Category Archives: Jim Chalmers (Australian politician)

Fines against WA climate protester ‘absurdly excessive’, Human Rights Watch says; refund for Myki charges during outage – As it happened

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Productivity commission report will be released in March

Chalmers says he has received a five-year review from the productivity commission about how Australia can respond to flagging productivity across the Australian economy.

I’d like to do that sooner, ideally in May, so that we can have this national debate about our productivity performance and some of the recommendations in there. Now, inevitably, a government won’t pick up and run with every single one of the recommendations from the Productivity Commission, but there may be some that we can run with. There will be some that align with the government’s economic plan and our policy objectives.

No doubt people will want to ask him about that and he can explain it. I think there’s a broader issue here about how the bank communicates the context for its decisions. This is one of the things that I have been discussing with the RBA Review Panel. I actually discussed it with them on Friday in one of the regular meetings that I have with the review panel, how they communicate their decisions and the context behind their decisions is one of the key focuses of that review.

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Tanya Plibersek blocks Clive Palmer’s proposed coalmine – as it happened

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Complaints about telcos jumps 9.9% in last quarter of 2022

The number of complaints about telecommunications companies in the last three months of 2022 rose by 9.9% off the back of the Optus data breach.

We began to see the impact of the Optus data breach on our mobile complaint issues at the end of the previous quarter, but the complaints from this period of October to December really highlight the problems people are experiencing because of the breach.

Privacy and the unauthorised disclosure of personal information are not the only issues for consumers. We’re also handling an increased number of complaints from Optus customers about disputed termination fees, customer service problems, and failing to cancel a mobile service.

We’re continuing to work closely with Optus to ensure consistent approaches are being taken to resolving complaints so that people can get a fair and reasonable outcome, and we have adapted how we work to handle the higher volume of complaints we received.

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Jim Chalmers says it’s absurd to expect him to copy Paul Keating as critics lash values-based capitalism essay

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Treasurer says 2023 priorities include cost-of-living relief, a tax expenditure statement and the intergenerational report and wellbeing framework

Jim Chalmers has declared it is “absurd” to think the Albanese government in 2023 will be a photocopy of the Hawke and Keating governments in the wake of a sustained backlash against his new essay championing values-based capitalism.

The treasurer says the overwhelmingly negative reaction to his summer think piece, published by the Monthly last month, is out of step with sentiment in the investor community and also reveals a disconnect between some opinion leaders in Australia and cutting-edge economic policy analysis overseas.

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Business sector has driven shift to ‘values-based capitalism’, Jim Chalmers says

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Treasurer hits back at criticism of his essay that championed co-investment and economic inclusion

Jim Chalmers says Australia’s business and investment community has driven a shift to values-based capitalism, hitting back at a volley of criticism in some news outlets after the publication of the treasurer’s 6,000-word essay championing co-investment and economic inclusion.

Chalmers made the observation on Wednesday while leading a round of consultation with the investment community about a new framework for disclosing climate-related risk. The treasurer participated in a round table convened by the Australian arm of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment initiative.

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Authorities use GPS data to try to find missing device – as it happened

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Perrottet promises easier access to housing for domestic violence victims

NSW domestic violence victims will have easier access to housing through concessions on stamp duty and rental bond loans if the Perrottet government is re-elected, AAP reports.

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Jim Chalmers says May budget to have ‘much bigger focus’ on tackling entrenched disadvantage

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Exclusive: Treasurer says ‘best way to shift the needle’ is to ‘find out where those challenges are most acute’, and ‘this is something I care deeply about’

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has revealed he will use the May budget to spearhead “a much bigger focus” on entrenched disadvantage in Australia’s most vulnerable communities to ensure people have better pathways to economic participation.

Chalmers told Guardian Australia’s politics podcast he was working with the social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, on a new package that would “identify some of the most vulnerable communities in our country, work out how to empower local leaders and pool our resources and make a meaningful difference to some on the entrenched disadvantage that’s in our country”.

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Jim Chalmers ‘furious’ after former PwC tax adviser found to have shared confidential government briefings with staff

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Treasurer vows to ‘throw the book’ at people responsible for breach after unauthorised disclosures of multinational tax consultations

Jim Chalmers has said he is “absolutely furious” at findings a former PwC tax adviser breached the confidentiality of multinational tax consultations by disclosing them to other staff at the firm without authorisation.

On Wednesday, the treasurer promised to “throw the book” at people responsible for what he labelled a “shocking breach of trust, an appalling breach of trust”.

