JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW
SKY FIRST EDITION
TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2022
 

SUBJECTS: Tonight’s Budget will be a panicked, desperate and tapped out Budget, from a panicked, desperate and tapped out government; Billions sprayed around tonight won’t change the reality of falling real wages for working families or make Australians forget a decade of attacks on wages, job security, pensions and Medicare; Labor has a plan for a better future, the Morrison Government doesn't.
 

PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: I want to bring in now the Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Jim, good morning to you. So, a big day, a couple of figures that are headline figures this morning. Unemployment heading for 3.75%. Wage growth heading for a 10 year high. That's the Treasurer's forecast. What's yours?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Good morning, Pete. First of all, when it comes to these wages forecasts, the Government's made 55 different forecasts and been wrong 52 of those times so far. So I think Australians are a little tired of the Government pretending that there will be wage growth after almost a decade now of wage stagnation. No matter what the Government does in the Budget tonight it won't change the reality of falling real wages and working families falling further and further behind.  So that's the first thing. On unemployment, we want the unemployment rate to be as low as possible. Obviously, there will be more jobs in the recovery than there was in the recession. We want to see that rate come down as far as it can, but the risks in the labour market are now the fact that real wages are falling and people are falling further behind. We've got skills shortages which have been left unattended by the Government. So despite falling unemployment, despite skills shortages, we've still got real wages going backwards, and that'll be the reality in tonight's Budget. Tonight's Budget will be a panicked and desperate and tapped out Budget, from a panicked and desperate and tapped out government. Nothing that they announce tonight will change the fundamental reality of falling real wages.

STEFANOVIC: Is that good fiscal management though, to get that figure of 3.75%?

CHALMERS: We want the rate to be as low as possible. I don't think the Government can take credit for the numbers which are positive but not take responsibility for the numbers which are challenging - including, for example, the fact that we've got a trillion dollars of debt in the Budget and nowhere near enough to show for it. If the Government hadn't wasted so much money there'd be the capacity in the Budget to do more for working families, to provide more costs of living relief more responsibly. I don't think the Government gets a tick for that. We want to see the unemployment rate fall, but we also want to see real wages growing again in this country. One of the defining features of this Government's economic mismanagement for the best part of a decade has been stagnant wages. No matter how much money they spray around in the Budget tonight, it won't make Australians forget a decade now of attacks on wages and job security and pensions and Medicare.

STEFANOVIC: There will be a cut to fuel excise. The NRMA has said that sudden oil jumps will eat-up those cuts. Chris Richardson has said it works politically but doesn't work economically. Why would you support it then?

CHALMERS: Well, let's see what they propose in the Budget tonight. Let's see if it's responsible and let’s see how much it costs. We have said repeatedly for some time now that given working families are doing it so tough under this Government, in the context of falling real wages, we are unlikely to stand in the way of cost of living relief for families. That's one job that the Budget has to do tonight, but the other job is it needs to be a genuine plan for the future. This Government is incapable of seeing past the May election. There will be some cost of living relief, we will look at that, we'll be responsible and constructive about it and supportive if we can, but what's really missing here in this Budget will be a genuine plan for the future. The Government sees Budgets through the prism of their own political desperation and not what Australian families, and communities, and our economy needs into the medium term and into the longer term. So what will be missing tonight is a vision of what happens after May, and that's the difference between the two parties. We have a plan for a better future, the Government doesn't.

STEFANOVIC: Okay, well after May you may well be the Treasurer. So will you return that fuel excise cut after six months or keep it going?

CHALMERS: Well, let's see what they propose Peter. We don't know when they're proposing to increase petrol taxes again. We assume in six months or so there'll be an increase in petrol taxes. That will be, if the Government loses office, one of their parting gifts to the Australian people. Same with an increase in income taxes when the Low and Middle Income Tax Offset comes off. People are expecting interest rates to rise no matter who wins office. There'll be that legacy of a trillion dollars in debt and not enough to show for it. Falling real wages. So if the government does change hands in May, this will be the worst Budget handed to an incoming government in the history of the Commonwealth, with all of those other issues that I've identified. After a decade in office, this will be the legacy of this Government if they lose in May.

STEFANOVIC: Just one more here. We had ACOSS on the show a little earlier, they want the rate of JobSeeker to be lifted from $46 to $70 a day, plus changes to rent assistance. Would you support any increase of that kind?

CHALMERS: Look, we’re familiar with the ACOSS view. We meet regularly with Cass Goldie. I saw that you had her on the show earlier on. Look, we've said that we will always try and do better for the vulnerable in our society. Income support is part of that but we need to take a broader view. Housing is a crucial part of that, providing opportunities in places like the community that I represent is part of it too. In every Budget, we will always try and do better for people who are vulnerable and insecure in our society. We haven't come to a concluded view on the proposal that Cass has put forward.

STEFANOVIC: Okay, Jim Chalmers, appreciate your time as always. We will talk to you soon.

CHALMERS: Thanks Pete.

ENDS