JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
SYDNEY
TUESDAY, 22 MARCH 2022
SUBJECTS: Pre-Budget speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Scott Morrison’s pre-Budget flurry; Timeline for a federal Labor Budget; Consumer confidence; Paid Parental Leave; Costs of living skyrocketing under Scott Morrison while real wages go backwards; Gas; India; NBN; Industrial relations policy; Labor’s plan to help working families with the costs of living; Morrison Government puts the politics of the day ahead of the economy of the future.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks very much everyone, I've got to be relatively brief. I'm looking forward to speaking to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Business New South Wales in a few minutes. Let me say this about the upcoming Budget: this Budget needs to be about setting Australia up for the future, not just setting the Morrison Government up for a fourth term. The Budget needs to be about getting Australians through a difficult period, not just getting Scott Morrison through an election. What we've seen in the last little while is a desperate Prime Minister wandering around marginal seats, covered in feathers, making all kinds of desperate announcements. If Scott Morrison really cared about tourism, or the NBN, or cost of living pressures, he would have done something about it before now. The only reason we're seeing this flurry of desperate announcements from the Prime Minister is because we are on the eve of an election. If this Government truly cared about the cost of living pressures on Australian working families, they wouldn't have spent the best part of a decade going after their wages and their job security. If this Government really cared about some of the things that they're talking about today, then we wouldn't have had a wasted decade of missed opportunities.
What I'll be speaking about today is why and how the Australian people can expect a better, forward-looking approach from Labor. The tests for this Budget are: Does it ease cost of living pressures enough and responsibly enough? Does it rebuild flooded communities and those affected by natural disasters? Does it start to deal with the rorts and waste which define this Budget, and set it back on the course for something far more responsible? Does it make our economy more resilient, and our family budgets more resilient? Does it lift the speed limit on the Australian economy by investing in productivity, so that we can have that strong economic growth without adding unnecessarily to those inflationary pressures that everybody's copping right now? So this needs to be a Budget for the future and not just a Budget for an election. For the best part of a decade now, we've had Budgets determined for political reasons and not economic reasons. If and when Labor is elected, that will change.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
CHALMERS: We don't take the outcome of this election for granted. But clearly, when you consider a decade now of rorts and waste, when you consider there's a trillion dollars of debt in the Budget with barely anything to show for it, clearly the responsibility of an incoming Labor Government would be to hand down another Budget this year. We take advice from Treasury and from elsewhere about the best time to do that. We've got economic priorities around cleaner and cheaper energy, addressing the skill shortages, investing in the NBN so people can decide how they work and where they work, and child care so that we can build a bigger labour force, and things like co-investment through the National Reconstruction Fund and a future made in Australia. If we were to win the election we would look to budget for those priorities before the end of the year and we'd look to start dealing with the legacy of a decade of rorts, waste and corruption.
JOURNALIST: The way to get the economy going again is through consumer spending, consumers actually going out there and spending in stores. We're not getting wages growth and the ANZ data today show that when there's a shock, when there's a pandemic, an oil price spike, whatever it might be, consumers hold on to their money and they get scared. How is Labor going to solve that problem to rescue the economy and the Budget?`
CHALMERS: There's a lot of uncertainty in the economy, even as it recovers. We've got uncertainty here around inflation and interest rates. We've got global uncertainty with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We've got uncertainty on the health front. What that means is this. Under Scott Morrison, the cost of living is skyrocketing, real wages are going backwards, and families are falling further behind. We've said there needs to be cost of living relief for families in this Budget. We have already announced some priorities in this area to get power bills down, to get child care bills down, and to get real wages growing again. This is not an issue that has just popped up in the last few weeks with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The cost of living pressures on Australian families didn't begin with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they began with the Liberals and Nationals attacks on take home pay, and that can't be forgotten as we deal with the cost of living legacy of this Government.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
CHALMERS: We've said all along that gas has a role to play in our economy, whether it's as part of the manufacturing process, whether it's firming, or in other ways. We take a sensible approach to gas. The Government has put all their eggs in one basket when they talk about a gas-led recovery, but it hasn't created a single job. What they're trying to do is divide people, when the reality is the future of this economy will be powered by a range of sources. Gas will be part of that and renewables will be part of that as well. One of the reasons why our energy policy has been so well received in the business community and elsewhere is because it strikes all of the sensible balances that we need to make sure that our energy is cleaner and cheaper into the future. We can meet some of the international commitments, and some of the targets that we have set and that the state governments and others have set.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
CHALMERS: We haven't come to a concluded view on that issue. As you would expect, we're engaging with stakeholders on a range of issues all of the time, including that one, but we haven't come to a concluded view on it.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
CHALMERS: We've said all along that we are looking at all of these options. We want to make sure that anything we commit to is responsible and affordable. We've already got a substantial policy out there when it comes to dealing with the barriers that women face in our economy. Our biggest on-Budget commitment is child care and we've made some other commitments as well. We are still examining that policy. We are consulting with stakeholders about it. I think the Australian people expect us to be responsible and for anything that we put forward to be affordable.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned the cost of living, increasing wages would do that. If Labor gets into government, would you push the Fair Work Commission to increase wages?
