SAM RAE:
It's great to be here at Keemin Electrical. Thank you to John Cutler for having us this morning. And a big thank you to Treasurer Jim Chalmers for coming out here to Hawke. It's fantastic to bring the Treasurer here to see a business that employs 25 people right here in Hawke, and a business that works with other small businesses to improve their energy efficiency, reduce their energy costs. We've had a look around this morning and seen some of the ways that they do that. As I said, I'm so appreciative to the Treasurer for coming out here. This Budget has been a fantastic budget for small businesses here in Hawke. And it's been a fantastic budget for families who are struggling with the cost of living. And so for the Treasurer to take the time to come here to be with our community and understand the challenges that we're facing, and indeed, see on the ground, how some of those fundamental take outs from the Budget are going to help our community both in the short term and the longer term. I'm very appreciative.
Just before I hand over to the Treasurer, I just wanted to make one comment ‑ just in regards to the accident, the bus accident involving students from Exford Primary School yesterday afternoon ‑ I understand there are still a number of those students and the bus driver who are in hospital. And I just wanted to send my best wishes to all of the students, the staff, the families, and indeed, the entire school community. If there's anything that that community, those families need any help with, they should reach out to my office, and we'd be able to help. In the meantime, I send my best wishes for a quick and speedy recovery to all of those families. I'll hand over to the Treasurer.
JIM CHALMERS:
Thanks, Sam, for having me here in your community. I wanted to begin really where Sam left off. Our hearts go out to the families and the loved ones and the teachers, and particularly those little kids from Exford Primary, involved in that horrific accident not far from here yesterday afternoon. It is heartbreaking to think of little primary school kids on the bus with their friends, now having to deal with the unimaginable stress that comes from this accident. Our hearts do go out to the families, the school community, particularly those little children who are involved in this accident. We know that a number of them are still in hospital. As Sam said, we wish them a speedy recovery from their injuries. And we can only imagine the stress that their loved ones in particular are going through right now and so our hearts go out to them.
We're here today ‑ and we thank John and the team here, and Jesse and all of the gang here ‑ for the opportunity to talk about really two of the Budget's biggest priorities. The Budget was about providing some cost‑of‑living relief for people in the here and now, at the same time as we invest in the future. And where all that comes together is with the vast industrial opportunities of cleaner and cheaper energy. The Budget and so much of the investments in the Budget, was all about investing in cleaner and cheaper energy. So we can create new jobs and new opportunities and also get downward pressure on energy bills at the same time. And that's the sort of magic that happens here in this community and we want it to happen in every community around Australia. We want more Australians to access the immense benefits of cleaner and cheaper energy. In order to do that, we need the workforce and we need the investment, and the Budget provides a heap of investment. We also are supporting the workforce with more than $4 billion in investment in skills and training in the Budget. And also something like 10,000 green apprenticeships, to do the kind of work that we have been talking about here. We want our future increasingly powered by cleaner and cheaper, more reliable, increasingly renewable energy. And in order to do that, we need the workforce, we need the installers, we need the passion that we see in places like this one, to get the work done so we can get downward pressure on those energy bills, and invest in the future at the same time. There are vast industrial opportunities to come from cleaner and cheaper energy. We want higher wage, higher skilled jobs into the future ‑ and the Budget, as much as it was about anything else ‑ was about investing in those objectives. Some help with the cost of living and laying the foundations for future growth in the ways that we have been talking about today.
Now wages are in the news today and Angus Taylor is at the Press Club later on today as well and so I wanted to make a couple of points about those two things. When it comes to cost‑of‑living pressures in our economy, decent wages are part of the solution, not part of the problem. For too long in our economy, wages have been stagnant because they've been deliberately suppressed by our predecessors. This government takes a different view, we want people to be able to earn a decent wage and provide for their loved ones. That's why we support a decent minimum wage rise. That's why we've invested in wage rises in aged care and elsewhere. And that's why we are pleased to see the welcome beginnings of wages growth in our economy after a decade of deliberate suppression and wage stagnation. We want people who work hard to be able to provide for their loved ones and get ahead, that has been absent for too long, and we're starting to turn that around. And that's a good thing, not a bad thing.
