Chalmers Kean Dick: Triumvirate brainstorms a new narrative

It’s the good old ‘the cupboard is bare’ routine: Nation ‘needs to expect bad news’: Jim Chalmers.

Jim Chalmers has flagged the ­October budget will reveal the nation’s finances are in a worse position than Treasury’s pre-election update, saying “pressures on the budget which were not disclosed or booked by the previous government” would overwhelm the expected windfall from soaring commodity prices…

After campaigning on lowering power bills longer term through boosted investment in renewable energy, Dr Chalmers said over coming months households should brace themselves for “a spike in power prices that will make it harder for Australian families to make ends meet”.

Dr Chalmers, who said he has spoken with six of the eight state and territory treasurers, and is playing “phone tag” with NSW’s Matt Kean and Queensland’s Cameron Dick, sketched out a two-stage fiscal strategy.

Chalmers has a PhD in Paul Keating, by the way. That’s not some sort of joke. He really does.

As Anthony Albanese solemnly stated before the election, Australians should expect a 5.1 per cent pay rise. He also promised to shut down dirty electricity generation and tackle inflation. Let’s hope the training-wheels Treasurer gets some quality tips from Messrs Dick and Kean on how to do this, while lifting productivity, lowering power bills, boosting the NDIS, building thousands of homes and paying off the Pacific to ward off the Chinese.

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28 Responses to Chalmers Kean Dick: Triumvirate brainstorms a new narrative

  1. Dr Faustus says:

    Jim Chalmers has flagged the ­October budget will reveal the nation’s finances are in a worse position than Treasury’s pre-election update, saying “pressures on the budget which were not disclosed or booked by the previous government” would overwhelm the expected windfall from soaring commodity prices…

    Possible takeaways from this:

    1) The Parliamentary Budget Office has fucked up on an industrial scale;
    2) Labor failed to use the PBO “to level the playing field by providing access to costing and other analytical services that, in the absence of the PBO, would normally be exclusively available to the Government”when planning and rolling out its policy promises;
    3) Events are overtaking Canberra – the practical reality of ‘Zero Carbon’ is coming home to roost;
    4) He is starting off with a big, bright lie.

  2. Rockdoctor says:

    2 standout from that Wiki entry, Arts degree trying to be passed off as a serious economist which leads to the second that he has zero credibility being associated with Wayne Swan. Honestly the way some fawn about him I thought his Phd was at least economics based… Another Political Scientist, just what we need in Treasury.

    Know Wong is as thick as too planks unless it comes to the rough & tumble of the party room but climate change is not the biggest issue to Pac Is. How much money they (being their politicians Swiss or Cayman Bank accounts) can grift is the biggest issue there and the PRC will win that race hands down.

    Wong, Chalmers, Gallagher, is this the best they can do for potential ministers? If so god help us.

  3. Rockdoctor says:

    Doc, IMO 2 & 4 but ultimately I’d say the cupboard genuinely is bare.

    I remember after the Ruddslide I was on a late night flight down to Brisbane and in the row behind Bob Katter. With his usual fanfare he was geeing up and being geed up by a few around him but one thing stick in my mind to this day. The look of disgust when he let us know the surplus that Howard had was already gone within months of the election and that they were starting to borrow.

    Get ready of more of the same and Mining Tax mk 2.

  4. Petros says:

    They have to suffer to learn.

  5. Buccaneer says:

    They never learn, it’s us that will suffer. The media need to call Chalmers out, if they didn’t pay attention to the PBO before the election, they don’t deserve office and if they are lying they don’t deserve office. Letting them off either way is not good enough.

  6. Fat Tony says:

    They never learn, it’s us that will suffer.
    Yes, we’re fooked.

    The media need to call Chalmers out
    The msm is the enemy of the people.

  7. Not Trampis says:

    The PBO is irrelevant.
    We have a PEFO. If Chalmers attempts to say the cupboard is bare either the Treasury and Finance secretaries were lying or he is. I do hope Chalmers does not attempt the lies Abbott and Hockey tried unsuccessfully. It was very poor politics then and would be the same today.

