PETER STEFANOVIC:
Well, the Prime Minister will set aside $2 billion to help fund green energy and infrastructure development in South-East Asia. The aim – it’s going to be announced a little later on – but it’s to seize on demand for renewable power in the region over the next few decades.
So joining us live now is the Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Treasurer, good to see you. Thanks for your time this morning. So how’s it going to work?
JIM CHALMERS:
Good morning, Pete. This is all about ensuring that we get a bigger slice of the action for Australian investors and businesses and workers. It’s all about recognising that the more secure and prosperous our region is, the more secure and prosperous our people are. ASEAN is the hope of the side. It’s where all of the action is in our region, and we want to get a bigger slice of the action. And what this fund will do, it will make it more attractive for investors to invest in the region. It will help to de‑risk some of that investment. It will help build the kind of deal‑making infrastructure that we need to see because we want this two‑way investment to be really strong. We want trade to be strong because we recognise when the region does well, Australia does well. When Australia does well, our people can prosper.
STEFANOVIC:
Yeah, okay. A slice of the action is good, but what’s the guarantee that we’ll get a return on the investment, Treasurer?
CHALMERS:
Well, like all of these sorts of investment vehicles, we’ll make sure we’ve got the robust arrangements in place to make sure that it serves our national economic interests and I’m confident that we can do that. This is based on a really terrific piece of work by Nicholas Moore, formerly of Macquarie Bank. In the region, he is one of the most respected voices and actors and investors throughout the ASEAN region and we’ve relied very heavily on his good work. We are implementing the report that he provided to the Prime Minister and this is part of that effort. It’s part of our effort to ensure that we are strengthening our regional economy as part of strengthening the Australian economy too.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Conversely to that, though, as other nations in the region pile on more coal, doesn’t that just cast a shadow of South-East Asia’s clean energy transition?
CHALMERS:
I don’t believe so, Pete. I mean, obviously traditional types of fuels still have a role to play in our region. But increasingly, just like here in Australia, increasingly the future will be powered by cleaner and cheaper, more reliable and increasingly renewable sources of energy and we want to play a role in that. Now, the whole world is moving in the direction of renewables. This is a very big and important opportunity for Australia. We want to grab the vast industrial and economic opportunities of this energy transformation here in Australia but in Asia more broadly too.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Well, on that point, the opposition is moving towards a future that involves nuclear and not just medium sized reactors but, according to reports this morning, large‑scale nuclear reactors to be part of the mix. What’s your thoughts on that plan?
CHALMERS:
Well, a couple of things about that, Pete – I mean, first of all, is it any wonder they failed for a decade on energy policy when they’ve gone once again for the option which is the most expensive, takes the longest to build and is the most divisive. Peter Dutton is more interested in cheap and divisive politics than he is interested in cheap and reliable electricity and we see that in this nuclear fantasy that he is engaged in. His proposal will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, take decades to build, it’s more expensive, takes longer, and it’s the divisive option.
STEFANOVIC:
Right.
CHALMERS:
So if he wants to build large‑scale nuclear reactors around our country, he should tell us where they’re going to go if he was in government. I think most Australians recognise that our future is renewable, and that’s where our efforts and our attention must lie.
STEFANOVIC:
But nuclear more reliable though, is it not?
CHALMERS:
Not necessarily, Pete. Around the world we’ve seen examples of where some of these big projects which were much heralded at the time are taking much longer to build and are not working out as they were advertised. But I think we all know where this is coming from – this is more about a culture war. It’s more about his usual divisive politics than it is about cheaper, more reliable electricity for people and businesses.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay.
CHALMERS:
He is always on the hunt for cheap politics, not cheap electricity, and we’re seeing that again today.
STEFANOVIC:
Just a final one on the economy, Treasurer – National Accounts, of course, up tomorrow. Are you expecting the economy to contract?
CHALMERS:
Well, that remains to be seen, Pete, but we certainly expect the economy to have finished last year in a pretty weak position. We know that from the way that businesses were running down their inventories in those numbers that we got yesterday. We know that the UK and Japan went into recession in the December quarter last year, we know that there was an interest rate hike in November, we know that people are under pressure, so a combination of all of those things will weigh heavily on our economy. We’ll see just how heavily it weighed on our economy in the December quarter when we get those important numbers tomorrow.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay, that’s the Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Appreciate your time, Treasurer, as always. We’ll talk to you soon.