Jim Chalmers:
Tonight’s Budget will be our most responsible and it will be our most ambitious. It will be a really responsible budget focused on resilience and reform. There are 5 major packages in tonight’s Budget, a fuel security package, a package focused on the cost of living and housing, a productivity package, a tax reform package and also a savings package as well. There will be more than the usual amount of savings and more than the usual amount of reform in the face of more than the usual amount of global economic uncertainty.
The Budget will be about helping people through this global oil shock at the same time as we reform our tax system and our economy for the future as well. The developments in the Middle East are a reason to act more decisively and more urgently, not to kick the can down the road. There are substantial issues in our economy, in our tax system, in our housing market, it would be easier to leave them unattended, but it would be wrong.
And so this Budget makes a number of difficult decisions in the near term and in the longer term to get our budget into better nick, to reform our tax system and to deal with some of these issues which have been left unattended for too long. The Budget deals with major issues like inflation and productivity, tax and housing and intergenerational fairness as well. These are some of the major challenges that the Budget that I release tonight with Katy Gallagher seeks to deal with and respond to in our economy.
This will be a very ambitious budget in its breadth and also in the nature of the difficult decisions that we will be taking on. Obviously people will go to any length to defend the current arrangements in the tax system. As I said, it would be easier to leave them undisturbed, but it wouldn’t be the right thing to do. So tonight, we take a series of right decisions for the right reasons. Tonight, we choose the hard road of reform, not the path of least resistance, a responsible budget, a reform budget, and I look forward to talking to you about it tonight. But first, happy to take a couple of your questions. Amanda then Cameron,
Journalist:
Treasurer, the Prime Minister said yesterday that this Budget will make Australians lives better. When can people actually expect that to happen?
Chalmers:
Well, the Budget is all about helping people through this difficult global oil shock at the same time as we reform the economy for the future, and whether it’s a tax reform package, the productivity package which is all about lifting living standards over time, it’s about recognising that this country has so much going for us, but we’ve got a lot coming at us as well, and we’ve got these challenges, whether they be inflation or productivity issues in the tax system, the housing market, issues of intergenerational fairness, which will be addressed in tonight’s Budget. This Budget will be very ambitious, it will be very responsible, and it will take on some of the issues which will lift living standards over time.
For too long in this country, it’s been too hard for a lot of Australians to get a toehold in the housing market. Too many Australians are locked out of housing and tonight’s Budget will seek to address that, and that’s one of the ways that we intend to ease the pressure that Australians are feeling. Australians are paying a really hefty price for this war in the Middle East. They didn’t choose the circumstances of this war, they won’t decide when it will properly end. The cost and consequences will be felt for some time, and that’s why the Budget seeks to do a number of different things at once to help people through this difficult period brought to us by a major war in the Middle East, at the same time as we deal with some of these longer term issues, as well.
As I said, the developments in the Middle East and all of this global economic uncertainty that we are dealing with, these are reasons to act more decisively and with more urgency, not to kick the can down the road on some of these difficult issues that we take on tonight.
Journalist:
You said there it would be easier to not change some of the settings that might change tonight. Why is it better governance to ask voters for forgiveness rather than permission when it comes to some of those bigger changes?
Chalmers:
I think the important thing here is, when the government comes to a different view on policy issues like those in the Budget tonight, that we explain why we’ve come to a different view. What matters most is that we make the right decisions for the right reasons. What matters most is if we come to a different view, that we explain why, and I’ll be doing that tonight.
I think people who defend the current arrangements in the tax system and in the housing market, they want to focus on those issues to avoid dealing with the substantive issues here. We can’t forget the substantive issue here, and the main issue here is that too many Australians are locked out of the housing market, and the intersection of the housing market and the tax – tax system makes things too hard for too many Australians, and particularly younger Australians. It’s not about making judgments of people who’ve done well. We want more people to do well.
This Budget is about aspiration and opportunity and ambition, because we want those things to be available to more people, not just in our economy, but in our society as well and that’s a big part of the motivations for the difficult decisions that we are taking tonight. The status quo in the housing market and in the tax system is not working for too many Australians. Too many people are locked out of the housing market and as I said, it would be easier to pretend that that’s not the case. It would be easier to leave some of these difficult issues unattended. It would be easier just to kick the can down the road but all of this global economic uncertainty, all of this intensifying pressure on Australians is a reason to do more, more urgently, more decisively, not an excuse to kick the can down the road.
