Topics:  Treasurer fighting everyone but inflation, Labor’s homegrown inflation, Labor’s housing crisis, National Accounts 

 

E&OE   

 

CHRIS KENNY: 

Let's now bring in Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor, who joins me from his electorate. Good to talk to you, Angus. First point here is Jim Chalmers now saying that interest rates are smashing the economy. Up until now, he's been saying that all his policies are aimed at making sure they don't smash the economy.  

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

Well, after three failed budgets, it's clear that the Treasurer is giving up on the big fight here, which is the fight against inflation. He wants to fight everyone and everything but inflation, Chris. And that's exactly what we've seen with him fighting the Reserve Bank in recent days: fighting Peter Dutton and the Opposition of course, fighting the Productivity Commission, fighting his own mentor Paul Keating over superannuation taxes, and frankly, fighting the laws of economics, where he thinks you can see a collapse in labour productivity. And at the same time you can be throwing money at the economy, and somehow inflation goes away. Well, it's not. Our inflation is stuck. We're at the back of the pack in dealing with it. Our inflation is higher than any other major advanced country, and we're the only one where it hasn't come down since January. And not surprisingly, whilst other countries like Canada and the UK, Europe are seeing interest rates coming down, not in Australia. He has failed and now he's just lashing out at everybody.  

 

CHRIS KENNY: 

He must be worried about the economic growth figures, the National Accounts coming out on Wednesday, because it's a dramatic change in language. He's been arguing all year that his policies are aimed at preventing the economy being smashed. Now he's saying it's being smashed. So what are you expecting to see come Wednesday?  

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

Well, he should be worried about the numbers coming out on Wednesday, because the expectation is it will be the sixth quarter in a row where GDP per person has either flat lined or gone backwards. Six quarters in a row. Our economy has shuddered to a halt. Inflation is stuck up around 4%, he's trying to manipulate the numbers to convince people that things are getting better. They're not. And no Australian is seeing the economy improving. We've seen real disposable incomes, that's our standard of living Chris, absolutely, at the back of the pack. It's collapsed by almost 10% in the two years Labor's been in power. And it's not surprising that Australian households are in deep trouble, struggling to make ends meet at a time when this government has not been focused on the number one fight, which is the fight against inflation. 

 

CHRIS KENNY: 

Well, it's a per capita recession, as we all know. And I suppose the big question is whether we end up driving the economy into a proper recession, but the per capita recession certainly hurts people. Now in Newspoll today, we've now got the Coalition and Labor locked on 50-50 again when it comes to the political battle, the voting battle, but I want to have a look at assessments of the economy and Newspoll tested what people thought might've happened to inflation under a Coalition government. Now, 18% said it would be higher, that would be a bunch of Greens and whatnot. 24% of voters, nearly a quarter of them, said the Coalition would get inflation down. 41% though the largest chunk there just say it would be the same, and 17% unsure. This is the critical contest for the political battle, battle and the economic debate leading up to the election isn't it, Angus Taylor? You have to convince people that you can get inflation down lower, therefore interest rates down. The only way to do that is to reduce spending, really. And of course, Labor is screaming at you already about where you're going to cut?  

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

Well, I think there's more than just one lever to get inflation down, Chris, but the one you raise is an important one, and that's why we've opposed over $92 billion of spending through the parliament. And Labor likes to make a big deal of the fact that we don't want to build 10s of 1000s of kilometers of power lines and aren't prepared to fund that, but we shouldn't. It's the wrong policy for this nation. They're backing housing policies that are not building a house, and we don't support that kind of spending. So spending is a big deal, and it's why we have opposed very significant spending that Labor's pushing through. But there's other ways that you can get put downward pressure on inflation as well. We've seen a population growth in this country of over 1.2 million, largely immigration, and that's putting extra pressure on inflation, particularly housing costs, at a time when we simply haven't been able to keep their housing supply up. And we're seeing industrial relations policies which are crushing businesses, and particularly small businesses. We're seeing real pain from those policies now, and they put extra pressure on inflation as well. So there's many levers. We're pulling them all we do what this opposition has done from the start, Chris, we make hard calls and we make hard calls when they may not be popular. You saw that with the Voice, but over time we'll keep making the case and I'm confident as we approach the next election, as Australians have to make a choice, they'll choose against a government that has failed to live up to its promises and has failed the Australian people in terms of their standards of living.  

 

CHRIS KENNY: 

Yeah, well, national security and border protection and immigration are all going to be important in the election, but number one will always be the economy, so we'll keep in touch over that. Angus Taylor, thanks for joining us. 

 

ENDS.