JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
LOGAN
FRIDAY, 25 JUNE 2021
 
SUBJECTS: Morrison Government’s Intergenerational Report cannot be another excuse for more cuts to Medicare and the NDIS; Scott Morrison’s failures on vaccines and quarantine risking lives and livelihoods; Scott Morrison has wasted 16 months and counting on purpose-built quarantine.
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Australians have sacrificed so much for each other during the course of this pandemic, and they need and deserve a recovery that works for everyone. That means we need to see the Prime Minister fix his bungled vaccination rollout and build purpose-built quarantine. It also need means that we need to engage in some long-term thinking. That's why the Intergenerational Report to be released on Monday is so important. 

Now, we've already seen some stories about the document that the Treasurer will release. I will wait and see what's in the actual document, rather than cop the Treasurer's usual marketing spin in advance. 

This can't be another short-term political fix, like the Budget was. It can't be another document long on politics and short on vision, like the last Intergenerational Report was. 

It can't be another document which is nothing more than an excuse to justify more Liberal-National cuts to the NDIS and to Medicare. 

It needs to fess up to the costs and consequences of this Government's cuts to real wages cuts and the generational debt that they've racked up without a generational dividend. 

What we need to see on Monday from the Government is not another short-sighted partisan political document which fails the vision test. 

What we need is the kind of long-term thinking that can get wages growing again, so we can get the economy growing the right way, and so that we can properly do justice to the sacrifices that Australians have made for each other throughout this pandemic. 

Australians have built the foundations for this recovery and we don't want to see it squandered by short-term thinking or by the Prime Minister's bungling of vaccines and quarantine. 

The Prime Minister only had two jobs to do this year - get the vaccination rollout right and build purpose built quarantine - and he's failed on both fronts. 

Scott Morrison's incompetence on vaccinations and quarantine is putting lives and livelihoods at risk. 

Today we read that the Prime Minister wants to dictate a site for purpose-built quarantine here in Queensland. 

If only this Prime Minister spent as much time building purpose-built quarantine as he's spent picking fights with Annastacia Palaszczuk, we'd all be safer and better off. 

Chasing headlines and playing politics is no substitute for actually taking responsibility for purpose-built quarantine. 

It's been obvious to the rest of us for some time now that we need these quarantine sites built. It's been 16 months now. The Prime Minister has been dragging his feet, chasing headlines and playing politics. That has put the safety, the lives and the livelihoods of Queenslanders and Australians beyond at risk. 

Time and time again, we've seen leaks from hotel quarantine. Hotels were built for tourism, not for quarantine. It's been obvious to the rest of us for some months. 

While the Prime Minister jets in, bags the State Government, gets the details wrong and jets out again, it's been obvious for some time that we need these facilities built. 

Let's see what he's proposing, let's be constructive about it, because Queenslanders and Australians have waited too long for the types of purpose-built quarantine that the Prime Minister is finally talking about today. 

Thanks very much.

ENDS