin failures from the Prime Minister. We've said all along that you can't have a first rate economic recovery with a third rate vaccine rollout. And unfortunately, no matter what the numbers say tomorrow, that's what we're seeing in the Australian economy.

You can't manage the economy well if you're mismanaging the pandemic. Mismanaging the pandemic means that you're mismanaging the economy as well.

This Prime Minister always takes credit when things are going well but when things are going badly, when things are difficult, when times are tough, this Prime Minister is nowhere to be found.

Now as Saul Eslake and other economists have pointed out, the weakness in the Australian economy could have been avoided if this Government got vaccines, and quarantine, and economic support right but unfortunately, they haven't done that.

We wouldn't even be speculating about economic weakness, economists wouldn't even be speculating about another recession under this Government, if the Prime Minister had done his job on vaccines and quarantine. Instead, what we're saying here is three things: mismanagement of the pandemic, misjudging of the recovery, and mishandling of economic support.

What we've seen today is that Harvey Norman has agreed to repay $6 million in JobKeeper money that they didn't need. We welcome this decision from Harvey Norman today. It is a vindication of Labor's campaign. It is a vindication of the need for more, not less transparency when it comes to the Treasurer's mismanagement of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.

This $6 million repayment is welcome but it's part of a $13 billion mistake made by Josh Frydenberg.

Josh Frydenberg has not lifted a finger to recover taxpayers’ money in the JobKeeper program and that's why so many businesses are still giving him the bird.

This is the most wasteful program in the history of the Commonwealth and this Treasurer has his fingerprints all over it.

If the Treasurer had his way none of this money would be repaid. The Treasurer has not done anything to ensure that money has been repaid in this program where we've seen so much waste.

You can only imagine the lectures the Liberal Party would be giving Labor on budget management if this $13 billion dollars had been wasted by a government of another political persuasion.

JobKeeper is a very good idea, a very good program, being badly mismanaged by the Butterfingers of Australian politics. What we're seeing here from this Treasurer is record debt, the most wasteful program in the history of the Commonwealth, an economy which is slowing in the June quarter at least, and is shrinking in the September quarter.

The Treasurer and the Prime Minister need to take responsibility for their mismanagement of the pandemic and their mismanagement of the economy. We wouldn't be in this position, with most of the country locked down and facing all of this economic carnage, if the Prime Minister and Treasurer were up to their jobs.

JOURNALIST: Do you think a recession or being close to a recession is unavoidable given the spread of delta around the world?

CHALMERS: For too many Australians it already feels like a recession, no matter what the numbers say in the National Accounts. For all of those who are making excuses for this Prime Minister and this Government about the last recession, I think most economists, certainly all the credible economists, think that the economic weakness we're seeing now is at least in part a function of the Prime Minister's failures on vaccines, and quarantine, and economic support.

I'm not going to predict what tomorrow's numbers say. We already know that the economy is slowing, or did slow, in the June quarter. We already know that it's shrinking in the September quarter. These are the costs and consequences being worn by small businesses and working families of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer's incompetence.

JOURNALIST: Are two quarters of negative growth the best way to determine if the economy is in recession or should we be looking at other measures?

CHALMERS: I'm not sure that now's the time to quibble about the definitions. I think for so many Australians it already feels like a recession, no matter what tomorrow's numbers indicate. Clearly, whatever definition you want to use, the Australian economy is struggling because the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have mismanaged the pandemic. These characters like to pretend they're good at managing the economy, but you can't manage the economy effectively if you're mismanaging the pandemic. That's what we're seeing right now.

JOURNALIST: And do you expect the economy to return to strength as quickly as it did after the last recession?

CHALMERS: We desperately need to see the economy growing strongly again in a way that creates more opportunities for more Australians in more parts of the country. We have said all along that the economic recovery has been hostage to those failures on vaccines and quarantine. We've said all along that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer shouldn't have been in such a rush to withdraw economic support when the economy was still vulnerable and there was still so much uncertainty around.

This Prime Minister and Treasurer have spent all of their time patting themselves on the back for a recovery that wasn't yet assured. The recovery wasn't yet assured, isn't yet assured, because you need to get the pandemic management right if you're to get the economic management right as well.

We all want to see the economy recover strongly. In order for that to happen, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer need to do their job and not to continue to fail, and mismanage, and bungle what are the most important things that we need to do as a country to get the economy back on track.

JOURNALIST: And just on Harvey Norman paying back some of the funding it received. Is that a good example of why JobKeeper should not be reintroduced?

CHALMERS: It's a vindication of Labor's campaign on JobKeeper repayments and on the need for more transparency not less transparency when it comes to the errors made by the Treasurer in this program. I want to pay tribute to Andrew Leigh and other colleagues in our team and indeed others in the broader Australian community.

What we're seeing here is a Treasurer who tells struggling small businesses in Sydney he can't afford to help them at the same time as he sprayed around $13 billion to businesses that didn't need help.

This Treasurer has got his priorities all wrong. Everything he touches seems to turn bad. That's why he's the Butterfingers of Australian politics.

He tells businesses in Sydney still waiting for support that the federal government can't afford to help them at the same time as he's wasted more money than any federal Treasurer in the history of the Commonwealth on businesses which didn't need support. Some of them are paying that back, but not because of the Treasurer. They're paying that back despite the Treasurer, who is more than happy for businesses to pocket money they didn't need at the same time as small businesses who still desperately need help are being left in the lurch by the Morrison Government.

JOURNALIST: Thanks very much.

CHALMERS: Thank you.

ENDS