JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY FIRST EDITION
FRIDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2021

SUBJECTS: MYEFO; Working families aren’t earning enough to keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living; Coalition notorious for overpromising and underdelivering on wages; Labor’s positive plans to grow the economy the right way; The most wasteful government since Federation; Scott Morrison has doubled-down on secret slush funds before the election, secret cuts after the election, and ordinary working families don’t get a look-in.   

PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: Joining us now live from Brisbane is Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers, for all of the MYEFO washup. Jim, good to see you. Thanks for your time as always. Now, you once said the key test for a government or opposition is what happens to unemployment. As you know, the unemployment rate now at 4.6%. So by your own marker, this reflects quite well on the Treasurer would you expect?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Pete, we want the unemployment rate to be as low as possible but the unemployment rate on its own doesn't tell the full story of the labour market. The labour market is characterised by insecure work and underemployment, and that's been feeding through to stagnant wages for much of this Government's decade in office. We know from the mid-year Budget update released yesterday that real wages are still expected to go backwards for a little while longer now. What that means is working families aren't earning enough to keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living. So the labour market is absolutely important to this recovery, the unemployment rate is part of that story, but it's not the whole story,

STEFANOVIC: But then wages will pick up, eventually, and it'll be above inflation. Is that not good enough?

CHALMERS: Pete, this Government's made 55 different forecasts about wages growth in their time in office and on 52 of those occasions wages growth has fallen short of what they said it would be. They are notorious for overpromising and underdelivering on wages. That's because they attack wages and working conditions in this country, it’s been a deliberate design feature of their economic policy. That's why working families are finding it so hard to keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living because their wages have been stagnant not just the last couple of years of this pandemic, but for much of the last decade under the Liberals and Nationals.

STEFANOVIC: If you win the next election you will have to start paying down the debt. So will you increase taxes and have to cut services too to do it?

CHALMERS: If government changes hands Pete, there'll be a trillion dollars in debt and not enough to show for it. That's because we've had all of these rorts, and waste, and all this politically-motivated slush funds. $16 billion more in decisions taken not announced yesterday, which shows that the Government has learned nothing about the furore about all of this rorts, and waste, and corruption that we've seen in their time in office. If we inherit a trillion dollars in debt from this Government and deficits as far as the eye can see, then obviously, we'll need to do three things. First of all, make sure we get maximum bang for buck in our investments in growing the economy, supporting families, secure jobs, and a future made in Australia. Secondly, we will have to deal with this legacy of all this stupendous waste and rorting of the Budget for base political purposes. That's the second thing. And thirdly, there have been these really welcome and important developments on the international front when it comes to multinational corporations paying their fair share of tax in the countries where they make their profits. And I think that there are avenues there to make some meaningful changes. Some combination of those three things will be really important.

The Government says that they will cut the Budget but they won't tell us what cuts will be made before the election. We know from their form that that is code for more attacks on Medicare and more attacks on working families - secret cuts that they won't tell us about before the election.

STEFANOVIC: You brought up waste there a few times but Labor wanted to essentially pay people to go and get a vaccine. That was worth about $6 billion. So was that not a waste?

CHALMERS: This is the most wasteful government since Federation Pete, we're talking about tens of billions of dollars. JobKeeper to companies whose profits were going up at the same time as they were denying it to small businesses that needed it. Sports rorts. Regional rorts. All the rorts uncovered in the last couple of days in the newspapers. Tens of billions of dollars in waste that we've seen from this Government.

We won't be taking lectures on fiscal responsibility from these characters who've racked up a trillion dollars in debt with barely anything to show for it. That's because they think that taxpayer money is Liberal Party money, they spend it on their political interests and not on the national economic interest. That's why the Budget is in the condition that it's in. A trillion dollars in debt, deficits as far as the eye can see, all of this rorts, and waste, and mismanagement. No wonder they are resisting a national anti-corruption commission, when so much of their wasteful spending has been exposed as dodgy.

STEFANOVIC: Right, but JobKeeper - the extension of that - Labor supported that. And when it comes to delta and NDIS support, there was no real alternative to that at the time was there?

CHALMERS: We have always supported spending which is for a good purpose where you get maximum bang for buck. You cannot describe the last decade of these characters in office - spraying money around on rorts and waste, all of this mismanagement - you cannot describe the way they've gone about mismanaging this Budget as anything close to responsible. That's why we have not enough to show for a trillion dollars in debt. Much of the debt, a large chunk of the debt, was accumulated before the pandemic even hit us. They had multiplied the debt even before coronavirus.

They talk a big game about economic management and Budget responsibility but the facts of the last decade tell a very, very different story. What yesterday's mid-year budget update shone a real light on, is the risks of re-electing these characters: more rorts, more waste, real wages going backwards, and secret cuts they won't tell you about until after the election.

STEFANOVIC: But when it comes to the unemployment rate though it's lower than when Labor was lost in power.

CHALMERS: I've said repeatedly since yesterday's numbers come out Pete, we want that number to be as low as possible. Even in those numbers, which were broadly welcomed in the community, there are still 1.7 million Australians who either can't find a job or can't find enough hours, at the same time as we've got these skills shortages and labour shortages around the economy.

I think yesterday was a big missed opportunity Pete, to talk about the skyrocketing costs of living, to talk about stagnant wages, and risks in our supply chain, to talk about how we deal with this legacy of rorts and waste. Instead, the Government doubled-down on secret slush funds before the election, secret cuts after the election, and ordinary working families didn't get a look-in.

STEFANOVIC: Jim Chalmers, thank you for your time and also thank you for being part of the program this year. I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas, and look forward to another big year next year. Thanks, Jim.

CHALMERS: And to you and your loved ones Pete, and all of your viewers.

STEFANOVIC: Alright, Jim Chalmers there, live out of Brisbane.

ENDS