JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
SLACKS CREEK
TUESDAY, 15 MARCH 2022

SUBJECTS: Costs of living skyrocketing, real wages going backwards, Australians falling further behind; Costs of essentials were rising before the war in Ukraine; Labor won’t be lectured on budget responsibility by the most wasteful government since Federation; Fuel excise; Scott Morrison spends all day pretending to be someone else and his attacks on Anthony Albanese say more about him; MH17; Floods have worsened the existing housing crisis; Interest rates expected to rise no matter who wins the election.       
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Under this Prime Minister and this Government everything is going up except your pay. This is a Prime Minister for higher prices and lower real wages. The costs of living are skyrocketing, real wages are going backwards, and Australians are falling further behind. 

The Prime Minister and the Treasurer want to pretend this is all about the war in Ukraine but the pressure on family budgets was building well before Russia invaded Ukraine. 

This is why Australians cannot risk and cannot afford another three years of attacks on job security and take home pay. This is why Labor has a plan to ease the costs of living when it comes to power bills and childcare costs, and to create more, better paid, more secure jobs so that people can keep up with the costs of living in this country. 

This election will be about the costs of living. It will be about a decade of failing to manage the economy in the interests of working people. It will be about how Australian working families cannot afford and cannot risk another three years of falling behind under the Liberals and Nationals, a government which gives you much higher prices and lower real wages, so that working families in this country are falling further behind. Over to you.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible) 

CHALMERS: The costs of living are going through the roof and they have been since before the war in Ukraine. One of the things that's most important about this inflation that we're seeing start to gallop in our economy is that wages aren't keeping up, real wages are falling and Australian families are falling further behind. Obviously, governments should be providing cost of living relief to Australian families. We've said that our initial priorities are to get power bills down, get the childcare costs down, and to invest in secure well-paid jobs so Australian working families aren't falling behind. 

JOURNALIST: How can Labor be taken seriously when you appear to be pledging money in seats purely because they're marginal?

CHALMERS: We won't be taking lectures from the most wasteful government since Federation. This is a government which has pored over color-coded spreadsheets, sprayed around billions of dollars to suit their political purposes. We have a Treasurer who committed $60 million to car parks in his own electorate, which he then couldn't deliver. So we won't be taking lectures about election commitments or budget responsibility from the most wasteful, most rorting government that this country has ever seen.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

CHALMERS: We work closely with other levels of government, with local stakeholders, to make sure that what we commit is responsible and is appropriate, and that there are proper processes around it. Compare and contrast that with the government, which has spent the last decade rorting public money, the last few years opposing the introduction of a National Anti-Corruption Commission. A government where the Treasurer is up to his neck in rorting taxpayer funds - $60 million plus for car parks in his own electorate, which couldn't be proceeded with. We won't be taking lectures from these characters on budget responsibility.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

CHALMERS: Of course not. 

JOURNALIST: Okay. Sorry, is it hypocritical that you criticise the government for pork barrelling when you're doing exactly the same thing with these announcements?

CHALMERS: I don't accept that we are. The commitments that we take to this election are responsible, they're developed in conjunction with other levels of government and important local stakeholders, and they are committed on the basis of local community need and not other considerations. Again, I invite you to contrast that with a Government that has resisted introducing a National Anti-Corruption Commission, a government which has sprayed billions of dollars around marginal seats to suit their political purposes, a Government with a trillion dollars in debt and almost nothing to show for it, because they always prioritise their political interests over the interests of the national economy.

JOURNALIST: What can the Government do to alleviate the costs of living right now?

CHALMERS: Cost of living pressures are skyrocketing and working families are paying the price for a Morrison Government which cannot manage the economy in their interests. Our initial priorities get power bills down, make childcare cheaper, get real wages growing again. Australians cannot afford another three years like the last ten, of building pressure on family budgets at the same time as the Government sprays around billions of dollars without doing enough to substantially help people with the costs of living. Labor would be very different. We've already said what our initial priorities are when it comes to easing the cost of living and getting real wages growing again. Australians are doing it tough enough without another three years of a Government which doesn't care about them.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

CHALMERS: There's a range of things that you can do to ease the costs of living pressures on Australian families. I've already identified getting power bills down, making childcare cheaper, getting real wages growing again, and if there are other opportunities to ease the cost of living then we would obviously examine that in a responsible way. Family budgets are getting squeezed, Australian working families are under extreme pressure, and the risk of another three years of Scott Morrison, and Barnaby Joyce, and Josh Frydenberg, is more of the same.

