CAMERON DICK:
Great to be here today with Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers at the opening of this incredible $12 million facility for Beenleigh Steel. Today is a celebration not just of a great manufacturing facility for Queensland, but a great company that has been contributing to our state now for more than 40 years. All of the major iconic infrastructure projects in this state have a small piece of Beenleigh Steel in those projects - things like Suncorp Stadium, the North Queensland Stadium, Cbus on the Gold Coast and the projects for the future like the new Green Bridge over the Brisbane River. Not only has this company contributed to the growth and development of Queensland over the last 40 years, they'll have a role to play in the growth of our state into the future. Queensland is the growth state of Australia. We know people are coming from other parts of the country and from around the world to call Queensland home. And of course, we need to build the infrastructure that a growing state needs. And Beenleigh Steel is exactly the sort of company we look to support to ensure they can contribute not just to those big building projects, but to jobs and the growth of our economy in our state. And I'm so pleased that the 200 workers here, working on the floor, working on 10,000 tonnes of steel each year have a secure job for the future, and that there's a pathway now for another 59 jobs including apprentices and trainees. So this is a story about manufacturing. In our state, it's a story about strengthening our industrial base, it's a story about jobs, but it's also, most importantly, a story about Queensland and the Queensland community. And I want to commend the company for its $12 million investment and we're very proud to have supported that company through our Jobs and Regional Growth Fund to support jobs here in Logan and across Queensland.
JIM CHALMERS:
Thanks very much, Cameron. I acknowledge the state government's investment in this really quite remarkable facility here in Logan City. I'm really pleased that we could end the post budget roadshow here in Logan City. We've been through Sydney, Western Sydney, the Central Coast of New South Wales, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, and here today in Logan City. And the reason I'm so proud to be here today with Cameron and with the council is because this is a really powerful symbol of what we want in our local communities. This is all about investing in good, secure, well paid jobs for local people and building the future of this part of Australia. And in that sense, it is perfectly aligned with what we're trying to achieve in the second budget of the Albanese government - making sure that people can provide for their loved ones at the same time as we invest in the future - that's what the Budget was about and that's what the Albanese government is about, as well.
And the second budget capped off what will be the first year of the Albanese government which we rack up this weekend. This has been a year of ambition and achievement, but we know that we've got a lot more work to do. We have spent the past year methodically working through the agenda that we took to the Australian people. And our first year has been about more than just cleaning up the mess that we inherited, it's about building a better future as well. This first year hasn't just ended a wasted decade in this country, it's begun a defining decade for our country and its people and communities like this one. The first year has been about strengthening Medicare, getting wages moving again at the same time as we put the budget on a much more sustainable footing. We are so proud of what we've been able to do, working with Australians over the course of the first year of the Albanese government. We've got a lot more work to do together so that people can provide for their loved ones and so that we can invest in their opportunities into the future - that's what today's about, that's what the budget's about and that's what the Albanese government's about.
JOURNALIST:
There's been a breakthrough with China lifting tariffs on timber. What other trade blocks do you expect to be removed?
CHALMERS:
This is a terrific development and it's consistent with what we've been saying for some time which is we think it's in the interests of both countries for those trade restrictions to be lifted. I salute the work of Don Farrell and Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese and other colleagues who have been working around the clock to try and get these trade restrictions lifted but also to stabilise our economic relationship with China. No country has more to gain from a stable and secure and peaceful and prosperous region than Australia, or more to lose when the relationship is not working as it should. We're under no illusions about how complex this relationship is, how difficult it is to manage this relationship, but we've said all along, we give ourselves a much better chance if we engage and we try and stabilise this relationship. So the easing of trade restrictions are a good outcome for our employers and our exporters and our workers. We want to see the other trade restrictions lifted as well but this is welcome progress.
JOURNALIST:
How are you planning on getting the PRRT through Parliament when the Coalition is looking at opposing it and the Greens are saying it's the bare minimum?
CHALMERS:
Well, it's not too late for the Coalition to see sense when it comes to getting a fairer return for Australians from the PRRT sooner. And what we've done here, is we've worked around the clock to make sure that getting this extra $2.4 billion into the Budget from offshore gas projects, so that we can fund a stronger Medicare and cost‑of‑living relief for Australians, is done in a way which is cognisant of investment and supply and our international relationships. We do not want the PRRT to be subject to long negotiations and the whims of the Senate. The Coalition should do the right thing here.
