JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
THE PROJECT
TUESDAY, 12 APRIL 2022
SUBJECTS: Costs of living skyrocketing under Scott Morrison while real wages go backwards; Anthony Albanese takes responsibility; Scott Morrison’s monumental mistakes; Liberals’ fictional costings; Labor’s economic plan; 39 days of campaigning to go.
GEORGIE TUNNY, HOST: Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers joins us now. Anthony Albanese said the word mistake at least 15 times during today's press conference. So can you shrug this off as just a mistake, when it's such a fundamental figure in an election that is actually all about jobs?
CHALMERS: I don't think he's trying to fob it off. I think it's been admirable yesterday and today to see him own this mistake. He's recognised that he made a mistake yesterday, he's put his hand up for it, he's owned it, which I think is a good thing. He's explained it and he said let's move on together, and I think that's a good thing. The mistake that Anthony made yesterday pales in comparison to the mistakes that Scott Morrison has made when he stuffed up the rapid test rollout, when he stuffed up the vaccines, when he stuffed up purpose built quarantine, when he went missing during the bushfires and went to Hawaii. All these sorts of things are much bigger mistakes than the one that Anthony took responsibility for yesterday, and Scott Morrison still hasn't taken responsibility for those.
WALEED ALY, HOST: But I guess the idea of it being fobbed off as a mistake is that by calling it a mistake, you minimise what it might have been. That perhaps it wasn't a mistake, perhaps it was a lack of knowledge. And perhaps it was a lack of knowledge about something that is really, really fundamental in the economy, and should be the most basic fact that you would know if you're going to launch a policy based on jobs. Like, do you see that it might prove, what it might reveal is not an error, or a failure of memory, but it might reveal a lack of competence?
CHALMERS: I'll leave the kind of analysis of it to you. Nobody's contesting that it's an important number. It is an important number, it tells part of the story of the labour market. But the rest of the story of the labour market is - even with unemployment at 4 per cent - we still haven't got real wages moving sufficiently to keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living. We've still got skills shortages which have been left unattended. That's what our economic policies are all about - getting the economy growing the right way, trying to get wages growing again. That's why our policies on cleaner and cheaper energy, and skills, and child care, the digital economy, and advanced manufacturing, and a future made in Australia, are so important.
ALY: But I guess the point the Government's making is, not everything's going up. One of the things that's going down is unemployment and that's why it's so significant to be across that.
CHALMERS: We want the unemployment rate to be as low as possible, but even with the unemployment rate falling in welcome ways, we still haven't got real wages growing sufficiently, we've still got these skill shortages. There are a range of challenges in the labour market and the reason why the Government wants to focus on the mistake that Anthony made yesterday is because they don't want to talk about falling real wages, they don't want to talk about the skyrocketing costs of living, they don't want to talk about skills shortages, they don't want to talk about the fact that there's a trillion dollars of debt in their Budget and nowhere near enough to show for it - because their Budget's full of all these rorts and all this waste.
ALY: They're not only focusing on that, they are focusing as well on costings, you might have heard today. So they've attacked you over your own policy costings.
CHALMERS: They're focusing on Labor almost exclusively Waleed, that's my point. They're hoping that this whole conversation...
ALY: That's a bit of a long standing tradition in politics. I mean, you've spoken to us a lot about Scott Morrison while I've been asking you about Anthony Albanese. But can I come to the...
CHALMERS: I've been running through our plan for the economy too, Waleed.
ALY: Yes, that's true. They say on the policy costings, they've costed your policies and they estimated it will be $300 billion over 10 years. I presume you dispute those costings, what will those policies cost?
CHALMERS: Of course we dispute that costing, it is entirely fictional. It doesn't cost our policies and these are the same characters that came up with a $60 billion error in their JobKeeper sums.
ALY: That sounds like you're talking about them again, I’m interested in the costings that you think are accurate. What do those policies cost?
CHALMERS: The so called "costings" that they cooked up in the Finance Minister's office are entirely wrong. It's another desperate beat-up to avoid their own responsibility for a trillion dollars in debt.
ALY: Do you care to give us the correct answer?
CHALMERS: Yeah, we will release our costings in the usual way, at the usual time, in this election campaign. We've already said our child care policy costs $5.4 billion - so they're about $59 billion out on that one alone. We've already released our policy for cleaner and cheaper energy, about $700 million. Our aged care policy is about $2.5 billion dollars. Our commitments are responsible, they're measured, they cost nowhere near what the Government is pretending today with another desperate distraction from their own failures, and we'll release the final costings in the usual way at the usual time.
PETER HELLIAR, HOST: Jim, it's day two. It's day two, mate. Have you accepted...
CHALMERS: I'll pace myself Pete, pace myself!
(LAUGHTER)
HELLIAR: Have you accepted that you probably won't make it through the latest season of Bridgerton until after May 21?
CHALMERS: I have, I have accepted that unfortunately. I've had to tap the mat on that.
HELLIAR: And obviously you're probably sick of answering questions about Albo's gaffe yesterday. You can take the heat off him by eating a raw onion, I'm sure we can find you one!
(LAUGHTER)
CHALMERS: No, I think that's been well and truly covered by another person at another time, I'll leave that to him.
TUNNY: Jim Chalmers, good luck, it is a marathon of an election campaign. Thanks for your time.
CHALMERS: All the best guys, thanks heaps.
HELLIAR: It's gonna fly by, I'm sure…
(LAUGHTER)
ENDS
