JIM CHALMERS

SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY AFTERNOON AGENDA
WEDNESDAY, 2 MARCH 2022

SUBJECTS: National Accounts; Costs of living skyrocketing under Scott Morrison while real wages go backwards; Labor’s economic plan.
 
ANDREW CLENNELL, HOST: Joining me now from Brisbane is Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Jim Chalmers, thanks for joining us. This 3.4 per cent growth figure, it's good news, isn't it?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Obviously, we want the economy to recover strongly from the downturn that we had in the September quarter before that. So we welcome that, but we are entirely unsurprised by this figure that we've seen today. Economists were expecting something of this nature after that downturn we had the quarter before. But I think the important thing here is that these numbers are from last year. A lot has happened since. These numbers don't take into account that monumental stuff up from the Prime Minister on rapid tests and the grocery shortages, which ensued from that. It doesn't take into account some of the more recent issues around war in Ukraine and the flood damage, and all of the rest of it. So obviously we want the economy to bounce back, we expected it would at the end of last year after that downturn, but we shouldn't get carried away. Even with a number like that, which looks strong on the surface, we've got costs of living going through the roof, productivity going backwards and business investment going backwards in that quarter. So we can't be complacent about this recovery.

CLENNELL: Alright, so we're two and a half months away from an election. You will be the Treasurer if elected, and the polls suggest you will be Treasurer. What's the first thing you're going to do as Treasurer? What are you going to change things as Treasurer?

CHALMERS: Obviously, we're not taking the outcome of the election for granted. But the highest priority would be implementing our commitments. We've got a five point plan to grow the economy the right way, whether it's skills, cleaner and cheaper energy, the NBN, cheaper and more accessible childcare or a future made in Australia. We've got a big economic agenda. So what we were looking to do would be to implement that agenda that we take to the election. What we desperately need, and we saw that in the numbers today, and we expect to see in future numbers, is that this recovery is not yet assured. There are some encouraging signs in the recovery but we've probably had five or six false starts, where the Treasurer has said everything's about to gallop again and then because of some mismanagement on the health front, that recovery has been cruelled. So we can't be complacent about it, we need to invest in the economy along the lines of what I've just suggested. That will be the priority if we are successful at the election.

CLENNELL: Now, if elected, will a lot of the budget be torn up because we're waiting for this March 29 Budget. But if you're in power, within two months after that, presumably there'll be a bunch of things in there you don't agree with?

CHALMERS: I think it's important to remember that there is another budget between now and the next election. We don't know what's in that budget. We know that there'll be a trillion dollars in debt with not enough to show for it. We know that it will be bereft, as it has been for some time, of any genuine economic plan to get the economy growing the right way, in the interests of working families, but we don't know the detail of what's in that budget. So we don't know what we would inherit. We won't be committing to option A or B after a budget that we haven't seen yet. But clearly, we've identified our economic priorities, they'll need to be implemented. We have said that we'll invest in growth and invest in the economy, get it going, and get it growing the right way. We said that we will look at some of the rorts and waste and mismanagement which characterise if not define the budget over the last 10 years of this government. There might be opportunities in areas like multinational taxes and the like. So we've said that very clearly for some time now, those are our priorities. Let's see what budget we inherit from the government. We know in general the direction they're headed, but we don't know all of the detail of what they're proposing.

CLENNELL: And are you prepared to guarantee no matter what the economic situation, no matter what the international situation, the stage three tax cuts?

CHALMERS: We've said that repeatedly, Andrew, as you know, I've said that to you on a few occasions and to Kieran Gilbert when he's in the chair, and to others. We voted for those tax changes, we said that we intend to implement them. We've said that for some time now, and nothing has changed our view in the interim.

CLENNELL: Will we see Labor revisiting the taxing of trusts policy from last election?

CHALMERS: We've said multiple times we won't take the same tax agenda to this election that we took to the last election. We've already made some aspects of that incredibly clear whether it's negative gearing, or franking credits and the like. We've said that our priority in tax reform is multinational taxes, and Anthony Albanese has flagged a genuine conversation with the states about state taxes. So those are our priorities.

CLENNELL: Well, you mentioned before the cost of living, petrol prices, what's your plan for dealing with that? Because it's one thing I guess, to winge from opposition about it, but how would you be doing things differently to the government on that front now other than the policies you've already released?

CHALMERS: First of all, it's important to recognise that petrol prices were already going up towards two dollars even before the war in Ukraine, and everybody expects there to be more upward pressure on petrol prices as a consequence of that act of aggression by the Russians. So we recognise that. We have said that these costs of living pressures are biting across the board. They're a function of childcare costs. They're a function of rents. They're a function of power bills. They're a function of the fact that real wages are going backwards in this country, and we've had stagnant wages for the best part of the last decade so working families have been going backwards for much of that time. So what we have said about cost of living is let's deal with childcare costs, make childcare cheaper and more accessible. Let's get power bills down with our plan for cheaper and cleaner energy. Let's get wages growing again with the policies that we've announced. We will have more to say about cost of living between now and the election. But we've already got, I think, as you alluded to, in your question, a suite of policies out there about cost of living. The government has more or less vacated the field here they are always looking for someone to blame rather than ways to solve this issue. Wages are stagnant as a deliberate design feature of their economic policies, as they have admitted in the past. Costs are going through the roof and so working families are going backwards, and we won't ignore that.

CLENNELL: Jim Chalmers, thanks for your time.

CHALMERS: Thanks Andrew.

ENDS