CANBERRA, ACT, April 15 -- The Treasurer of Australia issued the following transcript:
Note
Subjects: United States G20 and IMF meetings, fuel security, Middle East war, May Budget
Jim Chalmers:
I'm about to depart for important engagements with economic ministers from the G20 hosted by the United States, also the IMF World Bank meetings, and some bilateral engagements with some of Australia's key partners, including some of the most important fuel exporters to Australia. In addition to participating formally in those discussions, chaired by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury ScottBessent, I'll also be engaged in bilateral discussions with my counterparts from Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
Now, the purpose of this trip is to join with other countries continuing to call for an end to this war in the Middle East, which begins with an enduring ceasefire and the proper reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The second objective is to amplify the efforts of the Prime Minister and other ministerial colleagues, to work with our key partners to secure fuel supplies for Australians. Thirdly, to make sure that our supply chains more broadly are as resilient as they can be. Fourthly, to make sure that we are calibrating our own economic forecasts and expectations to developments in the world. And lastly, to promote Australia as an investment destination.
This is a really dangerous time for the global economy. The International Monetary Fund is expecting slower growth and higher inflation around the world, and we are as well. So, the IMF is sounding the alarm on some pretty severe scenarios that they have published overnight. This is a very serious, very dangerous time for the world. Now, Australia is better placed and better prepared than a number of other countries, but we won't be spared the fallout from this very substantial economic shock. From an economic point of view, the end of the war can't come soon enough. But even when the strait is properly reopened, and even when the hostilities formally end in an enduring way, we still expect the consequences of this war in the Middle East to be felt for some time.
Now these are all of the key considerations over the next few weeks as we finalise the Albanese Labor government's fifth Budget. That Budget will be a responsible budget, and it will be focused on resilience and economic reform. It will balance the pressures of the here and now coming at us from the other side of the world with our intergenerational obligations to lift the speed limit on the economy and make it more productive, to make our budget more sustainable over time, and to also make sure that our economy and our budget is fairer in intergenerational terms.
Now I'm really confident that we can strike the right balances in the Budget between near‑term pressures and intergenerational obligations. I'm confident that this Budget, which will be focused on fuel security, supply chain resilience and economic reform, will balance those key considerations.
Now we are expecting in our own economy, in our own forecasts, for our economy to slow, and we are expecting inflation to be higher as a consequence of this war in the Middle East.
Australians didn't choose the circumstances of this war in the Middle East, but they are paying a hefty price for it at the bowser and beyond. They are our focus as we finalise our preparations for this Budget and engage with colleagues and counterparts from around the world including some of our most important partners when it comes to securing fuel for Australians and for Australian industry as well.
There couldn't be a more important time to engage with colleagues and counterparts from the world's biggest and most important economies, to engage bilaterally with our major fuel suppliers, to amplify the efforts of other ministers.
In our government it is all hands on deck when it comes to securing more fuel, engaging with industry, engaging with our international partners to try and get through a difficult period for the global economy and the consequence for our own economy and for Australians in communities right around our country.
Happy to take a couple of questions.
Journalist:
Treasurer, can you [inaudible].
Chalmers:
Well, the IMF made a number of important points in this regard: first of all, it said that each country will take into consideration its own circumstances, and for Australia we've made very substantial progress in making the budget more sustainable; in fact the biggest nominal improvement in the budget, in the time that we've been in office, that we've seen in Australia's history. We've got the debt down very substantially, we've delivered a couple of surpluses, the budget is in much better nick now than it was when we came to office, but we know that there's more work to do.
And one of the reasons why there will be savings in the Budget, one of the reasons why this will be another very, very responsible budget is because we need to make sure that we're not putting additional upward pressure on inflation, and we also need to make sure that we have room to respond should some of these more serious and more severe scenarios published by the IMF play out.
Now every budget is calibrated to the economic circumstances and this will be no different in that regard, it just so happens that the economic circumstances and the degree of difficulty is higher than in earlier periods.
