JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
MACKAY
THURSDAY, 14 APRIL 2022
SUBJECTS: A better future under Labor is powered by cleaner and cheaper energy, powered by our resources sector and powered by the regions; Costs of living skyrocketing under Scott Morrison while real wages go backwards; Labor’s plans for a better future cost a fraction of the tens of billions of dollars the Coalition has wasted; Labour force.
SHANE HAMILTON, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR DAWSON: Morning everyone. We've got an important announcement today to future-proof and back in the mining industry. It provides skills for our future apprentices, to ensure that we look after, and be on the front foot of future skills. The Labor Party is all about looking forward and making sure that we have the skills, and training for the future industries that are here. We've got a $15 billion Reconstruction Fund and we want to make sure that we have the skills and training available to our future apprentices through our fee-free TAFE program, through universities like this, so that we ensure that we're backing our mining industry but also the future industries when our battery cars turn up on the market, when our mining trucks convert to battery power. And whether it's hydrogen or solar, we want to ensure that we've got the skills, and we're building them right here in the Mackay area, and that our trades and skills are here for the future.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks very much Shane, and thanks Pierre as well. A better future under Labor is powered by cleaner and cheaper energy, powered by our resources sector and powered by the regions. That's why I'm so proud to be here today to announce that an Albanese Labor Government would provide $9 million in funding to the Electric Vehicle and Energy Training Centre here at CQ University. I want to pay tribute to Shane Hamilton for his dedicated and persistent advocacy for this project. As a worker in the mining industry, he knows how important it is that we get the energy future right in the industry so that it can continue to be a source of employment, a source of opportunity and prosperity, in regions like Mackay and the surrounding areas.
I wanted to acknowledge Pierre and CQ University as well. It wasn't that long ago that we were here being briefed on this project and we can see immediately just how crucial an investment like this is in the future of the Mackay region and beyond. A better future under Labor, powered by cleaner and cheaper energy, powered by resources, and powered by our regions.
This is all about secure, well-paid jobs now and into the future. When this training centre is full tilt, we're talking about somewhere between 100 and 120 students per year being churned out into one of the most important sectors that we have in our entire economy. What this announcement shows, is that regional Australia and regional Queensland can be the biggest beneficiaries of the shift that is underway when it comes to energy. That's because we're talking about maximising our traditional advantages, not abandoning them. This announcement shows that we can build on the success of traditional industries like mining, by making sure that we have the skills and the energy to take full advantage of the opportunities and the prosperity that will be provided out of this crucial region.
Later today, we'll get the updated numbers for unemployment. What we know is as the unemployment rate has been around 4% over recent months, that’s still not generating the real wage growth that Australians need to keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living. Even as unemployment has been falling in recent months in welcome ways, we're not getting the real wage growth that we need to see in the economy. More people, working multiple jobs, just to keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living. We've got serious skills shortages in our economy, which have been left unattended for too long. What today is all about is better pay, more secure sustainable jobs in crucial industries, and also dealing with the skills shortages which are holding the economy back as it recovers from COVID-19. That's what today is all about.
Scott Morrison doesn't have a plan for the future of the economy. He's got scare campaigns, he's got lies about the Budget, but he doesn't have a plan for jobs and prosperity in our regions and around Australia. When Scott Morrison looks at regional Australia he sees it as a source of votes, but not as a source of jobs. That's the difference between the Morison Government and Labor under Anthony Albanese - we can see the tremendous possibilities of our regions, which stand to be the biggest beneficiaries in our independent modelling of our Powering Australia Plan. Our Powering Australia Plan is about cleaner and cheaper energy, getting our emissions down, getting investment flowing, and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs - five out of every six jobs, created in regions like this one.
We can't afford another three years of Scott Morrison and all of his rorts, and waste, and a Budget which has been corrupted by this Government's incompetence. Each commitment that we make is a fraction of what this Government has rorted and wasted when it comes to the Commonwealth Budget. He says he wants to talk about responsible economic management. There could be nothing more responsible than investing in the future of our regions - in the future of skills and energy - so that we can continue to create jobs, and opportunities, and prosperity here and right around Australia. We've had enough lectures from Scott Morrison about Budget responsibility. This is the most wasteful government since Federation – rorts, and waste, and a Budget corrupted by his incompetence. Every dollar that this Government has rorted and wasted is a dollar that can't be invested in the future of our workers in regional Australia and right around Australia.
