Jim Chalmers:
This Saturday marks a very important anniversary.
This Saturday is a year since Anthony Albanese and I announced that we were going to give a tax cut to every Australian taxpayer.
That was contentious at the time but it was the right decision made for the right reasons.
This is all about ensuring that every Australian taxpayer gets a tax cut to help with the cost of living.
The defining purpose of this Albanese Labor government is more people working, earning more and keeping more of what they earn. That’s what the tax cuts are all about.
Now, in this financial year, every Australian taxpayer has been getting a tax cut to help with the cost of living, and as we get wages up in the coming financial year, those tax cuts will get bigger.
What this means is we’ve got unemployment low, inflation down, wages up, and that means the tax cuts are bigger in the next financial year.
When we announced these changes to the tax cuts, you will recall that the Deputy Liberal Leader was asked if they would roll back these tax cuts, and she said that was absolutely their position.
Angus Taylor was asked whether he opposed these changes to the tax cuts, and he said that they did, and there was no ambiguity to their position.
These tax cuts aren’t safe under Peter Dutton and the Coalition.
If Peter Dutton had his way, Australian taxpayers would be missing out on these tax cuts, and Australians would be worse off.
This goes to a bigger choice that Australians will make at the election this year, Anthony Albanese and Labor helping Australians with the cost of living, strengthening Medicare and building Australia’s future, or Peter Dutton and the Coalition making Australians worse off, opposing our cost‑of‑living help and taking Australia backwards.
We know that Peter Dutton is a risk, because we know his record.
He came after Medicare when he was the Health Minister. He will push wages down again. He will push electricity prices up with his nuclear insanity, and he will take Australia backwards so the same Australians who are under cost‑of‑living pressure today would be worse off under Peter Dutton and the Coalition.
We know that because they opposed our cost‑of‑living help. They opposed our changes to the tax cuts, and they will make Australians worse off in the future too, by pushing electricity prices up, pushing wages down, and coming after Medicare again – like they did when Peter Dutton was the Health Minister.
We know that Australians are under pressure, but more than acknowledge that we’re doing something about it – tax cuts for every taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, getting wages moving again cheaper early childhood education, cheaper medicines, student debt relief, Fee‑Free TAFE – all of these things are about responding to the very real and genuine cost‑of‑living pressures that people are under.
The Coalition oppose our cost‑of‑living measures and Australians will be worse off as a consequence.
As we look forward into 2025, there are real reasons to be confident – but not complacent – about the economy in the coming year.
We have got inflation down, we have got wages up, we’ve kept unemployment low and the cost‑of‑living relief is flowing.
When we came to office, inflation was higher than 6 per cent and rising. Now it has a 2 in front of it, and that shows the progress that we have made together as Australians.
We know that people are still under pressure, even as we make this quite remarkable progress together as Australians in our economy. We’ve got inflation down, we’ve got wages up, we’ve kept unemployment low, but we know that that doesn’t always translate into how people are feeling and faring in the economy.
That’s why our cost‑of‑living help is so important, and that’s why the risk posed by Peter Dutton when it comes to the cost of living is such a dangerous proposition.
Happy to take some questions.
Journalist:
Treasurer, Peter Dutton yesterday said that they have PBO‑costed their tax deductible lunches for small businesses, but are not yet releasing those costings. Do you think that the Opposition Leader needs to do so?
Chalmers:
Why isn’t the coalition releasing this costing if they’ve received it?
Why won’t they tell the Australian people how much it will cost taxpayers to provide taxpayer funded long lunches and golf days for bosses?
There was a remarkable revelation in the last 24 hours or so where Angus Taylor has said that Peter Dutton’s long lunch policy will also extend to things like golf days and movie days for bosses.
After almost 3 years, this is the best economic policy that they can come up with.
It is a complete and utter farce, and that’s why it’s falling down all around them, and it’s why they won’t tell you how much it costs.
It beggars belief that he is not producing the costings that he says he has for this policy. Why won’t they do that?
Taxpayers have got a right to know how much Peter Dutton’s taxpayer funded long lunches for bosses will cost them and what he will cut in order to pay for it.
Coming clean on the cost of this policy is long overdue, and again it goes to the choice and it goes to the contrast.
Labor is for getting wages moving again and giving tax cuts to workers and supporting families with cost‑of‑living pressures.
