JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
RN BREAKFAST
FRIDAY, 30 APRIL 2021
 
SUBJECTS: Treasurer’s Budget backflip; Wages; Jobs and job security; Morrison Government’s bungled vaccine rollout impacting the economy; Andrew Laming; Anthony Albanese.
 
SALLY SARA, HOST: Jim Chalmers is the Shadow Treasurer and he joins us on the programme. Jim Chalmers, welcome back to RN Breakfast.
 
CHALMERS: Thanks very much, Sally.
 
SARA: What do you think about this shift from the Government? Do you agree with the view that if you look after unemployment the Budget will look after itself?
 
CHALMERS: I think it's a shift in rhetoric from the Government. It remains to be seen whether they really mean it. There's a big gap with this Government between what they announce, and what they say in scripted speeches, and what they actually deliver. They've been in office now for eight years, and over that period they've delivered record low wages growth, job insecurity, underemployment, and all the rest of it. So, I think it helps to look at what they deliver and not what they say that they'll deliver. They'd already racked up record debt even before COVID-19. We've now got debt heading north of a trillion dollars for the first time in the country's history. So, let's see what they actually deliver, not what they read out in scripted speeches in Canberra.
 
SARA: But the thinking behind this, do you agree with this approach?
 
CHALMERS: Well, we've been saying for some time that now's not the time for austerity. There is a lot of uncertainty in the economy. The economy's recovering, and that's welcome, and expected coming out of the deepest recession in almost 100 years, but that recovery is patchy and uneven, and it's hostage to a lot of things, including the Prime Minister's bungled vaccinations rollout.  So we need to be careful. We shouldn't be flicking the switch to austerity, that's been obvious to everybody else except the Treasurer, until yesterday. And it's also been obvious to the Reserve Bank, to us in the federal Labor Party, and to all of the respected economists, that if we want to get wages growing after eight years of wage stagnation, then we need to get much closer to full employment with a four in front of it, most probably. And that's why this admission from Josh Frydenberg yesterday that he was wrong to be targeting an unemployment rate just under 6 per cent, when we need it much lower than that to get that wages growth, that's a humiliating about face for him. It wasn't that long ago he was talking about unemployment just under six. He's the guy that printed the back in black mugs. He's the guy that said that debt at $200 billion was a disaster, but now that it's heading towards more than a trillion it's manageable, and sensible, and prudent. It's hard to take him seriously with this rhetoric. Let's see what the Government delivers. They've been there eight years. At the next election, they'll be asking for twelve. And my fear is, that we'll get more of the same wage stagnation, underemployment, and job insecurity, which has defined their economic mismanagement the last eight years.
 
SARA: You're talking about the patchiness in the economy, and this is something that some economists have been focusing on as well, which sectors are you most worried about?
 
CHALMERS: Well, clearly the patchiness and the unevenness of the recovery is most noticeable in areas like tourism, and other parts of the economy which are dependent on the reopening of the international border. And that's why the Prime Minister's bungling and the vaccination rollout is so costly to our economy. The economy is recovering, but it would be recovering that much stronger if we were getting the kinds of vaccination outcomes that we're seeing elsewhere around the world. So, when the Prime Minister abandoned those vaccination targets, when he was unable to get anywhere near the promises that he made in terms of how many people would be vaccinated by now, that has an economic cost. The recovery would be stronger if he wasn't getting that wrong and the Budget would be stronger too.
 
The Budget's recovering, for some of those reasons you played a moment ago from the Treasurer, in terms of social security payments and income taxes. The Budget is also recovering because of the extraordinarily high iron ore price, which has nothing to do with the Treasurer. But the Budget would be in much better nick as well, if it wasn't riddled with these partisan rorts that we've seen - sports rorts and dodgy land deals - and if it wasn't weighed down with the kind of waste we've seen with the botched implementation of the JobKeeper programme, which has seen billions of dollars go to companies which are already profitable and don't need taxpayer support.
 
