JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

 
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY SUNDAY AGENDA
SUNDAY, 2 MAY 2021
 
SUBJECTS: Tasmanian election; Recovery from recession; Treasurer’s budget backflip; Labor’s superior childcare policy; Prime Minister’s failures on vaccinations and quarantine; Jobs for Liberal mates.
 
KIERAN GILBERT HOST: Let's bring in the Shadow Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Another win, the fifth as Andrew said there, for an incumbent Government amid the pandemic. Are you worried about the hit to the Labor brand in Tasmania, which has been a traditionally Labor state?
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Look as you know, Kieran, having covered this last night on your panel, the counting continues for some time, we don't yet know what the final outcome is. Premier Gutwein has said that he will resign if he doesn't get that thirteenth seat. But I think it's important that we recognise the strong showing by the Liberal Premier down there, as Rebecca White did last night in her characteristically classy way. It was a strong showing by the Government. 
 
On the Labor side, I don't think anything more could have been asked of Rebecca White and her Labor team. Very difficult campaign, very difficult circumstances. One of the reasons why Premier Gutwein went early was to try and capitalise on the incumbency that comes from governing during a pandemic. So I think Rebecca White really did quite an amazing job in those circumstances, as did her Labor team, and we should recognise that as well.
 
The other point I'd like to make here about the Tasmanian election is that state leaders have typically done a better job than Scott Morrison when it comes to dealing with the pandemic. The big failures in the management of this pandemic have been quarantine and the vaccination rollout, both of those things are Scott Morrison's responsibility. So, at the state level, incumbency has been very valuable. We've seen that right around the country in recent months, and that's benefited governments, incumbent governments, of both political persuasions.
 
GILBERT: But the federal government, to give them credit also, has done some effective things, including shutting the international border. And there's no doubt that in the National Cabinet measures, as well, the leadership the PM put in place, so the incumbency of government in Australia, where we've thankfully done a lot better than the rest of the world, is a huge advantage for the Morison Government, isn't it?
 
CHALMERS: Well, first of all, so we should have done much better than the rest of the world. That’s a credit to the Australian people, who did the right thing by each other and limited the spread of the virus. Incumbency does matter, but it matters what you do with that incumbency.
 
You mentioned the closure of the international border, which is doing a lot of damage to a lot of businesses and a lot of workers around Australia, still. That international border will be closed for longer than it needs to be because Scott Morrison has bungled his two key responsibilities - to get the vaccination rolled out safely, and quickly, and effectively, and to manage the quarantine system.
 
The defining stuff-ups of this pandemic here in Australia are directly the responsibility of Scott Morrison, the incumbent. I think it's entirely reasonable for us to point out that the economic recovery would be stronger were it not for those two defining debacles - quarantine and vaccinations.
 
GILBERT: Do you welcome the childcare announcement today from the Government? In fact, it looks more targeted than Labor's? Is it more realistic, with its subsidies cutting out at families that earn $359,000 a year? Yours go for $500,000 or more, the subsidy. Should you be looking at a more targeted plan?
 
CHALMERS: We'll have more to say about this latest childcare announcement through the course of the day, via Anthony Albanese and also Amanda Rishworth, who's done a mountain of work for a long time now on fixing this broken system. I think as Andrew Clennell intimated a moment ago, this is more about getting a government through the election then properly recognising the pressure on Australian families and recognising this opportunity to do some genuine economic reform.
 
The problem here is the Government's been in office for eight long years now, at the next election, they'll be asking for twelve, and the childcare system has been increasingly broken in that time. They can't fix it because they don’t. understand thar, and they can't grasp this opportunity to fix childcare, in the interests of Australian mums and dads, but also to do that key economic reform. And one of the reasons why....
 
GILBERT: But, fundamentally, what's wrong with this plan?
 
CHALMERS: We'll go through the detail of it, Kieran, but there's hundreds-of-thousands of families which would be better off under Labor's plan, that miss out under this plan that the Government's put into the newspapers today. This plan looks like making the system more complex, rather than simpler. And one of the big things we get feedback on is how complex the system is. But, I think overall, the big problem here, is this childcare announcement's about getting the Liberals through an election, it’s not about getting women back to work in particular. It makes it more complex, it misses the chance to do a key economic reform, and that's why our package, announced by Anthony Albanese and Amanda Rishworth, is superior.
 
