E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
LOGAN
SUNDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2019
SUBJECTS: NZ Volcano Tragedy and Local Vigil; Mid-Year Budget Update; Childcare Debts; Responsible, Proportionate and Measured Stimulus; Aged Care Crisis.
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks for coming. I want to cover a couple of issues this morning.
First of all, in Calamvale District Park tonight our local community will be holding a candlelight vigil for Julie and Jessica Richards, two of the victims of the horrific events off the coast of New Zealand. We wanted to send a message to the family of Julie and Jessica, to Michael, Jan, Barbara and to the family and the people who knew them in our local community in particular that we stand with the family, we stand with our Kiwi brothers and sisters as people work through their grief after what was a truly horrific disaster off the coast of New Zealand.
Tomorrow the Government releases the MYEFO, the mid-year Budget update. What the mid-year Budget update will show is that ordinary Australians are paying the price for the Morrison Government's ineptitude, incompetence and inaction on the economy. The mid-year update will be a humiliating admission that the Government has got the economy wrong at every turn. A humiliating admission that growth is slower, wages are weaker, and more than half the debt that has accumulated is Liberal debt. It will be a signed confession that after promising to make the economy even stronger at the election, the Morrison Government has made the economy even weaker.
The Government is failing on the economy and its failing on wages in particular. This Government has got their wages forecasts wrong 33 times over the last six-plus years. The average full time worker is earning $2,200 less than the Government said that they would be. What this shows is that no matter how hard Australians are working, they just can't seem to get ahead. Australians are working really hard, but their wages are stagnant. They can't keep up with the skyrocketing costs of childcare, electricity and private health insurance. Under Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg it's getting harder and harder to get by let alone get ahead.
Now we hear new revelations that the Government is hounding mums and dads when it comes to childcare debts. Australian families are doing it tough enough without this extra stress from the Morrison Government. It is hard enough for families to make ends meet at Christmas without the Government hounding them and putting extra pressure on them chasing these kinds of debts. When will this Government learn that Australian mums and dads are doing it tough enough without the extra stress of a Government which seems to be hounding them at every single turn?
The tests for the Government tomorrow in the mid-year update: is it a comprehensive plan to turn around an economy which is floundering on the Liberals' watch? Does it 'fess up to the fact that most of the debt in the Budget is Liberal debt? Does it admit that growth has been slowing, wages are weak and that ordinary Australians are doing it tough? Does it apologise to older Australians in the aged care system, to people hounded by Robodebt, or to people with a disability who aren't getting their packages? Does it admit that the surplus is being propped up by the Government's attacks on the most vulnerable Australians? These are the tests for the Government tomorrow in the mid-year Budget update.
As we finish the year this Government gets an 'F' for 'Fail' when it comes to economic management, for wages, growth and debt. As it finishes the year, it needs to fess up to the fact that economic growth is now slower than it was at the election, slower than it was at the Budget, slower than it was when Frydenberg and Morrison took over, and slower than it was when Government changed hands in 2013. What the numbers in the mid-year update will show again is that it's not enough for this Government to pretend they're doing a good job managing the economy when the facts tell a very different story.
Ordinary Australians are copping it in the neck under this government which has mismanaged the economy at every single turn. Wages are the best example of that. The mid-year update is their opportunity to come up with a comprehensive plan to turn around an economy which has deteriorated substantially since they took over.
JOURNALIST: You're obviously quite critical of the Government handing of the economy. What policy changes are need to improve the situation?
CHALMERS: Labor has the same view as the Reserve Bank, the business community and credible economists who say that the economy and wages are growing slower than they should be and that something needs to be done to turn that around. We have been playing a constructive role suggesting to the Government that they could do any or all of the following things like change the timing of their tax cuts, responsibly increase Newstart, bring forward some more infrastructure investment, have a tax break for businesses who invest onshore in Australia, have a wages policy, have an energy policy.
The problem we have is that this Government has dithered while the economy has deteriorated. They haven't listened to the advice right across the country, right across the community, not just from Labor but from business and the Reserve Bank, that something needs to be done to turn this economy around. The test for the Government in the mid-year update is will they come up with a comprehensive plan to boost growth and boost wages? Or will they continue to sit on their hands while ordinary Australian families go backwards?
JOURNALIST: Should the Government consider quantitative easing?