    The ALP have no excuse now. Between Chalmers and the two Andrews they have economic expertise other governments could only dream of.

  8. NoFixedAddress says:

    I’m selling tickets to the event, and running a ‘book’ on which dirty coal station will be dynamited first.

    The teal ducks paddling in the Canberra parliamentary cesspit will be booking overseas trips already, particularly given the never ending electricity price increases.

  9. C.L. says:

    Albanese ditches 5.1 per cent wage rise promise:

    Anthony Albanese says he will sign off on a letter to the Fair Work Commission on Friday about wage rises, but he said a figure would not be provided in the submission.

    “There won’t be a number in the submission. What there will be, though, is that we can’t afford a real wage cut,” the Prime Minister told AM Radio.

    “The submission will be consistent with what I said during the election campaign, that people who are on the minimum wage can’t afford to go backwards, can’t afford a real wage cut,” he said.

    The Australian

  10. Buccaneer says:

    The poor start by the ALP really started when they excused themselves from submitting their costing for review until too late by saying that is what Abbott did. I simply can’t wait to tell some of my lefty friends that this government is simply an Abbott government reincarnate in tenor if not policy and that they will suffer the same fate. The evidence is overwhelming as they play the man and not the ball. The only difference being that Abbott seemed intent for a short while on delivering his promises, that pretense has already gone out the window in less that a week with new policy not presented preelection emerging, ugly sledging and outright lies. It will be interesting to see the greens and teals eat the alp from the left while Dutton slowly drags the sane vote back to the centre.

  11. C.L. says:

    Terry McCrann beats up Chalmers:

    Can Australia afford a trainee treasurer?

    Do you think it might be a good idea for a federal treasurer – purportedly overseeing a $625bn-a-year budget, and increasing inexorably every year because that’s what politicians always do: always spend more and more of your money – to have some understanding of the basics of arithmetic?

    Like, for example, that 36 per cent of something is bigger than 33 per cent?

    In just his first three days in the job, newbie treasurer Jim Chalmers has shown a decided tendency to let his mouth run way ahead of whatever passes for his brain.

    On the first day, he thought it would be a good idea to declare that inflation was “almost out of control”.

    As I explained that was utterly ludicrous.

    It was also grossly irresponsible; coming from a treasurer – even a trainee one – the equivalent of shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded cinema.

    He clearly had not the slightest idea of the immediate policy questions that posed – to him, personally.

    Like, why isn’t he calling for the Reserve Bank to really hike interest rates, like immediately matching the 2 per cent NZ policy rate?

    Like, why isn’t he taking active steps to force big pay rises across the workforce, lamenting as he did the big fall in real wages – falls, which will get much bigger as a consequence of that “almost out of control inflation”?

    Then on the third day, he didn’t rise to his position and the tasks he faces, but choose to make a gratuitous attack on the Liberals likely selection of Peter Dutton as leader.

    It showed, he opined, they’d learned nothing from the “drubbing” they got on Saturday.

    Hmm. What the Liberals and their Coalition partners the Nationals got on Saturday was 36 per cent of the first preference vote. What Labor got was 33 per cent.

    Some 36 per cent of Australians actively wanted Scott Morrison to continue as prime minister; only 33 per cent – closer to 500,000 fewer – actively wanted Anthony Albanese to replace him.

    So if 36 per cent is a “drubbing”, what then, Treasurer, is 33 per cent?

    Or is basic arithmetic above your pay grade?

    Yes, of course, second – and third and fourth – preferences got Labor to a majority, or just shy, of seats and government.

    Albanese is the PM and Morrison is not.

    But the idea there was this massive rush to Albanese and Labor is an utter fantasy of leftist propaganda.

    Despite this being the notorious ‘fourth’ election which is supposedly all-but impossible to win, and a PM supposedly hated by all-but half-a-dozen women, Labor just limped over the line with the lowest first-preference vote on any election winner.

