JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
TEN NEWS BUDGET SPECIAL
TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2022
 

SUBJECT: Federal Budget

PETER VAN ONSELEN, HOST: Jim Chalmers, thanks for your company. Anything in the Budget that you see that you straight away think, you know what we won't support that?

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER:  It's more an absence of a plan that goes beyond the May election. You know, this is an election pamphlet.

VAN ONSELEN: There’s no plan, we know that but there's a lot of spending. Any of it that you’d oppose?

CHALMERS: There’s things that we’d do differently. We’d do child care differently, we've got a different approach to cleaner and cheaper energy. Now there's no funding here for a national anti-corruption commission, which is really important and should have been in there. So there are things that we would have done differently. But when it comes to the cost-of-living relief for Australian families who are dealing with falling real wages, then we think that the cost of living relief is warranted.

VAN ONSELEN: So the 22 cents a litre fuel excise cut, you support it?

CHALMERS: Yeah

VAN ONSELEN: But it's bad policy, isn’t it?

CHALMERS: Well, I don't think it's bad policy to support people through difficult times. You know, the fact that petrol prices have been through the roof has been a brake on the economy, and it's made it harder for families who are already dealing with real wages going backwards. You know, one of the defining features of this Government for almost ten years now is stagnant wages, families finding it harder to make ends meet, we've got a responsibility to do the right thing by them.

VAN ONSELEN: The Treasurer, when I spoke to him refused to even consider the idea that it could be extended beyond six months. But if it's a temporary measure because of what's going on overseas, if what's going on overseas lasts longer than six months, surely by definition, it needs to be extended?

CHALMERS: Well, I don't think any Treasurer of either political persuasion is going to be able to afford to extend it beyond September. I think, frankly, one of the motivations for the Government is to take this petrol price challenge and push it from one side of the election to the other side of the election. A terribly short-sighted budget with no plan for the future, a trillion dollars in debt and not enough to show for it. I think that whoever wins the election, the Government has intended for there to be a petrol price increase in September.

VAN ONSELEN: So, you think it's a booby trapped budget?

CHALMERS: I wouldn't use those words, Peter. But, you know, clearly the Government has pushed a lot of challenges from one side of the election to the other. If they don't win, then that becomes our problem. If they do win, then they'll figure it'll be worth it.

VAN ONSELEN: But do you think that they're planning to lose?

CHALMERS: No course not, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying there are a lot of challenges in the economy, for ordinary working people in particular. The Government says, let’s pretend to care about cost-of-living pressures before the election, even though this Government's gone after people's wages and working conditions for the best part of ten years. Nothing in the Budget makes up for almost a decade now of attacks on wages, job security, pensions and Medicare.

VAN ONSELEN: If you win the election, you're going to be dealing with rising inflation, higher interest rates, but still cost of living pressures. It's a square that needs to be a circle, how do you do it?

CHALMERS: Well, you need a long-term plan to grow the economy without adding to those inflationary pressures. That's what's missing tonight. The defining feature of this Budget tonight, falling real wages, a trillion dollars of debt with nothing to show for it, and no plan for the future. And that's the difference between the parties, the Government is temperamentally incapable of seeing beyond the May election. We've got a plan for the future, and that's why there should be a change of government.

VAN ONSELEN: Jim Chalmers, appreciate your time.

CHALMERS: Thanks very much.

ENDS