KARL STEFANOVIC:
The Treasurer has announced a major overhaul to Australia’s foreign investment system due to national security concerns. There’s a little bit going on this morning with security as well with a detainee accused of a violent crime. For more, we’re joined by Treasurer Jim Chalmers from Brisbane. Treasurer, good morning to you. Thanks for your time. So despite all the warnings, a 73‑year‑old is allegedly beaten to a pulp by a detainee. Does your government have blood on its hands?
JIM CHALMERS:
I don’t think that’s a helpful way to describe it, Karl. We’re working very hard to try and tighten up the system. We’re dealing with a bunch of legacy issues and we’re dealing with a High Court decision which didn’t go our way and so we’re having to respond to that.
What happened to that woman in Perth in WA is absolutely horrific. There’s no other way to describe it. Absolutely horrific. Nobody should have to go through the kind of ordeal that she has been through, and we are working around the clock to try and make these arrangements much better, much tighter. And in doing that we’re dealing with a High Court decision and some legacy issues.
STEFANOVIC:
Too late for her. I mean, he was bailed, this guy, 3 or 4 times. The Home Affairs Minister categorically said on our program they were being tracked and had ankle bracelets fitted. They didn’t. And a 73‑year‑old grandmother is bashed. That’s an abject failure.
CHALMERS:
Obviously the fact that this Australian has been hurt so badly makes us even more determined to fix up the system that we inherited and to respond appropriately to this High Court case. Nobody wants to see this. This is horrific, as I said. And for all of us who see what’s happened here, obviously it’s devastating. And that makes us more determined to make the system as good as it can be.
I know that our political opponents want to politicise this. They should try and be part of the solution to this rather than part of the problem. Instead, they’re just playing their usual nasty, negative politics.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay, it might very well be, as your ministers are pointing out this morning, a state problem now, which seems to me a little bit of a hospital pass. But your ministers and your government got caught on the hop here and said you would fix it. You said that repeatedly, and you haven’t, and now they are saying this morning you can’t.
CHALMERS:
As I said before, Karl, these ministers and our government are responding to a High Court decision that we didn’t want. We didn’t want these people out on the street. We resisted it, but we can’t cut across a decision of the High Court. So we’re trying to respond it. We’re trying to get the laws up to scratch. We’re trying to do that in the parliament. We need the support of the parliament to do that.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay, but, Jim, you can’t then come out on our program, like Clare O’Neil came out and said, they’re being monitored, they have ankle bracelets on, and they don’t. You can’t come and say that you’re fixing the problem and you aren’t. You can’t do those things when the public’s safety is at risk.
CHALMERS:
We are trying to fix the problem. We are trying to respond to this situation that nobody wants. The idea that we want to see these kinds of outcomes is obviously not true. We want to tighten up the regime. We want to tighten up the laws and the arrangements to make sure that this doesn’t happen.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay. So tell me this: there are other detainees, some of whom have more serious charges in their back pockets, some of them paedophiles, serious offenders. Are they being monitored now? Do they have ankle bracelets on now?
CHALMERS:
The operational details of it is not something that I am focused on a daily basis, Karl.
STEFANOVIC:
I understand.
CHALMERS:
We are doing our best here to play the cards that we’ve been dealt and that’s what we’re doing. The ministers have primary carriage of the day‑to‑day operational issues with the law enforcement agencies. This is an important focus of the government, but it’s not a day‑to‑day focus of mine as I put the Budget together.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay. You definitely have to relay that one to the ministers, and they need to be doing more.
So today, let’s get on to your portfolio. You’ll announce overseas investors that will be wooed into Australia, into the Australian‑made policy that you’re proposing, so they’ll be Australian made by foreign owned. How can you guarantee Aussie taxpayers will get some kind of return on their significant investment?
CHALMERS:
I don’t entirely agree with the way you’ve characterised it, Karl. But what I’m trying to do with these foreign investment changes I’m announcing today is to overhaul the system to make it stronger so that we can minimise risk when it comes to foreign investment, so that the investment we get in our country is the right kind of investment consistent with our national interest. And that’s because I think we’ve got a big chance here as Australians. The world is churning and it’s changing, and we want our workers and our businesses to get a bigger slice of the action when it comes to growth in our economy into the future. Part of that is attracting private investment, but as we attract it from overseas we’ve got to make sure it’s in our national interest. And that’s why I’m strengthening the foreign investment framework and making it much more robust.
STEFANOVIC:
All right. Good to talk to you, Treasurer. Appreciate your time. Thank you.