There is more than the usual amount of global economic uncertainty and volatility. We will carefully calibrate our Budget to those circumstances, we will strike a series of balances and make sure that we're rolling out, for example, this fuel excise cut, we're rolling out the tax cuts to help with the cost of living, we're doing what we can on fuel security and supply chain resilience, and we're also reforming the economy, and part of reforming the economy is making sure that the budget is more sustainable over time.
Now this Budget won't be identical to the Budget that we were planning in February for obvious reasons, but it will still be ambitious, and there will still be savings, it will still be responsible as we go about making our economy more resilient and reform our economy more broadly.
Journalist:
[Inaudible].
Chalmers:
Well, we are already providing substantial cost‑of‑living help in the form of halving the fuel excise, making sure that petrol and diesel is 32cents cheaper than it would otherwise be, because of our efforts, so we're providing cost‑of‑living help and we've got 2 more tax cuts on the way.
So we're providing that cost‑of‑living relief in a responsible way, the fuel excise relief is temporary, the tax cuts are a really important way to ensure that more Australians are earning more and keeping more of what they earn, so we will continue to roll out that cost‑of‑living help in the most responsible way that we can.
Journalist:
[Inaudible] already high cost of living [inaudible].
Chalmers:
Well, we've got an ambitious housing target which will be achieved if everybody does their bit. Obviously there's very substantial pressure on housing at the moment, and particularly on construction costs as a consequence of the war in the Middle East, and we had some inflationary pressures even before the dramatic escalation of hostilities earlier this year, so we recognise that.
We know that it's a difficult target to hit, it's an ambitious target for good reason, but we can get there if everybody does their bit and the Commonwealth is doing its bit.
Journalist:
What's actually going to happen [inaudible]?
Chalmers:
Yeah. Well, these engagements are all about securing fuel for Australians, they're all about making our supply chains more resilient, they're about attracting more investment in Australia, they're about making sure that our Budget is carefully calibrated to the global economic conditions.
And so there's a lot of effort going on right across the Cabinet, from the Prime Minister right down, including in real time right now, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister engaging with key partners as we speak. And that's all about recognising that our economy is under very substantial pressure because of events on the other side of the world, circumstances that Australians didn't choose, they're paying a hefty price for that. So we're doing what we can on prices with the excise cut, on supply working with industry and international partners, on supply chains more broadly as well, and that's what these discussions are all about.
Journalist:
Treasurer, are you able to comment at all about what's [inaudible] in Australia?
Chalmers:
Well, we're obviously doing a lot of work to make sure that the immigration system is fit‑for‑purpose and that it's delivering on our national objectives, and that has included over the course of the last few years some substantial tightening up of the arrangements.
Now the best way to manage the migration policy is in a considered and methodical way with the national interest front and centre, and that couldn't be a starker contrast to what we've seen in the last little while from 1 of the 3 right‑wing parties in this country, and particularly when it comes to AngusTaylor yesterday.
AngusTaylor is basically just plagiarising the politics and the rhetoric of other countries and another time. And he's doing that not because he cares about the national interest, but because he's playing to the 3 right‑wing parties in the context of a by‑election in Farrer.
Now, as hard as it is to believe, the Coalition under AngusTaylor is performing worse than they were under SussanLey or PeterDutton. And what this latest foray - which doesn't have any detail, it just has the plagiarised rhetoric and politics of other places and other times - what it shows is that the Coalition hasn't learned a thing from the last election, and they haven't changed a bit.
No wonder AngusTaylor has somehow found a way to be running third in a 2‑horse race, and that's because his highest priority is to chase One Nation votes. Our highest priority is the national interest. We work through these issues in a considered and methodical way, and that includes integrity in the migration system.
Journalist:
[Inaudible]?
Chalmers:
It's really important that we help Australians understand that every little bit helps. And we know from engaging around the country with Australians in communities in every corner of Australia that there is a hunger to understand what they can do to help, and that's a very Australian response to a severe economic shock like this.
And so that communication is all about helping people understand what they can do, helping people understand that every little bit helps; everybody's got a part to play in this and the government is playing its part, securing more supply, getting the price down with the excise cut, doing what we can working around the clock, including engaging with our international counterparts to get Australia through what is an incredibly dangerous time for the global economy.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