CHALMERS: We've said that there are some cases that will be before the Fair Work Commission, where we will support a responsible increase in pay in areas, particularly in the care economy. There is an important role to play for the Fair Work Commission when it comes to dealing with this legacy of stagnant wages, which has been with us for the best part of the decade under this Morrison Government. If other issues come before the Fair Work Commission we’ll treat them on their merits, but clearly when it comes to the care economy, there's an issue there that needs to be addressed in the Fair Work Commission as part of that.
JOURNALIST: Do you support the multibillion dollar investment [inaudible] and do you think that we should be making deals like that?
CHALMERS: We would like the world to speak with one voice when it comes to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We've made that clear. When it comes to our relations with India, we've said for some time - really for as long as I've been in the parliament, longer than that - that there are missed opportunities with India. It shouldn't be beyond us to balance all of these considerations, so that we've got a good productive relationship with India. We're engaging with them on all the important issues, including the war in Ukraine.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
CHALMERS: If this Government really cared about the NBN and internet access, they would have done something meaningful in the last decade they've been in office. This is ridiculous. This Government, with five minutes to an election, all of a sudden wants Australians to think that they care about the NBN that they've comprehensively botched. The NBN is half as good for twice the cost under this Government. Now because there's an election around the corner, they want to pull this swiftly and make Australians think that they believe in it. If you want a better NBN, the best option is an Albanese Labor Government with Michelle Rowland as the Communications Minister. We've already got some detailed policy out there about upgrading the NBN for one and a half million homes.
JOURNALIST: It's been suggested that in order to get wage growth that we haven't seen, as you mentioned, in years, a silver bullet might be stacking the Fair Work Commission with more Labor representatives and then giving Fair Work teeth to go and actually enforce it. Unions used to go into shops and enforce wage increases. Does Labor have any plans to actually have Fair Work decisions of higher minimum wages implemented in factories and businesses around the country to actually get higher wages?
CHALMERS: We said all along the Fair Work Commission's got an important role to play when it comes to getting stagnant wages growing again. Australian workers have been confronting real wages going backwards even as the economy recovers but that's not the only area that requires attention. There are issues around training people so they can grab these opportunities. There are issues around the gig economy and labour hire. There are issues around growing the economy in a way that recognises that the skills shortages are a handbrake on that recovery. I don't believe in a silver bullet when it comes to wages growth, there are a range of issues that need to be addressed. We've spoken at length about them in the past. We need to get the economy growing the right way. The Budget is crucial to that. We need to recognise that insecure work has been a cancer when it comes to wages growth in this country. So we need to deal with that. I'll take one more question.
JOURNALIST: You spoke about a decade of missed opportunity, some would say that would include economic reform. Is industrial relations reform on the cards?
CHALMERS: We've announced our industrial relations policy some time ago, I think the year before last from memory. Our focus is on dealing with things like labour hire, which is undercutting wages. Dealing with some of the issues in the gig economy. Making sure that the Fair Work Commission operates as its intended, as we've been talking about today. We have our industrial relations policy out there. It's one of our policies, but not the only policy. There's a lot we can do when it comes to skills, the NBN, child care, and co-investment, and a future made in Australia, so that we can get the economy growing the right way. We don't want this Budget next Tuesday night to be another missed opportunity for this Government, which always puts the politics of the day ahead of the economy of the future. They're showing all the signs of doing that once again and Australians can't afford that. Australians cannot risk another three years of real wages going backwards, Australians falling further behind, and the country can't afford another term of a government which has spent the best part of a decade undermining wages and not coming up with a plan for the future. Thanks very much.
ENDS
