JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
LOGAN
MONDAY, 17 JANUARY 2022

SUBJECTS: Deloitte Access Economics Report; ACCC findings on rapid tests which are unavailable and unaffordable; You can't have a healthy economy and a healthy recovery without healthy people and healthy workers; Josh Frydenberg’s latest scare campaign is just another distraction from what Australians are really worried about – finding rapid tests and fresh groceries; Morrison Government’s failures mean Australians are searching for rapid tests they either can’t find or can’t afford; Novak Djokovic; Scott Morrison needs to crack down on anti-vaxxers in his own ranks.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: There's a new Deloitte Report out this morning, which shows just how reliant our economic recovery is on the Government getting the pandemic response right. Our economic recovery is hostage to Scott Morrison's failures on rapid testing and vaccines. You can't have a healthy economy without healthy people. You can't have people returning to work unless they are confident that they're not going to endanger their co-workers and their loved ones. If Scott Morrison was serious about getting the economy back on track, he would work with the workers and the unions of this country to make sure that people can do their jobs safely.

The people of Australia are prepared to do their job, they just need Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg to do theirs.

You can't have a healthy economy, a healthy recovery, without healthy people and without healthy workers, and that's where this Government has failed. The economic recovery and the economy more broadly would be stronger were it not for the Government's stuff-ups on rapid testing, and boosters, and all of the rest of it. What we've seen, once again, is a Government which is prepared to take credit for a recovery but not actually take responsibility for doing their job to secure that recovery. Time and time again, we've heard Josh Frydenberg say that the worst is behind us only to see the Government's complacency and incompetence on testing, and boosters, and other forms of the pandemic response, fall well short of what's necessary to lock that recovery in.

This Government has ignored warnings for months that rapid tests would be crucial to the economy recovering. This Government has been warned for months now that failing to sort out rapid tests would result in economic carnage. This Government has ignored those warnings for some months now and we see the economic consequences right before our eyes.

This Government says that now that the Novak Djokovic thing is sorted that people can get on with enjoying the tennis. Well Prime Minister, it's time you got on with doing your job. Your failures on rapid antigen tests have led to a shortage of workers and groceries, put immeasurable strain on families and small businesses, ruined people's summer, and put the economic recovery at risk.

Josh Frydenberg is out there again today. What he doesn't understand is that dressing up as a worker is no substitute for getting workers the rapid antigen tests that they need to do their job safely. Dressing up as a worker is no substitute for doing Josh Frydenberg's job, which is to secure this recovery by securing those rapid antigen tests.

We read in the media today that Josh Frydenberg has spent his summer making up yet another ridiculous scare campaign, this time on tax. Tax as a proportion of the economy is much higher under this Government than it was under Labor. This Government has collected an extra $150billion in tax this year than Labor did in its last year in office. The two highest taxing governments of the last 30 years have both been Liberal / National Governments, led by John Howard and now Scott Morrison.

So enough of these ridiculous scare campaigns on tax, which are just designed to try and distract people from the Morrison Government's failures on rapid tests, and vaccines, and wages, and debt, and the fact that there are grocery shortages in our supermarkets. If only Josh Frydenberg spent more time doing his job and less time making up ridiculous scare campaigns or dressing up as a worker - if only he did his job and secured the rapid tests that people need in order to return to work - then the economy and the recovery would be that much stronger.

No wonder Josh Frydenberg's credibility is becoming scarcer than a rapid antigen test. This is a guy who spends all his time having his photo taken, cooking up ridiculous scare campaigns, when he should be spending that time doing his job. The economy is suffering as a consequence of Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg's failures to manage the health aspects and the economic aspects of this crisis.

JOURNALIST: Jim, going back to this Deloitte report this morning. The report says the good outweighs the bad in terms of the Australian economy forecasting above average growth. Do you share that optimism?

CHALMERS: We want the economy to recover strongly, but the economic recovery is hostage in so many ways to the mismanagement of the pandemic on the health front, at the federal level. We all want the economy to recover, we want people back at work, we want our small businesses to prosper, but time and time again over the course of the last two years Josh Frydenberg has said that the recovery is locked-in only to see his complacency and his incompetence threaten that recovery. The economy would be stronger and the recovery would be stronger if the Morrison Government didn't continue to stuff things up on the health front.

