Jim Chalmers has defended Labor\u2019s management of the economy after Sunrise host Nat Barr accused the government of \u201cspending like crazy\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The grilling followed the Reserve Bank of Australia\u2019s (RBA) lifting of the cash rate this week, the second consecutive rate rise increasing interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.1 per cent.<\/p>\n
Critics, including the Coalition, have claimed Labor\u2019s spending has led to soaring inflation and forced the RBA\u2019s hand to cool the economy by lifting the cash rate, subsequently punishing Australian households.<\/p>\n
Labor has repeatedly denied its public spending is to blame. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Barr put the contentious claim to Mr Chalmers after a back and forth about the latest interest rate rise. <\/p>\n
The treasurer had argued Australia\u2019s inflation challenge preceded the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, but noted it had been exacerbated by pressures triggered by the US-Israeli campaign in Iran.<\/p>\n
Barr responded: \u201cBut you\u2019re not acknowledging that your government has been spending like crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment spending is … decades-high. Consumer confidence in this country is the lowest since 2020. Do you think you\u2019re accepting your own responsibility for that?\u201d she asked. <\/p>\n
Mr Chalmers accepted his part in the \u201cfight against inflation and all aspects\u201d of his job, including Labor\u2019s repair of the budget, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we came to office, spending as a share of the economy was up near a third of the economy. We\u2019ve got it down closer to a quarter,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Mr Chalmers also downplayed fears of an economic downturn and insisted there was no recession forecast for Australia, despite RBA Governor Michelle Bullock warning one could be on the horizon if soaring inflation proved too difficult to contain.<\/p>\n
Ms Bullock told reporters on Tuesday: \u201cWe don\u2019t want to have a recession, but if it\u2019s hard to get inflation down, then we\u2019re going to have to deal with that, possibly.\u201d <\/p>\n
Asked about Ms Bullock\u2019s comments, Mr Chalmers told the Today Show on Wednesday it was \u201creally important\u201d to highlight the RBA had not forecast a recession. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we need to be very careful about how we talk this and talk about it in the most responsible way that we can,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Reserve Bank\u2019s forecasts are not forecasting a recession in our economy. Neither are the governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point that the governor is making is a point that I would be very comfortable making, which is that we have to get on top of this inflation challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe global environment is highly uncertain and volatile, and our forecast as a Treasury and as a government, consistent with the forecasts of the Reserve Bank, are that neither of us are forecasting or anticipating a recession in our economy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mr Chalmers later told Sky News the upcoming May budget would have a role to play in combating inflation that was \u201ctoo high\u201d at 3.8 per cent, above the RBA\u2019s target range of 2-3 per cent.<\/p>\n
But he refused to be drawn on details of the budget, including whether Labor would scrap the capital gains tax (CGT) as one of its affordability measures. <\/p>\n
CGT was subject to a Greens-led parliamentary inquiry which found this week the 50 per cent discount contributed to intergenerational inequality and wealth inequality. <\/p>\n
The joint committee that handed down the report included two Labor members, but Mr Chalmers shrugged off speculation this hinted at the government\u2019s position on the Howard-era settings.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the end of the day, decisions on tax reform are a matter for the cabinet, not a matter for the parliamentary committee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will read the report. I will go through it. I suspect that its conclusions are very similar to the sorts of conclusions which have been reached in my own tax expenditure and insight statement that I release, and we\u2019ll take all of that into consideration. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut our tax policies haven\u2019t changed. We haven\u2019t taken any decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Chalmers has defended Labor\u2019s management of the economy after Sunrise host Nat Barr accused the government of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4587,5806,2840,18614,212182,45,49,48,47319,40750,212181,212186,212184,46,62496,212174,212187,5897,98434,206921,40749,212175,7232,212177,1671,5185,18600,212176,212180,197188,212188,59541,212173,2446,212185,48099,212183,212178,212179,145115,181,152395],"class_list":["post-543931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-america","tag-asia","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-board-vote","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-capital-gains-tax","tag-cash-rate","tag-cash-rate-rise","tag-consecutive-rate-rise","tag-counterterrorism-official","tag-economy","tag-government-spending","tag-inflation-challenge","tag-insight-statement","tag-iran","tag-jim-chalmers","tag-john-appleyard","tag-michele-bullock","tag-michelle-bullock","tag-news-headlines","tag-newswire-politics","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-official-cash-rate","tag-paliamentary-inquiry","tag-rate-rise","tag-rba-board","tag-recession-fears","tag-recession-warning","tag-reserve-bank-of-australia","tag-responsible-way","tag-sky-news","tag-southern-asia","tag-tax-expenditure","tag-tax-policies","tag-tax-reform","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-wealth-inequality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}