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Australia prepared for possible Russian cyber-attacks after troops sent to train Ukraine soldiers – as it happened

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Australian Open disrupted by weather

Extreme heat and late night rain has left 22 first-round singles matches cancelled or postponed into day three of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park.

The Black Hawk capability will be a crucial element for us to protect Australia’s sovereignty, and deliver foreign policy objectives, including providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

The Black Hawk will support the deployment of our troops and their equipment where they are needed in times of crisis. The Black Hawk is a reliable, proven and mature platform supported by a robust global supply chain.

This will not only support the capability, but also maximise Australian industry participation, laying a foundation for future helicopter industry growth across the service life of the helicopter.

Delivery of the Black Hawk helicopters will commence this year.

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Federal Labor boasts about jobs growth while 90% of Australian bosses expect staffing shortages

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Expansion in first six months of Albanese government beats record of Kevin Rudd and Bob Hawke administrations

Federal Labor has boasted it has overseen the best jobs growth of any new government in 50 years but chief executives are fearful of finding workers in 2023.

The two sides of the jobs boom in Australia are demonstrated by an analysis released by the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and a survey commissioned by the Australian Industry Group which found 90% of CEOs expected staffing shortages this year.

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Children in Australia’s poorest households have about 10% chance of becoming top earners

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Treasury research finds most severe poverty is ‘particularly entrenched’ but children far more likely to progress than in US

Children born into Australia’s poorest households will have little more than a 10% chance of becoming top income earners in their lifetime, according to new Treasury research.

But Treasury research on intergenerational income mobility, to be released on Friday, found children in the bottom fifth of households were “60% more likely” to make this leap than in the US, where just 7.5% make it into the top fifth by income.

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Jobs and retail sales hold up in resilient Australian economy despite 2023 growth fears

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Consumer prices rose 7.3% in the year to November, boosting the chances of another RBA interest rate rise in February

Australia’s economy was resilient towards the end of last year, with job vacancies and retail sales holding up, even as the World Bank joined other agencies to slash the outlook for growth in 2023.

Data for November, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Wednesday, showed consumer price inflation picked up in the month while the number of firms advertising for staff increased and consumers set fresh records for retail spending.

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David Pocock wants stage-three tax cuts revisited in light of shrinking workforce

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ACT senator suggests ageing population with proportion of taxpayers declining means situation has ‘changed significantly’ since cuts legislated in 2019

New data on Australia’s ageing population and shrinking workforce should push the government to review the stage-three tax cuts, independent senator David Pocock has said.

Pocock said economic circumstances have “changed significantly” since the Morrison government legislated the tax cuts, with Labor’s support, in 2019.

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Labor under renewed pressure to axe stage-three tax cuts as Australia’s budget woes mount

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The party voted in support of tax cuts while in opposition and went to the election promising no changes to the policy

Warnings from the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, that Australia’s economy is slowing and that the population is ageing have prompted calls to scrap the stage-three tax cuts.

Chalmers said the latest Australian population data showed an ageing population continues to present a demographic challenge for Australia and the budget, with the government having to keep one eye on current challenges, while the other focuses on longer term needs in health, pensions and support services.

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Albanese government looking at laws to force big business to disclose climate efforts

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Jim Chalmers will say global investors increasingly see ‘a new harmony between profit and planet’

Banks and other big businesses will be forced to come clean with the public about what they are doing to cut emissions under plans put forward by the Albanese government.

The government is also looking for ways to crack down on “greenwashing” – or when businesses try to win over consumers by overhyping their environmental practices.

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Australian borrowers hit again as RBA raises interest rates by 25 basis points to 2.85%

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Reserve Bank raises rates for seventh time in attempt to bring inflation under control

Borrowers have been slugged with a record seventh rate rise from the Reserve Bank of Australia in as many months, as the central bank tries to quell the nation’s strongest burst of inflation in 32 years.

The RBA on Tuesday lifted the cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.85%, the highest since early May 2013. The increase was in line with most economists’ expectations.

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AFP foil plan to import $1.6bn of liquid meth in coconut water bottles – as it happened

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Chalmers on the size of government debt and making it ‘sustainable’

The treasurer is asked whether the government will consider rethinking taxes like GST and PRRT.

We have already found $22bn in savings, $28.5bn in budget improvements overall. We kept real spending growth flat across the forward estimates. We have got the debt down over the forward estimates. We have let 99% of the temporary revenue surge from higher commodity prices flow through to the budget.

That is good progress when we have shown in doing that … you can move sensibly on all fronts, restraint, trimming spending, sensible tax reform, you can make the budget more sustainable and that will be the task of the two or three budgets remaining in this parliamentary term as well.

