Emma Rebellato:
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers joins us now from Brisbane. Treasurer, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
Jim Chalmers:
Thanks very much, Emma. Nice to talk to you.
Rebellato:
You must be pretty happy at the moment – more people are talking about interest rates possibly being cut in February.
Chalmers:
I was pretty pleased to see that underlying inflation came down yesterday in the most recent numbers. Also, it’s pleasing to see that headline inflation has been, for some months now, at the bottom end of the Reserve Bank’s target range because what that tells us is that we are making and have made really substantial and now sustained progress in the fight against inflation. And we’re pretty confident that the worst of that inflation challenge is behind us but we’re not complacent about that because we know that people are still under pressure, that’s why the government’s cost‑of‑living help is so important. And that’s why the choices at this election are so important as well, a Labor government rolling out cost‑of‑living help and building Australia’s future versus Peter Dutton who will take people backwards and make them worse off. And so, there are a lot of reasons to be pleased about the inflation numbers that we got yesterday.
Rebellato:
But Treasurer, how do you convince Australians that things are getting better when, as you say, bills are going up? They’re not really seeing a lot of relief here.
Chalmers:
We certainly understand that it’s been a difficult last few years for people, this inflation challenge, which began under our predecessors and has continued for the last couple of years even as inflation has come off really quite substantially since we came to office. Remember, it was almost 3 times what it is now and rising when we came to office. We’ve managed to get inflation down and wages up and roll out cost‑of‑living help and strengthen Medicare at the same time as we manage the budget responsibly. We’ve made good progress but we don’t pretend that people are out of the woods when it comes to their household budgets. We know that people are still battling to make ends meet and that’s why our tax cuts, our energy bill relief, our cheaper medicines, cheaper early childhood education, getting wages moving again, that’s why all of those things are so important.
Rebellato:
Treasurer, I’m not going to ask you if you think interest rates will be cut in February because you’re not going to buy into it, but regardless of whether they are cut or not, do you think that you have to offer immediate cost‑of‑living relief like more help, like extending those electricity subsidies before the election.
Chalmers:
Our focus is still rolling out the cost‑of‑living help that we budgeted for in the last Budget. But we’ve made it clear that in each of our Budgets, if we can afford to do a little bit more to help people, of course we consider that. We try and provide this cost‑of‑living relief in a substantial way, in a meaningful way, but also in a responsible way. We’re very attuned to the budget pressures at the moment, so we’ll do what we can, but we’ll do what we responsibly can. People shouldn’t expect this election to be a kind of a big free for all of public money or a huge kind of cash splash. We’ve got to continue to manage the budget responsibly, but if we can do a little bit more to help people with these cost‑of‑living pressures, of course we’ll consider that.
Rebellato:
Ok. Well, speaking of cash splash, the Prime Minister has been going across the country, he’s made a few funding announcements, including today in WA, how deep are your pockets?
Chalmers:
One of the reasons why we’ve been managing the budget so responsibly, those 2 surpluses that we delivered for the first time in almost 2 decades, getting the deficit much lower in this current year that we’re in right now, part of that’s been taking pressure off inflation and It’s been about making it easier for the Reserve Bank, but it’s also been about making room for our priorities. Those tax cuts, energy bill relief, investing in the Bruce Highway here in Queensland, the other commitments that the Prime Minister has been making in northern Australia over the course of the last few days. Really the primary reason why we’ve been managing the budget so responsibly is so that we can afford to do the things that the country desperately needs and that’s what building Australia’s future really means and what it really looks like. To make sure that we can fund the things that Australians really need, cost‑of‑living help, investing in housing, investing in strengthening Medicare and building the future when it comes to infrastructure.
Rebellato:
Treasurer, speaking of the election campaign, when we actually do get to the official election campaign, are you worried that Meta is getting rid of their fact checkers? Are you worried about misinformation and disinformation during the campaign?
Chalmers:
I think it’s very concerning. I think misinformation and disinformation is very dangerous and we’ve seen it really kind of explode in the last few years. And it’s a very damaging development, damaging for our democracy, it can be damaging for people’s mental health to get the wrong information on social media. And so of course we are concerned about that. It’s one of the main reasons why the government has found room in tight budgets to invest in quality news like the ABC, like SBS, like AAP and in other sources, so that we can make sure that people can find reliable places to get their information at the same time as misinformation and disinformation is unfortunately becoming a bigger and bigger part of our media, particularly our social media.
Rebellato:
Can you do anything like, will the government take a look at anything to put safeguards in place to protect voters from this sort of thing?
Chalmers:
We’ve tried during the course of this parliamentary term to build support for changes on misinformation and disinformation. Unfortunately, the parliament did not find a way to support those kinds of changes and so we’ll have to look for other ways. I’ve already mentioned one of them, investing in quality news providers, encouraging people to get their news from trusted sources like the ABC or SBS, AAP has got an important role to play as well, the associated press. And so, these are the ways that we’re trying to build the quality of our democracy and our media as a key part of that. Recognising that our efforts to change laws on misinformation and disinformation were not supported by the parliament.
Rebellato:
Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, thanks very much.