Jim Chalmers:
The independent Reserve Bank is meeting right now in Sydney and we take no outcome from their discussions for granted. I have a lot of respect for the independence of the Reserve Bank, its governor and its board – and that’s why I don’t engage in a running commentary about their deliberations which are under way right now. I’m not going to make predictions or pre‑empt the outcome of their discussions. We’ll know Tuesday afternoon what they’ve decided.
No matter what the independent Reserve Bank decides, our focus as the Albanese Labor government will continue to be the cost of living. In the almost 3 years that we’ve been in office, we’ve been able to get inflation down substantially, wages up and keep unemployment low and that is our focus. The independent Reserve Bank has its own job to do. We are focused on our job, which is to continue to deliver cost‑of‑living help where we can responsibly do that at the same time as we keep unemployment low and make this substantial and now sustained progress on inflation.
If you look at the updated forecast released by some of the big bank economists last week, you’ll see that they have substantially lowered their forecast for inflation and that is a demonstration, I think, of the progress that has been made. When we came to office, inflation was higher than 6 per cent and rising. Now it is in the bottom half of the Reserve Bank’s target band, underlying inflation is in the low threes. So no matter what the Reserve Bank decides when they announce their decision tomorrow, the Albanese government’s focus won’t change. Our focus is on getting inflation down, getting wages up, keeping unemployment low and as Australians, we have made a lot of progress over the course of the last couple of years.
Journalist:
Are you confident Labor can win the election no matter the outcome of tomorrow’s decision?
Chalmers:
Just like the decision tomorrow, we take no outcome in the election for granted. We know that this election will be really tight, it will be contested and that’s as it should be. Elections in this country are typically very tight at the federal level and I expect that to be the case once again. I know that we’ll see a lot of polls come out and a number of you will publish polls on a weekly, if not more frequent basis. My job is to focus on the numbers in the economy, not the numbers in the polls and that’s what we’ve been doing and if you look at the numbers in our economy, inflation down very substantially, real wages growing again after a decade of deliberate wage stagnation, unemployment at 4 per cent.
A lot of other countries have had to pay for progress on inflation with much higher unemployment and we’ve been able to do better than that at as a country, and so that’s been my focus, not the polls. The election, when it rolls around will be a pretty simple choice – the Albanese Labor government providing cost‑of‑living help, getting on top of inflation and building Australia’s future or a Coalition government under Peter Dutton making people worse off and taking Australia backwards.
Journalist:
Matt Thistlethwaite said that mortgage holders deserve a rate cut tomorrow. Tanya Plibersek says that mortgage holders will be hoping for a rate cut tomorrow. Surely this is – do you accept that this is putting pressure, making it more difficult for the Reserve Bank to make an independent decision tomorrow? And have your colleagues failed to heed your advice to not pre‑empt decisions?
Chalmers:
Well, a couple of things about that, Greg. First of all, I say the same thing to my colleagues privately that I say publicly and that is that we take no outcome for granted this week when it comes to decisions about interest rates. We are focused on our job. I think, as Tanya and others have said today, we’re focused on what we can control as a government, recognising and respecting the independence of the Reserve Bank. I’m not going to apply a political lens to decisions taken by the Reserve Bank.
They will take their decisions based on the economics, not the politics and the respectful role that I will play in that is to not engage in a running commentary about their deliberations. I’ve made it really clear for some time now – I understand and respect their independent role, my focus and our government’s focus is on the things that we can influence. And because of our focus on the cost of living and the economy, we’ve been able to get inflation down and wages up and keep unemployment low.
Journalist:
Thanks, Treasurer. Would divestment powers in the insurance industry bring down premiums for consumers?
Chalmers:
Well, nobody’s got a policy for that. No major party’s got a policy for that, we know that because David Littleproud shafted the leader of his party this morning, so Peter Dutton’s so‑called policy didn’t last 24 hours. When you can’t get the National Party over the line on something then you’ve got a problem. Whether it’s what Angus Taylor has said about this before, what Peter Dutton said yesterday or what David Littleproud said today, Peter Dutton’s so‑called policy has already fallen down in a heap just like his free lunches policy has as well.
These characters are almost 3 years into a 3‑year term and they still have no costed, coherent or credible economic policies. The only thing that Peter Dutton has said about the economy in the last week or 2 was when he made the case for higher interest rates for longer. It’s for him to explain why he was out there last week making the case for higher interest rates, that’s a matter for him to explain. We’re focused on our job as I keep saying. We have made very substantial progress together on inflation, we have been able to get wages up, we have been able to keep unemployment low. The Reserve Bank will grapple with all of the data in the economy and come to a decision independently tomorrow. Thanks very much everyone.