Now, if Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor want to unwind our sensible changes to the PRRT, and to superannuation and in other areas, they need to tell Australians how much bigger their deficits will be, or what cuts will they make to Medicare and other essential services in order to make up the difference.
Peter Dutton's Budget reply was an absolute shambles. It's not too late for him to say that he will support the sensible changes that we've worked through with the industry. It's not in the industry's interests and it's not in the country's interests for this to be dragged out in a long negotiation in the Senate. It's not too late for the Coalition to do the right thing.
JOURNALIST:
China's investment in Australia still remains quite low, would you be willing to reconsider investment rules to get that relationship back on track faster?
CHALMERS:
Well, we want to see investment in Australia, which is consistent with our national interests. And the foreign investment regime that I manage, as Treasurer, is all about making sure that we can attract investment that's in our interests. And that's what the FIRB process is all about. We want a strong, productive wealth‑creating relationship with China. It's such a big and important market to us and to our country and to our prospects, that our interests all along are best served by working methodically through some of the complex issues in the relationship, to stabilise it where we can, to get trade restrictions lifted where we can, and to manage the FIRB relationship in a way which satisfies our interests as a country.
JOURNALIST:
So, is that a no to reconsidering the investment rules?
CHALMERS:
We are always looking to make the foreign investment regime as good as it can be. At the moment, we're looking at a range of changes which are proposed to us about investment from some of the pension funds overseas, not just in China. There are other tweaks that are made to the FIRB arrangements from time to time. I'm not flagging a big change in the way that we treat the investments that you're asking me from. It's a non‑discriminatory foreign investment policy. If there are opportunities to make it stronger and more robust, obviously, we're prepared to consider that.
JOURNALIST:
What do you make of Peter Dutton's comments at the oil and gas industry conference yesterday, that the Coalition plans to reverse market intervention measures [inaudible]?
CHALMERS:
Well, Peter Dutton says no to everything. That's his modus operandi. He is long on division and dishonesty and short on credibility, particularly when it comes to managing the economy. And what we've been able to do with the energy market changes that we implemented out of the Parliament in December, working closely with state governments and with others, is we've been able to take some of the edge off these energy price increases. The Budget forecast for electricity prices went from a 36 per cent increase to a 10 per cent increase, and that's because of the changes that we put in place. So if Peter Dutton had his way, energy prices would be even higher. He voted against the changes which have moderated those electricity price increases. He voted against the energy bill relief that Cameron and I have been working on, so that Queenslanders get hundreds of dollars of bill relief from their winter bills. He says no to everything. He hopes that if he says no to enough things, and he divides the country sufficiently that there's a political opportunity in that for him. Our interest is in trying to take some of the sting out of these high energy bills. We've been successful in taking some of the edge off them and providing relief to families. He voted against all that.
JOURNALIST:
The Treasury Secretary gave a pretty frank warning about how stagnating productivity is going to wipe out the benefits of full employment, migration and commodity prices. Does this concern you and how do you plan on boosting productivity?
CHALMERS:
Productivity growth is absolutely central to our economic plan. Whether it's new sources of cleaner, cheaper, more reliable, increasingly renewable energy, whether it's making sure we skill up our workforce for the industrial changes that we're expecting, whether it's our agenda when it comes to adapting and adopting technology. Our productivity is absolutely central to our economic goals because we recognise, as Steven Kennedy does, and as he put it eloquently yesterday, that a more productive economy is an economy which can create more and better jobs for our people, and create wealth in more of our communities. And so productivity will always be our focus in ways that the Treasury Secretary outlined yesterday.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think a warning like that [inaudible] people's minds and creates anxiety among people who are already struggling?
CHALMERS:
I don't think so. We don't see the answer to our productivity challenge to make people work longer for less. We see the answer to our productivity challenge to get better at adapting and adopting technology, to get the energy transformation right, to get skills and training right. We see the productivity challenge is all about investing in people. And that's why it's such a central part of our agenda. Thanks very much.