Now, Angus Taylor is at the Press Club later today, and he's got some explaining to do. He needs to explain, does the Opposition support or oppose our cost‑of‑living measures ‑ all of them. Does he accept that he voted against the energy relief plan which is putting downward pressure on electricity prices? The forecast increase in electricity prices was going to be 36 per cent, now it's 10 per cent, as a consequence of the Albanese government's measures. Angus Taylor voted against that, and so did the Coalition. He's got to explain how much higher energy prices would be if he'd had his way in December, in the parliament. He needs to explain and come clean on how much does Peter Dutton's thought bubble on JobSeeker ‑ how much does that cost? It's been a week now since the Opposition Leader's budget reply, and he still can't tell us how much it costs. You can imagine what they would do to a Labor Opposition who made an announcement without costing it. Let's see how much it costs. And if it costs more than what the government was proposing in our Budget on Tuesday night, he needs to explain if spending is the problem when it comes to inflation, why are they proposing to spend more? And if not, are they cutting Medicare? Are they making other cuts to the services that people need and deserve in communities like this one? So Angus Taylor has got some explaining to do. The budget reply is already falling down in a shambolic heap around Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor. Today is his opportunity to clear up a number of those issues. Does he support the JobSeeker base rate increase or not? Does he concede now that voting against the energy bill relief plan and the energy price caps was a horrendous mistake, which would have seen energy prices higher? And how much does the thought bubble that Peter Dutton announced on Thursday night, when he was scratching around for something to say on Budget week, how much does that cost? Over to you.
JOURNALIST:
So I've just had another question come through from Sky News. If the wage index rises, do you expect this to have an upwards effect on rates, and/or inflation?
CHALMERS:
When it comes to the cost‑of‑living pressures on working families, decent wage rises are part of the solution, not part of the problem. We don't have an inflation challenge in our economy because people are getting paid too much. We've got an inflation challenge in our economy, because Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and we've got busted supply chains here at home. And what we need to do, and what we are doing in the Budget, is dealing with these cost‑of‑living pressures without adding to inflation. We've done that in a very careful and methodical way, we've done that deliberately. We're taking some of the edge off these cost‑of‑living pressures without adding to inflation, and decent wages growth is part of the solution, not part of the problem when it comes to that. We have an inflation challenge for a whole range of other reasons, not because people have been getting paid too much. If anything, for the best part of a decade, wages have been too stagnant.
JOURNALIST:
Victoria has confirmed several infrastructure projects will be halted from going on final contracts. How do you expect this Federal review to take place, and do you want to see an airport rail link here in Melbourne?
CHALMERS:
Well, the review that my colleague Catherine King has announced for infrastructure is a short, sharp review. And it's designed with one purpose in mind, and that is to get value for money for the infrastructure projects that people need and deserve here in Victoria and right around the country. We need to get value for money in the context of increasing costs to build these infrastructure projects. We have guaranteed the $120 billion, 10‑year infrastructure pipeline. Our job and the job of the review, is to make sure that we get maximum value for money for that, making those investments in communities right around the country, to make it easier for people to get to and from work and for other reasons. And that's our motivation.
JOURNALIST:
What's your thoughts and reaction to President Joe Biden cancelling his Australia trip?
CHALMERS:
Well, we understand President Biden's got some matters to attend to at home, and as I understand it, Prime Minister Albanese and President Biden had a conversation about the trip this morning. They will try and reschedule that trip, the Prime Minister will be seeing him in Japan. And again later, as I understand it, later in the year in the United States as well. We understand that President Biden has domestic political issues to attend to. That will happen from time to time. We will engage with our American friends and all of the other opportunities, and look forward to seeing President Biden here in Australia, when that's possible. Thank you.