Journalist:
Treasurer, what can regional communities in Northern New South Wales expect from this Budget?
Chalmers:
There’s a big emphasis on the regions in this Budget. For example, the $2 billion investment that we will be making in the power and water and road infrastructure to get more housing projects over the line ensures that at least $500 million of that goes to regional communities, like regional communities in Northern New South Wales.
We’re very conscious when it comes to that beautiful part of Australia. It has had a very rough time when it’s come to natural disasters and the like, particularly in and around the Northern Rivers. And so when we put our budgets together, when we put our policies together, regional Australia is always front and centre.
Journalist:
Treasurer, you’ve been in power for 4 years now. Is life better for Australians?
Chalmers:
Well, in the 4 years that we’ve been in office, and in the 5 budgets that we are handing down, we’ve always been very attuned to the pressures that Australians are under. I think Australians understand that the price pressures that they are feeling right now are at least partly delivered to them by a war on the other side of the world, a war that they didn’t choose to start and the war that they will not decide when it finishes. I think people understand that we had pressures in our economy before the war in the Middle East, but that has made it much, much worse for a lot of Australians.
And so tonight’s Budget is about lifting living standards over time. That’s the reform task, but it’s also about helping people through a difficult period. There will be an emphasis on the cost of living and housing, there will be an emphasis on dealing with this inflation challenge which has been made much worse by a war in the Middle East.
Journalist:
Treasurer, what assurances can you give to young Australians that the changes in tonight’s Budget will be substantial enough to give them that toe hold in the housing market?
Chalmers:
Well, I say to young Australians and to the Australian community more broadly, that in my experience, when you go around Australia, this concern about intergenerational fairness, particularly in housing, is not a concern which is just limited to young people. A lot of parents and a lot of grandparents raise with us this concern that they have this anxiety that they feel about the opportunities that we pass on to the coming generations, and this Budget takes those concerns and those anxieties very seriously.
No budget can fix every issue in the economy in one hit, but tonight we take big, bold, ambitious and responsible steps to try and level the playing field for young people, particularly when it comes to access to a home of their own.
Journalist:
Do you want this Budget to raise the bar for ambition? In previous years, people have said the budget has not done enough on any of these issues. Do you want this to raise that bar when it comes to how we approach the problems?
Chalmers:
This is an ambitious government and tonight’s Budget will be an ambitious budget. These are not the first reforms that we have undertaken, it’s been a reforming government, but I think the pace of change will pick up tonight and that’s because we are taking on a number of very important policy issues that always involves and invites an element of political risk. It will unleash the usual scare campaigns full of lies – people who want to defend the current arrangements.
I heard one of the junior shadow ministers from the Coalition say this morning that they think that these tax breaks should be bigger, not smaller. And we will see all of the defenders of the status quo, the people who want the housing market to stay exactly as it is, the people who want the tax system to stay exactly as it is, these changes will be hotly contested, and that’s just fine by me, because I would rather spend my time here doing the right thing, even if it’s difficult, than leaving some of these challenges for the next generation to fix.
Journalist:
Treasurer, how much of an eye do you have on, I guess, the anti‑establishment, kind of populist wave that we’re seeing sweeping not just Australia, but the sort of western world? I mean, we saw that result in Farrer, you and the Prime Minister have spoken a number of times about how people might feel this system is not working for them, the government, you know – government, the small g rather – the government is not doing enough for them. How does this Budget sort of address that sort of creeping issue?
Chalmers:
I think the housing market and the tax system is not working for a lot of Australians, and tonight, we seek to address that. I don’t dismiss or deny the very real concerns that a lot of Australians have about their ability to get a toehold in the housing market or to get a toehold in the economy more broadly. This is really one of the, I think, main issues playing out in our society now.
Tonight’s Budget is not a political document, as I said to Cameron, there’s an element of political risk in this Budget. There’s a lot of savings, there’s a lot of spending restraint, so it’s not a political document or a political strategy, it’s an economic plan, very comprehensive economic plan, to deal with some of these economic issues, but at the same time, it will respond to a lot of the pressures and anxieties that people are feeling, which is driving them to consider some of the parties outside the mainstream.
The Australian Labor Party is the last one standing in the sensible centre of Australian politics, but we’re not standing still. This Budget is a very ambitious budget. It’s full of reform and responsibility and you’ll hear all about it tonight.
Thanks very much.