JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
WEEKEND TODAY
SUNDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 2022
SUBJECTS: Australians more interested in how well Scott Morrison does his day job, not how well he plays the ukulele; Labor’s positive policies for a better future.
JAYNE AZZOPARDI, HOST: You know you're a few months out from an election when the Prime Minister is playing the ukulele for Karl Stefanovic.
(60 Minutes clip of Scott Morrison playing the ukulele)
AZZOPARDI: Yeah, we're all going to get a front row seat to the Morrison family dinner tonight. So how nervous is Scott Morrison? Let's bring in the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers for their take. Good morning to you both gents. Barnaby, we'll start with you. Part of your appeal is that you're a politician who says it like it is, so based on that how much trouble do you think the government's in?
BARNABY JOYCE, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Look, it's a tough game, there's no doubt about it. Anybody could tell you that, I'm sure Jim could. It's going to be the Nationals and Liberals versus the Labor and the Greens and we're gotta try and put our very big show on, and that's why we're focusing on things such as the $600 million we put towards new dam just the other day in Central Queensland, making sure the defence of our nation can deal with the precarious times that are before us , making sure that big infrastructure projects such as the Inland Rail get built and drive the economies of places such as Gladstone. Keep those export dollars rolling in because we're gonna have to have a nation where we have a value in our currency that can sustain the requirements that are before us. Yeah, so it's a tough time. and it's an election before globally precarious times. You can see that everywhere. Not making it up. (Secretary) Blinken is over from the United States the other day, he's telling us we've got to make sure we got a strong nation in front of us.
AZZOPARDI: Look, it hasn't been a great week or two for the Government lately. How much of that do you think is your fault?
JOYCE: Agh, well, you know, I think that if you're talking about these sort of, the, the, peculiarities and, and, the, the, side issues in Canberra. They are, they're gone by Goulburn. Once you get back out into Central Queensland or the Hunter Valley those issues don't get brought up, but they make fascinating viewing inside the boarding school which is Parliament House. That'll always be the case but, if you want to - and like, this is the sort of the juxtaposition - there was a massive demonstration, probably on the biggest in the history of my time in parliament, most definitely the biggest in my time in parliament. But look at the coverage something like that gets compared to the coverage of text messages. Now, which is more important? Those people there, they have to be respected. I don't necessarily agree with them, but what struck me is what we think is important and what other people think is important are two different things.
AZZOPARDI: But it is important though to have a Prime Minister whose colleagues support him. I want to go to you Jim. The Government is copping enough criticism at the moment, so I'm not going to ask you to pile on. What I want from you this morning is tell me how you do the job. What's Labor's priority? What's the first thing you'd do if you win the election?
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: I think the most important contrast here Jayne, is we want a Prime Minister that takes responsibility and listens to people and tries to bring the country together. No matter where you are in Australia, that's what people are really crying out for. Instead, we've got this kind of rambling incoherence from the Government, which is consumed more or less by division and disunity and working people are paying the price for that.
AZZOPARDI: Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt you Jim, but I didn't want you to add to the pile-on. I wanted you to give me what you would do if you win the election.
CHALMERS: We’d have a Prime Minister under Anthony Albanese who'd try and bring the country together, take responsibility, and listen to people. Where that matters most is dealing with the skyrocketing costs of living at the same time as real wages right now are going backwards, so working families are doing it really tough. We've got a plan for cleaner and cheaper energy, to modernise the NBN, free TAFE to deal with skills shortages, cheaper and more accessible child care, a future made in Australia so that we can invest in our regions and diversify our economy, and create good, secure, well-paid jobs. That's our agenda. The Government's more or less vacated the field when it comes to a better future for this country, but we haven't.
AZZOPARDI: Okay, well Barnaby, the Government has spent a large part...