We need to work out how do we maintain a focus on Australians with a disability and their families, how do we put them front and centre, and at the same time make sure that spending on the NDIS is sustainable and important part of that is making sure we get value for money for every dollar that is spent in what is a really important, really, really important service that we provide to Australians.

I do understand there is a substantial part of the community that would prefer that that PRRT take was higher.

We haven’t been working up an option to do that to change the PRRT arrangements but the treasury has been commissioned by my predecessor and by his predecessor to do some of this work around the taxing point in the PRRT.

We do want to make sure Australians get a good return for their resources. We need to balance that against the investment that’s been made into the sector. When I get that advice from I will engage in it a meaningful way and I will listen to it.

We have seen I think as you acknowledged in your first question, on this topic, company taxes are up quite substantially. That’s a good thing and we have let that flow through to the budget. The PRRT, there’s a modest increase. I will wait to see what the treasury advises us on the conclusion of the review that my two predecessors put in place.

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Treasurer says gas review likely to result in mandatory code of conduct as energy costs soar

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Government has also not ruled out using threat of export limits to guarantee more domestic supply, Jim Chalmers says

The Albanese government will toughen gas market regulation and intends to make the industry code of conduct mandatory, with the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, also not ruling out export limits or cash handouts as soaring bills put pressure on household budgets.

On Sunday, Chalmers signalled a review, announced in the budget and being conducted by the competition regulator, would likely include mandatory price regulation and a requirement for “meaningful offers” to domestic consumers.

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Federal budget 2022 reply speech live: opposition leader Peter Dutton to respond to Labor’s October budget – latest updates

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Leader of the opposition to give his reply to the treasurer Jim Chalmers’ first budget. Follow the day’s news live

The Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi will give notice of a private senator’s bill she will introduce today aiming to halt the indexation on student loans and increase the repayment threshold to above the median wage.

Faruqi says it is one way which would help ease the cost of living burden on people with student debt:

Student debt is no small problem. About three million people in Australia have the burden of student debt.

At a time when the cost of living is biting hard, governments can no longer ignore the student debt crisis and its impacts.

What we have said all the time is that we want wages to grow, and we want them to stay growing. Not to have a short-term growth and then have at the expense of potentially higher unemployment.

So that’s the first thing. The second thing is we’ve got to get an IR system that drives productivity. That’s not about working harder for less, it’s about working smarter. It’s about creating the environment where people use new technology, where they innovate, where they share ideas, where they open new markets, where they have more skilled people.

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Treasurer says Taylor’s fingerprints ‘all over’ energy policy chaos – as it happened

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Over on Sky News, the questions were all about the next budget:

Host: Joining us live now in Canberra is the prime minister, Anthony Albanese. Prime minister, good morning to you. So, a safe budget to pay for your election commitments. Are tax increases and spending cuts next?

Hang on, Pete. We’ve just had the budget last night. You’re now talking about future budgets. Let’s talk about what we did last night. What we did last night was to fulfil our election commitments, provide cost-of-living relief with cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines, more paid parental leave, more support for affordable housing. And we want to get wages moving again. We did all that without putting pressure on inflation by targeting our investments in things like infrastructure, improving the National Broadband Network, making sure that there’s that growth in the economy without putting pressure on inflation. That was our focus last night. And we managed to achieve it.

Look, we inherited a trillion dollars of debt, Peter, as you know. We inherited a trillion dollars of debt with not much to show for it. What we did last night was to make $22bn of savings. We took the revenue gains that have come through, 99% of those revenue increases from the higher costs of fuel and energy, we put them straight to the budget bottom line, 99% of them. So it was a responsible budget that saw a significant drop in the deficit to $37bn from what was anticipated. That is a responsible thing to do. Because we want to make sure that we fight inflation because that is necessary if we’re going to get real wages moving in the way that we want them to.

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Jim Chalmers’ first budget comes amid a darkening economic outlook. Here’s what could go wrong

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The federal budget forecasts growth of 3.25% this year but hints at a slowing global economy with high inflation and interest rates

The resilience of Australian households to soaring expenses and the nascent recovery of China’s economy will likely determine whether Jim Chalmers’ first budget is a charm or chimera.

This year’s forecast for Australia’s economy to grow 3.25% may be the best this side of the next federal election as the Reserve Bank tries to douse inflation with another 75 basis points of interest rate hikes. The outlook, though, is darkening at home and abroad, adding to looming fiscal strains.

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