Press Conference, Perth

ZANETA MASCARENHAS, MEMBER FOR SWAN: Hi, and welcome to Specialty Metals and thank you to Grant Sinnott, who has been very generous and has showed us some of the amazing critical minerals that have been provided to local manufacturers. My name's Zaneta Mascarenhas, I'm the Federal Member for Swan, and I'm here with Minister Amanda Rishworth, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and of course the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers.

The Albanese Labor Government is a government that backs industries and backs jobs, and I'm so glad to be able to be here and stand here with my talented federal colleagues, and I will now hand over to Amanda.

AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Thanks Zaneta and thanks for the advocacy you do in the Labor caucus. It's great to be here, of course, with the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. The ABS has just released its wages growth figures, and really good news that there's been solid wages growth now at 3.4 per cent across the country.

What this demonstrates is eight consecutive quarters of annualised real wages growth. Australians at the last election voted to keep wages moving and our government is delivering on that. I would note that WA in particular has led the wages growth at 4 per cent. This is great news for Western Australians in terms of making sure that they earn more, and of course, with our tax cuts, keep more of what they earn.

I would note also that our government made a real commitment to re‑energise enterprise bargaining, and I would note that a key contributor of the growth in wages that we've seen released today has been enterprise bargaining. Indeed, in the most recent enterprise bargaining data, we saw new enterprise agreements delivering a 4.2 per cent annual wage increase. This is great news and demonstrates our government’s commitment to getting wages moving. In addition, of course, the most recent data includes our advocacy for a real wage increase for the lowest paid workers in terms of the minimum wage.

So, this is good news for Australian workers and importantly delivers on our commitment to ensure that wages are moving in this country. This of course comes out after a decade of neglect from the Liberal Government. When they were in office, they had a deliberate design feature to put downward pressure on wages and make Australians worse off. Well, that's not what this government’s about. I'm very pleased to hand over now to Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER: Thanks Amanda. Thanks Grant for having us at your place. Thanks for the very compelling offer to buy the truck out the front as well. Very good of you to have us, thanks so much. And we couldn't come to Perth without coming and saying hello to Zaneta as well, part of our unbelievably good WA team in the Federal Parliament. So, thank you Zaneta for having us once again back in your beautiful part of WA.

As Amanda said, we've got some very good news on the economy today. This is the longest period of real wages growth in almost a decade. This means eight consecutive quarters of real wages growth. It means two full years of real wages growth so that more Australians are earning more and keeping more of what they earn. And that's this Albanese Labor Government's reason for being. More people in work, more people earning more, keeping more of what they earn and retiring with more as well.

And it speaks really to the strength of our jobs market under this Government. Under this Labor Government we've seen the lowest average unemployment of any government in the last half a century, 1.2 million jobs created, four in every five of those are in the private sector, and we're seeing these very encouraging wage outcomes at the same time. Two full years of real wages growth, eight consecutive quarters of real wages growth.

As Amanda also said, this is deliberate, not accidental. What we're seeing when it comes to real wages growth is because we have made getting wages growing again a central objective of our economic strategy. And we're very pleased to see that that strategy is working with this real wage growth that we're seeing.

Now never forget that when we came to office our opponents had just overseen five consecutive quarters of real wages falling. Real wages were falling around 3.5 per cent when we came to office. We've turned that around with these two years of continuous real wages growth, and that's a very, very encouraging development in our economy.

Now whether it's getting inflation down to half what we inherited, getting real wages growing again, keeping unemployment low, getting the debt much lower than what we inherited as well, getting the AAA credit rating from the three major credit ratings agencies, the economic fundamentals of the Australian economy are strong. But we know that there's more work to do, and we're very focused on that work that we're doing.

One of the reasons we're in WA, why I've been spending so much time with the business community, the employers of WA in particular, is because we know we've got more work to do to make our economy more productive and resilient, to make our budget more sustainable, and also to deal with all this global economic uncertainty.

