JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
TODAY SHOW
MONDAY, 7 MARCH 2022
SUBJECTS: Shane Warne; Nuclear submarine base; NSW floods crisis.
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Welcome back. It'll be a fitting tribute to the King of Spin. Shane Warne will have a State Funeral in Victoria with the MCG being offered as the venue. Just imagine, 100,000 Warney fans at The G all saying goodbye to their hero. You can imagine it. Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers is in Brissy for us this morning, and here in the studio Triple M's Gus Worland. Good morning guys, nice to see you both. To you first of all Gus, you knew Warney and like me, his absence will create a huge vacuum. I just couldn't believe it.
GUS WORLAND, TRIPLE M: I still can't believe it. I'm still expecting something to come and say it was all a big joke, a very sad one of course and a cruel one. I was only with him through The Ashes. Just larger than life through the press box, just everyone loves him. Going out to have a bunger. You're not allowed to actually do that inside a ground, but the security guards went wink, wink, nudge, nudge and give him a little fire area just to sort of have a bunger and have a chat. He'd walk around without his shoes on because the shoe would be used to block the door, you know, closing in on him. Everyone would just look at him and say g'day and he'd say g'day. There must have been a million photographs I've seen over the last couple of days of single people with Warney, cause he never said no to a photo, and he'd not just take the photo, he'd stop and have a chat as well.
STEFANOVIC: He also liked single people.
WORLAND: He did. He did.
WORLAND: There's no doubt. There's no doubt. He's upstairs but he probably would have had to spend a couple of days in the sin bin before he gets out.
STEFANOVIC: He'll be on whatever the equivalent of Tinder is up there, Warney will be going nuts. Jim, he affected a lot of walks of life didn't he, and I reckon almost everyone's got a story about Warney?
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Nobody like him before or since and that's why having led this big Australian life he deserves a big Australian send off. I think it's really terrific, frankly, that the governments have been speaking to the Warne family about a big send off. A big State Funeral at the MCG seems entirely appropriate to me, and renaming the Great Southern Stand after the great man as well, that seems like a good way to pay tribute.
I envy your friendship with him Gus, I wish I got time to knock around with him. I saw him play a couple of times live at the Gabba but I didn't cross paths with him and I think like a lot of Australians, you wish you he did. He sounds like the best company, obviously a remarkable cricketer but much more than that a cultural icon.
STEFANOVIC: Whenever I was at Crown in Melbourne he'd always give me a call if he was staying there because he'd be playing poker. He'd come down in like a tight Adidas red tracksuit, with three bungers in his mouth and a can of Redbull, and then just tell you the most magnificent stories about what was going on in his life. He'd put shocking 80s music on a dance around, he's just one of those great fellas.
WORLAND: Some of the great nights was the third night of the Boxing Day test match, he'd always have a party at his house. You'd turn up at his place and you'd never know who you're going to bump into, but it was always great company, always good booze, always good tucker, and it was just fantastic. I'm remembering those moments now.
STEFANOVIC: I got such amazing loyalty from him. You know, he's a very loyal man. Okay, in just a few hours time the Prime Minister will announce three locations in the running to host an East Coast nuclear submarine base - Brisbane, Newcastle and Port Kembla all being considered. Jim, you happy to have a nuclear base in Brissy?
CHALMERS: I think, ideally, big announcements like this should be bipartisan if they can be, so let's see what he announces today. This has the potential to span multiple governments and so we'd expect to be briefed on it, we'd expect to understand what he's proposing here in this speech today. Ideally, it would be a bipartisan commitment. I think what we don't want to see is another big announcement made before an election and stuffed-up afterwards.
I think that's what Australians can be a bit sceptical about given all the announcements around the submarines in the past, and all of those billions of dollars wasted on the first iteration of these subs. So let's try and get it right, part of getting it right means being bipartisan about it if we can and making sure it's not just a big announcement that's not followed through on.
STEFANOVIC: That does sound like you're squibbing it a bit, would you be happy to have the base in Brissy?
CHALMERS: We just read about it today, Karl. We read about it in the papers.
STEFANOVIC: You're squibbing, Jimmy!
CHALMERS: No I'm not Karl. I'm saying if it's a good idea let's hear about it, let's read more about it than a few sentences on the front of the paper, that's all I'm saying. These are big, expensive decisions with lots of consequences. We've been bipartisan about it, we've been supportive about the nuclear subs deal that's been struck. That's what we intend to be but let's read more about it in a couple of sentences before we decide where it goes in Brisbane.
STEFANOVIC: There are ramifications I guess Gus of having a nuclear sub base anywhere. There's obviously, you know, concerns about nuclear fallout of some kind, about it being a security threat to those particular areas. Are you comfortable with it?
WORLAND: No, I wouldn't be, I don't think so. Also, I still can't quite believe we're spending so many billions - that's with a b - of dollars on nuclear subs, I just don't understand it. With everything else that's going on in this world at the moment and Australian needing money in so many other places - I just, I don't know enough about it of course, but just to me a layman - I reckon it's a waste of dough.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. A little later, we're speaking to New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet as he tours Lismore to see the extent of the damage himself. He's copped it yesterday Gus.
WORLAND: Yeah and rightly so. Now everyone is a journalist, everyone's a cameraman, everyone's got their phones, so we're now seeing the devastation in so many areas that are just cut off, so many areas that just aren't getting the support that they need. And they're good Aussie people, we want to be out there supporting them. So yeah, more needs to be done as quick as poss.
STEFANOVIC: Some parts of New South Wales need help desperately right now and some of it has been sluggish.
CHALMERS: They're feeling abandoned there Karl, there's no two ways about it. They're expressing their views and so they should. Australians have been there for each other throughout these floods and they just want the government to be there for them as well, that's not too much to ask. The support has been too slow, people have felt more isolated than they need to be, some people have felt abandoned. Let's fix this quick smart, there are people in all sorts of strife still throughout New South Wales and it's our responsibility to look after them.
STEFANOVIC: Good on you guys, thank you so much for that. Jim, Gus, lovely to see you.
ENDS
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