JOURNALIST: The Government says it's striking a balance between the economy and the health front. Obviously, you've touched on this a little bit there, but do you think it's getting the right balance there or it should be changed?

CHALMERS: The health aspects and the economic aspects of this pandemic are inseparable.  What we've learned from the last two years is that you can't have a healthy economy without healthy people and healthy workers. What the Government has failed to understand is that mismanaging the pandemic means mismanaging the economy. That's what we've seen time and time again. The Government hasn't struck the right balance here, they've failed to understand that taking credit for a recovery is not the same thing as doing your job to actually lock-in that recovery by getting the pandemic response right.

JOURNALIST: The ACCC's investigating a large number of reports on price gouging for revenue tests. Is enough being done to enforce price caps?

CHALMERS: The Morrison Government has held our economy hostage to tests that people either can't find or can't afford. What we've been saying for some time - even before the ACCC released those comments - is that people want to do the right thing, they want to do their jobs, but that relies on Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg doing their job. That means making sure that these rapid antigen tests can be freely accessed so that people can do the right thing by their co-workers and by their families.

What the ACCC has shown in their comments today is that these rapid antigen tests are not within reach of ordinary working families. These tests are either too scarce or too expensive for ordinary working families to do the right thing by each other and by their co-workers, and get tested and report their results.

This is one of the defining failures of this Morrison Government, their failure to provide these tests for free. People are engaged in this bizarre Hunger Games driving from chemist to chemist at their most vulnerable, potentially at their most contagious, looking for tests that they can't find or can't afford. If Morrison and Frydenberg were serious about getting the economy back on track and getting workers back to work, they'd provide these tests for free. It speaks volumes about this Government that they cut an ad about rapid antigen tests before they actually put out the tender last week for those rapid antigen tests. Dressing up as a worker and doing the photo op is no substitute for doing your job Treasurer, and making sure that people can have free access to the rapid antigen tests which are so central to our economy recovering strongly enough.

JOURNALIST: Unions are meeting today to discuss serious concerns about new isolation exemptions for workers. Do you share their views that these rules risk accelerating the spread of the virus?

CHALMERS: I share the unions’ view that the crucial thing here is the free provision of rapid antigen tests. If you look at that announcement made out of the National Cabinet, the whole thing is contingent on people being able to access these tests that they currently can't find or can't afford. So if Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg are serious about fixing the mess that they've made of tests and the impact of that on the economy, they should sit down and engage with the workers and their unions to come to an understanding here and to come to a way forward. The most important thing we need to see from Scott Morrison is for him to fix this mess that he's made of rapid antigen tests. All of these other challenges around shortages in our supermarkets, and the issues in our workforces, all go back one way or another to that defining failure.

JOURNALIST: Jim to wrap it up, the federal  government's deported Novak Djokovic for being an anti-vaxxer, ostensibly. Do you think it should start now cracking down on those comments and those views amongst its own Members?

CHALMERS: The Government's failure to crack down on anti-vaxxers in its own ranks just shows that this whole exercise has been designed to distract from their failures on rapid antigen tests and a shortage of groceries in our supermarkets. This Government has dragged this out longer than is necessary because they want people distracted from the fact they can't find a test or they can't find fresh food in our supermarkets.

There are three things that the Government needs to answer today. First of all, if he wasn't supposed to be here why did they give him a visa? Secondly, if they want to be all hairy chested about anti-vaxxers now, what about anti-vaxxers in their own ranks? And thirdly, why were they prepared to drag this out and trash our international reputation as a desperate attempt and cynical attempt to distract from their own failures?

This is a Government which has ignored warnings for months about a shortage of tests, ruined people’s summer, the shortage of groceries, made people uncertain in their workplaces, damaged small businesses and the economy, and they hope that this latest sort of chest beating about Novak Djokovic will hide all of that, but it won't. Australians are more concerned about accessing a test, accessing fresh food, and what they do about work, than they are about whether Novak Djokovic plays in the Australian Open.

Thanks very much.

ENDS