E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
LOGAN
SATURDAY, 11 JULY 2020

SUBJECTS: JobKeeper; State restrictions; Childcare; Remdesivir.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: People are doing it really tough in this first recession in three decades. People are worried about their jobs, the future of their small businesses, they're worried about whether they can put food on the table or school shoes on their kids. They're worried about whether they can make rent or pay off the mortgage. There's a lot of uncertainty around and obviously that uncertainty has been heightened by the new restrictions made necessary by the recent outbreak in Victoria.
It's very clear that the economy won't just snap back to life in September, or large parts of it won't, as the Prime Minister has said that it will. The Reserve Bank, Deloitte Access Economics and others have said that unemployment will be higher for longer and that means that there will be a need for support in the economy for longer as well. It will be absolutely devastating for businesses, and for workers if JobKeeper support was taken out of the economy too soon. That's the point that we have been making repeatedly.

If the Prime Minister has a plan for JobKeeper after September, then let's hear it. We have been saying for some time, there's enough uncertainty already. The Prime Minister shouldn't be adding to that by sitting on this secret report. The Prime Minister's really got two choices here; he can try and address the genuine uncertainty and anxiety which is in the community or he can add to that uncertainty by continuing to sit on this JobKeeper report that he's had for weeks.

Now what Labor's done is, we've stood up for hundreds of thousands of businesses and millions of workers who are worried about what comes next. They're worried about the future of JobKeeper. They're worried about what's coming in the economy over the coming weeks and months. We released into the public domain some Treasury figures which show the magnitude of the challenge here, and the size of that rapidly approaching cliff. The Prime Minister says that's disgraceful.
Well let me tell him what's disgraceful. Disgraceful is sitting on a secret report for weeks in a way that only adds to the uncertainty that businesses and workers feel. Disgraceful is focusing obsessively on the Labor Party as he does, rather than on the national economic interest. Disgraceful is leaving businesses in the lurch and in the dark, and leaving workers behind. Now is not the time for the Prime Minister's infamous glass jaw, it's a time for him to come clean about the future of JobKeeper. He's had the JobKeeper review for weeks; it's time he releases it.

JOURNALIST: Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration has just approved a new drug Remdesivir. Will this be enough to prevent people in Victoria dying from Coronavirus?

CHALMERS: It's really important that this drug has been approved for treatment. Because treatment will be such an important part of what's necessary here, in the absence of a vaccine. We want to make sure that the Government has sufficient stocks of this important treatment to deal with what has been a spike in cases in Victoria. Until and unless we have a vaccine for COVID these kinds of treatments will be extremely important.

JOURNALIST: Should the Government be guaranteeing that it will pay for treatments like this for patients with COVID?

CHALMERS: It's important that the TGA has approved this treatment. It's important that the Government make it available in sufficient numbers that we can deal with the kind of outbreaks that we're seeing now

JOURNALIST: Do you have any concerns about this drug?

CHALMERS: It's for the experts to advise on the use of this drug as a treatment for COVID. As I understand it, it's been approved. It will be important part of treatment in the absence of a vaccine. We need to make sure that it's available with sufficient stocks and in sufficient number to treat the people who have come down with this infection.

JOURNALIST: Compared to other states, do you think the Victorian Government has a lot to answer for given the Coronavirus numbers we're now seeing?

CHALMERS: Right throughout this COVID crisis Labor has been supportive of Premiers and Chief Ministers of both political persuasions. It's important that we don't just say that we’ll support our State and Territories as they try and deal with this but that we actually be supportive. When the Commonwealth Government and the State Governments have taken decisions based on medical advice we've supported that; that's the approach that we will continue to take.

JOURNALIST: Do you have reservations about the border with Queensland reopening and the potential for a surge in case numbers as people flood into the state?

CHALMERS: We need to be really careful that as some of these restrictions lift that people are still observing all of the necessary precautions and they're still observing all of the medical advice. Clearly with the opening of the Queensland border this weekend there will be many people coming to the best state in the Commonwealth. We need to make sure that when they do come here that they're observing the precautions and they're listening to the advice. The last thing we need to see as a number of businesses reopen here in Queensland, is another spike or a second wave that will be devastating for the small business community here and for all of the workers that they employ.

JOURNALIST: Early childhood advocates are warning childcare services will close when free day-care ends because people who can't afford care will be forced to drop the hours that their kids attend. What's the solution here?

CHALMERS: We are extremely concerned about the changes that the Government has announced to childcare which come into place in the coming days, during the course of July. We have said repeatedly via our spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth, that our concern is by kicking childcare workers off JobKeeper, and not making the new arrangements sufficient to deal with that, that a lot of parents will have to make very difficult choices. The Prime Minister says that we're all in this together. If that is to be more than a slogan, then he needs to recognise some of the decisions that the Government has taken have made life even more difficult for people during this crisis, including working parents who had it tough enough before dealing with the juggle between work, family and childcare arrangements. It was expensive before and we can't just snap back to those same old arrangements which were causing so much angst and anxiety in the community even before Coronavirus hit.

JOURNALIST: There's the view that JobKeeper is sort of a rebranded NewStart. Do you think this is something that should continue indefinitely, even after Coronavirus is over?

CHALMERS: When it comes to JobSeeker there is an obvious economic case for JobSeeker to be higher than the NewStart rate and we've said that repeatedly. It would be bad for individual workers and individual job seekers, for the broader community and for the broader economy, if JobSeeker snapped back to the old Newstart rate of $40 a day which isn't sufficient for people to support themselves and to look for work in our community. When it comes to JobKeeper nobody is arguing that JobKeeper continue forever; what we are arguing is that September is too soon to take that support from the economy. The economy will not snap back to life across all parts of the economy in September as the Prime Minister has said that it would; that's increasingly obvious. If the Prime Minister has a plan for JobKeeper he should release it. By sitting on that secret report he's only adding to the understandable anxiety and uncertainty that people feel in local economies right around Australia.

JOURNALIST: What would you say would be a better date that JobKeeper payment to end?

CHALMERS: First of all, let's see the review. Let's see what the expert advice is from the Treasury about the future of JobKeeper. If there's a case for businesses to be retested or for the payment to be better targeted or tapered over a longer period, then Labor would certainly have an open mind to that. We've been saying that something like that needs to be considered. The JobKeeper payments need to be responsive to the conditions in the economy and what we've said is that the end date, the last weekend in September, is based on the Prime Minister's flawed view that all parts of the economy will be back to normal by then. It's clear they won't; the Reserve Bank and others have made that very clear. So, let's be responsive to the economic conditions. Let's hear what the Prime Minister intends to do with JobKeeper. If he releases that review, we will engage with that responsibly and constructively as we have throughout this crisis.