JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS AFTERNOON AGENDA

TUESDAY, 13 JULY 2021

SUBJECTS: Scott Morrison’s failures on vaccines; Sydney lockdown; Support for NSW must guarantee no one loses their job; Labor’s four-point-plan for the pandemic; Tax policy.

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Jim Chalmers joins me live from Brisbane. Do you agree with Bill Shorten’s assessment there that all we’re expecting this afternoon looks like a special deal for Sydney as opposed to the response to Melbourne?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: I certainly agree, Kieran, that the Government can't make the same mistake in Sydney that they made in Melbourne. In Melbourne they came forth with something that was too little, too late, too narrowly defined, and didn't do the job that it was supposed to do. So I do understand the frustration of Melburnians.

We don't want to see this Prime Minister from Sydney leave Sydneysiders in the lurch like the Treasurer from Melbourne left Melburnians in the lurch.

GILBERT: Is anything short of JobKeeper unacceptable in your view, JobKeeper mark two?

CHALMERS: It certainly needs to retain the key aspect of JobKeeper, which was to maintain that link between employers and employees. That's the most important part.

Obviously, the Government is falling all over itself not to call this JobKeeper because they know now in quite a humiliating fashion that they were wrong to cut JobKeeper in the first place. They were too quick to cut JobKeeper and too slow to roll out the vaccines and we're seeing the consequences of that now.

I was listening to those small business people that were interviewed on the program a few minutes ago. The workers and small businesses of Sydney are hurting. They are the victims of Scott Morrison's failure to do his two jobs on vaccines and quarantines. Scott Morrison has delayed, and denied, and dithered, and tried to make sure that somebody else foots the bill for his incompetence. Every day that this support has been delayed has meant that people who already under the pump feel more and more pressure.

So we need to see the Government come to the table with a proper package of support. If it's not JobKeeper, than something better. It needs to maintain the link between workers and their employers, otherwise it's not worth it.

GILBERT: So does there have to be a commitment from companies not to reduce the headcount, the number of staff, in return for the support?

CHALMERS: There needs to be more than that, Kieran. It needs to be a guarantee. JobKeeper had its issues, the Government sprayed tens-of-billions of dollars around for companies that were already profitable and didn't need it. But it had its good elements too. And the best element of JobKeeper was that it ensured that that link was maintained between employer and employee. I don't think some kind of assurance from businesses, I think there needs to be a rock solid guarantee.

The Government, as I said a moment ago, is trying to pretend that whatever they announce today won't be JobKeeper because they have been humiliated, to be so wrong when they cut JobKeeper in the first place.

If they're going to call it something else, as Chris Minns said I think rightly a moment ago, whatever they call it, it needs to maintain that core element.

It needs to be sufficient to get people through a difficult period. They've already been through enough while they've waited and Scott Morrison's gone into hiding. We need to make sure that it's a proper package of support that gets people through a difficult period and guarantees their jobs.

GILBERT: You say there too, they were too quick to cut JobKeeper but we've seen unemployment continue to fall, the jobless rate continues to fall. We’ve had a few months of no community transmission. Why would they keep JobKeeper going in a circumstance like that where we saw this V shaped recovery well and truly underway?

CHALMERS: I think the recent improvement in the unemployment rate, which we welcomed at the time and we welcome now, is a tribute to the Australian people who've done the right thing by each other to limit the spread of the virus. But it remains the case that 56,000 Australians lost their job when Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison cut JobKeeper. The Government doesn't like to talk about them. We don't want to so lightly dismiss 56,000 Australians who lost their job as a consequence of that.

I think it's abundantly clear now, it's beyond argument now, that not having a JobKeeper scheme in place has been extremely costly. Firstly, in Melbourne. Now, in Sydney. The Government was wrong to cut it in the first place.

We've said all along, it needs to be tailored to the economic conditions. We can't have a situation where pandemic support ends before the pandemic does, where the Government is in a much bigger rush to cut JobKeeper than they were to roll out the vaccine. We're seeing the consequences of that now in Sydney. We need the Government to make amends for that egregious error that they made.

GILBERT: The Budget did factor in a lockdown per month but it didn't factor in I guess how contagious this strain of COVID would be. The broader economy still looks quite strong given what we've what we mentioned earlier, the jobless rate falling, the iron ore price still above expectations. So, in broad terms, the economy is holding up okay, isn't it?

CHALMERS: First of all, we want the economy to recover strongly. We want it to create good jobs and good opportunities in more parts of Australia. That's what everybody wants. And obviously we want that as well. There's still 1.7 million Australians who can't find a job or can’t find enough hours to support their loved ones. They shouldn't be so lightly dismissed.

But the recovery is hostage to Scott Morrison's incompetence on vaccines and quarantine. The Budget does factor in, in one sense, it assumes, that the Government will continue to fail, that we’ll continue to have more lockdowns for longer. But the Budget didn't contain some kind of support for people who are the unwilling victims of Scott Morrison's failures. It said that the Government will continue to fail to get this sorted.

All roads lead to the vaccines and the quarantine debacles from Scott Morrison. This support wouldn't be necessary if the Prime Minister had done his job in the first place. The Treasury wouldn't have to assume more lockdowns for longer if we’d done what other countries are doing, which is to get vaccines right. Our failure to do that as a country under Scott Morrison means that we are locking down while other countries are opening up.

GILBERT: Now, the tax cut questions, stage three tax cuts, a lot of discussion as to what Labor will do. Phil Coorey in the AFR reports today that the leadership group has been having discussions in recent days and landed on a position - you won't be seeking to revoke those tax cuts?

CHALMERS: We haven't made a decision yet, Kieran, on the future of those legislated tax cuts. We've said all along that we'll make our position very clear between now and the election. That remains the case. We haven't finalised the position on that.

Our focus now, I think the whole country's focus now, is on Scott Morrison's inability to get vaccines and quarantine right and the costs and consequences of that, in Sydney and elsewhere around Australia.  That's our focus right now. It will be very clear to people what our position is on tax when they go to vote at the election.

GILBERT: Surely, given that focus, you want it on the vaccines and on the rollout, you wouldn't want to give the Government scope to target you on tax cuts. So it makes sense to leave them as is?

CHALMERS: We want to get the policy settings right here. We've said for some time now that the priority, initially, is our four-point-plan to deal with this pandemic - which is to get vaccines and quarantine right, a proper public information campaign, and manufacture mRNA vaccines. That's the near term priority.

In the medium and longer term, we've got to make sure that we get the labour market right in this country. There's too much underemployment, too much insecure work. That's why Anthony Albanese wants to do a white paper on full employment. So that we can make sure there are the opportunities in a recovering economy for more people in more parts of the country. Those are our priorities. We've been saying that for some time. Tax will be part of what we take to the election and obviously we'll have a view by then. We're yet to finalise a position on the Government's tax cuts that have been legislated.

GILBERT: Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers joining me live from Brisbane, appreciate it. Thanks.

CHALMERS: Thank you, Kieran.

ENDS