JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SEVEN NEWS BUDGET SPECIAL
TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2022
SUBJECT: Federal Budget
MARK RILEY, HOST: Jim Chalmers, thanks for joining The Latest. Your support for this tax offset and for the pensioner payments and the fuel tax cut is pretty obvious, isn't it?
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: We won't be standing in the way of cost of living relief for working families who are coping real wage decreases in the Government's own budget, average working families are going backwards, something like twenty six dollars a week with these falling real wages. At the same time as the costs of living are going through the roof. That's why people are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. There's a role for cost of living relief. What's missing from the budget is a plan that goes beyond May. The Government's got a budget, which is entirely geared for the next six or seven weeks, and what's missing is a plan for the future.
RILEY: But the tax offsets, is that the way that you would get money to low and middle income earners to help them with the cost of living?
CHALMERS: Well, other options aren’t before us, and we do think that people need cost of living relief. So, this is the option before us – it will be in people’s tax returns.
RILEY: But yeah, they won't get it until July 1. Don't they need it now?
CHALMERS: Well, the Government's not proposing any way to give it now and in opposition we don't have the capacity to get the money out the door any faster.
RILEY: But you could be in government in two months?
CHALMERS: Well, if the Government was to change hands in May, then this low and middle income tax offset would flow relatively soon after that. We wouldn't intend to change that.
RILEY: Alright, is this inflationary this budget?
CHALMERS: Well, I think there is an inflation problem in the economy, you know, clearly the cost of rent and groceries and petrol is going through the roof. What's missing in the budget is a longer-term plan to take some of the sting out of inflation, to grow the economy without adding to these inflationary pressures. And so, there's an inflation challenge, which is left almost neglected beyond the May election. That's another way that this budget is incredibly short sighted.
RILEY: I guess the point though is that you're supporting $8.6 billion worth of relief going into the economy within the next three or four months. Is that inflation?
CHALMERS: Well, it depends what else is going on in the budget. Clearly there is already an inflation problem in the budget. There is a lack of a plan to deal with inflation in the long term, but we need to help people through a really difficult period because their real wages are falling.
RILEY: But it’s about the cost of living though isn’t it, Jim Chalmers? And if the cost of living is rising and then you're adding to inflation, that just means the cost of living goes up further, doesn't it?
CHALMERS: I think there's a role for temporary relief or cost of living pressures, but there's also a role for a longer-term plan to take some of the sting out of inflation. That is what is missing from the budget and nothing that's in this budget will make up for a decade now of attacks on wages, job security, pensions and Medicare.
RILEY: So, they say real wages growth will come in the forwards in four years, but okay, you tell me, how would you reduce inflationary pressures in the economy?
CHALMERS: Well, you’ve got to build the capacity of the economy by dealing with the skill shortage with policies like free TAFE. You've got to make the workforce bigger with policies like cheaper access to childcare. You've got to get energy costs down with our plan for cleaner and cheaper energy, invest in the digital economy, a future made in Australia, and advanced manufacturing and the care economy. You’ve got to lift the speed limit on growth in this economy without adding to those inflationary pressures. The Government has got a plan to get us to May but nothing beyond then. That's what makes it such a terribly short-sighted document.
RILEY: They're all long term, medium and long term, but that's not going to affect inflation in the short term.
CHALMERS: Well families are already dealing with inflationary pressures as we keep returning to. As you know, your viewers are facing these skyrocketing cost of living pressures at the same time as their real wages are going backwards. Those two things together are a key source of the pressures that families are under. There's a responsibility for us to do the right thing by them, provide some relief in the near term, but have that longer term plan for a better future. That's what's missing from the budget.
RILEY: But you will spend the same amount, roughly.
CHALMERS: On these cost of living measures, they will go through the parliament this week. Some of it will flow before the election. But what is missing from the budget is an idea about what the future looks like, how do we get the economy growing in the interests of Australian working families, so that the recovery works for everyone.
RILEY: So, what can we expect from Anthony Albanese’s budget speech of reply on Thursday?
CHALMERS: Well, I'm not going to read it to you a couple of nights early. It won't be an alternative budget. It will be a sense of where we think the country should head. There will be some announcements in that budget reply speech, but we will have more to say about all of these important areas over the next six or seven weeks. We do have an important election for people to consider. Thursday night will be a part of that, but not all of that.
RILEY: Jim Chalmers, thanks for your time.
CHALMERS: Thanks Mark.
ENDS
