James Glenday:
The federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers joins us now from beautiful sunny Brisbane. It’s always lovely in Brisbane, isn’t it, Treasurer?
Jim Chalmers:
It sure is, it’s another beautiful day here. Nice to talk to you, James.
Glenday:
Yeah, bloody cold down here. Now, Donald Trump says that Israel and Iran have been fighting for so long, they don’t know ‘what the eff they are doing’. Do you agree with him?
Chalmers:
Well, I’m certainly not going to quibble with the language that President Trump’s using here. I think it reflects the gravity, the enormity of the situation in the Middle East and just how important it is that both sides stick to this ceasefire which has been negotiated.
The stakes are very high in the Middle East. The consequences of this ceasefire falling over are pretty grave, and I think the President’s blunt language reflects that.
Glenday:
We’ve had a lot of coverage already this morning about what it might mean for the Middle East if this falls over. What’s it likely to mean for Australians and the Australian economy if this conflict is to become more protracted?
Chalmers:
The global economy’s a pretty dangerous place right now because of what we’re seeing in the Middle East, but still what we’re seeing in Eastern Europe, escalating trade tensions, risks to global demand from these tariff announcements in the last couple of months or so. And so there’s a lot of volatility, unpredictability, uncertainty in the global economy, and Australia’s really well placed and well prepared to deal with all of that but we won’t be immune from it either and that’s why it’s so important that we make our economy more resilient in the face of all of this global economic uncertainty, more productive, more sustainable, and that’s really where the government’s focus is.
Glenday:
I might come to that in a moment. I just want to ask, we know some of the first Australians have got out on repatriation flights. Are you expecting more to go today?
Chalmers:
We’re working very hard as a government to get people out of harm’s way, out of that dangerous part of the world and to safety. I think it’s a really welcome development that 118 Australians and one New Zealand friend were able to get out on a flight that was organised by the Australian Government. Here I pay tribute to the Defence people and the DFAT people working under the leadership of Ministers Wong and Marles, because we’ve got a number of contingencies in place, we’ve got the Defence planes, we’ve got private charters, so that when the air space does open up, as it did over Tel Aviv, we’re able to get people out so that they can then organise an onward journey.
There’s still thousands of Australians who have registered to get out of Iran and to get out of Israel, and we will continue to work really hard and around the clock to take the opportunities when they arise to get more people out.
Glenday:
Quite a lot of Australians were caught up in some of the travel disruption yesterday, and they’re finding out the hard way that travel insurance policies generally don’t cover acts of war. Do you think that it’s fair that people just transiting through the Middle East on their way to Europe or other places are not covered in a circumstance like this?
Chalmers:
Certainly there’s an opportunity to look at all those kinds of arrangements but our focus, as you would understand, James, is really leaning in as a government to get people out. We’re using Defence assets here, and we’re using private charters and all kinds of other ways to try and get people out safely. There will be a time to think about all of those sorts of issues around insurance, but I think you’ll understand that for us right now the primary focus is on getting as many of those thousands of Australians who’ve registered to get out, to get them out. We’ve had some good developments in the last 24 hours, and we will take other opportunities as they arise as well.
Glenday:
Well, maybe you can focus on insurance in your economic summit. I want to get to that now. There’s a lot of ideas that are being put out in opinion pages, other politicians, state leaders as well. One that we’ve covered a lot on News Breakfast is housing. Are you open to changing the way housing is taxed to encourage the construction of more homes and maybe make it easier for first home buyers to get into the market?
Chalmers:
First of all, I think it’s a terrific thing that we are seeing people provide their insights, their ideas, their proposals on how we make our economy more productive, more resilient, and make our budget more sustainable at the same time. That’s a good thing, we welcome that, we appreciate that, that’s a deliberate thing that we have opened up in the lead up to this Economic Reform Roundtable that I’ll be hosting in Canberra in August.
Now when it comes to some of those specific issues that you’ve raised, you know that we’ve got a view on them, we’ve expressed that view repeatedly in recent months, but what we’ve tried to do in the lead‑up to this roundtable is to make sure that we’re not artificially limiting the proposals that people will put forward to us.
Glenday:
Sure. I just want to jump in there though –
Chalmers:
We’re not trying to narrow the conversation.
Glenday:
Yeah. I won’t narrow it either, but I do wonder about capital gains tax and the capital gains tax exemption. For so long people have said this is a perk for people who are selling their properties, investment properties; that’s something that could be changed pretty quickly. Is that something you’re looking at?
Chalmers:
It’s not something that we’re actively looking at right now, but it is something I anticipate people will raise at the roundtable, and I think it is really important that we don’t narrow that, limit that, those ideas that people put forward. We’ve had a view about that in the past. I do suspect people will raise it, and we’ll listen respectfully when they do.
Glenday:
All right. We’ll wait and see then. Before I let you go, should YouTube be banned for under 16s?
Chalmers:
Look, I’m obviously aware of the contribution made yesterday and the comments from the eSafety Commissioner and others.
We’ve got to remember here, our primary objective is to keep young Australians safe online, to get them off their devices, to get them outside and playing and interacting with each other in real life and not just online, and so we’ll take seriously the comments that were made yesterday and some of the analysis that was released yesterday and no doubt my colleague, Anika Wells, is working through that. But we’ve got a good agenda here, we’ve got the right objectives, we’ve got the right motivations, and we will work out the best way to deliver on them.
Glenday:
You’re a parent, though. What’s your personal view?
Chalmers:
Like a lot of parents around the world and around the country, it does worry me how much time young people spend on devices. We’re not perfect when it comes to that at our place. And so we’ve got to make sure that Australian kids are safe online, that’s what our motivation is here. And obviously there are a range of views about the best way to go about that. Again, that’s good, we welcome people expressing their views and making their views known, and Anika and the Prime Minister and the government will go through all of those suggestions and make sure that we’ve got the best regime that we can, which remembers our overwhelming objective here is to keep kids safe online, to get them off the screens as much as we can. If we’re able to do those 2 things, that would be a great development.
Glenday:
All right. Treasurer Jim Chalmers, thank you for your time this morning. A bit jealous, Brisbane looks glorious today.
Chalmers:
Appreciate it, James, all the best.