E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AM AGENDA
TUESDAY, 16 APRIL 2019
 
SUBJECT/S: Liberals’ secret cuts to pay for tax handouts for top end of town; Labor’s plan to properly fund healthcare; income tax
 
KIERAN GILBERT: Shadow Finance Minister Jim Chalmers joins us. Let's start with the story on the front page of the AFR today. The Grattan Institute research that says that says out to 2029-30, there'd have to be cuts to the magnitude of $40 billion - $30 billion in today's terms. Josh Frydenberg says because more people are being employed, welfare spending will be reduced and in terms of interest paid on debt, that's also going to be lower. So he says with the growth of the economy, this is well within the Government's ball park.
 
JIM CHALMERS, LABOR CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: No, Kieran. This is Scott Morrison's secret plan to cut hospitals and schools to pay for tax cuts to the top end of town. Scott Morrison needs to come clean today and say what are these $40 billion a year of cuts? Where will they impact? Hospitals? Schools? Aged care? The NDIS? Where will these cuts happen to pay for his tax cuts down the track? This is a very important story -
 
GILBERT: But if the economy's going better, the Government says they're spending less in terms of welfare; job creation, you're paying less in welfare; reduce debt, you're paying less in interest.
 
CHALMERS: First of all, they've doubled the debt in the life of their Government so we'll take their promises on paying down debt with a grain of salt. But on the main substance of this story today, what Josh Frydenberg said this morning won't cut it. It won't get them there. They're talking about $40 billion a year in spending cuts. That means hospitals and schools, money taken out of them to pay for tax cuts for their top end of town.
 
LAURA JAYES: Jim Chalmers, one of the sharpest attacks you have on the Government is the so-called cuts to hospitals. But where have the cuts been made?
 
CHALMERS: The election is a big choice, Laura, between investment in hospitals and schools on the Labor side, or bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town on the Liberals' side. There have been a range of cuts to health services under the Liberals. Remember, they promised there'd be no cuts to health, and then there were big swinging cuts in that 2014 Budget. 
 
JAYES: Where have the cuts been made? Just on those figures, so between 2013 and 2019, there's been an extra $10 billion in hospital funding. So where have those cuts been made?
 
CHALMERS: That's a Liberal line of course, Laura, and it reflects partly population growth -
 
JAYES: Is it wrong, though? Because it might be a Liberal line, but it's also in the Budget figures.
 
CHALMERS: It's completely wrong to say there haven't been cuts to healthcare. It is entirely wrong. And the main damage that's been done is when the Liberals went from funding 50 per cent of hospital activity to 45 per cent of hospital activity, that pulled out something like $715 million to now, and $2.8 billion over the next five or six years. What we're committing to do is to restore that $2.8 billion which Scott Morrison cut from hospitals, because the election is a choice between those investments under Labor in hospitals, in schools and TAFEs and universities, versus the cuts and chaos under the Liberals, and bigger tax cuts for the top end of town paid for by Scott Morrison's cuts.
 
GILBERT: When you say you're going to restore it, that's not the full figure until 2024, that's two elections away. And yet, Chris Bowen says the Government's tax cut plan is on the never never because it's in 2024. Your commitment on health then we can say is on the never never according to Chris Bowen's definition.
 
CHALMERS: No, there's a very important difference, Kieran. We're getting started straight away on restoring cuts to health. Our hospitals investment plan begins immediately. It does phase in and ramp up over time, but we're getting started straight away, and it's not the only investment we're making in health - 
 
GILBERT: Why not go to 50 per cent straight up?
 
CHALMERS: We'll sit down with the states and work out the trajectory. But we are getting started straight away. $2.8 billion is not a trivial figure. It's what Scott Morrison will pull out of hospitals over the next five or six years. It's what we intend to re-invest in the system. But we're not just doing that. We've got MRI investments, we've got a blitz on waiting lists, we've got a cancer plan which is a game-changing investment in cancer treatment in this country. So we are making big commitments when it comes to health, and that is because we will always prioritise healthcare and health services and hospitals over tax breaks for multinationals and millionaires.
 
JAYES: So can you confirm that that entire restoration, as you've put it, of $2.8 billion will not happen until 2024-25? And you say you'll get started straight away, how much will you restore in the first year of Government?
 
CHALMERS: The investment begins straight away. And not just in hospitals, but in those other areas that I've just mentioned -
 
JAYES: Can you say how much though?
 
CHALMERS: I understand your question. We'll sit down with the states and work out the trajectory. But a $2.8 billion re-investment is not a trivial amount. It begins immediately. We'll get started straight away. We will negotiate a new agreement with the states which gets them back to that 50-50 arrangement that Scott Morrison cut.
 
GILBERT: When you look at the $387 billion more in tax that Labor will impose as opposed to the Government across 10 years, the Government has been reticent to give a figure in terms of higher income earners, but what's your figure in terms of how much of that $387 billion is extracted from those who earn over $180,000 a year. 
 
CHALMERS: We'll release our figures in the usual way, but the question that Josh wasn't able to answer this morning and Mathias wasn't able to answer with David Speers on Sunday is how much tax relief goes to the top tax bracket. The Australia Institute says $77 billion handout just to people on the highest -
 
GILBERT: It's not a handout, that's their money, isn't it? Effectively, they're earning that.
 
CHALMERS: It's a tax cut and we now know from the story on the front page of the Financial Review that it comes at the expense of hospitals and schools. So it is a handout. It's taken out of middle Australia to give to the highest income earners in Australia. And that says everything about the Liberal Party and their warped priorities.
 
GILBERT: What about aspiration? Do you still look to that aspiration for someone on $150,000 a year, they want to earn $200,000, $220,000. That's still a very large cohort of Australian workers, isn't it?
 
CHALMERS: Being aspirational in this country doesn't rely on someone on $200,000 a year getting an $11,000 tax cut while somebody on $35,000 a year gets $255. That's the Government's plan. Aspiration is not something you learn from a focus group, which is what Scott Morrison has done. Aspiration is something you understand by knocking around real communities. Aspiration is about making sure that your kids can get the healthcare that they need. If your partner gets cancer, they can get the treatment they need without going broke. That's what aspiration is - a proper education system, good schools and universities and TAFEs, getting training right in this country. That's how we deliver aspiration.
 
GILBERT: Mr Chalmers, appreciate your time, thanks.  
 
ENDS