Now Western Australia has a lot to gain from our agenda, whether it's reforms to the EPBC Act, whether it's our other efforts to make our economy more productive and more efficient. WA has a lot to gain from the economic plan of this Albanese Labor Government. They also have – Western Australia has a lot to lose when it comes to the Coalition's crazy idea of abandoning net zero. When the Coalition abandoned net zero, what that meant was they would swing a wrecking ball through the WA economy. They'd swing a wrecking ball through the energy market, they would push power prices up, not down, and they would swing a wrecking ball through investor confidence and investor certainty as well. And so, for all of these reasons, what the Coalition is proposing is an act of economic insanity. Primarily it will push prices up, not down, but it will also decimate investor confidence and investor certainty at the worst possible time.

Australia's got a very good story to tell the world. WA as a very export focused economy has a lot to gain from Labor's agenda, a lot to lose from the economic insanity at the core of the Coalition's proposal to abandon net zero.

With that, happy to take some questions.

JOURNALIST: Just on wages growth, 0.8 per cent for the September quarter, headline inflation 1.3, I think. Is that a real increase or is it a decrease?

CHALMERS: We compare the annual figures, 3.4 versus 3.2. And what we've seen is that when it comes to annual real wages growth, which strips out some of the lumpiness from quarter to quarter, what we've seen now is two full years of continuous real wages growth in our economy. 3.4 versus 3.2 on this occasion. It's been stronger in earlier quarters as well, and this is a very welcome development.

It does mean that our efforts to get wages moving in our economy in a substantial way, but also in a sustained and responsible way, sustainable way, those efforts are bearing fruit.

JOURNALIST: On EPBC, you made a pretty direct plea to business this morning ‑‑

CHALMERS: I did.

JOURNALIST: ‑‑ at breakfast. Did you have anything in particular in mind, like sectors, resources, what ‑ who do you want to see leaning on the Opposition to support your reforms?

CHALMERS: Our EPBC reforms will be good for the economy and good for the environment and good for Western Australia. And that's why we want to see them passed next week. Next week is a really important week, the final sitting week for the Parliament for the year, and an opportunity for the Senate to do the right thing by our economy and by our environment.

The message I had to the WA business community was that if they want to see a good, sensible, considered, heavily consulted outcome in the Senate next week, then I ask them, respectfully, to encourage, to urge and to pressure the Coalition and the Greens to do the right thing in the Senate.

Now, we've done the right thing, we've consulted heavily, Murray Watt's done a mountain of work, and Tanya Plibersek before him. The Government has come up with, I think, a set of reforms which makes the EPBC regime better for the economy, better for the environment, faster, more efficient, more robust, more transparent. These are all good developments which will help our economy become more productive at the same time as we safeguard our environment.

So, I encourage the Senate to do the right thing next week, and I encourage all sensible business leaders here in WA and around the country, and environmental leaders, to lobby the Coalition and the Greens to do the right thing.

JOURNALIST: Is that the big miners that you're speaking to directly?

CHALMERS: Not exclusively. I'm speaking to the business community broadly. But I do engage enthusiastically with the leaders of the mining sector here in WA, in my own home state of Queensland and around Australia. I had an opportunity to speak directly to a number of various senior leaders yesterday and today, and later today I will as well. And my message to them, whether they're in the mining sector, whether they are in housing and construction, whether they're in other really crucial parts of our economy, is I ask them respectfully to pick up the phone and call the Coalition, call the Greens, and make sure that we can get a sensible outcome.

Now, from time to time people will ask about what's happened since our Economic Reform Roundtable a couple of months ago, and one of the most important developments out of that Roundtable was that instead of passing this EPBC legislation next year, we try and pass it this year, and next week is a really good opportunity for us to do that.

I say to the Senate, do the right thing. I say to the business community and others who are interested in getting a sensible outcome here to lobby the other parties in the Senate to get that good deal that we need to see.

