JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY AFTERNOON AGENDA
THURSDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2021

SUBJECTS: 2021 MYEFO; real wages going backwards; Coalition falling short of wage forecasts; skyrocketing costs of living; 1.7 million Australians who can’t find a job or can’t find enough hours; Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg can’t rort their way to recovery; Secret slush funds before the election and secret cuts to the Budget after the election; LMITO; Labor’s plan to support working families, more secure jobs and a future made in Australia; Labor’s approach to the budget and the economy.

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Jim Chalmers, thanks for your time. Good news on that wages front eventually that the growth will outpace inflation, although it is a couple of years down the track. Is this a sign that the policy parameters are working here?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Kieran, real wages go backwards over the next year in the Government's budget update that they released today. And in the life of this almost decade old Government now they've made 55 different wages forecasts, and on 52 of those occasions wages have fallen short of what they forecast. We want wages growth to return, but it hasn't been a feature of the last eight long years of this Government. That's because stagnant wages are a deliberate design feature of their economic policy. And now because we're on the eve of an election they want to pretend otherwise. But their record speaks for itself on wages, and their record of forecasting wage increases speaks for itself as well. The reason why Australian working families are finding it so tough is because the costs of living are skyrocketing at the same time as their real wages are going backwards. That won't change under this Government.

GILBERT: You have said repeatedly on this program and elsewhere that politicians, decision-makers in the economy should be judged on what happens to unemployment. By that measure, the Government gets a strong pass mark doesn't it off the back of those numbers today and where unemployment heads next year?

CHALMERS: Look, I've said repeatedly to you Kieran and to anyone who's asked me that the unemployment rate needs to be as low as possible, but that doesn't tell the full story of the labour market. The labour market is partly the unemployment rate, but it's partly about underemployment, insecure work, stagnant wages, now skills shortages. Many of these issues have been around for the past eight years of this Government. They're not specifically pandemic related. There is still weakness in the labour market. Even in today's figures, which economists are broadly welcoming, there's still 1.7 million Australians who either can't find a job or can't find enough hours to support their loved ones.

The Government's in a big rush to congratulate themselves. I think the economy is recovering despite the Government not because of it. The labour market and the economy more broadly would be much in better nick were it not for the mistakes that the Morrison Government made this year on quarantines and vaccines. The other important point, which I just heard Tom Connell make and he's right, one of the reasons why we're seeing this recovery of this magnitude and nature at the moment is because the September quarter was so bad, the lockdown quarter, where we saw the third worst downturn in the history of the national accounts as a consequence of those Morrison Government mistakes. Inevitably, there's going to be a rebound from that. That's not surprising, it’s welcome, but we want it to be the right kind of recovery where ordinary working people actually get a slice of the action in the recovery. And that's why today was a big missed opportunity Kieran. When we wanted to hear about what the Government’s going to do about the skyrocketing cost of living, stagnant wages, skill shortages, insecure work, all the rorts in the budget. Instead, we've got a two part plan – secret rorts before the election and secret cuts after the election. You can't rort your way to recovery. And that's why today's budget update was so disappointing from the Government.

GILBERT: On that cost of living point you refer to will Labor commit to keeping the low and middle income tax offset?

CHALMERS: Well we don't know what budget we would inherit from the Government. Today was an important indication of what the Government expects to happen in the budget. But they're still saying that there'll be another budget between now and the election, we'll get a pre-election fiscal update. What we've said all along is that when there is tax relief, it should be directed ideally, at the people that need it most. That's why we supported the Government's changes to the so called LIMITO, and if the Government extends that at some point, I anticipate that we would welcome that. But what we have to do is make sure that our plans are carefully calibrated.

GILBERT: What if they don't?

CHALMERS: We'll cross that bridge if we come to it Kieran. My expectation frankly is that they will. As it stands right now, ordinary working people get a tax hike after the election. The Government tries to pretend that they're good on taxes, despite the fact that they're the second highest taxing government of the last 30 years and the highest taxing was Howard and Costello. So let's see what they do Kieran. We'll do the right and responsible thing. You know, our economic alternative is all about support for working families, more secure jobs and a future made in Australia. That's why we've been talking about free TAFE where there is skill shortages to give more people more opportunities, cleaner and cheaper energy with our climate change plan to get emissions down at the same time as we get power costs down. All of our economic policies are geared in one way or another to making sure the economy and our society is stronger after COVID than before. All we've heard from the Government today was more rorts.

GILBERT: Would you look at making it a permanent fixture? Because at the moment, just to clarify for our viewers, the LMITO is, or Lamington as it's called, the $1,000 rebate for low and middle income earners. It's being done on an ad hoc basis. Given what you said about the inequity for those people facing a tax hike at the next election as it stands, would you look at making it a permanent feature of the budget?

CHALMERS: I'm not prepared to make that commitment Kieran. I'm not prepared to make that announcement today. You know, clearly as it stands it's a fact that that offset is removed after the election. That means a tax hike for millions of Australians at the same time as the Government goes on about their record on tax. We don't know what budget we would inherit. We will do the right and responsible thing by people. We can't undo or fix all of the damage done to Australian working families in one budget that's been done over the last eight or nine years. Let's see what budget we inherit. We've made a series of commitments to make life easier for working families. Child care has been a big commitment. Getting power cost down is a big part of the story and other initiatives as well. But we'll always do the right and responsible thing by working families. The Government's plan between now and the election is a big secret slush fund, an extra $16 billion in that slush fund, and they say that they'll cut the budget after the election but they won't tell us how. And so secret slush funds before the election and secret cuts after - that's not a plan to get the economy growing the right way in the interests of Australian working families. We've got a better way to go about it.

GILBERT: The last two elections Labor has committed to having a better budget bottom line and budget outcome then the government, will you commit to the same at the upcoming election?

CHALMERS: As I've said before Kieran, our budget position will take into account the budget that we inherit but most of all it will be about the economic circumstances that we inherit. The most important thing is not to accept some kind of comparison between us and the government. The government's budget is chock full of rorts and waste. And we've got other commitments that we want to make which are investments in the economy, where you get a dividend whether it's in terms of growth or employment or wages growth or support for working families. And so we'll do the right thing by the economy. We don't know what budget bottom line we would inherit. But our overwhelming priority is to make the right responsible decisions which are all about growing the economy and recovering the right way out of COVID so that we can run the economy in the interests of the people and not in the political interests of the government, which is what we've seen over the life of this decade old government.

GILBERT: So would you say it's more about making it you know, that decision on where the budget outcome is on a on an economic judgment as opposed to the political judgment that was made in the previous two elections?

CHALMERS: I've said repeatedly Kieran, it's not a reflection on earlier elections, my approach to the budget and to the economy is that the budget should serve our economic objectives and our economic objective should be determined by what's right for working families and for secure jobs, and for a future made in Australia. And I think that means if you take an economic approach to the budget, we can invest money more responsibly than the Government, with all of their rorts and waste. We can grow the economy the right away. We can look to areas like multinational taxes, where there have been some really important global developments that we should be a part of. These are all the ways that you manage the budget more responsibly than the Government has over their decade long period, which has been defined by rorts and waste in the budget and stagnant wages and job insecurity in the economy.

GILBERT: Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers, appreciate it. All the best for Christmas and the new year. We'll see you in a month or so.

CHALMERS: And to you and your family Kieran, all the best.

ENDS