JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
MELBOURNE
FRIDAY, 18 MARCH 2022
SUBJECTS: This Government’s ninth Budget shaping up like the last eight – secret slush funds before and secret cuts after; Budget won’t be about setting Australia up for a better future, it’ll be about setting Government up a fourth term; Costs of living skyrocketing, real wages going backwards, and Australian families falling further behind; Mourning Kimberley Kitching; Statement from Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally, and Katy Gallagher; Russia sanctions; Labor’s Powering Australia Plan; Labor’s Housing Future Fund.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: I wanted to say a few words to respond to the Treasurer's speech today about the Budget in a little over a week's time. Once again, Josh Frydenberg is making excuses, pointing the finger, taking the credit for everything that's good in our economy but not taking responsibility for the difficult bits.
This Budget will be delivered on the eve of an election. It will be just as long on politics and just as short of a plan as the first eight were.
This is a Government which treats Budgets as political playthings and not plans for the future. If the first eight Budgets of this government were full of secrets slush funds before an election and secret cuts after, than the ninth Budget will be no different.
This Budget won't be about setting Australia up for a better future, it'll be all about setting themselves up for a fourth term.
I think Australians are onto them. We've heard all of this stuff before from Josh Frydenberg, we've heard all of the marketing followed by all of the mismanagement, and ordinary Australians are paying the price for that.
The key issue in the economy at the moment is that the costs of living are skyrocketing, real wages are falling, and Australian working families are falling even further behind. Now, the Treasurer wants to pretend that all of a sudden these pressures just showed up when Russia invaded Ukraine. Families know, and Labor knows, that the pressures on families and Australians more broadly have been building for some time in this economy on the Treasurer's watch. Stagnant wages and falling real wages have been a defining feature of this Government's economic mismanagement, and Josh Frydenberg shouldn't be pretending otherwise with this bizarre exercise in finger-pointing and blame-shifting and excuse-making and bagging the Labor Party.
This Government's been in office now for almost a decade. They have almost a trillion dollars in debt and barely anything to show for it. When you think about all of the spin and all the marketing - that we see again today from the Treasurer - it all boils down to a ninth Budget over almost a decade, which will be long on spin, long on politics, but short on substance and short of a plan for a better future.
What Australian working families desperately need is a new government, a new Labor Government, that understands the pressures that they are facing, that wants to see real wages growing again, wants to deal with childcare costs and energy bills and all of the other things which are putting so much pressure on family budgets.
The Treasurer today spent more time talking about Labor, more time shifting the blame and making excuses, then he spent talking about the legitimate pressures that Australian working families are under, and I think that speaks volumes about a Budget on the eve of an election, which will be all about secret slush funds before and all about secret cuts afterwards.
JOURNALIST: On the cost of living matter, do you think one-off payments are a good idea to soften the impact of rising cost of living?
CHALMERS: Well, let's see what the Government proposes when it comes to these one-off payments. Typically, in the lead up to a Budget, we hear all kinds of things floated. They're not always in the Budget. So let's see what kind of Budget we would inherit, and let's see if those payments which have been floated in the media are a feature of that Budget. Australian families are falling further behind, the consequences of those skyrocketing costs of living and falling real wages. There's more than one way to give families relief from those cost of living pressures. We've already outlined some priorities when it comes to getting power bills down, getting childcare costs down, and getting real wages moving again.
JOURNALIST: Beyond that, if you were Treasurer, how would you compensate people dealing with cost of living pressures?
CHALMERS: We've laid out some initial priorities already, getting power bills down with our Powering Australia Plan for cleaner and cheaper energy will be an important part of that. Making childcare cheaper and more accessible as an economic reform that builds a bigger labour force, but also eases cost of living pressures felt by so many working families right around Australia. But we can't forget about the wages part of this too. This government said that stagnant wages was a deliberate design feature of their economic policy, Labor sees things differently. Real wages are falling because inflation is spiking and wages growth hasn't been anywhere near where it needs to be for Australian working families to keep up. Our policies reflect those pressures, and deals with those pressures, that have been building since long before Russia invaded Ukraine.
