James Glenday:
Treasurer, g’day and good morning.
Jim Chalmers:
Good morning James.
Glenday:
All right, level with us. Do you think we’re going to get an exemption from these tariffs or not?
Chalmers:
Well Prime Minister Albanese had a good, productive, positive conversation with President Trump yesterday. President Trump indicated they’d be willing to consider an exemption because we’re a bit different to some of these other countries and economies which have been President Trump’s focus. For example, the Americans run a trade surplus with us, we’ve got a very mutually beneficial economic relationship. And so what Prime Minister Albanese was able to do yesterday was to make the case for Australian industries and Australian jobs. That exemption is now under consideration and that’s a good thing.
Glenday:
We handed the US a massive wad of cash last week as part of the AUKUS agreement. A democratic congressman has called these tariffs an insult. Would you agree with him?
Chalmers:
I wouldn’t use those words, no. I know Joe Courtney, I’ve met him on a couple of occasions. He’s a wonderful guy, he’s a good friend of Australia but we don’t necessarily see it that way.
What Prime Minister Albanese was able to do yesterday was to point out how mutually beneficial this economic relationship is, how close we are as partners in the economy, in national security and in other ways. We obviously don’t take any outcomes for granted for here but it was a good, productive and positive conversation between the 2 leaders yesterday, that’s why this exemption is now being considered and that’s a good thing.
Glenday:
I went through the executive order last night, Australia’s explicitly singled out. These come into effect in March. If you don’t get an exemption as some in the Trump White House will be pushing for no exemptions, will you retaliate and have you thought about how?
Chalmers:
That’s not something we’re considering. Our priority is to try and get an exemption on behalf of our industries and our workers here in Australia. It’s an important industry for Australia, as Prime Minister Albanese said yesterday.
Now obviously we’re aware of those reports from almost a decade ago but our focus is on what’s in front of us. Our focus is on the future, our focus is on the tariff announcement made by President Trump in the last day or so and trying to get the best deal that we can for our workers and our businesses and our economy, recognising this very beneficial, mutual partnership on the economy between 2 countries.
Glenday:
Government ministers are very focused and disciplined on that same message at the moment. Let’s go to another topic because your boss is about to speak down in Merimbula about Rex Airlines. You might buy the airline, Regional Express. Can you see the Commonwealth permanently back in the aviation game?
Chalmers:
Well this is about ensuring that people and small businesses and communities in regional Australia get access to reliable and affordable flights, that’s our priority here and our preference is for a private sale, we’ve made that clear. There’s a bidding process under way right now and the Australian Government is not one of the bidders. We are prepared to negotiate with the bidders to support the sale of Rex Airlines but a responsible government like ours, a methodical one, has an obligation to make sure that we’re considering all contingencies and what we’ve said is our preference is for a private sale.
If a more substantial role for government is necessary, then we’ll do the work with the state governments and other stakeholders to see what might be necessary or possible. But again, our preference is for one of the bidders in the sale process right now. We’re prepared to step in and help but we’re considering all of these other contingencies at the same time.
Glenday:
Just as you were speaking there Treasurer, we had a little picture up of the Prime Minister speaking there in Merimbula in New South Wales. We’ll bring you more on that later in the program, we don’t cut you off of course, Treasurer.
I just want to be very clear about this. The idea of re‑nationalising an airline, even Qantas, has been floated by all sorts of people in federal parliament over the years. That’s not something you’re explicitly looking at? You can’t imagine having a government‑owned airline in Australia competing with some of the other airlines to push prices down or to connect parts of the country that don’t have services?
Chalmers:
We’re working through all those contingencies and all of those fallbacks and we’ve said in a world where there isn’t a private sale then we’ll discuss that option with stakeholders and state governments and others. We’ve made that really clear.
Glenday:
Yes.
Chalmers:
But I’ve also made clear this morning our preference is for a private sale. That would be the best outcome and we’re prepared to help that along the way. Now we can’t lose sight of what is really at stake here. This is about more reliable, affordable flights for people who live in the bush. We’re going in to bat for the bush, not just in aviation but also in banking and what that means is from the terminal to the teller we are supporting regional Australia and that’s what these announcements yesterday and today are all about.
Glenday:
Nice pivot to spruik one of your announcements from yesterday. We don’t have time to get into that. I do want to ask you though – you do have another announcement out today. You want to soften home loan lending requirements for Australians with university debts. Tell us what that’s about, what are you hoping to achieve?
Chalmers:
We’re coming at this housing challenge from every responsible angle and we’ve asked the regulators and the banks to take a more reasonable approach to student debt, recognising that student debt is different to other kinds of debt as the Universities Accord has pointed out to us. So I’ve met with both of the relevant regulators here, I’ve convened a meeting of the major bank CEOs to make sure that we apply these commonsense changes to the regulations.
Now this is about getting more people into homes and building more homes. That’s what these changes are all about. They’re common sense changes and they show that in addition to all of the other things we’re doing to build more homes for Australians in our communities, that this will make a difference as well.
Glenday:
All right. Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers, thank you so much for joining us from parliament this morning.
Chalmers:
Thanks James.