E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS FIRST EDITION
WEDNESDAY, 16 OCTOBER 2019
 
SUBJECTS: IMF downgrades Australia’s growth forecast; The economy is floundering on the Liberals’ watch.
 
LAURA JAYES, SKY NEWS FIRST EDITION: Jim Chalmers the Shadow Treasurer joins me now. Good to see you. The IMF downgrading its forecast for Australia. What should the Government do?
 
JIM CHALMERS: SHADOW TREASURER: These new IMF numbers really do torpedo what was left of the Government's economic credibility. As Eliza just pointed out, the time has long passed for the Government to just keep sitting on its hands. The economy is floundering in Australia because the Morrison Government doesn't have a plan to turn things around. Right around the world and right around Australia, economic experts, commentators, the mainstream view is that it's time for the Government to get off their hands, to do something and to come up with a plan to turn around an economy which is floundering on their watch.
 
JAYES: And what plan should that be, if the IMF is downgrading their forecasts? The worst downgrade in 10 years, that takes us back to the Global Financial Crisis. Back then it was Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan sending cheques to people. Are we at that stage?
 
CHALMERS: The big difference this time around is that the Australian economy is underperforming against the world. As you rightly pointed out a moment ago the forecasts for Australia have actually been slashed more substantially than for the rest of the advanced economies. Four times bigger -
 
JAYES: Compared to G7 nations? Because that's what the Prime Minister is pointing at today; we're still doing better than most G7 nations aren't we?
 
CHALMERS: The Prime Minister's kidding himself if he thinks that the slowest growth in 10 years in Australia is some kind of good outcome. This is why Australians think that this guy's from another planet. We've had weak growth - the weakest for 10 years - stagnant wages, declining living standards, almost two million people are looking for work or more work, record household debt, and Morrison and Frydenberg want to pretend that everything's hunky dory in the economy. They don't have a plan to turn things around. I don’t think Frydenberg has a clue what he's doing here and so he's doing nothing, and that's very damaging for the Australian economy. 
 
JAYES: Is emergency stimulus required in the form of cheques, money getting into people's bank accounts ASAP, or can it be done through fast-tracking infrastructure projects? Or are we past that point now?
 
CHALMERS: Some combination of those things. It's very clear now that the interest rate cuts are helping but not enough. If the tax cuts are helping, they're not helping enough. We can bring forward some of the Government's 2022 tax cuts if they want to. We could increase Newstart which would get money flowing through the economy; bring forward infrastructure projects and maintenance; we could have a tax break for business investment because business investment's the worst it's been since the early 1990s recession. They clearly need a wages policy and don't have one. They clearly need an energy policy and don't have one. Any or all of those things would give Australia a chance to shift the needle on economic growth. Instead the Government doesn't have any plan whatsoever and that's why we've got these downgrades to Australian growth.
 
JAYES: Don't these new figures also show you that the plan that Labor took to the election is the wrong one for this time?
 
CHALMERS: The economy has deteriorated substantially since the election. The Liberals and Nationals are now in their seventh year and their third term, and so they need to take responsibility for the fact that the economy is floundering. We will always make our economic policies set the times. The Government has not been willing to do that. They don't know what they're doing and they don't have a plan. 
                                                                  
JAYES: Do you concede that now would not be the time to impose $300 billion worth of new taxes? Would now be the time to impose things like franking credit changes, changes to the property market?
 
CHALMERS: As you know we're reviewing all of those controversial policies that we took to the last election, but what -
 
JAYES: Does this give you a new impetus, I guess? 
 
CHALMERS: Obviously you need to factor in the economic conditions when you're making economic policy. The Government's not doing that. Our main criticism of them is that they're doing nothing despite the fact that the economy is floundering. It depends what the tax changes are; that's what actually matters. What we're calling for the Government to do is to come forward with a plan. The economy is floundering. The IMF is torpedoing the Government's economic credibility. The Reserve Bank can't be left to do all the heavy lifting on its own.
 
JAYES: Jim Chalmers, appreciate your time this morning.
 
CHALMERS: Thank you Laura.
 
ENDS