JOURNALIST: On culture within the Labor Party and following the death of Kimberley Kitching. If you were the CFO of a big business hit with allegations of bullying, wouldn't you have to pursue this matter as a matter of urgency?
CHALMERS: We have recently, last year, updated the code of conduct that we instituted in 2018, to learn from, and make progress on, and try to respond to, some of the issues that had been raised by Emma Husar and others in recent years. We have recognised, collectively I think, that this is not an issue that just applies to one party or another. We all have a role when it comes to bullying or other unacceptable behaviour to make sure that our policies and our procedures and our processes keep up with legitimate community concerns and issues as they arise.
On the issues that have been reported in the media substantially this week, I wanted to say a few things. I wanted to direct you to a statement that Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally, and Katy Gallagher, have just released, and I wanted to say this. Our focus needs to be on respecting the substantial legacy and life and memory of our colleague Kimberley Kitching. The whole Labor family is mourning the passing of Kimberley, and people are grieving, and people are feeling understandably very sad about the loss of a colleague that we valued a great deal.
The statement that Penny, Kristina and Katy, released today is an important one, and I wanted to say this from a personal point of view. Penny, and Kristina, and Katy, are absolutely terrific colleagues. They are women of incredible substance, decency, integrity, and kindness. I think we've all experienced, in one way or another, the quite incredible contribution that those three Labor women make to our team, to politics more broadly, and to the nation as well. They have refuted today some of the statements that have been made in the media in the last little while. I think it's incredibly important that the focus remains, as they have said in their statement, on mourning the substantial life and legacy of Kimberley Kitching. She was a person of incredible clarity, and bravery, compassion, and courage. She was a fierce and fun person to spend time with, and we need to remember - we need to have front and centre and our thoughts - Andrew and her loved ones, who are obviously mourning along with the rest of the Labor family.
On a personal level, I want to say about Penny, Kristina, and Katy, that they are, when it comes to improving the culture in politics, they are a big part of the solution, not part of a problem. My own experience with them is that they make an immense contribution to making politics better in this country, particularly for women but not only for women. I know that this is also an incredibly difficult time for them, and they have been put under a lot of pressure. I think we need to remember in our Labor family that we have responsibilities to each other, to look after each other in difficult times like these. We will have our falling outs, we will have our robust disagreements, we will have times where we're not getting along as well as we would like. But we embrace each other, and we embrace our mission, our collective mission, and we mourn together the loss of someone really substantial.
What I'm saying today applies to all three of our colleagues - Penny, and Kristina, and Katy. I say this about Katy in particular, because I speak to Katy multiple times every day. I work with her more closely than anybody else in our team. Katy Gallagher doesn't have a bullying bone in her body. When I say that Katy Gallagher has immense stores of personal integrity, and decency, and kindness, I've not met anyone with a greater store of those qualities - not just in politics, but in my life, than Katy Gallagher. I could say similar things about Kristina and Penny as well. So we need to recognise where our focus should be now - mourning our colleague, keeping Andrew and her loved ones front and centre in our thoughts, and beyond that I direct you to the statement that those three great Labor women have put out a few minutes ago.
JOURNALIST: Given those two, I guess, you know, those two things can happen side-by-side at the same time? You can grieve someone and you can respect someone's response to an allegation. Does that not reinforce the need for an investigation? And if now's not the time, when is?
CHALMERS: In the statement that was released today, the three Senate colleagues refute the allegations that have been made today. There is one exception, where Penny Wong, I think, in a very classy way, has said that there was an exchange that she regretted some time ago and in her opinion she made good with Kimberley Kitching at the time, a couple of years ago. She made an apology, as I understand it from the statement, and that apology was accepted at the time, is my understanding. I think when it comes to these questions about getting to the bottom of what did or didn't happen, those three Senators have made a lengthy statement today, which refutes the allegations which have been made. I think that's an important step. Beyond that, I think as you say, we need to be able to have the capacity to mourn Kimberley at the same time.
JOURNALIST: The federal government's hit two Russian oligarchs with sanctions this morning, the pair has business interest in Australia, one with a 20% stake in the Queensland Alumina refinery in Gladstone. Should locals there be worried about what those sanctions might mean for the operations of the business and their livelihoods?
