JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY AFTERNOON AGENDA
MONDAY, 24 JANUARY 2022

SUBJECTS: NSW Liberal Government mulling more support for workers and small businesses; Scott Morrison, Barnaby Joyce and Josh Frydenberg so out of touch they believe people aren’t dying from COVID, there are so many rapid tests Australians are hoarding them, and businesses and workers aren’t hurting;  Josh Frydenberg’s selfie tour of Queensland should be an apology tour; Josh Frydenberg taking credit for a recovery without doing the work to secure it; WeChat.

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Let's turn our attention now to the economic impact of Omicron. I'm joined now live from Brisbane by the Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Jim Chalmers, thanks so much for your time as always. Earlier in the program, Andrew Clennell reported this news that the New South Wales Government's going to implement a JobSaver program for those businesses that have 40%-50% drops in their turnover. The federal government's been asked to chip in 50/50. They haven't said yes at this point, no indication that they will. What do you think, should they?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg seem to be the only people in Australia who don't understand that a lot of small businesses are still struggling. They're in such a rush to pat themselves on the back for the recovery, that they're not doing enough to actually secure that recovery and taking responsibility for what needs to happen here. We've said all along, let's be constructive about support payments for small business and for workers. We shouldn't pretend this pandemic is over. It's been prolonged by the mistakes that Frydenberg and Morrison have made in mismanaging this pandemic and so the least they can do is engage in a proper conversation with the government of New South Wales and with other state governments to see what, if anything, else could be done here.

GILBERT: So you'd be open to backing such an idea, this 50/50 arrangement being put forward, apparently, by the New South Wales Government to the feds?

CHALMERS: Clearly, the scale of the federal government's stuff-up here has been so big, and the consequences for a lot of small businesses and workers so dire, the least they can do is be part of the conversation. What we've seen throughout this pandemic now for two years, is a federal government which won't take responsibility for the damage that they've done, the consequences of the mistakes that they've made in mismanaging this pandemic, their failure to understand that you can't have a healthy economy or healthy recovery without healthy people. So they should be part of a discussion with the New South Wales Government. The New South Wales Government, for all its faults, understands that small businesses are doing it tough, as we do.

This Government, unfortunately - whether it's Josh Frydenberg or Barnaby Joyce - they seem to live in this parallel universe, where people aren't dying from COVID, where RATs are so prevalent that you can hoard them, and where small businesses aren't doing it tough. That's obviously wrong on each of those counts. We want the Government to take responsibility for the recovery, not just take credit for forecasting one.

GILBERT: The Deputy PM, you touched on that, says that people have been hoarding tests, urging people not to do that. Why shouldn't he make that point, if it is accurate?

CHALMERS: Because the rapid tests aren't available in sufficient numbers for people to hoard them. This Government is stupendously out of touch if they think that there are so many rapid antigen tests that people are somehow stockpiling them in the basement, it's just completely ridiculous. It's just as ridiculous as his comment that people aren't dying from COVID-19. It's just as ridiculous, frankly, as Josh Frydenberg popping in for a selfie in Queensland today to tell everyone what a good job he's done, at the same time as people, in some instances, can't find fresh food and groceries, they can't find rapid antigen tests, they can't work safely without those tests.

What we've seen time and time again Kieran - whether it's Barnaby Joyce or Josh Frydenberg, joined at the hip on these issues - they're in such a rush to say that everything is fine that they are completely blind to the fact that a lot of people, and a lot of families, a lot of small businesses are still doing it incredibly tough. They are so out of touch with what's happening in real communities and in the real economy right around Australia, that they want to wander around Queensland patting themselves on the back for a recovery which hasn't played out yet because the Government - under Morrison, and Frydenberg, and Joyce - haven't actually done their job and taken responsibility for providing those tests.

I've been to chemists Kieran throughout the course of today, and what they're telling me is they've got a lot of concession cardholders who are showing up - as they were told to by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer – to collect these free rapid antigen tests, but they don't have any. This goes to the very core of a government which makes big announcements but doesn't follow through, and ordinary Australians are paying the price.

GILBERT: They’re saying 16 million tests are arriving next week, but in terms of the broader performance in Queensland - the Government, the Treasurer argues - there are 350,000 more people employed in Queensland today than there was when Labor left office. Is that not an achievement for him to prosecute.

