E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AM AGENDA
THURSDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Market concerns about possible Trump presidency; Turnbull Government’s debt and deficit blowouts; AAA credit rating at risk; Senators Bob Day and Rod Culleton; IR bills

KIERAN GILBERT: With me now, the Shadow Finance Minister Jim Chalmers. What are your thoughts on the market jitters in relation to Donald Trump?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Just firstly on Cory Bernardi, for a guy who has made a career out of dividing people in Australia, I'm not surprised to see that he's enjoying the circus that's going on in this American presidential election. We'll know the outcome this time next week. I think there's a lot to be concerned about. Obviously, we will work with whoever wins and we don't have a vote in that election. But I think a lot of people here in Australia and around the world are hoping that we don't have to make the best of a bad situation. We're entitled to our view about the things we're concerned about. We're concerned about Donald Trump's views on women and on minorities, but what the markets are reacting to is really the incoherence of his policies on America's place in the world and also his economic policies.

GILBERT: Just specifically on that, what are your thoughts as Shadow Finance Minister on the fears of some, including the former IMF chief economist, that Trump could lead to a trade-led recession?

CHALMERS: Those sorts of views are pretty widely shared, unfortunately. I think those polls that came out in the last 48 hours have obviously spooked markets. They have spooked people who are concerned about the flow-on consequences of a Donald Trump presidency on the global economy. And we're not talking here about partisan players in the conversation; we're talking about serious analysts and serious commentators who have flagged those sorts of concerns. If Donald Trump wins the election, obviously we will do our best; we'll make the best of a bad situation and that goes for people in the economy as well as people in the broader community.

GILBERT: In terms of the Parliamentary Budget Office numbers released yesterday, it showed the trajectory on debt and deficit not good right across the country at both state and federal level, Jim Chalmers. This is a wake-up call, not just to the Government, but the Opposition as well, isn't it? For you and Chris Bowen and others to continue the argument to support savings that the Government puts up to Parliament?

CHALMERS: It was a very important report yesterday from the Parliamentary Budget Office. It did show that the Budget has deteriorated further on the Turnbull Government's watch. We saw a blowout in Commonwealth debt of something like $10 billion, which is substantial. And that blowout, they've put down to the mounting deficits under this Government. It's time that the Government took responsibility for the deterioration of the Budget. You're right that Labor has a role to play in being responsible – we took $130 billion worth of savings to the election. We've agreed where we can with savings measures and disagreed where we must, when it comes to things like smashing Medicare or asking the most vulnerable people to carry the can, or hollowing out the future. We do have a role to play, but it's time for the Government to take responsibility.

Australia's AAA credit rating is at risk under the Turnbull Government. If we lost that AAA credit rating, that would push up mortgage repayments and it would damage confidence in our economy. So we call on the Government to abandon this $50 billion tax cut for big business that they've been clinging to. We call on them to pick up our sensible policy proposals on things like negative gearing, so that we can work together to avoid that AAA credit rating downgrade and to avoid the kind of Budget carnage that the PBO identified yesterday.

GILBERT: I want to ask you about this constitutional question that faces the Senate. They're going to refer two Senators – really unbelievable coincidence – but both are being referred at the same time. It's a bit of a long bow for Bill Shorten to be blaming the Government for two crossbench Senators who are facing these particular questions, isn't it?

CHALMERS: Not at all, Kieran. Two things about that. Firstly, this is a Government that lurches from one chaos to the next. These sorts of events used to be the exception in our politics, but under Malcolm Turnbull they've become the norm. He said he'd have a double dissolution to clean up the Senate and nobody would think that the situation right now could be described as cleaned up. That's the first point.

The second point is, you've described a coincidence. I don't think it's a coincidence that we're seeing these things coming out at the same time. What has happened, what is very clear and what the Government needs to explain and account for, is it's very clear that the Government knew about these issues as far back as 2014 when it comes to Senator Day. And what they were hoping to do was to kind of sneak and scurry through this window of opportunity to get the industrial relations laws through the Senate, hoping that nobody would realise that there are two serious problems with two of the Senators that they had hoped to rely on. So the Government does need to explain all of this; why they ignored departmental advice in 2014 about Senator Day's electorate office and whether or not he had the potential to profit from that.  The Government has known about that for some time and has ignored independent advice. Similarly, when it comes to Senator Culleton, why they sat on some of this news for so long. It's very clear they're being opportunistic about it, being unethical about it and trying to get their bills through the Senate before the Australian people are informed of what's going on.

GILBERT: But in terms of getting the bills through, it doesn't change too much, does it? Having one Senator out certainly doesn't; having two, well they can still get their legislation through with the support of One Nation, Xenophon, Leyonhjelm and Hinch. So in terms of the practicality of it, they can still run their agenda as they see fit to end the year.

CHALMERS: I don't think anyone looking at this Government objectively would think they have the capacity to run their agenda. They are scurrying around, all over the shop when it comes to what they'll do with their industrial relations bills. I heard Senator Fifield, who's the Manager of Government Business in the Senate, on another program this morning unable to guarantee that they would even try to get that through the Senate this year because of all this chaos of their own making. So I think stay tuned on that front.

GILBERT: Jim Chalmers, appreciate your time, we'll talk to you soon.