CANBERRA, ACT, March 30 -- The Treasurer of Australia issued the following transcript:
Note
Subjects: National Cabinet, fuel supply, fuel affordability, impact of war in the Middle East on the Australian economy, data centre investment
Jim Chalmers:
National Cabinet today is a really important opportunity to work together to work through the very serious issues in our economy. We seek to work through these issues in a constructive way, a coordinated way, and ideally a consistent way.
Our objective here is to try and avoid the harsher, heavier‑handed kind of measures that we've seen in the past. Our objective here is to keep people moving, to keep farmers farming and trucks on the road and keep our country moving more broadly and the best way to do that is to make sure that everyone does their bit.
This National Cabinet meeting is about ensuring that all levels of government are doing what they can to address these very serious issues in our economy to try and alleviate the pressures that people are under. If we do that in a constructive way, a coordinated way, and ideally a consistent way, we give ourselves the best chance of avoiding some of these harsher measures that people have been speculating about.
This war in the Middle East is having extreme consequences for the global economy now and Australians are paying a hefty price for that at the bowser and beyond. From a purely economic point of view, the end of the war in the Middle East can't come soon enough for Australians who are under pressure and even when the war ends in the Middle East, the consequences for the global economy are likely to linger.
This government's been really focused on securing more supply, getting the distribution right, cracking down on the rip offs and helping with the cost of living, including with another couple of tax cuts on the way. We work through a whole range of contingencies and fallbacks and scenarios to make sure that we're doing what we responsibly can to respond to these very real and serious pressures which are coming at us from the war in the Middle East. Happy to take maybe 3 questions.
Journalist:
There's a growing number of people who say that they would actually like to see fuel rationing to guarantee fuel security. Could the government provide some kind of roadmap of what that might look like to help start preparing people?
Chalmers:
Well, rationing is not necessary right now. The ships are continuing to arrive, the refineries are continuing to pump out fuel. And so that's why fuel rationing is not our policy for the time being. Now, the best way to avoid those kind of harsher measures is for everyone to do their bit - for Australians to continue to just buy the fuel that they need, for governments to work through the issues around supply and distribution in the most coordinated and responsible way that we can and that's how we hope to avoid fuel rationing. Ideally, we will work through these issues and deal with these issues in a very considered and responsible way, and if everybody does their bit, we hope to avoid that kind of intervention.
Journalist:
Do you think the government's getting the messaging right here? I mean, people are obviously suffering under these cost measures but the government's saying there is no supply issue. And then when it comes to demand, you've been asking for weeks for people to stop panic buying, but that hasn't stopped at all.
Chalmers:
A couple of things about that. The Albanese government's strategy is to secure more supply, to work with industry and the competition watchdog to get that supply to areas where there are local shortages, to crack down on the rip offs, and to help people with the cost of living, including 2 more tax cuts. That's the government's strategy.
When it comes to spikes in demand, we encourage people to only buy the fuel that they need. If everybody does the right thing - whether it be governments, whether it be local communities - if everybody does the right thing, our objective here is to avoid some of those harsher measures. And so, we will continue to encourage people to only buy the fuel that they need. We will continue to work around the clock, including with the states and territories, to deal with these very serious economic challenges in the most responsible, constructive, coordinated, and ideally consistent way we can.
Journalist:
Sorry, Treasurer -
Chalmers:
Just go to John and then I've got to finish up.
Journalist:
Thank you, Treasurer. Just on one other matter outside of this, Google was saying it wants tax clarity to potentially build a big data, artificial intelligence centre in Australia. Is that a tax policy consideration for the government or is that something that the ATO needs to consider in the company in terms of the administration of the law?
Chalmers:
Look, we continue to engage with Google and with other interested parties when it comes to building data centres in Australia. My colleagues have released some quite detailed guidelines when it comes to data centre investment. I've met with Google on a couple of occasions to discuss the issues that they have.
Tax policy has not been a deterrent when it comes to the quite extraordinary level of interest that we've seen in data centre investment in Australia. When companies raise specific issues with us, we do our best to work through them in a responsible way.
And there are 2 parts to it: they're engaging with the tax office who engages with them in an independent way directly, and they're engaging with government. We haven't determined any changes to the tax arrangements in order to respond to these issues that Google has raised with us, but we'll continue to engage with them in the usual way that we do with potential investors in our country.
We want to see more investment in our country. We saw a very substantial increase in business investment the second half of last year, that's a good thing and we want to continue to attract and absorb that investment but it's got to be in the national interest.
Thanks very much.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