SARA: But the state of the economy, at the moment, we are doing much better than many other economies in the world, do you concede that?
 
CHALMERS: Well, so we should, Sally. I mean, the Australian people deserve the credit for doing the right thing by each other to limit the spread of the virus. And that is the number one reason why the economy is recovering. It's a tribute to everybody who listened to the health advice, and did the right thing by each other, and limited the spread of the virus. It's also entirely expected, entirely unsurprising, that when we have the deepest recession since the Great Depression almost 100 years ago, that the economy will recover. But it will recover at different paces for different people.
 
For almost two million Australians who still can't find a job, or enough work to support their loved ones, it still feels like a recession to them. So, we shouldn't get into this kind of self-congratulation that the Treasurer is known for, when there are so many people still struggling. We want people to get ahead in this recovery and we don't want people left behind. And that's the risk, when in this Budget, there's so much waste on things which don't create jobs, and don't invest in people and their future. That's a big risk there. And there's also a problem in that chasm between what the government says they're going to do - whether it's on debt or jobs, or other aspects of their economic mismanagement - and what they actually deliver, over the last eight years, and if they're re-elected after the election.
 
SARA: Jim Chalmers, National Cabinet meets today. Yesterday, Victoria announced that it will commit some funds to building a purpose built facility for quarantine on Melbourne's outskirts, but wants the federal government to chip in $200 million. Do you think it's a good idea?
 
CHALMERS: Let's have a look at the proposal. I'm aware, broadly, that ask is on the table, but I haven't been through all of the details of it. I think it comes back to what I was saying a moment ago. If we had national leadership, whether it's quarantine, but especially on the vaccination rollout, then some of these quarantine facilities, and some of these closures of international borders and the risk of ongoing closures of domestic borders, all of that comes back to the Prime Minister's failure on vaccinations. If we were doing what the UK is doing, or the US, or so many other countries around the world, we wouldn't have to anticipate possible lock-downs in the economy for so long into the future, that makes some of these facilities necessary.
 
Now, we've said all along that we want National Cabinet to work. We want the Prime Minister, not to take pot-shots at the Premiers, but to work with the Premiers and the State Governments. If you look at the defining failures of this federal Government throughout this pandemic, it's been where the federal Government has responsibility, and should be showing leadership, but instead, has been too keen of pass the buck. That's been true of quarantine. And it's been true of vaccinations as well.
 
SARA: Jim Chalmers, on another issue, your fellow Queenslander, Andrew Laming, the Liberal MP who's currently on medical leave, there were further allegations against him on ABC's 7.30 programme last night, but Andrew Laming is planning on returning to work. Should he?
 
CHALMERS: Well, I don't think Andrew Laming should be in the parliament. I've actually thought that for quite a long time. He's from the neighbouring seat to me in Southeast Queensland. And one of the reasons why we will be contesting that seat so vigorously, is because the people of the Redlands and the Bayside, they deserve much better representation than they've been getting.
 
SARA: And finally, Jim Chalmers, when you're looking across the board at the moment, what do you think Labor's chances are when still you have Anthony Albanese with such low approval ratings?
 
CHALMERS: I think our chances are very strong because the Government is botching key things, like the vaccination rollout, we've got all of that job insecurity, we've got all of that wage stagnation, all of these things that people really care about. They're not that much focused on fortnightly or monthly polls. What they really care about, is whether the Government, after the next election, has the capacity to invest in people, invest in their jobs, invest in the future. They recognise we want people to get ahead in the recovery and not be left behind. And I think Anthony has done, and is doing, and will continue to do, a terrific job making that case.
 
SARA: Is he the Leader to take you to the next election?
 
CHALMERS: Absolutely.
 
SARA: Jim Chalmers, Shadow Treasurer, thank you very much for joining us again on RN Breakfast.
 
CHALMERS: Much appreciated, Sally.
 
ENDS