    Despite all that, nearly 500,000 Australians – some of whom might even have been women – specifically preferred Morrison over Albanese as their first choice.

    This goes to the broader question of the Liberal Party – or more broadly, the ‘right’ being in supposed crisis.

    The truth is the exact opposite.

    In an election in which, yes, there clearly was a swing away from the right, the mainstream right still outpolled the mainstream left.

    The right – the Coalition, Pauline Hanson, Clive Palmer’s UAP and the Lib Dems got just shy of 47 per cent of the vote.

    The left – Labor and the Greens – got just shy of 45 per cent.

    Even adding on the so-called Teals, gets the left total only up to just over 46 per cent, still shy of the right vote.

    The other 7 per cent, all the rag-tags, might or might not be ‘left’, it is certainly crazy.

    The primary lesson is that we have a treasurer who needs to get some remedial instruction in basic arithmetic.

    Until he does, the less he says the better.

    The Australian (entire)

  12. jupes says:

    After campaigning on lowering power bills longer term through boosted investment in renewable energy

    A monumentally ridiculous statement. Also a lie.

    Too bad the SFL had the same moronic policy, otherwise they could have pointed out the idiocy of Labor.

  13. Boambee John says:

    Non Mentis

    We have a PEFO. If Chalmers attempts to say the cupboard is bare either the Treasury and Finance secretaries were lying or he is.

    The ALP have no excuse now. Between Chalmers and the two Andrews they have economic expertise other governments could only dream of.

    ROFLMAO!

  14. Lee says:

    Albanese ditches 5.1 per cent wage rise promise:

    Well that didn’t take long.
    I expect the MSM will hammer Albo for every broken promise.
    LOL.

  15. Not Trampis says:

    He said workers cannot afford a real wage cut. Are you that thick you do not understand what that means.
    wow criticised by McCrann is like being hit by a wet lettuce. Poor bloke doesn’t know governments are determined by the 2PP vote.

    Renewables are much much lower that coal fired or gas powered electricity. Perhaps you might read why the electricity prices will be rising in June.

    The PBO only does costing for those in parliament. Treasury and Finance for Budgets etc under the direction of the government of the day.

  16. Buccaneer says:

    Albanese called for wages increases to match inflation.

    He then back tracked somewhat on that by trying to pretend he only meant minimum wage workers, he has now quietly completed the backflip.

    Clueless… Unserious … dumbest PM in history

  17. Lee says:

    Renewables are much much lower that coal fired or gas powered electricity.

    ROFLMAO!
    Shit for brains.

  18. Boambee John says:

    Non Mentis

    Renewables are much much lower that coal fired or gas powered electricity. Perhaps you might read why the electricity prices will be rising in June.

    It’s truly amazing. As the number of fossil fuel generators in Australia declines, the cost of electricity rises because of the use of fossil fuel generators. And when all the fossil fuel generators have gone, the price will be sky high (and the supply intermittent and unreliable), all because of the (lack of) fossil fuel generators.

  19. Lee says:

    That’s NT “logic” for you, John.

  20. False Equivalence says:

    Power prices are simply a function of gas prices today. Plus the fact that coal is increasingly bid out of the core of the day by renewables and inevitably is bid a high prices outside the daytime.
    Gas is a function of the Gladstone exports having diverted domestic supply. Shortages are inevitable and the situation can’t be fixed without resort of the export control mechanism.

  21. Not Trampis says:

    you people are both stupid and lazy. What were the reasons for this rise?

    The price of coal and gas AND the ever regular breakdowns of units in coal fired power stations. Primary school drop outs do not realise this means they deliver unreliable power. They also only make money at night. Look up solar duck ccurve!

    Typically CL still has not corrected his lie. Perhaps he doesn’t understand what people should not have a real wage cut. means.

    This is embarassing how ignorant people are here.