This is a Government which has borrowed more, taxed more, spent more than Labor did but delivered much less.
Under Labor, you'll get a better future, based on cleaner and cheaper energy, more skills and more opportunities for more people in more parts of Australia. That's why I'm so proud of this announcement that we're making today. I'm happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Can we get a bit more detail, is the money going to go towards new infrastructure and new buildings, or is it going to fund training places?
CHALMERS: This is the entire funding for the whole program, so we're talking about electric vehicles and energy training. The $9 million covers the whole thing, which is the entire ask from CQ University. We're very pleased to be able to provide it. Inevitably, that will be a mix of all the different requirements of the program and we're very proud of that. Because if you think about the students and the apprentices in this region and the skills that they will need to fully maximise the opportunities as the energy mix changes on mining sites - like the ones that Shane works on - then we need to make sure we've got, particularly the young people, but the skills more broadly to fill those needs. So that's what this $9 million is for. It'll be in our first Budget, and we'll work closely with CQ University to make sure that that $9 million is deployed for maximum impact and effect.
JOURNALIST: And just finally, what kind of jobs will these workers move into? Will they be working in electric vehicle factories?
CHALMERS: These graduates will work in a range of industries. What's happening on mine sites - from the biggest companies like BHP and others - they're trying to work out not just how they get their emissions down, but how they get their energy costs down. So a lot of people - perhaps people that Shane has spent a long time working with - would have spent a lot of their careers working on diesel vehicles, increasingly hydrogen will be part of the mix, electric vehicles will be part of the mix as well. So these graduates who come out of the training centre that we're funding today, they'll be working on sites, they'll be working in towns to make sure that the vehicles - as the mix of vehicles changes - that they've got the skills to maintain them. I might see if Shane wants to add anything in terms of the shift from diesel to hydrogen and others, and some experiences from his own career.
HAMILTON: Thanks, Jim. We've seen - particularly in the underground space - the miners, they're looking to convert their underground vehicles to an electric powered vehicle. This is really to reduce the emissions underground. We all know that ventilation in underground mining is a major problem for them. If we can take diesel particulate out of that atmosphere, replace that with electric powered vehicles that can last the full shift. They swap in and out big batteries at the end of each shift. And then we have the tradespeople there to fix that. This is what we're talking about. We're talking about cleaning up the underground mining space for the guys breathing the air down there, to make their worksite more safe, more productive, and a better future for our trainees and our apprentices coming through. We see the likes of Twiggy Forest, and BHP, and all the big miners, having a Net Zero 2050 target. In most of the big trucks - now I spoke to Caterpillar just two weeks ago, and they're converting a lot of their trucks to electric powered trucks as well - so it won't be long until we see fleets of mining equipment out in the mines converted to an electric function, which means we need the tradespeople now to fix them into the future.
JOURNALIST: Just a question for Jim on a separate matter. So Jim, it's just about the Caboolture West development. The federal government has committed $100 million towards the development but upon further inspection that is a loan and not direct funding. If elected, will your government allocate $100 million in funding and not just a loan for Caboolture West?
CHALMERS: The Morrison Government has made the people of Caboolture wait three years for a dud deal. If you speak to people on the ground there in that community that my friend Rebecca Fanning seeks to represent, there is a lot of disappointment. The people there feel like they've been duded. They've been made to wait for three years and now they they've been told that the deal is very different to the impression that they had. Clearly, we've said that we will honour city deals that we inherit. We have tried to be constructive about it. There's a kernel of something supportable in city deals, but they need to be real things. They can't just be an excuse for the Morrison Government to roll into town, make a big announcement, then not doing anything for three years, and then dud the local community.
JOURNALIST: In terms of unemployment, there's some talk this morning that the number could have a three in front of it. That's a downward trend. Would that indicate that the Government is getting something right if unemployment is heading down?
CHALMERS: Let's see what it says at 11.30. We want the unemployment rate to be as low as possible but we also want falling unemployment to be delivering real wages growth, so Australians can keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living. We need to make sure we're dealing with the skills shortages, and that's what today's announcement is all about. If you go through most main streets in this country and ask people what their defining experience of the economy is, it's the fact that everything seems to be going up except people's pay. It's harder and harder for people to keep up with the rising costs of living, even as unemployment has been coming down in previous months in welcome ways.
