E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH SBS NEWS
CANBERRA
MONDAY, 31 AUGUST 2020
 
SUBJECTS: Josh Frydenberg’s blame-shifting and finger-pointing.
 
JOURNALIST: Jim, Josh Frydenberg says that the Victorian lockdown has been the biggest public policy failure of a state government. Why might the Treasurer be saying that given what's happening here in Canberra this week? 
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: It's nothing but a really transparent attempt to distract people from the Treasurer's own failings on the economy. We've got the National Accounts out this week which will show the biggest contraction in the economy of all time. Josh Frydenberg is trying to point the finger and shift the blame for the fact that he doesn't have a jobs plan to deal with it. 
 
JOURNALIST: What does that tell you about what we're going to see on Wednesday and what we've seen in the last few weeks in terms of age care, for example?
 
CHALMERS: It's just abundantly clear that Josh Frydenberg's strategy is not to fix aged care, not to come up with a jobs plan, and not to deal with the jobs crisis, but to point the finger and shift the blame onto state governments and the Labor Party. People are getting a bit tired of this act where Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison think they're responsible for everything that goes well and somebody else is responsible for everything that's gone badly. In aged care, the Morison Government's failures are costing lives and in the economy the Morison Government's failures are costing jobs. 
 
JOURNALIST: In terms of the figures on Wednesday, how bad do you think they'll be? And what do you want to hear and see from the Treasurer to make them better as quickly as they possibly can? 
 
CHALMERS: The numbers that we'll receive on Wednesday will be horrible. They will be about the biggest downturn in the economy since these records were kept. That won't be the surprising bit; the surprising bit will be that the Government still doesn't have a jobs plan to deal with this jobs crisis. It's been obvious for some time that there's a jobs crisis. The Government still doesn't have a comprehensive plan for jobs and that's why they're pointing the finger at state governments and the Labor Party. 
 
ENDS