JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY SUNDAY AGENDA
SUNDAY, 6 FEBRUARY 2022
 
SUBJECTS: Morrison Government a smoking ruin of disunity and dysfunction; Interest rates; Costs of living skyrocketing as real wages go backwards; Labor’s plan for the economy.
 
KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Let's go live to Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers. You heard the minister there say that text messages of all sorts are sent by different parties. I'm sure that your colleagues or yourself would have sent disparaging text messages from time-to-time. What do you say to that and that suggestion by the Environment Minister?
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Nice try, Susan. It was a good effort to read out the lines provided by the Prime Minister's office but we all know what government cabinet ministers think about the Prime Minister. 
 
This government is a smoking ruin of division, disunity and dysfunction and ordinary Australians are paying the price for that. We've got frightened and vulnerable people in aged care, we’ve got small business owners worrying about customers coming through the door, we’ve got working families worried about the skyrocketing costs of living and real wages going backwards, and the government seems to spend all of its time dishing out free character assessments of each other. There is no salvaging this government. A change in the Liberal leader or the National leader won't do it. The only way to chart the path for a better future for this country is to change the government.
 
GILBERT: The dramas around the government must have given Labor a boost. Are you more optimistic now three months out from the poll?
 
CHALMERS: We've always been confident but not complacent about putting forward an agenda for a better future and for a better life for working families. The circus on the other side, in the government, the fact that the government is disintegrating before our eyes, is an important part of the choice that people will make. But we know that we need to be a good, solid alternative. That's what we are under Anthony Albanese's leadership, a united party with a plan for government, a plan for a better future where ordinary working people actually get a look in. Where we can deal with some of these issues that have been piling up for the last eight or nine years that the government has been fighting amongst themselves.
 
GILBERT: The economy will be front and centre at this election. One of the issues is cost of living and inflation with the flow on effect to interest rates. I ask you this one in a broad sense, do you think the RBA has lulled people into a false sense of security about the schedule of likely interest rates given many economists think there will be a rate rise inevitable at some point this year, and people maybe have gone into too much debt? Is that the RBA's fault?
 
CHALMERS: Kieran, you and I've been talking about the Reserve Bank for probably the best part of a decade now and you know that I don't second guess the decisions of the Reserve Bank. I'm not critical of them. Clearly they've said that interest rates can't stay at near zero forever but that they're not in a rush to raise rates no matter who wins the next election. So for a lot of working families, already dealing with the skyrocketing cost of living, an increase in interest rates will sting. That's why it's so important that Labor have an agenda, under Anthony Albanese, to get those costs of living down, whether it's cheaper and cleaner energy, whether it's cheaper, more accessible childcare or whether it's trying to get wages growing again. Ordinary working families in this country, while the government is having this monumental blue on their side, as we come out of the worst part of the pandemic, have got these skyrocketing costs of living, their real wages are going backwards in the government's own budget and wages are one of the issues that the Reserve Bank, I think helpfully has been raising for some time, this has been an issue -
 
GILBERT: But there's nothing you can do for things like petrol prices and in terms of cost of living relief for families, beyond the wages issue what's within the policy kitbag there? What can you do?
 
CHALMERS: Let me give you at least two examples, Kieran. Our Powering Australia policy, which is all about getting emissions down and getting cleaner energy into the system is all about getting cheaper energy into the system as well, there is something like a $275 a year saving on people's power bills. That's important. We've got a policy out there for some time now on cheaper and more accessible childcare and we know speaking to working families, that that's one of the big cost of living pressures that they're confronting. On the wages front, you won't deal with a decade of wage stagnation without dealing with job insecurity, which has been a cancer in the labour market for so long. So we've got policies around labour hire and the Fair Work Commission, the gig economy and all of that as well. These are the sorts of things that we intend to do to make life easier for working families. The government does not give working families a look in because they're too busy dishing out free character assessments in this smoking ruin of a government.
 
GILBERT: Rate rises could happen with you as Treasurer, if the opinion polls can be believed this time, have you put any thought to how you would manage that, because it's a difficult proposition?
 
CHALMERS: We've put lots of thought into the economic conditions that we would inherit; skyrocketing cost of living, real wages going backwards, a trillion dollars of debt in the budget and not enough to show for it. But whoever wins the next election will be confronting hopefully, a recovering economy, but an economy with its share of challenges. We want and we expect the economy to recover strongly in time but it needs to be a recovery that works for everyone. That's why costs of living is so important. That's why wages, childcare and all the other issues we've been talking about today are so important.
 
GILBERT: Is fiscal repair a priority for you when unemployment is so low and gets to below 4 per cent?
 
CHALMERS: First of all, we want the unemployment rate to be as low as possible but it doesn't tell the full story of the labour market, which has been defined for eight or nine years now by stagnant wages, by job insecurity and by the fact now that we have something like 1.5 million Australians who either can't find a job or can't find enough hours to support their loved ones, at the same time, as we've got these skill shortages, which are a handbrake on the recovery. So those are the issues in the labour market. When it comes to budget repair, a new government would inherit that trillion dollars in debt, but not enough to show for it - generational debt without a generational dividend. So the responsibility on a new Labor government would be to manage the budget much more responsibly then the Liberals and Nationals have. That means dealing with some of these slush funds, which have absolutely riddled the budget with rorts. It means making sure that the investments that we make are good investments that deliver a more productive, faster growing economy, and also looking for opportunities like in multinational taxes to make sure that multinational corporations pay their fair share. These are the sorts of things we should be looking at when it comes to repairing the budget over time.
 
GILBERT: Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers, appreciate your time.
 
CHALMERS: Thank you Kieran.
 
ENDS