  22. Boambee John says:

    Non Mentis

    The price of coal and gas AND the ever regular breakdowns of units in coal fired power stations. Primary school drop outs do not realise this means they deliver unreliable power. They also only make money at night. Look up solar duck ccurve!

    How can they make money at night? You have assured us that the availability of (cheap) wind nationwide has solved that problem of intermittency.

    You are so ignorant that you give idiots and morons a good name.

  23. Lee says:

    You are so ignorant that you give idiots and morons a good name.

    LOL

  24. Not Trampis says:

    because boofhead only wind power is on at night and we have restricted their output.

    coal fired power still gives us about 705 of total output. This is why AEMO regularly each summer warns of blackouts because of the units in said plants breaking down at the wrong time.

    you do like to highlight your ignorance. A normal person would shut up and try and learn from their constant mistakes. not here

  25. Boambee John says:

    Non Mentis

    because boofhead only wind power is on at night and we have restricted their output.

    The wind (or lack thereof) restricts our output. That and the requirement for long transmission lines to link distant, wide area, wind farms to the existing grid. These cost a lot, and are subject to transmission losses. (Heard of those, idiot features?) Still, there are some good sites for wind generators on all those headlands in the newly-Teal electorates in Sydney.

    coal fired power still gives us about 705 of total output.

    705 what? Megawatt hours? Gigawatt hours?

    This is why AEMO regularly each summer warns of blackouts because of the units in said plants breaking down at the wrong time.

    But, but, but, surely all those wind and solar generators can do the job? If they can’t, then perhaps we should stop penalising fossil generators, and fund their maintenance until your new Nirvana arrives. Or we could go nuclear.

    you do like to highlight your ignorance. A normal person would shut up and try and learn from their constant mistakes. not here

    Go look in the mirror, to see whom you are describing. And get some lessons in punctuation.

  26. Tel says:

    705 what? Megawatt hours? Gigawatt hours?

    He was attempting to type 70% while too trashed to hit the shift key.

  27. Tel says:

    Can Australia afford a trainee treasurer?

    Treasurer Frydenberg had one job … to stop the spending blowout.

    What did he achieve? A massive spending blowout. I have a suspicion The new guy will do much the same … although I suppose we could do worse … at least he isn’t into MMT.

    https://jimchalmers.org/latest-news/transcripts/abc-brisbane-drive-14-07-20/

    AUSTIN: How would you explain modern monetary theory in a statement or a paragraph. A couple of listeners are asking me, like I can’t explain it simply. So how would you explain modern monetary theory, Jim Chalmers?

    CHALMERS: I think the simplest way to think about is in countries that control their own currency, that print their own currency; they can never run out of money.

    AUSTIN: That’s like Australia, we print our own currency.

    CHALMERS: Yeah.

    AUSTIN: So how close are we to modern monetary theory when we’re stimulating everything courtesy of the taxpayer. We’ve just got the digital printing presses printing money.

    CHALMERS: I don’t think there’s much appetite in either side of the Parliament for that but I do acknowledge, and partly because of Alan Kohler’s vast following on the ABC but others as well, that people are attracted to this idea in the broader community. I think that just reflects the seriousness of the economic situation that we’re in, and people’s belief that there is a role for government to step in when things are as dire as they are now in the economy. But having said that I don’t think Modern Monetary Theory is a step Australia should take.

    AUSTIN: All due respect to Alan, just because he thinks it’s a great idea doesn’t mean it’s a great idea.

    CHALMERS: He has popularised it.

    AUSTIN: Well, you’ve got to be careful of popular wisdom, don’t you. I mean, it’s all very well to be comforted by this truth but unpleasant truths are often what we need to hear. So where do you stand on the idea of Modern Monetary Theory; is it a good or bad?

    CHALMERS: I’m not an enthusiast. I wouldn’t be taking Australia down that path. But I get a lot of emails about it, no doubt I’ll get a few more now!

  28. Boambee John says:

    Tel

    I worked that out, but his insufferable arrogance and inability to write coherent English are such that I take any chance to tweak his nose.

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