Jim Chalmers 2022

KATHARINE MURPHY, HOST:

Jim Chalmers, welcome to the show.

JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER:

Thanks for having me back, Katharine.

MURPHY:

Now, I gather you have very recently had COVID. So why don't we share your experience with the listeners?

CHALMERS:

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST:

Now to my discussion with the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. He's currently doing a range of pre‑Budget consultations across the nation. Today he's in the Lockyer Valley near Toowoomba. I spoke to him a short time ago.

JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER:

From today, Australian workers will benefit from a boost to their superannuation.

The permanent 0.5 percentage point rise in the Superannuation Guarantee rate from 10 per cent to 10.5 per cent will increase most employees’ super balance at retirement by around 3 per cent.

Around 2.8 million Australians are about to get the pay rise they need and deserve – because the Albanese Labor Government fought for it.

New numbers released today show the biggest beneficiaries will be women and part‑time workers.

Rating agency Moody’s has affirmed Australia’s AAA credit rating, citing Labor’s productivity enhancing reforms that focus on lifting women’s participation in the workforce through support for child care and gender pay equity, investment in skills and training, infrastructure, innovation and cleaner and cheaper energy.

DAVID SPEERS, HOST:

Jim Chalmers, welcome to the program.

JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER:

Good morning, David.

SPEERS:

It sounds like keeping wage growth below this high level of inflation right now is a deliberate design feature of our economic architecture. Is that right?

CHALMERS:

Crypto currencies will continue to be excluded from foreign currency tax arrangements under the Albanese Government.

A decision by the Government of El Salvador to allow Bitcoin as legal tender has the potential to create uncertainty about the status of crypto assets such as Bitcoin for tax purposes in Australia.

The Australian Government will contribute funding towards a new Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for pandemics which will be established at the World Bank, as part of our commitment to protecting against the impact of future pandemics.

JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER:

Australia’s low‑paid workers will be better off because the Albanese Labor Government fought to get them a pay rise.

During the election campaign, we promised to put in a new submission to the Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review to argue that people on low wages should not go backwards. We delivered on that promise in our first fortnight in office.