CHALMERS: I think it's important that we apply really robust sanctions to Vladimir Putin, to the Russian economy, and to the people closest to him. We have been deliberately bipartisan when it comes to the application of these sanctions. We need to be tightening the screws on the Russian economy and the oligarchs who are such a crucial part of that economy. Because that's how we make sure that we put pressure on the regime, it's how we make sure that there are consequences for this vile and unprovoked act of aggression in Ukraine. When Russia invaded Ukraine, there had to be consequences, economic consequences and other consequences as well. Australia should be making a contribution to those efforts, and we should speak with one voice in this country when it comes to the sanctions that are applied.
JOURNALIST: Is it odd that - I'm going to say his surname incorrectly here I'm sure - Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselbergit were initially left off the sanctions list?
CHALMERS: I don't have visibility about the reasons why they weren't in and now they're in. From time to time we get briefed on these matters, but I haven't been briefed on the specifics and so I'm reluctant to go there. I'm sure that there has been a diligent, considered approach to the sanctions - as there should be - but they should be tough, and they should be felt, and they should be effective.
JOURNALIST: Are they having an effect, do you think?
CHALMERS: Clearly, they're having an effect on the Russian economy. We've seen some quite dramatic impacts from these sanctions on the Russian economy, and that's a good thing. There's been a flight of capital out of Russia, I welcome that too. There has to be consequences. When one country invades another with this vile act of aggression, they should pay a price for it. Vladimir Putin should pay a price, the economy should pay a price, the people around him should pay a price as well. They haven't been decisive these sanctions as of yet, but they look like they're being effective, and that's a good thing.
JOURNALIST: On housing, a parliamentary committee looking into housing affordability has recommended that first home buyers be able to use their super savings as security for a home loan. Is that something you'd support?
CHALMERS: No, we don't support the undermining of retirement incomes in the interests of housing affordability. We think there are other ways to make housing more affordable in this country. Housing affordability has been a problem that has existed well before the pandemic. it's been turbocharged recently by the floods and by other events. Housing affordability has never been worse than it is in this country right now. We've said our initial priority is social housing. We'll have other things to say about housing, but we don't believe in undermining the retirement incomes of Australians in order to solve this problem, there are other ways to address this problem. This is a parliamentary committee and its work, let's see what the Government brings forward in the Budget. I think most people are anticipating some kind of action in the Budget from the Government, whether it's that or something else. We'll obviously look at what they propose and respond to it, but we have said repeatedly in-principle, don't undermine super to solve another issue and in doing so just create another problem with retirement incomes.
JOURNALIST: Do you see any merit in the arguments for States to replace stamp duty with land tax?
CHALMERS: This is a perennial issue, it's been floating around for some time, and we have said the States should be up for a conversation along those lines. Those are not federal taxes. There's a federal role of course and an incoming Labor Government would look to lead a conversation on tax reform with the States, but those specific issues have been considered at each level by each of the State and Territory governments, different States and different Territories have taken a different approach, that's fine by us.
JOURNALIST: Labor dumped its negative gearing and capital gains tax policy last year. The report doesn't address either of these issues. Do you think it should have?
CHALMERS: We've said that we're not going down that path again, with negative gearing reform. We think that there are other ways to deal with housing affordability. In the first instance social housing, we've had some other proposals too, and we'll have more to say between now and the election.
JOURNALIST: So you won't go into what Labor will do to make housing more affordable?
CHALMERS: We've made a big start already. The most pressing issue is in social housing. We made a big announcement some time ago about building tens-of-thousands of new units in social housing as a function of our Housing Future Fund. We've also been supportive of some other steps that the Government's taken when it comes to first time savers and the rest of it. We'll have more to say between now and the election. It is a big problem, it's one of the main issues people raise. When it comes to the costs of living pressures on working families, rent is a big part of the story too, which shouldn't be forgotten. We will have more to say between now and the election, once we see what kind of Budget we'd inherit and what initiatives, if any, are in the Budget when it comes to housing.
JOURNALIST: I think we've exhausted all of the questions.
CHALMERS: Thanks very much.
ENDS