CHALMERS: The Reserve Bank has said that they have contemplated and considered doing some unconventional things with monetary policy. The Reserve Bank wouldn't have to consider those kinds of things if the Morrison Government was doing its job. The Morrison Government shouldn't be leaving all of the heavy lifting to the Reserve Bank. It's long past time for them to have a plan for responsible, proportionate and measured stimulus for the economy, because for as long as Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg continue to sit on their hands ordinary Australian families, workers and pensioners will continue to cop it in the neck for the Government's incompetence, ineptitude and inaction when it comes to an economy which is floundering substantially under the Liberal's watch.
JOURNALIST: But do you think they should consider it?
CHALMERS: It's for the Reserve Bank to consider quantitative easing or unconventional monetary policy. The Reserve Bank Governor has said that they are contemplating those kinds of measures, but they've also indicated they'd rather not go down that path for obvious and understandable reasons. The Reserve Bank couldn't be any clearer. They can't do all the heavy lifting on their own. They need a Government which is prepared to come to the table with measured, proportionate and responsible stimulus for the economy. As it stands right now the Reserve Bank is doing all the work on its own. Interest rates are the lowest they've ever been, a quarter of what they were during the Global Financial Crisis. That's not enough on its own to turn the economy around or to boost growth in wages and so the Government needs to do something about it.
JOURNALIST: They're on track for a slim surplus next financial year. At what point should they forgo a surplus and instead turn to stimulus?
CHALMERS: It's possible for the Government to do something responsible about the economy and about wages without jeopardising the surplus that they've promised for this year. The Budget bottom line has been strengthening while the economy has been weakening. The Budget bottom line and the surplus is built on the back of this Government treating older Australians, Australians with a disability, and welfare recipients very shabbily. It's built on the back of treating the most vulnerable Australians very shabbily. It's also built on the back of much higher iron ore prices and a low Australian dollar. The Government has room in the Budget to do something responsible to boost the economy and to boost wages to get the place moving again without jeopardising that surplus. When they stand up and release the mid-year budget update, they should admit that the surplus is built on the back of vulnerable Australians and on high iron ore prices which the Government has nothing to do with.
JOURNALIST: They'll downgrade expected wages growth. What does that mean for the average worker? What are they missing out on?
CHALMERS: The average Australian full-time worker is $2,200 a year worse off than the Government said they would be because their wages have been so stagnant. This Government has the worst record on wages ever. Wages growth is so stagnant under Morrison and Frydenberg that the Reserve Bank says that these low wages are now the "new normal". Ordinary Australians in the neighbourhoods and cities and towns of this country know that under Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg low wages growth is a “deliberate design feature” of their economic policy in the words of Mathias Cormann. Ordinary Australian workers know that for as long as the Liberals are in power they will never get a look in. Low wages growth has become the "new normal" under Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg. $2,200 less per year on average for a full-time worker than the Government said they would be earning. That's a symbol of how hard it is under Morrison Frydenberg for ordinary workers, not just to get ahead but to get by. No matter how hard people work they just can't seem to get ahead because they've got skyrocketing costs for childcare, electricity and private health insurance and the Government just doesn't seem to give a stuff about them certainly not enough to come up with a comprehensive plan to get things moving again.
JOURNALIST: And finally, just on this, do you believe more immediate action needs to be done to address serious shortfalls in the aged care sector?
CHALMERS: Scott Morrison's cuts to aged care have done a lot of damage. Whether you see the revelations from the Royal Commission or other stories including those in the newspapers today one thing is really clear: the surplus is built on the back of Scott Morrison not doing the right thing by older Australians. Scott Morrison's cuts to aged care are bighting hard. We have serious challenges in the aged care system which have been exacerbated by Scott Morrison's cuts. Unless the Government properly comes to the table with a plan for aged care and unless they stop propping up their Budget by treating older Australians so shabbily then this situation will continue for as long as these characters are in office.
JOURNALIST: Just back to the vigil tonight. [INAUDIBLE]
CHALMERS: Julie and Jessica were lost off the shores of New Zealand in that horrific volcano tragedy. They were a very important part of our local community around Calamvale and surrounding suburbs. What we will see tonight at the candlelight vigil is parts of our community coming together, to get around Michael, Jan and Barbara, and all their family and friends. There will be people there from the AFL club that they were involved in. There will be people there from various community associations. Julie and Jessica made a profound impact on a lot of people in our community. Their loss will be extremely hard-felt and tonight we have the opportunity to celebrate their life, but also to send a message to their family and friends that nobody is alone as we deal with this tragedy and we work our way through the grief of losing two incredibly remarkable local people. Thank you.
ENDS
