THE HON JIM CHALMERS MP
TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
TODAY SHOW
TUESDAY, 5 JULY 2022
SUBJECTS: New South Wales Floods; Disaster Relief; Interest Rates; Inflation; Ukraine Visit.
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: With another natural disaster comes the expensive clean-up bill, something certain to cause plenty of headaches for Treasurer Jim Chalmers. He joins us now live from Canberra. Treasurer, good morning to you. Thanks for your time this morning. Another nasty natural disaster. People will need support quickly. Will they get it?
JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER: They will, Karl. Our commitment to the people of New South Wales who are impacted by these floods, many of them for not the first time this year, the Albanese Government will stand with you, we will work closely with the Perrottet Government in New South Wales, as we have been doing. The disaster recovery funding arrangements have kicked in. And my colleague Murray Watt will have more to say about that later today. But our message to all of those people under water in New South Wales is we will stand with you. We will work closely with your state government to make sure that you get the assistance that you need.
STEFANOVIC: Gee, people are worried about this interest rate rise today as well.
CHALMERS: They are, Karl. It’s going to be a really difficult day today. You know that we don’t pre-empt decisions taken by the independent Reserve Bank, but the universal expectation is that interest rates will rise once again. What that means is for a lot of people mortgage repayments will take up an even bigger chunk of household budgets, which are already stretched by this inflation that we’re seeing – whether it’s grocery prices, petrol prices, whether it’s pressure on supply chains and labour shortages. All of these issues are coming together at once making life difficult for people. The strong expectation today is that interest rates will go up, and that will make life tougher still.
STEFANOVIC: It’s a delicate balance, isn’t it? I mean, I’m sure you’re more aware of it than anyone. A lot of my friends have small businesses, and they’re saying business at the moment is drying up, but inflation is still on the way up. Getting that balance right is incredibly difficult.
CHALMERS: Yes, and interest rates are going up because inflation is expected to get worse before it gets better. That’s the brutal reality, unfortunately, that we’re all facing. Your friends in small business - and a lot of people that I talk to around Australia - are facing that same diabolical set of circumstances where prices for everything are going up, people’s wages aren’t keeping up, it’s harder and harder for small businesses to operate. We do understand that. What it means is, for probably the rest of this year at least, things are going to be difficult. We’ve tried to be upfront with people about that. We know that this is really tough. We know that every time interest rates go up people have to find more money in household budgets and small business budgets which are already stretched. A lot of people will say today Karl, “oh, but people have got lots of buffers in their home loans and they’re ahead on their home loans,” and that is true in some respects. But for a lot of people, they don’t have that buffer, they don’t have that margin, and we need to be cognisant of that as well.
STEFANOVIC: Gee, you sound dire this morning.
CHALMERS: We’re in a tough period, I think, Karl. I’ve been watching the footage on Nine this morning out of those flood-impacted areas, and you do feel for people. A lot of people are doing it incredibly tough, whether they’re underwater in New South Wales or whether they’re at risk of some really significant financial pressure as a combination of this inflation that we’ve got, these interest rate rises that we’ve got, real wages going backwards. The Government is doing what it can, but really, the only solution to this in the medium term, is to try and build a Budget and an economy which is as resilient as the Australian people themselves, and that’s what we’re working on.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Now, further afield, the PM made history by visiting Ukraine. How worried are you about the optics of not being here while 35,000 homes go under?
CHALMERS: A couple of things about that, Karl. First of all, the Prime Minister will be back tonight. He has already been working with the Perrottet Government. He’s been briefed on the circumstances in the flood-affected areas of New South Wales. He’s been working around the clock to make sure that we are providing the federal government assistance that is necessary in those areas. But let’s just be upfront about it, Karl - there’s been a lot of work that’s been necessary amongst our international partners because a lot of those relationships were run down. We would prefer that we inherited relationships which were in perfect nick in our region, in the Pacific, with the French and around the world. But, unfortunately, that’s not what we inherited. What we got instead were a series of relationships, which are very important to Australians, which had been run down over time. We’d prefer that work wasn’t necessary. And the last thing I’d say about it, Karl, is that this important work on the international stage hasn’t prevented us advancing our agenda here at home. The top priority is Australians, and that’s why we fought so hard for a minimum wage increase. It’s why we work with the states to increase hospital funding so they can deal with these COVID outbreaks. It’s why we’re advancing our plans in areas like paid leave for people experiencing domestic violence.
STEFANOVIC: Okay.
CHALMERS: A whole range of issues we’ve been able to progress here at home.
STEFANOVIC: All right. Good to talk to you, Jim. Lots on, appreciate your time. Thank you.
CHALMERS: Thank you, Karl.
ENDS
