Press conference, Holiday Inn, Sunshine Coast
JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER:
Thanks everyone, I just wanted to begin with the absolutely shocking news of the passing of Paul Green. Paul Green, for a lot of Queenslanders, a lot of Australians, was a hero. He was the kind of little underdog halfback that was very easy to cheer for and support. And whether it's his career as a remarkable player, remarkable coach, he played for and coached representative footy as well, it really is shocking news to hear that we've lost him. He had so much more still to contribute to sport and to our community. And so to his loved ones, our hearts go out to them, in particular his friends, his family, but really the rugby league community as a whole mourns the loss of a true little champion. And for those of us who followed rugby league closely, for Queenslanders in particular, but really for everyone who's followed the game, they know who Paul Green is, they know what he contributed. And they know how much his loss means to a lot of people, so it's very sad and shocking news today.
Senator Anthony Chisholm and I are here today to conduct another one of our local jobs summits, this time on the Sunshine Coast. And what we're doing is we're bringing together workers and employers and local community groups, and councils and state representatives, in regional centres around Queensland, indeed around Australia, to make sure that we are consulting in the lead up to the Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra at the beginning of September. So yesterday, we were in Rockhampton in Central Queensland, today on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, making sure that we are consulting with people from all parts of the employment relationship, all parts of the local economies and local communities to make sure that there is a big and prominent voice for Queensland and regional Queensland in the Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra in the first week of September.
I want to thank everyone who has been participating, we're looking forward to having a conversation. Councillor Rick is here, the Acting Mayor, I thank him for his time earlier today, and for his time this afternoon. We want to bring Australians together around our big economic challenges. We want to bring Australians together, and we want to be a government for the whole country. And that means recognising the really quite remarkable potential of areas like the Sunshine Coast. So much of our national wealth, and so many of our opportunities for our people will be created in places like the Sunshine Coast. And we want to recognise that and we want to make sure that the Sunshine Coast has a big, loud, prominent voice around the Cabinet table, around the Ministry in an Albanese Labor Government, so that's what we're here for today. There'll be more of these consultations in the lead up to the Jobs Summit, but this is about bringing Australians together. It's about representing every single corner of the country to make sure that we can create the kind of economy, the kind of opportunities that Australians need and deserve in every corner of the country. Our aspiration here is a good, well trained enthusiastic worker for every business that needs one, and a good well paid secure job for every Australian that wants one, and that's what the Jobs Summit is about, but it's also what the Anthony Albanese Labor Government is all about too. Over to you.
JOURNALIST:
Treasurer, if I could start by asking… the Chinese Ambassador says his country will reunify with Taiwan by any means necessary. There would be some form of forced re-education of the Taiwanese people, and that they can use their imaginations as to what that looks like. How concerned are you about those comments?
CHALMERS:
Obviously, they're concerning comments, because our national interest is best served by peace and stability and prosperity in our region. So from our point of view, we will speak up for our national interest when that's necessary, and we will work cooperatively where that's possible as well. We want the relationship to be a stable one, we want the region to be stable, and prosperous and peaceful. From our point of view, that means calm and consistent language, and it means working with international partners where possible to make sure the region is as stable and prosperous and peaceful as it can be.
JOURNALIST:
Just on the Jobs Summit, the ACTU has come up with ideas to reshaping how the RBA and economy functions. What do you think of their ideas?
CHALMERS:
They're not the Government's policies, but we welcome contributions from the union movement, from the business community, really from all parts of Australia in the lead up to the Jobs Summit. We've got our own economic plan that we seek to build on, with the input of the participants in the Jobs and Skills Summit, but also the kinds of consultations that we're engaged in today on the Sunshine Coast, and yesterday in Central Queensland. It would be a pretty unusual summit, if we tried to censor people in advance. We want people to put forward their ideas. There won't be unanimous agreement around all of the ideas put forward by unions or business or others, but there is an opportunity for us to find common ground, on issues around skills, perhaps migration, issues around enterprise bargaining, these are the sorts of issues that will be front and centre at the Jobs and Skills Summit. In the lead up to that, we want people to put forward their ideas, and we will bring our own ideas to the Summit as well.
JOURNALIST:
But what do you personally think of the ideas?
CHALMERS:
The Government's policy is clear on some of the issues that have been raised. If you take, for example, the comments that have been made about the Reserve Bank, and again, I welcome those. One of the reasons why I began, our review of the Reserve Bank of Australia is because we want to make sure that we've got the best combination of objectives for our central bank. We want to make sure that our central bank is set up to determine and deliver the best kinds of decisions, in the interest of the Australian people and their economy, so I welcome the input on that front. We're not interested in messing with the Reserve Bank's independence, but we are interested in views on how we weigh up the bank's full employment objective, how we weigh up its inflation targeting regime and all of these sorts of things, and that's why a couple of weeks ago, I set up the Reserve Bank Review, which will report back to me in March.
JOURNALIST:
We're obviously on the Sunshine Coast, you say that you're here to listen and learn. I'm tripping around, scoring, chatting with businesses. Have you heard of any other experiences? We've chatted to some in the past where there's lots of worker shortages, especially struggling to find young workers to come to the coast. Is that what you're hearing?
