Michael Usher:
Thank you very much for joining us. What are you seeing where you are?
Jim Chalmers:
Well, the rain is pretty persistent here, Michael, as you can see. I’m at Slacks Creek in Logan City. Really for us, the next day or 2 is going to be critical because it’s the big rain dump and the flood risk which is worrying us most now. There are major flood warnings for the Logan River and Albert River systems and what happens around my neck of the woods is it comes up through the creek system here, like at Slacks Creek. So you can see that we’re not out of the woods here, even after the night was a little bit better than what a lot of people were fearing. Certainly, today and tomorrow will determine just how bad the flooding is.
Katrina Blowers:
You’re a Queenslander, Jim. I know this isn’t your first rodeo with wild weather. You know, I feel like we had a few days to prepare for this, thanks to Alfred being somewhat problematic and very slow. But it really meant that everybody was able to pull together and be as prepared as they possibly could.
Chalmers:
It’s been remarkable around here. You just can’t fault people the way that they’ve looked out for each other and looked after each other. Whether it’s been at the sandbag stations at Logan Metro or the other stations, the evac centre, the volunteers have been terrific, the SES, amazing and I think particularly I’d like to shout out the Energex workers. There are about 350,000 Australians without power because of this, about 300,000 of them in Queensland, 130 on the Goldie and 120 here to the south of Brisbane, and so you think about those Energex workers trying so hard to get people reconnected despite these really difficult conditions. And so, we’re thinking of them. We’re very, very grateful to them and to all the first responders, all the SES and all the volunteers as well.
Usher:
Treasurer, I’m a bit worried about the 24 hours ahead. I know that it’s dropped down from a cyclone. We had the NSW Premier urgently telling people, ‘look, this isn’t over’. We’ve heard it from the Queensland authorities as well. And you know what those waters do in your area. There might be a little bit of a false sense of security at the moment, that this is kind of ok, some people even saying it’s a fizz. But this soaked land around us, right from north of Brisbane down to the northern rivers and south again into NSW, that’s going to present some really big problems on many levels, not only the flooding, but roads blocked, freight blocked, all the sort of bits that we need to connect and keep lives going on in one of the more heavily populated parts of Australia. What are your concerns?
Chalmers:
Look, I couldn’t agree more with the way that you’ve put it, Michael. The real risk here is complacency. We can’t be complacent, not for one minute. We are not out of the woods yet. The flood danger is really now the most pressing part of this, as well as the power outages. And unfortunately, in this part of Australia, we’ve seen this movie before. The heart goes out to all of our friends in northern NSW in particular, but right throughout south-east Queensland, every couple of years we have a major flood event in areas like Logan City and so we’ve seen this movie before. We know not to be complacent, we know that the real risk often emerges a day or 2 after the worst of the rain and the winds and so that’s what we’re anticipating here. So the big message to everyone is don’t be complacent, be really cautious around floodwaters. If it’s flooded, forget it. Don’t take any unnecessary risks with yourself or with your loved ones and make sure that we look out for each other because the next couple of days are going to be really critical.
Blowers:
What can you say to put people’s minds at ease about unlocking some of that federal government assistance? What are some of the processes there to expedite that to the people who need it most?
Chalmers:
Australians are there for each other in difficult times like these and the government will be there for them as well, we’ve made that really clear. We’ll be as fast as we can when it comes to determining the eligibility for the various payments and allowances, the PM’s made that clear. The Emergencies Minister at the federal level, Jenny McAllister’s made that clear as well. We’ll try and get those payments flowing to those people who are eligible.
Obviously, not everybody is eligible, but for everyone who is, we’ll get them flowing as fast as we can. I’ve had a number of conversations with the Services Minister, Katy Gallagher, to make sure that that’s the case. She’s been meeting with and being briefed by the services personnel. We know that that’s a big part of the stress sometimes, we don’t want to add to that stress whether it’s insurance claims or other kinds of payments. We want to make sure that they’re moving as quickly as they can.
Usher:
Treasurer, just when you don’t need it, this whole thing could lead to some increase in prices. You’ve got significant agricultural areas affected by these rains and potential flooding in the next 24 hours from the Lockyer right through the Northern Rivers, northern parts of NSW.
We’ve got freight, you know, distribution networks heavily disrupted. Truckies are going to be stranded for a while. That’s going to shove some prices through the roof, like I said, when you don’t need it. How can you balance that out and what messages might you have to the supermarkets or whomever else to try and limit what will be a spike in prices after all this?
Chalmers:
First of all, our major focus is on the human cost of what’s happening now, making sure that people are safe but there will be an economic cost and we expect that to be substantial. Substantial when it comes to the Commonwealth budget and economic activity but also when it comes to some of those really important goods and services and supply chains which are so important to the economy of south-east Queensland and also NSW, so we’re very attentive to that. I’ve been getting briefed on that on a daily basis, the state government and others, we’ve been engaged with the supermarkets. We want to make sure that the supermarkets do the right thing by people. People are under enough stress and pressure as it is with this extreme weather and we want to make sure that everybody’s doing the right thing in the aftermath as well and that includes the supermarkets.
Blowers:
Look, Jim, a final cheeky question. We heard from the PM that he would definitely not be calling an election this weekend with an impending cyclone. But Alfred is now an ex‑cyclone. So, what do you reckon? Could it be back on the cards? Could we have an election called?
Chalmers:
No, there won’t be an election called this weekend for all the reasons we’ve been talking about, which is this thing is not over yet. And I think the Prime Minister made a really great call the other night when he made it clear to Australians that our exclusive focus, our sole focus is on helping people through this nasty weather. It’s not over yet. People shouldn’t anticipate that an election be called in the next couple of days. There’ll be a Budget at the end of March which I’m looking forward to handing down with Katy Gallagher and the election will be some time after that.
Usher:
Treasurer, just one follow up question on what I was asking you about in those daily economic briefings, is there a dollar figure on what Alfred’s cost us or cost the economy?
Chalmers:
Too early for that, but obviously billions of dollars when you tally up all the different ways that heavy weather like this impacts the economy. But again, Michael, I’ll be very focused on that, but for the time being, we’re focused on safety. We’re focused on communities like mine here in Logan City and south of Brisbane, the Gold Coast, northern NSW. There are millions of people impacted by this heavy weather, they are our focus, but there’ll be an economic cost as well. And what I’ll try and do is I’ll try and keep Australians updated on that as we work that out. As that evolves, I’ll try and share as much information as I can.
Usher:
That’d be appreciated. Good on you. And you’ve answered a few questions because I had quite a few people message me on social media last night saying, ‘can you update what’s happening in Logan?’ Well, the Treasurer is there. He’s told us what’s happening. There’s a lot of rain. A lot of rain and potential flooding.
Good on you. All right, Jim, thank you.
Chalmers:
Thanks, mate.