E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AM AGENDA
TUESDAY, 10 JULY 2018
 
SUBJECT/S: Mark Latham and One Nation; by-elections; energy; pre-selections in Victoria
 
KIERAN GILBERT: Let's turn our attention now to politics. Joining me is the Shadow Finance Minister Jim Chalmers. Jim, thanks very much for your time. Quite a development in the seat of Longman ahead of the by-election there with Pauline Hanson recruiting none other than Mark Latham to undertake robocalls in that seat. It sparked a bit of a fiery exchange on Sky News last night. I want to play that to you and our viewers and then get your thoughts on those developments.
 
[Plays clip]
 
It was quite some clash there on the Paul Murray Live program, Jim Chalmers. What do you make of the developments there with Mark Latham boosting the minor parties, specifically One Nation now?
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: First of all, I think it takes a fair bit to get Richo fired up like that, but I think he was reflecting a view, certainly in the Labor Party, but probably in the broader community too, that Mark Latham has become really a pretty sad and pathetic figure searching in vain for relevance wherever he can find it. So we're not especially surprised or especially troubled to see him pop up in Longman in cahoots with Pauline Hanson who is, after all, in cahoots with Malcolm Turnbull. She votes with him in the Senate time and time again. I don't think the people of Morayfield are sitting around their lounge rooms in Origin week waiting for their instructions on who to vote for from Mark Latham.
 
GILBERT: And when they get the call in Origin week - obviously trying to save some pride, the Queenslanders, but we won't get distracted...
 
CHALMERS: (Laughs)
 
GILBERT: Let's focus on the phone call. If they get the phone call from a former Labor leader, does it have a negative impact for Bill Shorten? Because it's quite a frank assessment that he gives, accusing him of being a liar.
 
CHALMERS: Bill Shorten's got more integrity in his little finger than Mark Latham has in his whole body.  I think Mark Latham is just reflecting a bit of frustration that Bill has been able to do what Mark failed so spectacularly at. Bill Shorten has for five years now united a team, listened and led, empowered his colleagues, set the policy agenda - done all of the things that Mark was unable to. Bill is more responsible than anyone for the fact that for the best part of the last two years federal Labor has been in a very strong, very competitive election-winning position. Being the Leader of the Opposition is a very difficult job. It was too difficult for Mark, but it's something that Bill is doing very well at because he does listen and lead and empower his colleagues and set the policy agenda to really come up with a set of policies that accord more closely with the values and aspirations of middle Australia than Malcolm Turnbull or Pauline Hanson or Mark Latham. And what Mark Latham has done doesn't actually change the dynamics of that Longman by-election. The dynamics of the by-election are that if you vote for Pauline Hanson and One Nation, you're effectively voting for Malcolm Turnbull's cuts to hospitals and schools and penalty rates.
 
GILBERT: Because that Hanson impact is going to be so crucial isn't it, in terms of the preference flows? Because she preferenced Labor at the last election; this time around it's going to be heading the LNP's way.
 
CHALMERS: Yeah, Pauline Hanson, Malcolm Turnbull, Mark Latham – they’re all in cahoots. It's hard to tell where the Liberal Party ends and One Nation begins, because Hanson wanders around Longman pretending she's a friend of the battler but then goes into the Senate and puts her hand up with Malcolm Turnbull 90 per cent of the time, to give big tax cuts to millionaires; all of those sorts of things which are central to Malcolm Turnbull's agenda, and so damaging to the values and aspirations of the people on low- and middle-incomes in Longman, in Braddon and right around Australia.
 
GILBERT: Let's look at one of those issues in terms of cost of living - energy costs. The Australian Energy Regulator has moved to target the infrastructure giants and their shareholders returns. It's a balancing act in that sense though, isn't it? Because if they go too far in that sense, you impact the investment flows, don't you?
 
CHALMERS: The behaviour of the power companies is part of the problem here, but it's not the whole problem. What we've been saying is that the overwhelming priority of the Australian Government should be to actually settle an energy policy. We've had discussions about Royal Commissions, we've had discussions about the operators, we've had discussions about the power companies, but really the biggest problem that we've got here is we won't get that downward pressure on prices until we have some certainty for investors. We won't get that certainty until there's a settled policy. The Turnbull Government has proven incapable of coming up with a settled policy that the rest of us can engage with, because it’s involved in this sort of cage match in their internal workings of the Liberal Party and in their party room. So first things first, the Government should come up with an energy policy, Turnbull should lead for once and put the national interest before internal party room politics. He should silence the critics in his own show and come up with a policy we can all engage with. That would do more to put downward pressure on prices than all of these other things that we've been talking about.
 
GILBERT: Is a Royal Commission too much in this regard? When you're talking about the retailers at least, that's something that the Greens want to look at regarding power prices. What's your view on that? Obviously we've had a lot of Royal Commissions recently. Is that something that Labor would be open to?
 
CHALMERS: We haven't formally considered that yet, Kieran. We've obviously been monitoring the debate the last few days about whether a Royal Commission's necessary. Royal Commissions are really big deals, as we're seeing now with the banking Royal Commission, which Labor has been supporting for years now. So we haven't formally considered that yet. In a way, it's really up to the companies and the Government to show that a Royal Commission isn't necessary. But first things first, we need a settled energy policy in this country. We won't get that while we've got this bar room brawl between Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott over energy. The main thing we need to see in this country is a settled energy policy out of the Government that the rest of us can engage with and then try to improve on. If we get that, we'll go some way towards putting the downward pressure on prices that families and businesses need around the country.
 
GILBERT: A couple of other issues to get your thoughts on - Bill Shorten apparently going to give the pre-selection controls at least in Victoria - his home state - to the National Executive. Is that a risk in terms of disempowering the grass roots within the party?
 
CHALMERS: We've got the opportunity in Victoria to really refresh the team. I wish there wasn't a vacancy in Jagajaga. I wish Jenny Macklin would go around for another 22 or 23 years, but we do have some vacancies. We do have some opportunities to refresh the team in Victoria. I don't involve myself in the process of the pre-selections down there. I hope that we get really great candidates and I'm sure that we will no matter what process is adopted. We are up against it a bit time-wise now, I think that's worth noting. We could have an election really from August onwards. We've got to balance all of the considerations, get terrific candidates in the field. They've got big shoes to fill when it comes to Jenny Macklin in particular, but I'm sure that we'll settle the process, we'll get great candidates and they'll make the Labor case.
 
GILBERT: But if you want to get members into a party, they should be able to have a say in who represents them?
 
CHALMERS: Well that's the overwhelming experience that people have in the Labor Party. We've just been through a number of ballots in my home state of Queensland. We've just elected a terrific National President in Wayne Swan. We have all kinds of opportunities to have a say. From time to time that isn't possible, if we're up against it time-wise, but I don't involve myself in that Kieran. I'm sure they'll come up with a process that will lead to terrific candidates who'll make the case for Labor.
 
GILBERT: Shadow Finance Minister Jim Chalmers, thank you. I appreciate your time. I'll talk to you soon.
 
CHALMERS: Thanks Kieran.
 
ENDS