Jim Chalmers:
Overnight the International Monetary Fund issued a very positive report about Australia and about the government's economic plan. This is a powerful endorsement of the government's economic reform agenda and our responsible economic management. The IMF describes in this report our budget management as effective and our agenda to make our economy more productive as bold.
We know that there's more work to do in the budget and in the economy more broadly but this IMF report does speak to the very substantial progress that we have made together. One of the big points that it makes is that over the course of the last year or so, the private sector has been replacing the public sector as the primary driver of demand in our economy. That's the point that I've been making, the Reserve Bank Governor and others have been making in recent times as well.
As always with these kinds of reports, the government won't pick up and run with every idea. Obviously, a lot of it is consistent with our thinking and with our economic reform agenda which we have been rolling out really since the Reform Roundtable in September last year, so we know that there's more work to do but this is a really powerful endorsement of the government's economic strategy and of the Australian economy more broadly.
If you compare Australia with the major advanced economies of the G7, we've got stronger jobs growth and lower debt than all of them, we've got lower unemployment and stronger growth than most of them and we haven't had a negative quarter of growth as they all have. And so we've got big advantages but we've got big challenges too, primarily the inflation challenge, the productivity challenge and global economic uncertainty and that is the government's focus every day, but especially and including in our budget preparations for May.
The government is focused on the cost of living and housing and the economy and not on the latest round of Coalition chaos but I see that Angus Taylor has written a letter and so let me make a couple of comments about that. This is just the same kind of predictable stunt that we see from the same old Liberal Party. Angus Taylor talked a big game on Friday, said it was the Liberal Party's change or die moment, it turned out the only change he had in mind was to type a strongly worded letter.
This is farcical. If you wanted advice on the budget position or spending restraint, the last person you would seek that advice from is Angus Taylor. He was a complete and utter failure as Shadow Treasurer. He is the architect of the Liberal Party's policy for higher income taxes on workers, bigger deficits and more debt. This is a Liberal Party which hasn't learned a thing and hasn't changed a bit. Angus Taylor is just another Liberal leading the same old Liberal Party - the Liberal Party which took to the election at his urging a policy for bigger deficits and more debt.
We won't be taking lectures from Angus Taylor on the budget position after how badly he failed as Shadow Treasurer. If he really cared about spending restraint and the budget position, he wouldn't have gone to the election with a policy for bigger deficits and more debt.
We now know that the difference between had the Liberal Party won the last election and the budget position that we have now. Angus Taylor and Jane Hume would have overseen an extra $14 billion in deficits just in the first two years. That would have meant $22 billion more debt and $8 billion more in debt interest. And so, I think people know that when it comes to responsible economic management there's more work to do but we've made good progress. The last person that anyone should be taking lectures from or advice from when it comes to the budget position is Angus Taylor.
Journalist:
Angus Taylor does want to set up a bipartisan taskforce between the government and the Opposition to identify ways to restrain spending. Will you agree to that?
Chalmers:
This is a predictable stunt from the same old Liberal Party. And as I said a moment ago, Angus Taylor promised change or die and instead he's delivered a strongly worded letter and this just shows how bereft the Liberal Party is of economic credibility. They took the guy who is most responsible for their failures on the economy and made him the leader and I think that speaks volumes about the same old Liberal Party.
This is a stunt from beginning to end. It's because he has nothing serious to contribute. He can write all the letters that he likes, it won't make up for his record which is a policy of higher taxes on workers, bigger deficits and more debt. That's who Angus Taylor is on housing.
Journalist:
Why are changes to the capital gains tax discount on investment properties needed?
Chalmers:
We haven't changed our policy on tax. We've got an ambitious agenda on tax and the centrepiece of that is the income tax cuts which Angus Taylor opposed. That's our focus when it comes to tax policy. We haven't changed our policy, we're rolling out those income tax cuts and the standard deduction and the boost to the low-income superannuation tax offset. That's our focus.
Journalist:
And Angus Taylor says that any changes to the capital gains tax discount is an additional tax on households. How do you respond to that?
Chalmers:
Well, he wanted to impose an additional tax on 14 million Australian tax-paying workers. He has absolutely no credibility on tax, on the budget or on the economy. And this is the guy that took to the last election a policy not just to repeal the Albanese Labor government's tax cuts but to in the process increase income taxes. The idea that Angus Taylor should be listened to on tax is laughable.
He is the architect of that policy for higher taxes on workers, bigger deficits and more debt and we will not let him forget that.
Journalist:
Just on the IMF, it's calling on the government to raise the GST. Is this something that you would consider?
Chalmers:
Not something that we're contemplating. We've made that clear on other occasions and as I said before in these IMF reports, often there are some ideas which are consistent with the government's direction and some which are not. We've made it clear that we don't intend to go down that path when it comes to the GST. But that IMF report is a really powerful endorsement of the government's economic agenda and our country and its economy. There are ideas in there, some of those which are consistent with the government's and some which are not and that one is not.
Journalist:
And more generally, the IMF's encouraged the government to push ahead with economic reforms. Can we expect to see more ambition to boost productivity in the budget?
Chalmers:
Yes, you can. The budget will be about 3 things – it will be about addressing inflation, it will be about dealing with this productivity challenge which has been a feature of our economy for too long and it will be about making the Australian economy more resilient in the face of all of this global economic uncertainty. We've taken big, substantial, ambitious steps on productivity since the Reform Roundtable in September but there will be more to come in the budget.
Thanks very much.