MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Treasurer Jim Chalmers joins us now from the summit in Melbourne. Treasurer, a very good morning to you.
JIM CHALMERS:
Good morning, Michael.
ROWLAND:
Tell us about this $2 billion investment financing facility for Australian companies in the region. How's it going to work?
CHALMERS:
Well, ASEAN is where the action is, and we want a bigger slice of the action for our workers and for our businesses and what this new investment facility is all about is making sure that we can turbocharge that two‑way investment which is so important to the region, but also to our country, its employers and its workers as well.
And so what you'll hear from us today is really a big focus on investment, trying to get that two‑way investment and trade as good as it can be, because we recognise that when the region is more secure and more prosperous, our people here in Australia are more secure and more prosperous as well.
ROWLAND:
How can Australian companies gain access to this funding?
CHALMERS:
Well, there will be robust arrangements to make sure that the $2 billion that we're making available suits the purposes of the investors, but also our national interest as well and so we'll make clear all of those arrangements.
But for the purposes of explaining to your viewers today, Michael, it's a $2 billion facility, it's all about making sure that we can make this two‑way investment more attractive to people, to investors, also de‑risk it where we can, because it's in the interests of every Australian that we get this two‑way investment and two‑way trade happening the best that it can be. Our future lies in our region. ASEAN is the hope of the side, ASEAN is where the action is, we want to get a bigger slice of that action for the Australian people.
ROWLAND:
Let's look at the Australian economy, and there are growing concerns the latest GDP figures to be released tomorrow will show Australia's economy actually contracted in the final three months of last year. Do you share those concerns, Treasurer?
CHALMERS:
Well, the final number remains to be seen, and that will be put out tomorrow morning. But what we do already know is that the December quarter in the Australian economy, and indeed in the global economy was quite weak.
Remember, that was the quarter where we saw Japan and the UK both go into recession, we had an interest rate hike right in the middle of that December quarter, we had those persistent cost‑of‑living pressures that people are confronting in our communities and around our country, so we expect the December quarter to have been quite weak. We’ll know exactly how weak when those numbers are released tomorrow.
ROWLAND:
We had confirmation from the Bureau of Stats yesterday, Treasurer, that Australian companies are actually destocking ahead of what they see is plunging demand in the Australian economy. That is never a good sign, is it?
CHALMERS:
No, it's one of the reasons that we know that that December quarter was quite weak, because people were running down their inventories rather than producing or acquiring more stock. That is often a bit of a warning sign about the economic conditions at the time.
But that's not the only factor that feeds into these National Accounts that we will release tomorrow via the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We know because of global economic uncertainty, higher interest rates, persistent inflation, even as it's coming off in welcome and encouraging ways, we know all of those things weighed heavily on our economy towards the end of last year, they weighed heavily on many economies around the world, and that's why we saw the UK and Japan go into recession towards the end of last year.
There's a lot of global economic uncertainty, there's a lot of weakness in the global economy. We're not immune from that. We've got our own strengths when it comes to our labour market, our budget position, we've got real wages growing again, we've got inflation moderating, as I said, in welcome and encouraging ways, but there is enough around to trouble us about how the economy finished 2023, and we'll know more about it tomorrow.
ROWLAND:
I want to finish with the war in Gaza. You may have seen the news this morning, breaking this morning that a team of Sydney lawyers, Treasurer, is actually referring the Prime Minister to the International Criminal Court, accusing him of being an accessory to genocide – their description – by Israel in Gaza care of the Prime Minister's ongoing support for Israel. What's your response to that?
CHALMERS:
Well, I've only seen those reports, Michael, and I don't have much to add to them. We don't typically get in the way of legal cases brought by individuals, and so I don't intend to kind of breach that principle here as well.
I think what the Prime Minister has said and what he's done recognises our deep concern for the people of Gaza. We understand that what Hamas did was unforgivable, we understand that Israel has a right to respond to that, but we don't want to see the innocent families and children of Gaza be the unwilling victims of that conflict, and I think the Prime Minister has made that view quite clear.
ROWLAND:
Treasurer, I appreciate your time this morning, thank you.
CHALMERS:
Thanks, Michael.