E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
MONDAY, 14 OCTOBER  2019

SUBJECTS: ACCC and banking competition; Deloitte Access Economics Business Outlook.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: The Treasurer has caved into pressure from Labor, the media, and the community and announced an inquiry by the ACCC into banking competition. Labor's been calling for the ACCC to play a bigger role in banking competition so we welcome this announcement in principle, but we will go through the detail. It was only a little more than a week ago when Labor was calling for the ACCC to play a bigger role that the Government dismissed it as a distraction. They've been dragged into this kicking and screaming. They would rather not be going down this path. They are only going down this path because of pressure from the community, the media, and Labor. 

Australians are facing, under this Liberal Government, record household debt and stagnant wages so you can understand why they get so angry with the banks when they don't pass through interest rate cuts. As the Reserve Bank has pointed out, our banks are still incredibly profitable by international standards. They've got no reason not to do the right thing by their customers. We need to see more banking competition, so if customers want to get a better deal there are better deals available, and it's as easy as possible for them to seek out and realise those better deals in the market. 

Nobody really trusts the Liberals to do the right thing by the Australian people when it comes to the banks. This is the mob who resisted a Banking Royal Commission for two years; they voted against it 26 times; they dragged their feet on banking competition; and they're still dragging their feet on implementing the recommendations of the Banking Royal Commission. The Treasurer has been dragged to this kicking and screaming. Labor has been calling for some time for the ACCC to be empowered to look into banking competition and interest rate pass-through. We tentatively welcome this announcement today but we'll go through the detail. It was only a little more than a week ago that the Government was dismissing this plan of action. They're only announcing it today because of pressure from Labor, and the community, and the media. 

We've also had out today the Deloitte Access Economics Business Monitor. What the Business Monitor shows is that the challenges in the Australian economy are principally home-grown. They've called for more to be done to address weak economic growth, stagnant wages, and unemployment. Deloitte Access Economics is a very credible outfit, this business monitor is closely watched throughout the country and what they've said is that they expect growth to be weak, well below what the Morrison Government has forecast in their budget, and they can't see any acceleration in wages growth anytime soon. Deloitte Access Economics join a long line of people pointing out that the economy under the Liberals is floundering, wages are stagnant, and too many people are looking for work or for more work.

Weak growth and stagnant wages are the inevitable consequence of a Government which has a political strategy but not an economic policy. Wages are weak and growth is floundering in this economy because the Morrison Government doesn't have a plan to turn things around. Since Parliament last sat we've had the Reserve Bank cut interest rates again, below 1 per cent for the first time ever, a quarter of what they were during the Global Financial Crisis, and we've had consumer confidence absolutely plummet because the Morrison Government doesn't have a plan for the economy. We call on them again to bring forward a budget update to fix their forecasts which they got wrong, and to responsibly fund a plan to boost the economy and better safeguard Australians from global uncertainty. 

JOURNALIST: You haven't ruled out your support for an ACCC probe. What's this probe actually going to do when we've just had an inquiry?

CHALMERS: It's important that the ACCC is empowered to make the banking system as competitive as it can be. For more than a week now Labor has been saying that the ACCC should be given the powers that it asked for and that it needs to get to the bottom of issues in banking competition including the pass-through of interest rate cuts. This has the potential to be an important development. We will go through the details. We point out again that very recently the Government was dismissing this kind of plan as a distraction when Labor proposed it. They are only announcing it today because of media pressure, and pressure from the community, and from the Labor Party. Australians can't trust the Liberal Party when it comes to the banks. This is the mob who resisted a Banking Royal Commission for two years and voted against it 26 times, dragging their feet on competition, dragging their feet on implementing the recommendations of the Banking Royal Commission. I think Australians are right to be sceptical about the Government's motives, but it has the potential to be an important inquiry. We welcome it in principle and we'll take the time to go through the detail after the announcement is made later today. 

JOURNALIST: Should the Government be legislating instead so that consumers get a better deal?

CHALMERS: The Government has flagged that a possible outcome of the ACCC inquiry could be more regulation or more legislation. We will see what the ACCC concludes and make our contribution at the relevant time. Thank you. 

ENDS