The Coalition is for long lunches paid for by taxpayers and golf days for bosses.
That more than anything speaks to the difference between the major parties and the risk posed by Peter Dutton.
They’ve had 2 forays into economic policy, and both of them have fallen down all around them.
Their nuclear shambles will push electricity prices up – not down, and their taxpayer funded long lunches for bosses will come at the expense of ordinary working people that Peter Dutton has ignored by opposing our cost‑of‑living pressures and by coming after wages and Medicare.
Journalist:
Just on the PsiQuantum deal, the Industry Department has launched a review into that. Are you confident that the PsiQuantum deal was done above board and that the Queensland Government is going to go ahead with it?
Chalmers:
I’m confident that the process that we went through in order to determine that very important investment was the appropriate process.
I can’t speak for the Queensland government, and my hope is that they will go ahead with this very important investment.
Quantum computing is a game changer for our economy. We want our economy to be more productive and dynamic and competitive, and technology like this has a big role to play.
I’m not aware of the processes in the Industry Department, as you would expect, but I’m confident that this is a good investment for Australia, and I hope that the Queensland colleagues follow through on it.
Journalist:
We’ve got detailed jobs data coming out today, inflation figures next week. Is the expanded public service artificially keeping the unemployment rate lower and therefore keeping interest rates higher?
Chalmers:
I’m so pleased that you asked me about this, because there’s a lot of misinformation which is peddled about this question under this Albanese Labor government.
1.1 million jobs have been created. That’s a record for a parliamentary term, and 4 out of every 5 of those jobs have been in the private sector – overwhelmingly private sector jobs.
Our opponents and our critics like to use the distinction between market and non‑market jobs for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they want to diminish the really quite remarkable performance of our labor market, despite all of the challenges global and domestic, we’ve seen this remarkable progress in our labor market. We’ve seen a lot of jobs created, and they want to diminish that.
The second reason they want to diminish that is because, when it comes to workers in the care economy, they’re job snobs. They are saying to every Australian worker in the care economy, which is a very important industry in our economy, that their jobs aren’t real jobs.
That’s what they’re really saying when they draw this distinction. They want to diminish Australians who care for other Australians. They might not see them as real jobs, but we see them as real jobs.
I’ve heard, including on radio in the last day or 2, people say all kinds of things about that distinction between market and non‑market.
The most appropriate distinction is 4 out of every 5 jobs are in the private sector, not the public sector.
People shouldn’t try to diminish what Australian employers and workers have achieved together, which is this remarkable jobs creation and low unemployment.
Journalist:
The Reserve Bank is keeping in close eye on that unemployment rate, though, are your election hopes in the hands of Michele Bullock?
Chalmers:
I don’t see it that way. I don’t, as you know you’ve asked me versions of this question on other occasions, and I don’t preempt or predict or make political commentary about decisions taken independently by the Reserve Bank. I respect them too much to do that.
What I would say about the jobs numbers, about the inflation numbers that we get next week, and about the performance of the Australian economy overall is what we’ve demonstrated as Australians, is that we haven’t had to pay for this substantial and sustained progress on inflation with much higher unemployment.
A lot of other countries who’ve made progress on inflation like we have, have got higher unemployment, or they’ve had negative quarters of growth. We’ve kept the economy ticking over, created 1.1 million jobs, kept unemployment incredibly low, at the same time as we’ve made progress on inflation, not instead of making progress on inflation. The Reserve Bank will weigh all of that up. They’ll come to a decision independently before long.
We’ll go back to Tom.
Journalist:
Thanks Treasurer. Will Labor pursue the news bargaining incentive if the Trump administration deems it as discriminatory? Isn’t there a big risk, he’s a pretty transactional fellow?
Chalmers:
First of all, the arrangements around the news media bargaining code will impact different American companies differently. Some would be in favor of it, some would be concerned about it. It doesn’t affect every American business in the same way, that’s the first point.
Second point is what we’re talking about here is implementing an existing arrangement that was legislated, I think, in 2021 under our predecessors. And what this is about is just incentivising the tech platforms to come to deals with media organizations to make sure that the value of that media is reflected in the way that platforms go about their business. And so I think not an especially controversial change, implementing a policy that was legislated some years ago and it would impact American companies in different ways.
Journalist:
No backward step?
