Australia politics live: Chalmers says budget will make economy ‘more resilient’ as PM defends not means testing energy bills rebate
Chalmers says budget will be about making economy resilient amid global uncertainty
The treasurer was asked if there was extra money in the budget tucked away to help Australian companies that could be harmed with reciprocal tariffs that might come, and jobs that might go as a consequence.
Jim Chalmers said one of the “major themes” of the budget is “making our economy more resilient in the face of all this global economic uncertainty”.
We’re a very trade exposed country. We’re not uniquely impacted by these tariffs out of Washington DC, but we’ve got a lot of skin in the game. And so what the budget will be about, in addition to helping with the cost of living and strengthening Medicare, it will also be about making us more resilient to these external shocks …
Our contingency is to make our economy more resilient … This is a new world of uncertainty, and the budget will be a platform for prosperity in that new global context. A lot of the investments that we’re making in a Future Made in Australia are all about that.
Key events
Josh Butler
More from Chalmers’ doorstop in Canberra this morning
Talking about cutting debt and interest repayments, delivering two surpluses (even though tonight will be a deficit), Jim Chalmers gave an interesting factoid, claiming he would be the first treasurer to hand down four budgets in a three-year term since the 1940s:
“The election will be a referendum on Medicare. And the budget takes its responsibilities to strengthening Medicare very seriously,” he said. We asked if that line of attack was blunted somewhat by the fact the Coalition had quickly matched both the $8.5bn bulk-billing incentive and the cheaper medicines policy – which Chalmers rebuffed. He claimed:
Last time Dutton was the health minister, he went after Medicare, and undermined it. He cut tens of billions of dollars out of health. That’s the risk here. The reason they haven’t come clean on the secret cuts is because Peter Dutton’s secret cuts would interrupt the progress in the economy and make people worse off.
Josh Butler
Frames of election pitch forming as Chalmers hints at tonight’s budget
The treasurer Jim Chalmers was in a pretty upbeat mood this morning ahead of delivering tonight’s federal budget, declaring the coming election would be a “referendum on Medicare” and raising fears of the Coalition’s “secret cuts” to health and other public services.
Budget day has a few standard traditions in Canberra, one of the mainstays being the treasurer arriving into the ministerial entrance of Parliament House and wandering through the water features to take a short press conference at the back door to the building. Outlining the three key themes of tonight’s budget as seeking to “help with the cost of living, strengthen Medicare, and build Australia’s future”, Chalmers admitted many Australians were still doing it tough, and flagged more assistance to come.
In saying (twice in the space of two minutes) that “there’s more work to do, because people are under pressure, and the global economic environment is so uncertain”, you could see the frames of an election pitch forming, where Labor will concede people have not had an easy run, but argue that uncertainty at home and abroad means voters shouldn’t change horse mid-race.
If you missed it the first time, or the second, he said it a third time, he said:
The budget tonight will be a platform for prosperity in a new world of uncertainty… It will make our economy more resilient in the face of all of this global economic uncertainty.
Queensland man charged with alleged DV murder
In some other breaking news today, Queensland police have charged a man with the alleged domestic violence murder of a woman known to him.
Police located a 79-year-old woman with a fatal stab wound at The Gap yesterday afternoon. She was declared dead at the scene, and a crime scene was established.
A 40-year-old Victorian man was subsequently located at Brisbane Airport by the AFP that night, and taken into custody.
It will be alleged the woman and man were known to each other. The man has been charged with murder (DV), and remanded in custody to appear before the Brisbane Magistrates court today.
Greens accuse government of working with Coalition to ‘gut’ environmental laws
The Greens have accused Labor of working with Peter Dutton to “gut” Australia’s environmental laws. Senator Nick McKim gave a doorstop this morning and told reporters:
The environment legislation being tabled in the house today will be designed to underpin the profits of multinational salmon farming corporations in Tasmania. But the scope is far, far broader than just salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.
It will prevent the minister from reconsidering a large number of projects in Australia, including potentially many fossil fuel projects. The prime minister is opening the door for fossil fuel corporations and other corporate polluters to get off scot-free in terms of preventing the minister from reconsidering a decision that’s been made.
You can read more on this from Dan Jervis-Bardy below:
Zempilas likely to become WA Liberal leader today
Basil Zempilas is expected to become Western Australian Liberal leader today.
The high-profile Perth lord mayor narrowly secured the seat of Churchlands at the recent election. The Liberal party appears to have just secured a seventh seat, by less than 100 votes, meaning he would become the official opposition leader.
It comes after Libby Mettam said she would not continue as WA Liberals leader, but would seek to stay on as deputy, after it became clear she lacked the support of party colleagues after the election defeat.
The WA Liberals party room will meet today.
Leadership instability heightened in November after leaked polling suggested the party’s vote could be higher at the election if Zempilas led the campaign.
– with AAP
Chalmers dismisses ‘speculation’ ahead of budget
Taking a final question, a reporter asked if taxes would be higher or lower as a result of the budget.
Jim Chalmers said there has been a lot of speculation before the budget – and “not all of it is right”.
For example, one commentator was saying that he expects this year’s tax-to-GDP to go up. You’ll see tonight that tax-to-GDP goes down in 2024-25. You’ll see predictions about gross debt this year not being correct. And so, I encourage you to pore over the numbers in the budget tonight.
