E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AM AGENDA
THURSDAY, 10 MAY 2018
SUBJECT/S: High Court decision; tax cuts; Budget reply
KIERAN GILBERT: With me now is the Shadow Finance Minister, Jim Chalmers. Jim Chalmers, you heard one of the suggestions there in relation to those Labor MPs that have resigned in Parliament, but not formally resigned, and still taking wages and their staff are taking wages. Is that accurate?
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: As I understand it, they had a couple of constituent matters to finalise and tidy up, but I understand they'll be writing to the speaker later today.
GILBERT: So they've got nothing to worry about? Because Mr Morrison was saying they'll be in Parliament and voting and all that sort of thing.
CHALMERS: No, they'll be spending the beginning of today tidying up some constituent issues; there's always some loose ends to tie up. But, as I understand it, they'll be writing to the Speaker to formally resign today.
GILBERT: What about this whole handling of this? Because the Prime Minister reiterating there that the black letter law approach of the High Court was made clear during the Canavan and Joyce matters, and at that point Mr Shorten should have saw fit to have those MPs referred to the High Court.
CHALMERS: I think the High Court's come up with a stricter interpretation in this most recent ruling, and we have to cop that on the chin. That's fine, we accept the ruling of the court. We were relying on some advice for quite a long time that the reasonable steps test had been met. The High Court found otherwise; cop that on the chin. We go to a series of by-elections now and the by-elections will really be about one thing. It'll give people an early opportunity to register their opinion on a Budget which fails the fairness test.
GILBERT: It certainly does. It's very interesting timing in that sense. But it's also an opportunity to judge Bill Shorten's handling of this. Has it reflected badly on him? Because I know some of your colleagues have told me privately that they have not been encouraged by this approach, which is pushing it, pushing it, pushing it, and now as the Daily Telegraph says, Mr Shorten's got egg on his face.
CHALMERS: The Daily Telegraph can explain their own headlines. I think that Bill has relied on the same advice that we've all been relying on for some time. We've all been through what we've considered to be strict processes. We think that the High Court interpretation is a stricter interpretation in this case than what we were advised to expect. Now we have a series of by-elections and the by-election will largely be about the Budget handed down two nights ago which overwhelmingly favours the top end of town at the expense of ordinary Australians, and people in those electorates will get a chance to register their opinion on that front.
GILBERT: The income tax cuts though won't, they will favour low- and middle-income earners. If you look at, once the whole program is in, for those on $50,000 a year they have a 6.3 per cent reduction on their tax, those earning over $200,000 have a 2.5 per cent reduction.
CHALMERS: We've had two very credible reports released in the last 24 hours which show that the news proposals in the Budget overwhelmingly favour the wealthiest Australians.
GILBERT: In dollar terms, or percentage terms?
CHALMERS: In dollar terms. But we're talking about here NATSEM, which is arguably the most credible economic modeller in the country of these sorts of impacts, and they've come out and said that the Budget is a Budget for the top end of town. Another one, this is five in a row now. So I think what we'll see tonight when Bill Shorten replies to the Budget is we'll see a really strong contrast between a Budget which failed the fairness test and a Labor alternative which will put the battlers before the billionaires.
GILBERT: But in terms of the focus in the short term at least, this is inarguable that it is going to focus on the low- and middle-income earners, but you can't support that phase; the Government's said it's all or nothing.
CHALMERS: There's a couple of things about that. Yes, we support the tax changes which come in on 1 July 2018 because they overwhelmingly favour low- and middle-income earners. The rest of the package, some of it comes in after two more elections - seven years down the track. We asked repeatedly in the Parliament yesterday for a breakdown in the costs of that tax package, and the Government is either unwilling or unable to even tell us how much it costs.
GILBERT: You've been around this space for a lot longer than most people in the Parliament, and too many lock-ups already and don't even have a grey hair... (Laughs)
CHALMERS: (Laughs) A few!
GILBERT: A couple. In relation to the way it's done, forward estimates are costed and the individual breakdown of those years, but beyond that, because it's harder to predict, then it's not definitive year by year breakdowns in terms of the way that budgets are put together.
CHALMERS: As you said, the Government's put into the Parliament a package which is a seven-year package and they said you must vote for this. And we've said understandably, we'll how much do the different parts cost? They're unable or unwilling to tell us. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't buy something if I didn't know what the price of it was. The other point is, I really question, Kieran, whether they are committed to low- and middle-income earners if they are prepared to hold them hostage to tax cuts for the top end of town. They should split the Bills. We've said that we are prepared to immediately support the tax changes which come in on the 1st of July this year. We want to consider the rest of them. We're not yet convinced.
GILBERT: We'll tune in tonight to see Mr Shorten. Thanks very much for that Jim Chalmers, talk to you soon.
ENDS