JOURNALIST: According to the World Bank global growth's at the lowest level since 2008. What do G20 leaders need to achieve when they meet this weekend?

CHALMERS: A couple of things about that. I mean the global economy's choppy. We're seeing a lot of global economic uncertainty. The world has more or less muddled through the last six or nine months and dealt with some of these escalating trade tensions in a way that is a little bit better than what many had feared. But that doesn't mean there's not still a lot of global economic uncertainty, a lot of risk, a lot of volatility and a lot of unpredictability.

And so that strikes me as the most important thing for the G20 leaders to focus on, how we have agendas in our own economies and work in a coordinated fashion to deal with this global economic uncertainty, which is impacting us all. And here in the West, I mean 50 per cent of Australia's goods exports come out of the West, WA makes a huge contribution to our national economy, and so it's very exposed to shifts in global sentiment, and so the G20 leaders have an important role to play, bolstering confidence, bolstering certainty and clarity to help countries navigate what are very choppy waters in the global economy right now.

JOURNALIST: When can we expect a decision on Hanwha v Austal?

CHALMERS I'm working on that as we speak. And I hope to make a decision before long. But I want to be really upfront about that and say that one of the reasons why we have missed that original September deadline is because I had more questions that weren't yet answered, and I take my responsibilities as the decisionmaker in the FIRB regime very seriously. And if there's more information that I need to make the best decision that I can, then I ask for that information, whether it's internal to government or consultation external to government.

So we'll make that decision as soon as we can, we'll make that decision in our usual considered, methodical and consultative way, conscious that it's a complex case, and we know that there are a number of players sweating on an outcome here, I acknowledge that. I've acknowledged that privately as well, and I'll come to a decision as soon as I can.

JOURNALIST: What do you make of Japan's concerns over that potential increase?

CHALMERS: I think to be fair to the Japanese, I think a number of interested parties have made their views known, that's a good thing. One of the reasons why we've got this FIRB regime, which I've reformed to substantially speed up the low risk cases, but to give ourselves the ability to deal with these more complex cases in a more robust way, one of the good things about those developments is that people have an opportunity to express a view. This is a government that welcomes that, rather than dismisses the genuine views that people raise.

That's not the only view. Obviously, there are a range of views about this particular approval. As I said before, I'm spending a lot of my time weighing up the pros and cons, and I'll come to a decision as soon as I can.

JOURNALIST: Can you elaborate at all in terms of the additional questions or matters you want to resolve before making the decision?

CHALMERS: The short answer is no. There are good reasons to, consult, for example, our agencies inside Government, there are good reasons to consult with others as well, and to not engage in a kind of a running commentary on that.

I assure all of the interested parties that I will make a really considered decision, I'll ask all the necessary questions, and I'll come to a conclusion before long.

JOURNALIST: Should Austal be nervous [indistinct]?

CHALMERS: I think that you would appreciate that I wouldn't put it that way. I think Austal and the other relevant players can be assured that I'm taking my responsibilities in this case very seriously, I'm thinking about it very deeply, making sure I have all the information to make a good decision.

JOURNALIST: South Australia's Education Minister has called for an urgent national inquiry into how imported sand with asbestos was brought into the country. Do you agree that they should have a national inquiry for that?

RISHWORTH: First, I would say that I'd like to really acknowledge the regulators in this space. They have all acted in a really coordinated way to respond to this. I would note that Home Affairs has now ensured that any imported kinetic sand is now considered high risk, and any importer will have to demonstrate that their product is asbestos free.

So, we've taken action, as have the states and territories. I think this is a really important action and really recognise everyone's hard work in this.

JOURNALIST: So, what about South Australia's call for a national inquiry?

