JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW

SBS NEWS BUDGET SPECIAL
TUESDAY, 7 MAY 2021

SUBJECT: Budget 2021

ANNA HENDERSON, HOST: The budget is being generally seen as a case of the Coalition making a big shift to invest in social policy. So is it stealing Labor’s thunder? I spoke to the Shadow Treasurer a short time ago. Jim Chalmers thanks for joining us. Look, you can't argue with these figures, can you? The government says that it needed to make these decisions in order to spend big on social services. That's a good thing, isn't it?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Well, I think it's a budget of missed opportunities. There's $100 billion in new spending a trillion dollars in debt. And still we've got real wages going backwards, we've still got recommendations of the Royal Commission left and responded to and it still doesn't undo the damage of eight long years of this coalition government.

HENDERSON: When we look though, at the spending measures in terms of aged care, disability support mental health, are you snookered?

CHALMERS: I don't see it that way Anna. I mean, we'll have to through the spending and make sure that it's the most effective that it can be. Obviously, we welcome some new investment in mental health, for example. But when it comes to aged care, I mean, this system has been neglected for eight long years of this government, they had a Royal Commission and what they've announced tonight still falls short of implementing the recommendations.

HENDERSON: Obviously, everyone's still trawling through the documents. But on first glance, are there measures that Labor definitely would not support in this document?

CHALMERS: I will have a look but one of the things that concerns us is there are 21 different slush funds in this budget that the government has poured billions of dollars into. And that's another example of how they’re using this budget not as a plan to get people into secure well paid jobs, but as a plan to get them through the election. It's a series of political fixes, cobbled together and we see that in those slush funds.

HENDERSON: Is this an election though, on these figures and with this document that the government will win?

CHALMERS: Oh no I think we're going to be very competitive at the election. And one of the reasons for that is we've got eight long years of this government that'll be asking for 12 at the next election. It's been defined by stagnant wages and job insecurity and underemployment. They've been a whole range of issues that have racked up over that time and piled up over that time. The government's eighth budget doesn't undo the damage of the first seven.

HENDERSON: So what will Labor offer that will be different?

CHALMERS: Well Anthony Albanese of course will give his budget reply on Thursday night and I encourage all of your viewers to tune in then but already people know our priorities are to secure well paid jobs, cleaner and cheaper energy, social housing and other areas which have been priorities of ours for some time. Advanced manufacturing apprenticeships. So we’ve made a series of positive suggestions already. We'll have a plan not just to get through an election, but to get people into those secure well paid jobs.

HENDERSON: Jim Chalmers. Thanks very much for your time.

ENDS