PETER STEFANOVIC:
Treasurer, good to see you this morning. Thank you so much. Let’s just start there. The reinstalment of that building and construction commission, would that happen in your government?
JIM CHALMERS:
Good morning, Pete. I think as the Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke has made clear in the course of the last day or so, we’re prepared to consider some of the options that you mentioned in the introduction. Deregistration and other options are on the table as we work through what are completely unacceptable allegations and revelations that we’ve seen in the last couple of days. Overwhelmingly the trade union movement in this country is a force for good and trade union leaders are good, decent, honourable people looking out for their members but the CFMEU in Victoria under John Setka has been neither of those things and the revelations we’ve seen in the last couple of days go to that and so we’re prepared to consider all of these options as Tony Burke works through the avenues available to us.
STEFANOVIC:
Ok, we’ve got a bit to get to this morning, Treasurer, but on to Donald Trump. This all happened as you were live with Kieran yesterday morning. Now, we know that someone tried to kill the former president. So, how are you making sense of all that today?
CHALMERS:
Kieran Gilbert’s such a professional, isn’t he? Those events were unfolding while we were live on air and we were both very careful to make sure that without the full information that we didn’t try and fill in the gaps. When we were speaking, when Kieran and I were having a yarn about the economy and inflation, surpluses and interest rates and the like, we saw these extraordinary events unfold without volume. We couldn’t hear what was going on, we could only see it, and we wondered whether he’d taken a fall or had some kind of medical incident and so it was quite surreal seeing it unfold before us. We made sure that we focused on the facts that were available to us, but through the course of the day, obviously, this just became the most extraordinary moment.
We’re relieved that former president Trump is okay, our hearts go out to the family of the man whose life was lost in the crowd and I think if you take a step back for a moment, unfortunately we’ve seen more extremism, more polarisation, more violence in our politics, and we should be able to settle our differences with votes, not violence. Unfortunately, whether it’s the events in Pennsylvania yesterday or on the steps of the Capitol not that long ago on January 6, we’re seeing more and more of this kind of violence and it has to stop.
STEFANOVIC:
Do you think Donald Trump has been demonised by his political opponents as well as sections of the media, not just in the US but here in Australia?
CHALMERS:
Look, I’m not going to engage in a running commentary of domestic politics in the US, media politics or partisan politics. I will say that I share the concern. I think that many people around the world and certainly around our country feel that politics is becoming uglier and nastier, more polarised, more extreme, and indeed in this case, much more violent and we can’t see that development continue in our politics. Democracies are supposed to help us mend and moderate our differences, not magnify and horrify them and unfortunately when we see events like we saw in Pennsylvania yesterday, it’s a real wake up call I think for democracies around the world that we need to be able to disagree in nonviolent ways.
STEFANOVIC:
Just a final one here. Treasurer, 750,000 to get tax cuts today. Will anyone even notice, though as costs soar?
CHALMERS:
I think they will. The average tax cut about $36 a week. Average family with kids, about $63 a week. Around 9 million people have already received their tax cut, another 750,000 today, 2 million over the course of the next fortnight – this is all about helping people earn more and keep more of what they earn to help deal with these cost‑of‑living pressures that we know that people are under. So, people should check their pay slip. These tax cuts are rolling out for every taxpayer from this month in addition to the energy bill relief for every household and all of the other ways that we’re trying to take some of the sting out of these cost‑of‑living pressures.
STEFANOVIC:
Treasurer Jim Chalmers, thanks, as always, for your time.