JOURNALIST: In terms of government policy though, what sort of framework could the Government set that would see wages rise? Because the minimum wage is obviously set by an independent body. What's the Government's role?
CHALMERS: In wages?
JOURNALIST: In terms of making sure that there’s a policy.
CHALMERS: There's a range of things that we need to do. Part of it is the way that we grow the economy - in sustainable ways and broad and inclusive ways. But we also need to make sure that if people want to work more and earn more, they can. That there's a role there for child care policy - and we've got a good childcare policy. We need to make sure that we're training people for higher wage opportunities. That's what today is all about. Training is a big part of the story. We need to be dealing with the gig economy and the weaknesses there in terms of regulation. We need to be empowering the Fair Work Commission to turn casual jobs into more permanent jobs. There's a whole range of things that the Government should be doing.
The Government has all of the spin and marketing, but they don't have a plan to strengthen the economy into the future. They've got scare campaigns, they've got lies about Labor, they've got all the rest of it. The reason why we're seeing scare campaigns about the economy and lies about the Budget, is because they are desperately hoping that nobody will focus on the fact that the Government's got a trillion dollars in debt and not enough to show for it. Real wages are falling while the costs of living are skyrocketing. These are the issues in the economy. More and more people are working multiple jobs just to get by. The Government has a plan to get them through an election, but it doesn't have the plan for secure, well-paid jobs in the future. We do, and today's a part of that.
JOURNALIST: One of the things that people have talked about - when you mentioned that people hold multiple jobs - is changing the tax-free thresholds and making sure that that can apply to second and third jobs, and not just the first job. Is that something that Labor's considering?
CHALMERS: We’re not taking that to the election. We've heard those concerns raised about people working multiple jobs. Obviously, we listen intently when concerns are raised about the tax system, but we're not proposing to take a change of that nature to this election.
JOURNALIST: But wouldn't that help, because if people are getting a tax-free threshold on their second job they're not having to do a third to make up for the money they're losing in tax?
CHALMERS: Our highest priority when it comes to that issue is to make sure that people have secure, well-paid jobs into the future. That will mean that fewer people will need to work two, or three, or four jobs just to get by.
JOURNALIST: In terms of the electric vehicles in the mining sector, what's industry said to you about when it potentially sees the fleet being electric?
CHALMERS: Depends on the business, but most of the businesses in the mining sector have got really quite impressive plans when it comes to converting their fleet as part of a broader effort to get their emissions down. One of the big shifts in the last few years - one of the reasons why Labor's Powering Australia Plan is so well supported across the business community - is because all the different parts of the economy - including mining - have worked up substantial plans to get their emissions down, but also get their energy costs down as well. It depends on the company, but there's a lot of ambition amongst mining companies, amongst the big employers, and business more broadly, and investors more broadly, in this country. That's why we need Labor's Powering Australia policy, which will create more than 600,000 jobs - five out of six of them in the regions. It will get power bills down and it will get investment flowing again. The people who are being left out in this are the Morrison Government. They cannot see the opportunities for regions like this one, and when it comes to cleaner and cheaper energy that much is clear.
JOURNALIST: Just a question about Labor's Urgent Care Clinic policy, I think announced today? I think there are 50 booked for the country. Will one of them be in Mackay?
CHALMERS: That's to be determined, we'll have more to say about the Urgent Care Clinics. But the most important thing to understand about those clinics, is we are constantly looking for ways to strengthen Medicare. As a parent of little kids, I know that it's hard to get kids seen in emergency departments and our Urgent Care Clinics provide the opportunity for people to be seen more quickly when they've got easy to treat ailments - things like broken bones and sprained ankles. The best thing about it is you don't need your credit card, you just need your Medicare card. We'll have more to say, obviously, about the rollout of that important program.
JOURNALIST: Will this new electric vehicle training, is it going to build a connection within the industry to help these students go directly into the workforce?
CHALMERS: The industry is crying out for these workers and one of the really heartening things - and again, I pay tribute to CQ University - the links between our universities and our TAFES and industry are fantastic. I've been through so many training workshops the last few years. I think about in Emerald, hundreds of young people going straight into the industry, sponsored in lots of ways by the industry. I think that's one of the really heartening things. And I say to the young people in particular of this region: if you train in a place like CQ University, there are jobs for you to go into. The links between industry and training providers and an Albanese Labor Government will be part of the secret to making this work. Thanks very much, everyone.
ENDS