Chalmers welcomes ‘opportunity’ to hand down ‘four budgets in single parliamentary term’
A reporter noted that if not for ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, it was expected the government would be in campaign mode – is this an election-boosting budget?
Jim Chalmers said there were a “series of assumptions” in the question he wouldn’t answer, but said he was “pleased” for the “opportunity” to hand down “four budgets in a single parliamentary term”.
The hasn’t happened since the 1940s. But from my point of view, it’s a very welcome opportunity to put the economy front and centre on the eve of an election.
Now, this is not a budget for the election. It’s a budget to build Australia’s future … We do expect the economy to be central to the election campaign, and I think that that is a very good thing.
Chalmers on how budget will respond to Trump’s tariffs
Taking questions, Jim Chalmers was asked what measures are in the budget to protect against global uncertainty – and specifically, protecting against Donald Trump’s tariffs?
He said Australia’s “best defence against global economic uncertainty is a more resilient economy”.
And that’s what the billions of dollars, for example, we’re investing in green metals is all about. That’s what the modest amount of money that we’ll be devoting to the Buy Australia promotion is all about. But also, making our economy more competitive and dynamic.
Chalmers addressing reporters in Canberra
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has been speaking with reporters in Canberra this morning ahead of tonight’s budget.
He said it would be “responsible”, help with the cost of living, strengthen Medicare and “build Australia’s future.”
We know that cost of living is front of mind for most Australians and it will be absolutely front and centre tonight in our budget … We have made a lot of progress together and the budget is about building on that progress together as well.
He argued the budget, and the Australian economy, was in “much better condition than we found them three years ago.”
We’ve got the Liberal debt down by $177bn, and that is saving Australians something like $60bn in debt interest.
Albanese takes more questions on environmental protection laws
Continuing from our last post, here is what Anthony Albanese said of the environmental protection legislation:
We did not have a majority for the Senate for the environmental legislation that we put forward. It’s been in the Senate since the middle of last year. At any time, a majority could have emerged to support that legislation. That simply wasn’t there.
So it was your decision to walk away from that, or Tanya Plibersek’s? He said:
No, it’s the numbers. It’s called having a majority in the Senate, which we did not have.
Albanese on environmental protection laws
Anthony Albanese was asked what the point of having environmental protection laws is, when the government has legislated to protect the Tasmanian salmon industry?
He responded that the environment protection laws “which we inherited from John Howard, they’re not fit for purpose”.
We need to make sure that we have a proper federal environmental protection of authority. We need to make sure that we ensure that industry can function, but also that sustainability occurs.
The host noted this is the second time in a few months that the prime minister has overruled the environment minister – but Albanese said this was “completely not true”.
Albanese on future of gas in Australia’s energy mix
Q: Are you planning to match the Coalition when it comes to their gas reservation policy to try and secure more gas supplies, particularly for the east coast of the country?
Anthony Albanese argued the Coalition spoke about a gas-led recovery in the middle of their term, but “had years to do something and did absolutely nothing.”
All that happened during their period was, because [of] their climate denial, there wasn’t investment in new energy that was required. My government has a future gas strategy. We acknowledge that gas has an important role in the future, including on providing firming capacity for renewables along with storage, and my government has been getting on with that job.
PM defends decision not to means test energy bill rebates
The PM was asked why the energy bill rebates aren’t means tested, and said you could “either just give them to people who are welfare recipients, or you can give them to all Australians.”
The host noted that this means extra money will be going to some people who don’t need it – is that an example of what the Coalition might call wasteful spending? Anthony Albanese responded:
Well, they regard all of it as wasteful spending, all of our cost of living relief. That’s what they themselves have said … This time last year they were saying that there should be an election to stop tax cuts going through. They regard free Tafe as not being valued because it’s free, insulting the 600,000 Australians who’ve enjoyed free Tafe.
Albanese speaking ahead of tonight’s budget
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is also speaking with ABC RN this morning ahead of tonight’s budget – which he says will build “on the foundations that we’ve laid over the last three years”.
Asked why isn’t there a target Labor is working towards for bringing the budget back into balance, the PM responded:
What we won’t be doing is doing what the Coalition did, which was to produce Back in Black mugs – and they treated Australians like mugs. They never produced a surplus in their decade in office. What we’ve done is produce two budget surpluses. We have cut our debt by $200bn as a result of our responsible economic management.
Shadow finance minister critical of Labor spending in budget
The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, was up on Sky News this morning ahead of tonight’s budget. She called on the treasurer to “restore our lost standard of living” and bring inflation “under control sustainably” in the budget.
We want to see those budget disciplines, those guardrails, put back into our system, so that we can guarantee that in the future, budgets won’t run out of control … Those guardrails are a discipline that have served Australians well for so many decades, they’ve disappeared under this government.
But the Coalition has agreed to match most of the government’s measures – so how is this disciplined spending?
Hume argued the Coalition has knocked back “around $100bn worth of spending ambitions of the Labor government” over the last three years.
Some of those, unfortunately, got through the parliament anyway, but that doesn’t mean to say that we agreed with them … So much of this Labor spending has been baked in [and] that’s going to be really hard to unwind, but under a Coalition government, you’ll see a restoration of those disciplines that will take us back to a structural balanced budget over the long term.