CHALMERS: I think he is even more out of touch then we feared, if he wants to pop into Queensland on a selfie tour which should be an apology tour and pretend that everything is fine with the economy. Of course there are more Queenslanders employed than they were eight years ago, there are more Queenslanders. Of course as the economy recovers from the latest extraordinary stuff-up from the Morrison Government, of course there is going to be more jobs in the recovery than there were in the deepest parts of the recession. We want the unemployment number to be as low as possible but unemployment would be better, the economy would be better, the recovery would be stronger, if Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg didn't make mistake after mistake after mistake. They've been saying for two years that the economy's about to come good, but in each instance - whether it's the COVIDSafe App, or vaccines, or quarantine, or boosters, or rapid tests, or back to school - whatever it is - the Government always gets in the way of the recovery with the mistakes that they've made. They should take responsibility for those mistakes and not just take credit for saying that there'll be a recovery down the track.

GILBERT: You've backed Mark McGowan's decision to delay the reopening. Do you think Queensland should have done the same?

CHALMERS: Whether it's Queensland or right up and down the east coast of Australia clearly the issues which have played out have been federal government responsibilities. If we had the rapid antigen tests like the government said that we would have, if they'd sorted the boosters like that were supposed to, if they've heeded the warnings that people have been making since September / October last year about some of these things, then it would have been a far safer reopening. We have not tried to second guess state governments of either political persuasion when they've made difficult decisions based on their health advice, all we've asked - and a lot of Australians are asking for the same thing - is for the federal government to do its job.

The Prime Minister's gone missing, Frydenberg's wandering around taking selfies with a tennis racquet, at the same time as small businesses are struggling, chemists are out of rapid antigen tests, and supermarkets are out of groceries. The Treasurer says that the economic fundamentals are strong, I would have thought it's pretty fundamental to be able to feed your family and to return to work safely, and that's where this Government's fallen short.

GILBERT: When you look at the tax cuts that the Government's delivered, they say that two million Queenslanders have received on average $3,270 in tax relief since the program was implemented. I ask you this in the context of the last election, has Labor reinvented itself to support lower taxes, and make that argument ahead of the next election given how damaging it was for Labor at the last?

CHALMERS: As you know Kieran, we voted for those tax cuts. We said all along that the priority for tax cuts should be people on low-and-middle incomes. These are the tax cuts that the Treasurer is now giving himself a big pat on the back for. What he hasn't told people, whether it's in Queensland or right around Australia, is a big chunk of those tax cuts that he was talking about today are slated to end a couple of weeks after this year's election. So he's getting in now before the election to brag about these tax cuts and not fessing up to Queenslanders and Australians more broadly that a big chunk of those tax cuts end on the 30th of June, a few weeks after the next election. He should be honest about it and he should be honest about the fact that this government is the second-highest taxing government of the last 30 years, and the highest was John Howard's. This Government is collecting an extra $150 billion than Labor did in its last year of office.

GILBERT: Is that not because more people are employed?

CHALMERS: There are more Australians Kieran, but even per capita, even adjusting for inflation, this Government is a higher-taxing government than its Labor predecessor. I don't think people are fooled by Josh Frydenberg on his selfie tour of Queensland, popping in for a selfie to tell everyone how good he thinks he's done. I think people see him as the guy that stuffed-up JobKeeper, gave tens of billions of dollars to businesses that didn't need it, the guy that signed off on all this rorts and waste and mismanagement which people are going to have to pay for at some point. I think people are pretty sick of him taking credit for these tax cuts, people know that they were supported in a bipartisan way in the parliament, people know that this Government is a high taxing government than its Labor predecessor, and so they take his latest spin and marketing with a grain of salt.

GILBERT: Finally - almost out of time - but Scott Morrison's account on WeChat has been hijacked. James Patterson called for parliamentarians to boycott it. Simon Birmingham now calling on Australian users of WeChat to reconsider using that platform, he did so earlier in the program, what's your view?

CHALMERS: We've said privately and publicly Kieran that we would like the Government to brief us on these developments. We don't take foreign interference lightly, it's a serious issue. It requires us to take it seriously and that includes trying to approach it in a bipartisan fashion. If there's issues here, let's hear about them from the Government. Let's get a proper briefing, let's work together to see what the best steps are. I don't think sending out a backbencher to make these kinds of calls is necessarily the best way to resolve it. Let's have a chat about it with the Government and see what kind of agreement we can come to together to try and resolve it, so that we're taking foreign interference seriously, and so that we are being as safe and appropriate as we can online.

GILBERT: Joining me live from Logan in Brisbane, Jim Chalmers, thanks.

CHALMERS: Thanks, Kieran.

ENDS