E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
TELEVISION INTERVIEW 
ABC NEWS BREAKFAST 
TUESDAY, 16 APRIL 2019 
  
SUBJECTS: Notre Dame fire; Labor’s pathology announcement; income tax; Liberals’ secret cuts to pay for tax handouts for top end of town; Labor’s plan to properly fund healthcare; Liberal candidate’s toxic comments about Chinese community; donations reform 
 
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Let's return to federal politics now. Lots to talk about. Labor's Finance spokesman Jim Chalmers joins us. Jim Chalmers, good morning to you.  
 
JIM CHALMERS, LABOR CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: Morning Michael. 
 
ROWLAND: We’ve got to start outside of politics as we're focusing on the tragic events from Paris overnight. The Notre Dame Cathedral going up in smoke. What is your reaction to that? 
 
CHALMERS: It's heartbreaking to see the cathedral at Notre Dame get swallowed up by those flames. I think a lot of people, not just the French people, but right around the world, a lot of people will be devastated by what we're seeing on our TV screens. 
 
ROWLAND: The Labor Party today, moving back to the election campaign trail, is trumpeting another health-related policy. It relates to the bulk billing of pathology for certain patients. Take us through what that promise involves. 
 
CHALMERS: Pathology is essentially blood testing and the like, and it's at a breaking point. Without an injection of funds, people will either go without these crucial tests or they will have to pay more to get them. So what Labor is announcing today, is that a Labor Government, under Bill Shorten, will invest $200 million to protect pathology from Scott Morrison's cuts, beginning with elderly Australians and Australians with cancer. Pathology is such an important part of cancer diagnosis and treatment to work out whether the treatment is working and what the next steps are. So this is part of our broader approach and it's part of the broader choice at the election, between Labor who wants to invest more in hospitals and health services like pathology, or the Liberals who want to cut health and give that money to millionaires and multinationals. 
 
ROWLAND: Health could emerge as a key issue during the election campaign. We already know that tax cuts certainly are a key issue. The Government is this morning claiming that every Australian earning over $40,000 will do better under the Coalition's tax plan versus Labor. They're right, aren't they?  
 
CHALMERS: There are new revelations today that the Liberals cannot pay for their tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefit the top end of town without cutting - 
 
ROWLAND: OK, Jim Chalmers, we'll get to that. Let's just focus on this claim. 
 
CHALMERS: You asked me about the Liberals' tax policy.  
 
ROWLAND: I want to get your view on Labor's tax plan and can you say that people over $40,000 will do better under Labor's tax plan versus the Coalition?  
 
CHALMERS: Everyone earning up to $125,000 a year in the next term of Parliament will be the same or better off under Labor's tax plan. We have a plan to match the Government to $125,000 during the life of the next Parliament, and we also have a plan for a better tax cut for 3.6 million Australians, who earn up to $48,000 a year. The difference between us, the difference between Labor and Liberal on tax, is that the Liberals will have to cut hospitals and schools to pay for their plan. We can implement our plan to prioritise low and middle-income earners without cutting hospitals and schools.  
 
ROWLAND: Okay, so people earning above $40,000 based on what you just said won't be worse off under the Labor Party? 
 
CHALMERS: On 1 July, no matter who wins the election, there will be tax cuts for low and middle-income earners. The difference on 1 July will be for low-income earners, earning up to $48,000, they will be better off under Labor. 
 
ROWLAND: We're looking over the broader term here, the Stage 2 and Stage 3 tax cuts already legislated. Will people earning over $40,000 be better off under Labor's plan or the Coalition's plan? 
 
CHALMERS: People will have to elect and re-elect Scott Morrison two more times to see those tax cuts. They are a long, long way off in the distance, and they're paid for, as I said, by cuts to hospitals and schools. We've made a series of different choices. And those are the choices at play in this election. If people want tax cuts that overwhelmingly favour the top end of town, someone on $200,000 will get an $11,000 tax cut, but someone on $35,000 will only get a $255 tax cut. These are the sorts of choices at play in the election. Hospitals and schools under Labor, and a focus on low- and middle-income earners, or under the Liberals, tax breaks for the top end of town paid for by cuts to hospitals and schools. 
 
ROWLAND: You talk about plans being way into the distance. Isn't your 50/50 funding split, you speak about hospitals on health, won't that be reached not until 2024, two elections' time?  
 
CHALMERS: We've committed to a $2.8 billion injection, which represents the restoration of Scott Morrison's cuts between 2020 and 2025 for the states. We've said for some time, we'll sit down with the states and negotiate how we get back to that 50 per cent funding agreement that the Liberals cut. That's not a revelation. That's not new news. We cannot undo the damage that Scott Morrison has done to our health system overnight. We need to phase it in. We need to work with the states. But that $2.8 billion injection into our hospitals is a key part of undoing the damage. It will mean investment in doctors and nurses and beds and emergency departments right across the health system. And that will make a real difference. 
 
ROWLAND: And what do you make of the controversy surrounding Gladys Liu, the Liberal candidate for the seat of Chisholm, where she was recorded in 2016 appearing to refer to LGBTI issues as ridiculous rubbish. Will that have much of an impact on the campaign in your view? 
 
CHALMERS: I think it will, Michael. Today is a test for Scott Morrison. It's a test of whether he's prepared to repudiate the toxic comments made by his candidate for Chisholm about the Chinese community. It's a test for Scott Morrison to rule out the kind of dirty tricks campaign that this candidate engaged in at the last election.  
 
Remembering of course that Scott Morrison failed the leadership test and the character test when it came to Peter Dutton's disgraceful comments about people with a disability. This is another test for him. Will he repudiate these toxic comments, and if he doesn't then I think that does speak to his values and his character. 
 
ROWLAND: I want to finish the interview by talking about transparency in politics. Former Victorian Supreme Court judge Stephen Charles was instrumental in setting up that state's anti-corruption watchdog. He is very critical of the lack of transparency in politics at the moment, particularly pertaining to donations. He is calling for a number of things, including donations in real time, so voters can get a real time indication of who is giving to you, who is giving to the Coalition, who's giving to the other parties. Why can't we have real time disclosure? 
 
CHALMERS: We do always want the most robust arrangements for transparency with donations. Labor has led the way, for example, on lowering the threshold, so we have to declare more donations at a lower level than our opponents want to do. We led the way on foreign donations. If there's other ways to improve the system, like the Queenslanders have, with real-time disclosure, then obviously we can look at that down the track. 
 
ROWLAND: If Queensland can do it, and you're a Queenslander, why can't it happen federally? 
 
CHALMERS: We should always be on the lookout for ways to make things more transparent. Obviously down the track, we would consider anything that's working to make the system meet the standards that Australians rightly have of it and expect of it. 
 
ROWLAND: Okay, Jim Chalmers, Labor's Finance spokesman. Thank you for joining us on News Breakfast this morning. 
 
CHALMERS: Thanks Michael. 
 
ENDS