JOURNALIST: If there was a cut to the fuel excise and the way the current government's been spending money, how long until the Budget's back in surplus, which is sort of the focus of campaigns past?

CHALMERS: Under the Government's own projections, the Budget doesn't return to surplus over coming decades. Under the Government's own figures there is a trillion dollars of debt, and I think Australians know that we have nowhere near enough to show for that trillion dollars in debt. If the Government wants to come forward with some kind of budget initiative, then we will look at it the way that we always do - responsibly, we will consult with relevant people, we'll have our discussions internally, and we'll come to a view on it. Labor will be more responsible with the Budget at this election than the Coalition has proven to be over the last decade. There's a trillion dollars of debt and not enough to show for it. We'll make sure that whatever we responsibly promise will be good for working families, good for the Budget, and good for the economy.

JOURNALIST: Scott Morrison made some comments about Anthony Albanese's appearance and weight loss. Are you a bit concerned about how personal this campaign is getting already?

CHALMERS: It shows how panicked and desperate the Prime Minister's become. Bagging somebody for having the discipline to shed some kilos I think just shows how out of touch he is – a lot of people that I know would love to shed kegs a couple of kegs like Anthony has. I'm proud of him. As a colleague and as a mate, I'm proud of what he's been able to do to get match fit, to show that he's fit for government. I think these are good things, I think Australians admire the effort that Anthony has put in. 

The Prime Minister said he's not going to pretend to be someone else - this guy spends almost every day pretending to be somebody else! We've seen all of the icky photo ops - washing people's hair, mopping an already clean basketball stadium, pretending to weld, and pretending to fly planes. 

This is a phony Prime Minister who spends almost every day pretending to be somebody else. He can't even tell the truth about the glasses that he changed. If he can't even tell the truth about his own eyewear, what hope is there that he's telling the truth about the cost of living and the economy more broadly? You can't believe a word that he says.  He's actually diminishing in office before our very eyes, and I think that these desperate and panicked and frankly ridiculous personal attacks say more about Scott Morrison than about anybody else.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible re MH17)

CHALMERS: We want justice for the families. That was a horrific incident and the least that the families affected can expect is some kind of justice, and so we have been willing throughout to provide bipartisan support when various legal avenues have been pursued. That's appropriate. We do that on behalf of people who've been through unimaginable grief.

JOURNALIST: And on the flooding, your electorate's been hit by the flooding as well. There's a serious housing shortage both in South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales as a result of the flooding. What would Labor do if they were in government to alleviate this crisis?

CHALMERS: Where we're standing right now was underwater not that long ago, this is one of the areas that flooded really badly. One of the consequences of the extreme flooding we've seen in South East Queensland and also through New South Wales is a lot of people have been displaced. We had a housing crisis in this country before the floods and the floods have made things that much more difficult. Jason Clare, our Housing Spokesperson, has already been here in the course of the week, in Rocklea with Graham Perrett, having other consultations to see what can be meaningfully done. We will take to the election a policy on housing which begins with getting social housing right. We understand - I think the Government doesn't, but we understand - that there's a housing crisis in this country, made worse by the floods but not created from scratch by the floods. We will always be looking for ways to do the right thing by people. Whether they're displaced by natural disasters or displaced by economic circumstances, they can't be forgotten.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

CHALMERS: It's a substantial challenge that has been made worse by the floods but not created by the floods. We've said all along - whether it's the welcome steps taken by the regulators, whether it's our policy to build tens-of-thousands of units of social housing with our Future Fund - these are all important steps. If more steps need to be taken or proposed by federal Labor, then we will take those steps and make those proposals between now and the next election. 

It is getting harder for people in the housing market. Interest rate rises are inevitable. Nobody expects interest rates to stay at or near zero forever, as they have been over the last little while. No matter who wins this election interest rates are expected to rise, the Reserve Bank Governor has made it clear. Every credible economic commentator says that interest rates will come off these historic lows at some point in the next year or two, and that is completely unrelated to who wins the election. The responsibility on governments of either political persuasion, is to stand by people affected by the floods and not go missing, and it is to do the right things - whether it's in social housing or in other ways - to deal with this housing crisis which has emerged on Scott Morrison's watch. 

JOURNALIST: Thanks.

CHALMERS: Thanks very much.

ENDS