JOYCE: That's not correct. I mean, it's ridiculous. We're just, in the last week, we're up there, making sure that the people in Central Queensland have got a feature. We know that, when you talk about secure future, we look forward to Senator Penny Wong going to Central Queensland to say that she supports the coal industry, it's not going to happen. We have the narrative that Jim has just given us, but we know that when you actually try to dive down to the details, you don't, you don't, get it. We have to make the hard decisions to make our nation strong. We've got to make the nation as strong as possible as quickly as possible. And that's what's before us. And that's why we are not embarrassed to stand behind the fossil fuel industry, which the Greens say they'll put an embargo on, and have the Labor Party want their preferences. It's, it, look, this...
AZZOPARDI: But Barnaby, you're talking about all this, but the Government did spend a large portion of the week debating a Religious Discrimination Bill that it then dropped at the last minute. Do you think people out in the country, do you think people living in aged care homes or their families, would think you spent your time well in parliament this week?
JOYCE: Well, aged care is incredibly important and obviously every death is a tragedy, and we are making sure that we do the, the, you know, in a time of a pandemic, Australia has had a better record than just about any other nation on Earth. And we've been incredibly lucky by that. But you be learn as you go along. Now with the Religious Discrimination Bill, well, yeah, we gave our very best endeavours to fulfil a promise, and the Prime Minister took that promise to the parliament as he said he would and we couldn't foresee what was going to happen at that time because people - we have a joint party room, and you're supposed to nominate your position, the position was not nominated, and so that, therefore, it becomes very hard to, to, manage something very late at night when people make a - cast a vote - in a way that was not anticipated. But we, yes, it's not just about the kid, it's also about the parents and making sure that these parents wanted us to make sure that at their schools they had a reflection of their faith in how that school was run. And it something that I think that we still need to work between the parties, to try and bring that about.
AZZOPARDI: Well, let's hope you can. I think it's time for a little bit of musical relief now. We've got Scott Morrison's ukulele skills on display tonight.
(60 Minutes clip of Scott Morrison playing the ukulele)
AZZOPARDI: Jim, what do you make of them?
CHALMERS: I'm not gonna judge another person on their singing, I'm not the best singer myself. He's obviously got a wonderfully supportive family. I was out and about in the community yesterday a lot, even this morning, people were stopping me and saying we know he can pose for videos, and we know he can do photo opportunities, but we want him to actually do his job and take responsibility, and lead, and listen, and all of these important things. Instead, he seems to spend all of his time on marketing. I think people have had enough of that. So many of the challenges that Barnaby just mentioned, the Government's had almost a decade to deal with, including years on a Religious Discrimination Bill, anti-corruption commission, the crisis in aged care, stagnant wages, all these things, job insecurity. The Government's had almost a decade now and the Prime Minister is spending his time playing the ukulele. I think people see through that now, they've seen enough of it.
AZZOPARDI: Alright, look it is Valentine's Day tomorrow....
JOYCE: Jim always says, I'm going to say something nice about you and then he says something nasty, you'll see a lot of that.
AZZOPARDI: It's funny you should say that Barnaby, because this is my next question. It is Valentine's Day tomorrow, so I want both of you to tell me something you love about the other side of politics. I'm going to start with you Barnaby.
(LAUGHTER)
JOYCE: I love Joel Fitzgibbon.
(LAUGHTER)
AZZOPARDI: Ok. Shame he's retiring.
CHALMERS: I don't doubt the Prime Minister loves his family. He's got a great family and we'll see that tonight no doubt as well, but what we'll also see, unfortunately, is a Prime Minister who's vacated the field when it comes to taking responsibility and instead he does all these photo ops.
AZZOPARDI: Agh, see, this is the backhand.
JOYCE: He's got these lines Jayne, and he's got to read them out. He said make sure you say this 5000 times.
AZZOPARDI: I think you've both had a bit of that morning.
CHALMERS: I saw you on TV last night Barnaby. You had a bad night last night Barnaby, let's not make it a bad morning too.
JOYCE: Agh, see, now - he's so typical.
AZZOPARDI: Shame you're in different cities otherwise I'm sure we'd be seeing you have a kiss and make-up off screen. Thank you both for joining us this morning, it's always good to chat politics with you.
ENDS