CHALMERS:
We've picked up a lot of perspectives already, but we're about to have the main roundtable shortly. We spent some time with Fenn Foods this morning, in food manufacturing, they're a very exciting business. A really exciting opportunity I think, in terms of meat alternatives. I think this is a magic part of Australia, and you already know this, but this is a magic part of Australia, which is absolutely chock-full of economic opportunity for people. And we want to build on that, and in order to build on that we've got to make sure that people have access to the workers that they need, and that the workers in businesses here have got those good living standards and that good, strong, sustainable wages, growth. These are really front and centre, these issues, when it comes to the Jobs Summit as well. When we put together the Jobs Summit, we really had in mind areas like this one, areas where there is tremendous possibility, but where there's more than a national government working with business, and with unions and with others. If we work together, we can maximise these kinds of opportunities. And so when Senator Anthony Chisholm and I were working out where we'd conduct the first couple of these jobs summits in the lead up to the national one in Canberra, we deliberately picked the Sunshine Coast because of its combination of opportunities. And because I think - and we've been speaking with Rick about this this morning - one of the things that COVID did, is it made people think differently about where they want to live, and what kind of contribution they want to make, what kind of lifestyle they want to have. And this magic place, it really is the kind of place that people want to live in and work in if they can get the opportunities. And so there's a role for governments of all levels here, there's role for business, there's a role for unions and others, and we want to tap that appetite that people have to work together.
JOURNALIST:
How do you put workers in those opportunities when we have, already, a shortage of workers and a lack of affordability and housing for workers close to their workplace?
CHALMERS:
Absolutely, these are the challenges. So we've got a national unemployment rate around three and a half per cent. But we've got the challenges that that brings around skill shortages, labour shortages, issues around housing, all of the issues that you rightly just identified. So, what the Jobs Summit will be about, is how do we agree and find common ground on the best mix of training, which is part of the story, migration is part of the story. Obviously more participation, childcare reform so that people can work more and earn more if they'd like to. The issues around housing, we've got a housing Future Fund, we've got a help-the-buyer program in housing but if there's more that we can do there, we want to hear people's ideas. But there are a particular combination of challenges when it comes to getting people near where the opportunities are being generated, that's what the Summit is about, that's what today's about.
JOURNALIST:
About that energy Treasurer, the Government announced that it will fast-track the connection of the Southern Downs renewable energy to the national energy market. How important is this announcement and what effect will it have on power supply in Australia?
CHALMERS:
This is a game-changer and it's really exciting, to see on the Southern Downs these opportunities in cleaner and cheaper and more reliable energy, and with some CEFC investment being able to be hooked up to the grid. In the future, more and more of our energy will come from cleaner and cheaper and more reliable sources. And working together state and federal governments, local communities, farmers and others in the private sector, we have found a way to create this really quite remarkable opportunity. A better future is powered by cleaner and cheaper and more reliable energy. This CEFC investment is a game-changer when it comes to hooking these new sources up to the grid. It's very exciting, and we want to see more of it.
JOURNALIST:
Will it be connected early enough, though, to make a difference to the current energy prices?
CHALMERS:
It will be connected earlier than otherwise, because of the investment from the CEFC, which is a federal government investment vehicle. We want to see more of this cleaner and cheaper and more reliable energy transmitted to the grid as soon as possible, and that's what this investment is about. Now, clearly, projects of this size and this significance can't be turned on overnight, they require some kind of run-up, but what this investment means, it will be delivered faster than otherwise. And we are looking for opportunities right around Australia, because we understand that a better future is powered by renewable energy, in addition to some of our areas of traditional strength, and that's what we're seeing on the Southern Downs, and it's really exciting.
JOURNALIST:
We've got Liberal federal members here, who have raised concerns, obviously, with the previous government with their budget, funding a lot of local projects across Australia here. Specifically, [inaudible] and 2.5 million for Headspace in Caloundra. They are concerned that those projects may or may not go when the Budget comes out, I guess, is that something you're taking into account of these important projects to communities? Do you know what may or may not stay?
CHALMERS:
If they're good projects, they'll go ahead. And we've made it clear from the beginning, that there are investments that are slated for communities like this one, which will deliver an economic benefit for the country and for the community and not just a political benefit for the Liberal National Party, then they'd go ahead, and so that's our intention. Our objective here, and Anthony Chisholm, myself, really the whole Cabinet, are part of this, is to make sure that our Government is delivering for every part of Australia, not just the parts of Australia that vote Labor at the federal level. That's why we're here. We want to represent every corner of the country, and so if there are good projects, we will invest in them. If there are projects that have been announced for a political benefit, not an economic benefit, then obviously we'll have another look at those.
JOURNALIST:
Just one more, can I ask one more on the Jobs Summit? So Peter Dutton said that he won't attend the Jobs Summit, and David Littleproud is going. Do you welcome his intention to go and was he only invited after he publicly said he wanted to be there?
CHALMERS:
I invited Peter Dutton, or a representative from the Opposition. Peter Dutton indicated that nobody would be attending from the Opposition, David Littleproud came out and said, yes he would. So first of all, I welcome David Littleproud's intention to participate. I sent him a letter as soon as I was aware that he was interested in coming, I sent him a letter to personally invite him. What David Littleproud's intention to participate has done, it's isolated Peter Dutton, it's humiliated Peter Dutton. And it's meant that 11 weeks or so into the term of the new parliament, the Coalition is already hopelessly divided on something as simple as whether or not they'll rock up to a Jobs Summit. And I don't think that augurs well for Peter Dutton, and for his leadership. What we saw with Peter Dutton, as he threw his toys out the cot, he's always looking for ways to bust up consensus and bust up collaboration. He's kind of a creature from a kind of a Tony Abbott time warp, where his modus operandi is to try and divide people and tear people apart. Anthony Albanese, his guiding instinct is to try and bring people together to find common ground, solve our economic challenges together, in that regard, he couldn't be more different to Peter Dutton. Thanks very much.
