JOURNALIST:
Treasurer, the unions want a seven per cent pay rise for 2.6 million workers, is that sustainable and will it drive inflation?
JIM CHALMERS:
We'll make our own submission to the Fair Work Commission's Annual Wage Review. And the submission that the Government makes will be consistent with our values and our policies and our objectives. We want to see wages moving again in this country in responsible and sustainable and meaningful ways. And it's just common sense to begin with the lowest paid Australians. Now, some people will pretend that we've got an inflation problem in our country because lowest paid Australians are getting paid too much. And that is obviously complete and utter rubbish. We've got an inflation problem in our economy, because we've got a war in Ukraine, and the wasted decade has made us more vulnerable to these international shocks. And so we want to see a decent pay rise for the lowest paid Australians. Our submission will be consistent with that. We don't want to see people fall further and further behind. The ACTU and others will make their submissions, we will make our own submission and we'll make it public before long.
JOURNALIST:
Treasurer, the Government has spent months trying to rein in spending, running tighter budgets, trying to soften spending in the market, particularly things that lower paid workers would spend money on – retail, groceries. How is a strong pay rise for the lowest paid workers consistent with that practice?
CHALMERS:
Because at a time cost‑of‑living pressures are putting working families under the pump, we want them to be able to earn enough to provide for their loved ones. Decent, sustainable, responsible, meaningful wages growth is part of the solution here, not part of the problem. We've got an inflation challenge for other reasons, not because the lowest paid Australians are being paid too much. We want to see meaningful, responsible, sustainable wages growth in our economy and in our country. And it makes sense, it's common sense to begin with the lowest paid.
JOURNALIST:
Treasurer, Rebekha Sharkie, is accusing your Government of pork barrelling over the solar panel battery scheme. Given how hard you went on sports rorts, why then allocate three quarters of these grants to Labor in marginal seats?
CHALMERS:
We want to make sure that we're getting value for money in the commitments that we make, and we're confident that we are.
JOURNALIST:
Should the minimum wage actually be increased in line with inflation?
CHALMERS:
We'll make our own submission and we'll make that submission public before long. And in that submission, we will make it clear that we don't want to see the lowest paid Australians falling further and further behind. We don't intend to nominate a specific figure in the submission that we make. But we will make our priorities and our objectives clear, our objective is meaningful, sustainable and responsible wages growth. We don't want to see working families, particularly the lowest paid fall further and further behind. We've been consistent on that.
JOURNALIST:
Won't they fall further behind if it fuels inflation further? Are you suggesting it's not inflationary to pay these lowest paid workers more JobSeeker? Those pointier ends, it wouldn't further fuel inflation?
CHALMERS:
A couple of things about that. Inflation is moderating in our economy in welcome ways, but it's still unacceptably high. I think it is a sign of the times that an inflation figure with a six in front of it was seen broadly as encouraging news. And it's encouraging because it shows that inflation peaked at the end of last year, and it is moderating now. We'd like to see it moderate faster, inflation will be higher than we'd like for longer than we'd like, we recognise that. And that's why our Budget in October, and the Budget in May, is all about carefully calibrating our economic plan, so that we're showing restraint in our spending at the same time as we're providing responsible cost‑of‑living relief where we can. Now when it comes to the minimum wage, and when it comes to what people are being paid in our economy, we see decent wages as part of the solution, not part of the problem. There is no credible view, in my view, that says that we've got an inflation problem because our lowest paid workers are being paid too much. We want to see wages moving in a meaningful way in our economy. It's common sense to begin with the lowest paid and our submission will reflect that.
JOURNALIST:
What about businesses, can they afford more pay rises?
CHALMERS:
Businesses are confronting a range of pressures right now. They've got skills and labour shortages. They've got issues in supply chains, so a whole combination of challenges. But wages growth has not been especially swift in our economy for the best part of a decade. I think businesses recognise that they want to hold on to the best people at a time of skills and labour shortages and they need to pay for them, and that's what we're seeing.
JOURNALIST:
Just on the monthly inflation data that was out yesterday - the Reserve Bank meets next week. What would you like to see when they make their rates decision?
CHALMERS:
I'm not going to give free advice to the Reserve Bank Board. They will meet next Tuesday to make an important decision about interest rates and I don't pre‑empt, I don't second guess, I don't give free advice to the Board as they go about making that decision. Clearly, they will weigh up developments in our economy since the last time they met. We had a relatively flat retail figure earlier in the week. We had a monthly inflation number yesterday which showed that inflation continues to moderate and we've got some global uncertainty, particularly in the banking system. And so they will weigh all of that up, they will come to their decision independently about interest rates. The Governor himself has said that we're getting closer to a pause in interest rates but what that means for Tuesday's meeting remains to be seen. I've got my own job to do. They've got their job to do to take that decision independently. I'm focused on putting together a Budget which is properly aligned with the economic conditions we confront.
JOURNALIST:
You talk about trimming spending in the Budget. Where will those cuts be?
CHALMERS:
Look, we've made it clear and we've shown in October and we'll show again in May that where we can trim spending, where we're not getting value for money and we can redirect that either to dealing with the trillion dollars of Liberal debt that we inherited or funding other programs, then we'll look to do that. We'll look to do that in every Budget. I work incredibly closely with Katy Gallagher and our Expenditure Review Committee team to see where we can spend money more effectively or make the Budget more responsible. That will be an ongoing feature of our Budgets.
Thanks very much.