Chalmers:
We’re not proposing that, no. Obviously when we look at the change of administration in the US, we’re expecting changes of policy. We’re confident in our ability to navigate that. We’re well placed and well prepared to work with American counterparts as the policy agenda changes in the US in expected ways.
This relationship between Australia and the US is a mutually beneficial one. And I think that’s reflected, frankly, in Penny Wong being in to see the new Secretary of State the day after President Trump was inaugurated. I think that augurs well for the relationship between 2 good countries. I said I’d go here, then David.
Journalist:
Treasurer you’ve expressed your confidence that inflation is coming down and cost‑of‑living pressures are easing. Today’s polling suggests that about half of Australians don’t feel that confidence, don’t see things getting better in the year ahead. So why do you think that that confidence isn’t translating to them? Why are Australians feeling the way you’re feeling?
Chalmers:
First of all there are a couple of opinion polls this week, and they said different things about some of these questions. But overall we acknowledge that some of these numbers we’re seeing are a reflection of the very real and genuine cost‑of‑living pressures that people are under. And we do more that acknowledge that, we’re helping people with the cost of living in all of the ways that we’ve run through this morning. And again, we know even as we make quite remarkable progress in the economy overall – inflation down, wages up, unemployment low – that doesn’t always translate into how people are feeling and faring. And you see that reflected from time to time in the opinion polls.
If you’re asking me about the politics of all of this, I think the most important point to make is the same Australians who are concerned about the cost of living would be worse off under Peter Dutton. They’d be worse off because he opposed our cost‑of‑living measures. He didn’t want everyone to get a tax cut. And he poses a very substantial risk to household budgets if he wins the election, electricity prices, Medicare and wages are the most obvious examples. And so if we go back to that decision that we took a year ago and announced a year ago on Saturday, I think that does go to the choice when it comes to the cost of living. He called for an election, Peter Dutton called for an election over these changes to the tax cuts. He was so filthy about every Australian getting a tax cut that he called for election over it. Angus Taylor said they opposed it, Sussan Ley said that they would roll back these changes. And so as we get closer and closer to the election, I say to all of those Australians who are under pressure that we are doing what we can to help and Peter Dutton and the Coalition would do what they could to make things worse, not better.
Journalist:
So Treasurer, given the polling situation across multiple polls, what will the government do from now on to turn that around? Will it keep saying the same thing in the hope that the message sinks in to voters? Will it try something different between now and the election to turn the situation around.
Chalmers:
We’ll keep working hard every single day to help people with these cost‑of‑living pressures and build a future where people can continue to earn more and keep more of what they earn and provide for their loved ones. The defining purpose of this government is more people working, earning more and keeping more of what they earn, and that will continue to be the case. We know that people are under pressure, we know that despite the very substantial progress we’re making in the economy and in the budget, that there are still very real and genuine pressures that people are under and the choice that we ask them to make is between a Labor government helping them and Peter Dutton and the Coalition alternative which would hurt them.
So to every Australian who is under pressure, I say to them they would be worse off under Peter Dutton. And as we get closer and closer to the election, that choice will crystallise.
Journalist:
If your messaging isn’t going to change, what do you think you could do better elsewhere to turn it around in people’s minds?
Chalmers:
As I’ve said on other occasions this morning up and down this hallway when I’ve been asked about this, if we can be clearer in our communications, then I take responsibility for that when it comes to the economy. And I mean that very genuinely. There are good reasons for Australians to be confident – not complacent – about the year ahead in the economy. We know that people are under pressure, and we see that expressed in some of these opinion polls, but we’ve made really good progress together. Were it not for this Labor government, people would be worse off. Wages would be lower. They’d be getting smaller tax cuts, or no tax cuts at all. They wouldn’t be getting help with their electricity bills.
And so when it comes to our economic messaging, I take responsibility for that, but more importantly, I take responsibility working with Anthony and the Cabinet colleagues to have provided this cost‑of‑living relief, not instead of progress on inflation, but addition to progress on inflation, not instead of a substantial improvement in the budget, but as well as a substantial improvement in the budget. And we will continue to tell the story of the progress that we’ve made together as Australians between now and the election, and we will continue to highlight the choice. As I said a moment ago, we’re about helping people with the cost of living, tax cuts are a big part of that, strengthening Medicare and building Australia’s future. The other guys will make Australians worse off and take Australia backwards, and that’s the choice.
Thanks very much.