RISHWORTH: Well, we've taken action, as I've said, we have ‑ Home Affairs has clearly indicated that they will now consider the import of all kinetic sand as high risk, and therefore, any importer will have to demonstrate that it is asbestos free before it comes into the country. States and territories have responded swiftly, as has the ACCC in getting it off the shelves. This has been a very well‑coordinated response.

We'll keep working with states and territories. But the most important thing, I think, to reassure people is, firstly, that every agency has been working together, both federally, and state‑wise in a very responsive manner, and now there is the import restrictions in place where importers will have to prove that their product is asbestos free.

JOURNALIST: Just a few questions for the Treasurer on the GST, just as a surprise. Rita Saffioti ‑‑

CHALMERS: It took you longer than usual, you usually begin there.

JOURNALIST: Rita Saffioti and Roger Cook are lobbying very hard on this. Do they know something that we don't, or they're grandstanding?

CHALMERS: Neither of those options. We've had a number of really good discussions. I met with Premier Cook and Treasurer Saffioti in Canberra a couple of weeks ago. We met with Premier Cook yesterday. And the position of the WA Government is well known, and well supported, frankly, by the Albanese Government.

We support the deal that's been struck with the people of Western Australia to ensure that WA gets its fair share of the GST. And for as long as this Government is in office, WA will get a fair share of the GST. And the review that's been put in place by our predecessors back in 2018 will give people the opportunity to express their views about that around the country. But our position has been made really clear on every occasion that we've been here, publicly and also privately, including in discussions with those two good colleagues that you mentioned.

JOURNALIST: Just to be clear, so the "no better off" test for other states, would that stay?

CHALMERS: I think I've been extremely clear in saying we support the deal, we want to make sure that WA always gets a fair share of the GST. We recognise that this is a huge contributor to our national economic success. We're big believers in WA, big supporters of WA, and that extends to us making sure that the deal is adhered to and that the people and industries of WA continue to get their fair share under this Labor Government.

JOURNALIST: When you were asked this morning as whether states would be equalised to the wealthiest state, or to Victoria or New South Wales, you kind of dismissed it as being a detail. Is that a detail, or are you committed to retaining that?

CHALMERS: Again, I don't agree with the way you’ve described that. I don't dismiss any of these important issues. The point that I was making, the new information I was conveying to you was that the Productivity Commission will be releasing an issues paper on some of those considerations, certainly before the end of the year, but ideally quite soon, and that will give people an opportunity to express a view.

But our fundamental position is not changed by any of those considerations of those sorts of details. Our position is, as I've said on numerous occasions on the last few days I've been here and on every occasion that I've been here, and the PM as well, we support the deal, we believe in the deal, we will stick with the deal, and that's because WA needs and deserves its fair share of the GST, and it will always get it from us.

JOURNALIST: What does fair share mean to you? Is it 75 cents, like a floor, like it's kind of a subjective term.

CHALMERS: I don't think so, I mean it's been legislated what a fair share looks like. And we've made our views incredibly clear on every occasion that we support that deal.

Now the PC Review and the questions that Aaron was asking me earlier this morning are about some of the considerations that the PC will put in the public domain, the review that our predecessors put in place was about making sure that all states and territories had an opportunity to put forward their view, but the fundamentals of our position haven't changed, and won't change. A fair share of the GST for WA is really important, and that's why we're committed to it.

JOURNALIST: Just one on age verification for social media. The online game Roblox announced this morning that they'll add a verification to their game, and as Treasurer, is this proof that it can be done, and as a parent, is this welcome news?

CHALMERS: Well, as a parent, we know it's called Roblox. But apart from that ‑ apart from that, I mean, our colleague, Anika Wells is doing a heap of work on all of this. I'm not aware of those new developments that you're talking about today, but we're very serious about protecting our kids online. And Anika and before her Michelle Rowland have done an absolute mountain of work to make sure that we get this regime right. It launches quite soon, and I'm confident that we'll get all of these various considerations right. But I haven't seen that most recent development.

Okay. Thanks very much everyone.

ENDS