JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW 
PARLIAMENT HOUSE
MONDAY, 14 FEBRUARY 2022

SUBJECTS: Costs of living skyrocketing as real wages go backwards and millions of Australians face a tax hike weeks after the election; Treasurer engaged in increasingly unhinged and desperate scare campaigns, while the Prime Minister plays the ukulele; The big risk is more attacks on wages and job security and a coalition of chaos with Hanson, Palmer and Newman calling the shots; The only way to end the rorts and waste is to throw out this decade-old government.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Under this Morrison-Joyce Government the costs of living are skyrocketing, real wages are going backwards, and millions of working families face a tax hike a few weeks after this election. This Morrison-Joyce Government is too divided and too dysfunctional to deal with the very real cost of living pressures that Australian working families are facing.

When Australian working families are dealing with the skyrocketing costs of living and their real wages going backwards, they've got a Treasurer engaged in these unhinged, and desperate, and dishonest scare campaigns, while the Prime Minister is off playing the ukulele. For as long as Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison focus on the spin and the marketing and the desperate and dishonest and unhinged and breathless scare campaigns, ordinary working families in Australia aren't getting a look-in. This is the price that Australians are paying for a government that's been in office for a decade now, and is asking for a fourth term in office.

The big risk at this election is if Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce are re-elected, there'll be more attacks on wages, more attacks on retirement incomes, more attacks on super, more attacks on Medicare, and a coalition of chaos, where Pauline Hanson, and Clive Palmer, and Campbell Newman are calling the shots.

If this Government wants to have an election about the economy, we say bring that on. Because an election about the economy is about a Budget full of rorts, a trillion dollars of debt with nothing to show for it, skyrocketing costs of living, and real wages going backwards.

The Treasurer must get tired from all this lying about economic management. You think about the lies he's been telling about taxes in particular, they need to be called out. You can't grow the economy with scare campaigns and rorts, you can't grow the economy with these breathless and unhinged interventions by the Treasurer. The last time we saw him this unhinged was when he attacked his home state of Victoria.

If he wants to talk about tax, perhaps he could explain why this Morrison Government, and the Liberal Government for the last decade or so, has taken more tax every year than what they inherited from Labor. More tax as a proportion of GDP, more tax per person, more tax adjusted for inflation, more tax in total taken by this Government compared to its Labor predecessor. So enough of these lies. Enough of these dishonest, desperate, unhinged scare campaigns from the Treasurer. The facts are that Australian working families are facing skyrocketing costs of living at the same time as their real wages are going backwards. The Treasurer is engaged in these ridiculous scare campaigns the Prime Minister's off playing the ukulele, and ordinary working families aren't getting a look-in in this country.

If Australians want relief from cost of living pressures, and they want to see their wages growing again, they need a Labor Government with a positive plan for cleaner and cheaper energy, to deal with child care costs, and to get their wages growing again.

JOURNALIST: There’s speculation the Government might drop LMITO extension, potentially on inflation. Would it be irresponsible to extend that or would it be a bit of a cop-out to not?

CHALMERS: Let's see what the Government intends to do in the Budget. I mean, it's a fact in their own Budget that working families - millions of them - face a tax hike on the first of July, a few weeks after the next election. That's a bit of perspective when you hear the Government talking about taxes. Let's see what they propose in the Budget, we've always been supportive of genuine tax relief for people on low and middle incomes. If Australians want cost of living relief, they need Labor's plans for child care, and cheaper and cleaner energy, and our plans to get wages growing again. Australian working families have been under pressure, that pressure is increasing and will only get worse if Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce are re-elected. It's a government too divided and too dysfunctional to understand, let alone deal with, the cost of living pressures that Australian working families are under.

JOURNALIST: Recent government estimates found that six of Labor's policies - COVID policies -  would have wiped another $81 billion from the Budget bottom line. Doesn't this show Labor's economic mismanagement and irresponsible spending?

CHALMERS: I'm not taking lectures from the most wasteful government since Federation on Budget responsibility. I'm not taking lectures on Budget responsibility from these characters who've got a Budget full of rorts and a trillion dollars in debt with nothing to show for it. The days of taking lectures from the Liberals and Nationals on economic responsibility are over. 

JOURNALIST: But do you stand by those policy ideas, even though they would have cost $81 billion?

CHALMERS: I don't accept the numbers that the Finance Minister put into the papers last week as a desperate distraction from the Government's failures, I don’t accept those figures. Some of the numbers that were included in there were suggestions that we made about temporary payments. We will stack-up and stand-up our plans for the Budget, our more responsible plans than the Government. This Government's got a Budget which is absolutely riddled with rorts and chock-full of waste and mismanagement. The only way to end the rorts, and the waste, and the corruption, is to throw out this decade-old government.

JOURNALIST: Jim, just one last one. Josh Frydenberg, the last couple of weeks, has been packaging up some nice statistics to put in the media about how good they've got it under their tax policies. Today there's one about young women who've never had it better, that sort of thing. Should young people be wary when they're reading this sort of thing?

CHALMERS: These are the stats that matter when it comes to tax: every year of this Liberal National Government they've taken more tax than the tax levels they inherited from Labor. That's true as a proportion of the economy, per-person, adjusted for inflation, every different way. When it comes to tax, the Treasurer is just as big a liar as the Prime Minister. He engages in these dishonest and desperate scare campaigns because he doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to his own record. This is the Treasurer who's got a trillion dollars in debt and not enough to show for it. He's signed off on every rort which has damaged the Budget. He's spent more, taxed more, than Labor did, really right across the board. So what Josh Frydenberg tries to do – is lots of slick marketing, lots of spin, lots of talking about Labor and other parties in the parliament - but not enough taking responsibility for the fact that working families are under pressure. That's what this election is about. If Josh Frydenberg is the Treasurer after the election we'll get more of the same attacks on wages, and job security, and Medicare, which have got working families under pressure in the first place. Thanks very much.

ENDS