Doorstop interview, Springwood, Queensland

Subjects: Intergenerational Report, fuel excise, AI Jim Chalmers: Well, tomorrow I’ll be releasing the Intergenerational Report on behalf of the Albanese Labor government. The IGR will show that there are serious risks in our economy, serious pressures on the budget, but that Australia has substantial advantages as well. As always, in IGRs, there will be elements of it which are confronting, but it’s not a pessimistic story because Australia is better placed, better prepared, and we have a better plan as well.

Whether it’s making the housing market fairer, or strengthening superannuation, or managing the risks of artificial intelligence. Australia is better placed and better prepared, and we have a better plan to deal with the accelerating change which is coming at us from around the world. Now, this Intergenerational Report recognises that, at the same time as the government is focused primarily on the cost‑of‑living pressures in the here and now, that we can also plan for the future and meet our intergenerational obligations.

The Intergenerational Report is a really important way that we plan for the future to make sure that Australians are beneficiaries and not victims of all this accelerating change that’s come at us from around the world. Now, one of the most important conclusions in the IGR is that Australians will be living longer and healthier lives in the decades to come. Australians living longer and healthier lives is overwhelmingly a good thing.

It’s a welcome recognition of the strength of our universal healthcare and the quality of life here in Australia. And Australians living longer and healthier lives is worth every single dollar of the extra pressure that that puts on budgets. So, what we will see in the Intergenerational Report: serious economic risks, serious pressures on the budget, but substantial advantages as well.

Australians living longer and healthier lives is a good thing. We know that that puts additional pressure on the budget; it’s worth every dollar if it means that Australians can live longer and healthier lives with more secure retirements via the superannuation system. So, I’m looking forward to releasing the IGR tomorrow.

It will show, as I said, that Australia is better placed and better prepared than most other countries to deal with all of this accelerating change. We do have a better plan: to make the housing market fairer, to make superannuation stronger, to make artificial intelligence safer as well. There are a whole range of things that the government is doing to meet its intergenerational obligations, and the IGR tomorrow will help chart the way forward.

The other issue I wanted to touch on briefly before I take your questions is about the announcement from Angus Taylor overnight. This is not about saving Australians from higher petrol costs; it’s about saving the Liberal Party from One Nation. Angus Taylor’s announcement reflects more the political pressure that he’s under than the cost‑of‑living pressure that Australians are under.

He’s come up with an uncapped and unfunded proposal. He can’t tell us how much it costs or how he’ll pay for it. He can’t tell us how many extra billions of dollars he will add to bigger Liberal deficits and more Liberal debt.

This is more a reflection of the political pressure that Angus Taylor is under than the cost‑of‑living pressure that Australians are under. If Angus Taylor cared about these cost‑of‑living pressures, he wouldn’t have voted against our income tax cuts. This government is providing cost‑of‑living help in a permanent, ongoing, and responsible way.

The Coalition under Angus Taylor voted against our tax cuts. This is another way that the Coalition, or any combination of One Nation, the Liberals, and Nationals, will make people worse off rather than better off. Our efforts in the tax system will rebalance the tax system to recognise these intergenerational pressures, and it takes some of the burden off a smaller proportion of pool of workers in our economy.

The Coalition and One Nation would make things worse rather than better – in super, in wages, and voting against our tax cuts. Happy to take a couple of questions. Tim.

Journalist: Treasurer, nonetheless, Angus Taylor’s announcement raises the question: is there any chance the government might again cut fuel excise to give relief from high oil prices? Is it a chance or not? Well, that’s not something that we’ve been discussing or considering.

Of course, we provided some petrol price relief earlier in the year, but we’ve also managed a deliberate transition from temporary cost‑of‑living help to permanent and ongoing cost‑of‑living help, via the tax system, via bulk billing, and via higher wages as well. From budget to budget, we update our settings in the most responsible way, reacting to the economic conditions of the day, but this is not something that we’ve been considering or discussing at our end, and that’s because we’re providing cost‑of‑living help in other ways that Angus Taylor voted against.

Journalist: You say that the IGR will be confronting. What in it is most confronting for you as a Treasurer? Well, the IGR will show that we are dealing with serious risks to our economy and serious pressures on the budget, but that we’ve got substantial advantages as well.

And if you look at the next 40 years, you can see that with all of this accelerating change, in technology and in energy, in aging, in industry and the way that the world is changing, overwhelmingly this is an opportunity for Australia, but there are risks associated with it as well. But to take one example, Tim, we expect that fertility will fall further and faster than we were anticipating even 3 years ago.

That’s why our efforts on early childhood education, expanding paid parental leave, paying superannuation on paid parental leave, it’s why it’s so important in the context of an aging society with fertility rates falling further and faster than we anticipated a few years ago. Think about the big changes in this IGR compared to the last one: the budget is a bit stronger, but pressures are intensifying rather than easing; fertility rates are falling further and faster; the population is growing slower, and the population will be lower in the mid‑60s than we thought just a few years ago.

So, if you take that last one: population growth is slowing, and the population in the mid‑60s will be under 40 million, rather than over 40 million like we anticipated a few years ago. The other big change in this IGR compared to the last one is a much more central role for artificial intelligence. That’s why the Prime Minister’s engagements in the US right now are so important.

We’re very confident that we can maximise the opportunities of technological change at the same time as we minimise the very substantial risks. Journalist: My last question, on artificial intelligence, the biggest AI companies in the world are threatening to walk from Australia depending on how restrictive your government’s, the government’s legislation is in this regard.

Is there a real chance, a real possibility, that we miss the fruits of the AI boom because the government legislation spooks them? Well, artificial intelligence does present us with very substantial risks that we will manage. I’m very confident that we can maximise the economic upside of technological change at the same time as we minimise the very substantial risks and concerns that people legitimately have about how this part of our economy is changing.

But artificial intelligence will be the most transformative influence on our society and our economy over the next 40 years, and the Intergenerational Report makes that really clear. The responsibility that this government embraces is to make Australians beneficiaries of all this change rather than victims of it. Our job is to put the interests of our people ahead of the interests of the big technology companies.

We’ve shown a willingness to do that when it comes to social media harms, when it comes to other areas as well. So, we will continue to take very seriously the legitimate and considerable concerns that people have about AI. I’m confident that we can maximise the opportunities and minimise the risks, and again, the Intergenerational Report will help us do that.

Thanks very much. Thanks, everyone.