JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
RN BREAKFAST 
THURSDAY, 28 APRIL 2022

SUBJECTS: Scott Morrison’s triple whammy hitting Australians – interest rate rises in the near future, skyrocketing costs of living and falling real wages; Yesterday’s inflation figure adding to the pain being felt by Australian families; Labor’s Economic Plan; Scott Morrison always wants to take credit but never wants to take responsibility.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Jim Chalmers is the Shadow Treasurer. Welcome to RN Breakfast. 
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Good morning, Patricia. 
 
KARVELAS: Will the Reserve Bank have no choice but to lift the official cash rate on Tuesday with inflation running at more than five per cent? Can it afford to wait another month?
 
CHALMERS: Well, certainly the market and the analysts expect that there'll be an interest rate rise, if not next Tuesday, then the following month. The strong expectation is that interest rates are on the rise. That's the third part of the Prime Minister's triple whammy when it comes to this full blown cost of living crisis. We've got inflation going through the roof as we saw yesterday, we've got real wages going backwards, and interest rates are about to rise and this government wants to pretend that they haven't been in government for the best part of a decade now. This is a government which has an excuse for everything but a plan for nothing. I heard the Prime Minister on another channel this morning. You know when things are going well in the economy, he takes all of the credit. When things are as difficult for Australian working families as they are now, he takes none of the responsibility and I think that drives people wild.
 
KARVELAS: Where does Labor see interest rates by the end of the year, Jim Chalmers? And how much more will homebuyers be paying to service their loans?
 
CHALMERS: Well, it's very clear that the Reserve Bank will be lifting rates, if not next week then most people expect the month after, and that might not be the end of the interest rate pain. I don't give free advice to the Reserve Bank - and I'm not a commentator on these matters - but it is a fact that the market expects there to be a number of interest rate rises. You think about the impact of that on homeowners. If you've got an average loan of about $600,000 every 25 basis point increase costs you about $124 a month. So you can imagine - as interest rates get ratcheted up as part of the Prime Minister's costs of living crisis - you can imagine the pain that that will inflict on Australians right around the country.
 
KARVELAS: High house prices mean many homebuyers are already mortgaged to the hilt. What can you do if you win on May 21 to try and ease the pressure and actually deal with this situation? You might become Treasurer of this country in just over three weeks, what will you do?
 
CHALMERS: Well, the inheritance from the Government would be rising interest rates. 
 
KARVELAS: No, no, no, what will you do?
 
CHALMERS: Yeah, I'm identifying the challenges. The challenges will be rising prices as we saw yesterday, falling real wages as we've seen for some time, and rising interest rates. So the responsibility on us - on any responsible government - is to do what we can to provide cost of living relief, which is sustainable. In areas like child care, we've got a policy there. In areas like power bills, we've got a fully-modelled policy there. But also to try and get real wages moving again in this country. The Government wants to pretend that this costs of living crisis has just all of a sudden shown up in the last few weeks, but they've been coming after people's wages and job security for the best part of a decade. That's a bigger part of this story than they want to acknowledge, because they have been at the scene of the crime when it comes to falling real wages. They've said that it's a deliberate design feature of their economic policy. The Economic Plan that Katy Gallagher and I released yesterday has at its absolute core, how do we grow the economy without adding to these inflationary pressures, how do we get real wages growing again, and how do we get an economic dividend for the trillion dollars of debt that this government has racked up.
 
KARVELAS: Okay, can you guarantee wages will be higher and inflation will be lower under an Albanese Government?
 
CHALMERS: Inflation will be lower and real wages will be stronger under any government that takes this challenge seriously in the ways that I have just described.
 
KARVELAS: And what sort of timeframe, because the Prime Minister says its a con. You're telling people their wages will rise, we don't have central wage fixing in this country. You can't control wages.
 
CHALMERS: This is the Prime Minister washing his hands of the pain that Australians are going through on his watch. If things are going well he says it's all he's doing, it's all his genius, what a great economic manager he is. But if things are tough - as they are right now and have been for some time - he pretends it's got absolutely nothing to do with him. He takes credit when things are good, but he doesn't take responsibility when times are tough. We will be different. Anthony Albanese and a Labor Government –
 
KARVELAS: I understand one of your key messages, with respect, Jim Chalmers, is taking responsibility. It's one of your key messages of the campaign. But in terms of action, how will you lift private sector wages?
 
CHALMERS: Well, there's a number of ways. First of all, we need to train people for higher wage opportunities so they can grab those opportunities as the economy recovers. The economy is generating an opportunity for people to, if they have the training and they have the qualifications, to grab higher wage opportunities in this economy. So that's the first part. The second part - and I know that you follow this very closely, Patricia. In the child care system, if people want to work more and earn more, we have to make it easier for them to do that, and that's what our child care reforms are all about. We need to support the wage cases in the care economy in particular and aged care is going to be an important part of the story there - getting wages in that big workforce, growing sustainably and responsibly as well. The minimum wage case has a role to play here. And also sensible regulation of things like the gig economy and labour hire which have been undermining job security and wages for too long in this economy.
 
KARVELAS: Okay, so training, and child care, and the care economy wages where you're putting in submissions and making the argument. Ultimately, the Morrison Government would pay there too. So, in terms of private sector wages, how quickly could you get wages up? When you say training, what sort of modelling do you have to show that training will lead to higher wages?
 
CHALMERS: It's self-evident Patricia, that if the economy is generating higher wage opportunities, you need to train enough people to qualify for those chances. That's what our fee-free TAFE policy is all about, it's what extra university places are all about. In many ways, that's Labor's reason for being - not just to create opportunities in the economy, but making it easier for people to grab them, to work more, to earn more, to have more secure work. That is our reason for being, that's the whole reason we're putting ourselves forward as the alternative government in this election. That will make a meaningful difference to people. As will genuine relief from these punishing child care costs that many people are facing around Australia. As well, making sure that if you're in a long term casual job that looks like a permanent job in every respect, then you have the capacity to turn that into something more secure. This is the thing when it comes to wages Patricia, if I might just briefly. This is the thing that the Government wants to get away with. They want to pretend that times have just gotten tough because of Ukraine or something around the world. That's part of the story, but it's not the whole story. The bigger part of the story is a decade-long attack on living standards, on wages, on job security - that's the problem.
 
KARVELAS: Let me take you to this. An Albanese Government would launch an audit of Morrison Government programs to identify waste. What kind of savings are you looking for and what programs would you cut? 
 
CHALMERS: First of all, as part of that Economic Plan that we released yesterday, we came forward with almost $5 billion in Budget improvements but we've also said that, from Opposition we are aware of all of these rorts and all of this waste. This is the most wasteful government since Federation, and that's why we don't have enough to show for a trillion dollars in debt. So what we would do in the first year of an Albanese Labor Government, is we'd do an internal audit with Finance and Treasury to get to the bottom of some of these slush funds, to get to the bottom of some of this wasteful spending. It is difficult from Opposition to have perfect visibility on that. That's how the Government wants it, so this is the only sensible course. 
 
KARVELAS: We're out of time, Jim Chalmers. Thank you.

ENDS