GILBERT: Now, on the Budget recovery. The economy, or the economic recovery, it's firing at the moment. The Budget recovery, the Treasurer says the fiscal repair will be put off until we're over the crisis. I'm sure you would welcome that approach, but on JobKeeper, in the fortnight after JobKeeper ended, he said in his speech this week, that 46,000 people came off income support. So, either found employment, but came off income support from the government. So, rather than hundreds-of-thousands of jobs lost, this transition has gone smoothly. Do you give him credit for that?
 
CHALMERS: Well, there are a couple of elements to your question, Kieran. When it comes to the economic recovery, again, the credit for that belongs to the Australian people for limiting the spread of the virus. The economy is recovering from the deepest, most-damaging recession we've had in this country for almost 100 years. That recovery is welcome, it's pleasing, it's expected, but it's also uncertain, and uneven, and patchy. We need to recognise that there are still almost two million Australians who can't find a job or can't find enough hours to support their loved ones. The Treasurer has been talking about those JobKeeper figures. What we've said all along, is that in pockets of Australia, the Treasurer's cuts to JobKeeper will hurt. I think if he's denying that then he's even more out of touch than we feared. Jobs are being created elsewhere in the economy and when that happens, we welcome it, those are pleasing developments. I think when it comes to the recovery...
 
GILBERT: The transition has been a lot smoother though, hasn't it?
 
CHALMERS: Well, it remains to be seen, Kieran. I think if you ask some of those tourism operators in Cairns that we've been spending time with, they won't consider the recovery to be a smooth one. For a lot of people in this country it still feels like a recession, even as the economy recovers in aggregate. That economic recovery would be much stronger were it not for the Prime Minister's fumbling of the vaccine rollout and quarantine. The recovery would be stronger if the Treasurer hadn't bungled the JobMaker Hiring Scheme. He said there'd be 450,000 jobs created, instead there was 609 jobs created at the last count. And the Budget would be stronger if it wasn't riddled with rorts and weighed down with waste - like JobKeeper payments for profitable companies that didn't need it, all the money wasted on marketing and political advertising, and jobs for mates. For all of these reasons, we think it's important to recognise the economy is recovering, that has consequences for the Budget, and that's a good thing. But the recovery would be stronger, were it not for these mistakes that the Prime Minister is making on quarantine and vaccinations.
 
GILBERT: And on the fiscal strategy, to wait to we're beyond the crisis, to focus on an unemployment rate below 5 per cent, as opposed to 6 per cent, you obviously would see that as the right approach, wouldn't you?
 
CHALMERS: Well, we've been saying for some time, as have all of the credible economists, that if we want to get that wages growth that's been missing over the past eight long years of this Liberal Government, then we need to get much closer to full employment. We've said for some time, that now is not the time to flick the switch to austerity.
 
It's hard to take the Treasurer seriously on these matters. It was only a couple of weeks ago that he was intimating that unemployment just under 6 per cent was good enough. He's the guy that printed the 'back in black' mugs. He's the guy that was saying that debt of $200 billion was a disaster but now that it's north of a trillion dollars, that it's manageable, and sensible, and prudent.
 
We all know what's going on here. And, again, Andrew Clennell, I think, hit the nail on the head a moment ago. All of this shift in rhetoric is more about getting the Government through an election, not about creating good, secure, well-paid jobs for Australians, particularly those two million who don't get a look-in. That's what explains the shift over in rhetoric that we saw during the course of last week.
 
GILBERT: Almost out of time, just quickly, the thirteen former Liberal MP's staffers given jobs. Are you saying that those people that the government have appointed to various commissions and bodies are not equipped to do those jobs? What's your problem with that, because it tends to be something that happens across the board in politics?
 
CHALMERS: Well, we've had an extraordinary year of appointments of the Prime Minister's political mates. When the Prime Minister and Treasurer said that they're focused on jobs, what they really mean, is they're focused on these jobs for people associated with the Liberal Party. At a time when almost two million people can't get work or enough work and can't get a look-in, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer are focused on these well-paid, taxpayer funded jobs, for their mates. And I think people will be very unhappy when they read that.
 
GILBERT: Jim Chalmers, appreciate your time, thanks for that.
 
CHALMERS: Thank you, Kieran.
 
ENDS