JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
MONEY MATTERS
TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2022
SUBJECT: Federal Budget.
BROOKE CORTE, HOST: Jim Chalmers, good evening to you.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks for having me back, Brooke.
CORTE: Jim, the last time Labor got in, in 2007, you matched everything in the Coalition's budget, plus a bit more. Can we take it as ‘read’ that you will match this budget, everything in it, and wave it all through?
CHALMERS: Certainly Brooke, when it comes to the cost of living relief for families who are dealing with falling real wages under this government. We've said for some time, that we won't stand in the way of some cost of living relief. Our issue with the budget is really that it's got those falling real wages, people are falling further behind, because the cost of living is skyrocketing. We've got a trillion dollars in debt with not enough to show for it. And we've got now more than $3 billion in secret cuts after the election, which the government won't come clean on. So our issues lie elsewhere. Your listeners can expect us to support cost of living relief at a difficult time.
CORTE: So it doesn't sound like you have much of a problem with the numbers that are in there. So people tonight saying okay, ‘I'm a pensioner, I get $250,’ [or] ‘I'm a tradie, there's the apprentice, you know…I'm a low to middle income earner, I get the $420.’ You're going to tick all that off? They can be guaranteed of all that?
CHALMERS: Yes, Brooke. We will be supporting the cost of living relief in the budget. Our issues lie elsewhere. The fact that there's not a plan for the future, the fact that there has been a lot of rorting and wasting in the budget. But when it comes to that cost of living relief, we've foreshadowed before today, and happy to confirm on your show that that cost of living relief will flow no matter who wins the election.
CORTE: So if that's all okay, what would you do differently?
CHALMERS: Well, there's a few things we’d do differently. I mean, childcare is a big example of where we've got a better policy than the government. We don't think they're ambitious enough when it comes to cleaner and cheaper energy. There's no new money for a National Anti-Corruption Commission, for example. There's really not much of a plan for the future that goes beyond the May election. You know, the budget is more like a kind of a political pamphlet for this government than a long-term plan to make sure that the economy and the recovery works for everyone. The government can't see beyond that May election in a few weeks’ time. They’re pretending now to care about cost of living pressures, because the Prime Minister has to call that election in the next fortnight. The difference between the parties is we've got a long-term plan to get the economy growing the right way. The government's just got a plan to get themselves through an election.
CORTE: Yep, all of that will require more money, though, won’t it? Everything you’ve just said.
CHALMERS: Well, we've already made a series of announcements. We've also said that there are opportunities to trim the budget in other areas. There are billions of dollars, in our view, wasted on expensive contractors and consultants in the Australian public service. We've nominated that as one area where we’d make savings. So we would re-prioritise the spending in the budget. I think your listeners would have observed over the last, almost a decade of this government, there has been a lot of waste, there's been a lot of rorting that they've been pinged for. We would like to shave that back so that we can make proper investments in the long-term health of the economy and in our local community.
CORTE: But you will have to spray more money around. I'm using the word, the phrase ‘spray money,’ because that's a phrase you use. You said this budget was panicked and desperate, and…
CHALMERS: Yeah, it is.
CORTE: …that it's not the time to spray money around. But now…
CHALMERS: No, I said…
CORTE: …if you win the election, you're going to hand down another budget that then goes on to spend even more than this one. Doesn’t it reek of hypocrisy?
CHALMERS: No, of course not. Two things about that. First of all, this is a desperate, panicked and tapped out budget, from a desperate and panicked, clapped out government. I stand by that 100%. The budget has confirmed that view, rather than corrected that view. And when it comes to spending, we'll be more responsible than the government because we won't be spraying this money around in other areas where they've got all these rorts and waste and mismanagement, billions of dollars given to companies that didn't need it, sports rorts, carpark rorts, regional rorts and all the rest of it. We'll spend that money where it really matters. Cleaner and cheaper energy, childcare, TAFE and skills, the digital economy, a future made in Australia. The sorts of things which will grow the economy the right way without adding to these inflationary pressures, which are absolutely punishing Australian families and pensioners.
CORTE: You're an economist by background. I'm thinking you're probably looking at some of the numbers in this budget and thinking, ‘it actually looks really good.’ I mean, the management by the government of this pandemic now has us on track for the lowest jobless rate in nearly 50 years. In the budget papers, we can see wage growth is coming for Australians. I think you'd be pretty happy with these figures, wouldn't you?
CHALMERS: Well, let me pull that apart for you. I mean, obviously, we want the unemployment rate to be as low as possible. As that unemployment rate has fallen in welcome ways, we’ve got skill shortages, we've got real wages going backwards, you know. You nominated wages as something going in the government's favour. Real wages are actually going backwards in their own budget. And also, if you want to take a longer historical view…
CORTE: Can you guarantee wages would go up under your government?
CHALMERS: Well, they’re a better chance to go up under us than them because we've got a policy to get wages moving again. The government said it's a deliberate design feature of their policy to keep wages low. They've made 55 wages forecasts, Brooke, in the last nine years that they've been in office, and they've got it wrong 52 times. They’re notorious for overpromising and underdelivering on wages. Real wages go backwards in their own budget. That's why working families are finding it so hard to make ends meet.
CORTE: Oh, in fairness, I mean, the way that forecasts have gone the last two and a half years, I mean, we could pick apart any of them. They've all gone wrong, because it's just, it’s been…
CHALMERS: We’re talking about almost a decade, Brooke, of this going on. The government's over promised on wages and underdelivered. That's a historical fact. Even well, before the pandemic, one of the defining features of their economic mismanagement is that no government’s had more stagnant wages than this one.
CORTE: Yeah. Well, you said the best way to fix the budget is to grow the economy, lift unemployment. That's two things that government is actually doing very well at, if you look at it right now.
CHALMERS: I've just said the unemployment rate’s falling in welcome ways. We want that rate to be as low as possible. But, in order to make the most of that, we want to see some wages growth. Real wages are falling. We want to see the skill shortages dealt with, and [there’s] nothing really substantial to deal with that in today's budget. If you want to get the economy growing the right way, we've got to make sure we train people for the opportunities as they emerge. We've got to make sure people have got access to cheaper childcare so that they can work more if they'd like to. These are the sorts of things that we're missing tonight in terms of a long-term vision for the economy. Instead, we got this political pamphlet, which takes the big challenges in the economy from one side of the election and pushes them to the other side of the election.
CORTE: Well, you'll have your chance to distribute your own political pamphlet in the next few days, of course, with the Budget Reply. Jim Chalmers, Shadow Treasurer, thank you very much for your time tonight.
CHALMERS: Appreciate it, Brooke. Thank you.
ENDS
