NATALIE BARR:
Treasurer Jim Chalmers joins us now from Brisbane, morning to you, tell us what this global meeting is all about. What's the goal?
JIM CHALMERS:
Good morning, Nat, you're right the Budget is four weeks' away today and this week is a really important opportunity for me to take the temperature of the global economy as we finalise that Budget to be handed down in the second week of May. And so I'll be going to Washington DC for a brief trip, but an opportunity to confer with my counterparts from the G20, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as well. And as you rightly said in your introduction, this is a challenging and complex time for the global economy. One of the defining influences on the Budget that I hand down in May will be this global economic uncertainty, so this quick brief visit to confer with my counterparts couldn't be better timed.
BARR:
So if the world is facing the worst five years for economic growth in more than 30 years, how likely is it that Australia will go into recession?
CHALMERS:
We are confident but not complacent when it comes to our own economy. Obviously, we've got a lot coming at us from around the world but we've got a lot going for us as well. We've got low unemployment, we've got the beginnings of some wages growth and we're getting very good prices for our exports as well. And all of that helps in conditions like those which we confront around the world but it will be a difficult time. The Treasury has forecasts that our own economy will slow as well. We're not completely immune from what's happening around the world. And one of the really important jobs in this Budget ‑ in addition to providing responsible cost‑of‑living relief without adding to inflation, in addition to laying the foundations for future growth in our economy ‑ we also need to build our resilience against some of these international economic shocks. And again, that's why it's so important that we confer with our colleagues to get the best possible understanding of what's happening around the world and what it means for us.
BARR:
So my high school economics in Bunbury tells me that if you give people lots of money, that will feed inflation. But there are people sitting around dinner tables and kitchen tables right now saying energy prices are going up, I can't pay my rent, I can't pay my mortgage, everything is going up. So what do you say to them in the lead up to next month's Budget?
CHALMERS:
There's absolutely no doubt that Australians are under the pump right now and we do understand that. And what we'll try and do in this Budget is to give some assistance and cost‑of‑living relief in a way that doesn't push up inflation. For example, one of the centrepieces of the Budget that I hand down in May, will be a bit of help for people with their electricity bills, because we know that that's a big part of the cost‑of‑living pressures that people are confronting right now. And so what we try and do is to strike the right balance between helping people where we can, but doing that in a really responsible way so we're not making the inflation problem in our economy even worse.
BARR:
So that's a no to handouts, how are you going to help people with electricity?
CHALMERS:
There'll be one and a half billion dollars of Commonwealth assistance for people's electricity bills. So there will be assistance for people with their cost‑of‑living pressures ‑ that will be a centrepiece of the May Budget. We're working with the states so that the Commonwealth is kicking in one and a half billion and the states are also kicking in their fair share, so that people are getting a little bit of help with what is probably the biggest part of this cost‑of‑living environment that we're facing right now. So we will try and do what we can to make life a little bit easier for people in this environment, where conditions in the global economy are pushing up the cost of living here in Australia. We'll try and take the edge off that where we can, but we've got to do it in a responsible way. We're working through these issues in a really methodical way as well, so that the Budget strikes all of these balances.
BARR:
Okay, better you than me, looks tough. At least you've got a nice spot on the river there in Brisbane.
CHALMERS:
Thanks, Nat.
BARR:
Thank you, Treasurer.