Michael Sukkar MP

Interview with Laura Jayes – Sky News Australia

THE HON MICHAEL SUKKAR MP – SHADOW MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES, NDIS, HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH LAURA JAYES, SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA

Wednesday, 12 April 2023

TOPICS: May Budget, Low and Middle Income Tax Offset

E&OE

Laura Jayes: Joining me live now is Liberal MP Michael Sukkar. Michael, great to see you. It’s four weeks from the budget. We heard from Jim Chalmers yesterday. He was defending his stance on the low and middle income tax offset, which is expiring. He referred to you as a B-grader for criticising. Did you hear that?

Michael Sukkar: No, I didn’t. But I mean, the Treasurer who, let’s be frank, put in a woeful performance. This is his second budget. He needs to start taking some responsibility. He can only ride the coattails of the strong economy that the Coalition gifted the government for so long. He actually has to taking some responsibility. Now, if he wants to remove the low and middle income tax offset, get out there and explain this. We’ve seen him rolled time after time by the Prime Minister. He floats thought bubbles out left, right and centre – just to be whacked down by his Prime Minister. I’m sure he’s feeling very sheepish about that and probably explains why he lashes out at so many other people Laura.

Laura Jayes: Oh, you weren’t alone. He he had some criticism for Angus Taylor as well. So I don’t know whether you take comfort from that or not. Who knows? But anyway.

Michael Sukkar: Laura, the reality is this – under his watch, we are seeing Australians poorer, let’s not beat around the bush. Australians after ten months of a Labor government, after ten months of Anthony Albanese and his Treasurer, Jim Chalmers – we’re seeing Australians who are poorer, whether it’s through higher mortgages, whether it’s through their higher cost of living, whether it’s the undelivered reductions in power prices of $275 which they promised. A succession of costs that are being borne by families. Now, if I was the Treasurer, I’d be hanging my head in shame because Australians are materially poorer now, and they sneakily over Easter weekend throw it out there that they’re going to abolish the low and middle income tax, offset up to $1,500 for an individual. So that’s no way to govern. If he’s proud of his decisions, if he’s proud of the extra costs he’s putting on Australians, don’t get out there on Good Friday and sneak it out there, front up and be proud of what you’re doing and get out and explain it. The fact that he snuck it out there, I think shows that he lost control. There’s no plan. And sadly, Australians are paying the price.

Laura Jayes: They never said they were going to extend it though, did they?

Michael Sukkar: Well, the government now is up to the second budget, Laura. So you can only have an alibi for so long blaming the former government. Now, they don’t blame the former government for the very strong economy and low unemployment that they inherited. They seem to try and blame the former government for everything. This is Jim Chalmers’ second budget. Take some responsibility.

Laura Jayes: Would you extend it? If you if you had the power would you be extending LMITO?

Michael Sukkar: Well it’s a hypothetical Laura, because we would be delivering a budget if we were in government. So we’d have a whole heap of other things I suspect you and I would be talking about. I mean, back when I was the Assistant Treasurer, we would often talk about these things. It would be an entirely different budget. But what you have to do, Laura, is front up and take responsibility for your decisions. Now we’ve seen ten interest rate rises, we’ve seen power prices increasing, gas prices increasing, cost of living pressures increasing, wages not keeping up with inflation. The inflation genie I think it is somewhat out of the bottle and being made worse by this government. And that all falls at the feet of Jim Chalmers.

Laura Jayes: The IMF just released a report saying that this is a problem that all advanced nations are looking at the moment, so is that really the fault of Jim Chalmers? Because this report also says that Australia is actually doing better than America and Japan for example, is there a skerrick of credit there, or no?

Michael Sukkar: Well, no, no. If you’re going to abolish the low and middle income tax offset, that’s not a feature of the global economy. That’s a decision that the government’s taking.

Laura Jayes: But you’re talking more about the high inflation environment we find ourselves in.

Michael Sukkar: Laura, I think it seems pretty clear that the government is fuelling the inflation fire, that’s very clear. I think inflation is being exacerbated by the government and I think will continue to be exacerbated by decisions of this government. They’ve not kept faith with the promises that they took to the election. They said Australians would get a $275 reduction in their power prices. Yet, we’ve seen households with thousands of dollars of increases. We saw Anthony Albanese promise cheaper mortgages. I challenge Jim Chalmers to point out one Australian that’s got a cheaper mortgage since they’ve been in government. We see inflation outpacing wages at a record pace and yet Jim Chalmers went to election saying he was going to deliver real wage increases. On every single one of these measures, Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese spoke a big game before the election and surprise, surprise an incoming Labor Government – things turn pear shaped and Australians pay the price. Australians, you know, I hate to repeat this Laura, Australians are poorer now for the Federal Labor Government being where they are than they were previously. It’s not language we use very often, but Australians with an average mortgage are having to shell out more than $20,000 more than they did before those increases. Thousands of dollars more at the supermarket, thousands of dollars more in power prices. These are not costs that you can take out of your budget. They’re not luxuries, Laura, the consumer can somehow take out of your family budget. These are hardwired into everyday family bills and they are feeling the heat. And what do I get from Jim Chalmers? Excuse after excuse, they blame the former government. This is his second budget – time to step up, time to take some responsibility and hopefully, he and the Prime Minister and the troubled relationship and get back on to some level of working order because you know what, I don’t think Australians want to see is Jim Chalmers flying these crazy kites to tax Australians more, to then be whacked down by Anthony Albanese, which I know is humiliating for him, but that means his eye is not on the ball.

Laura Jayes: Can’t wait to see the budget and pour over that with you in four weeks’ time. Michael Sukkar, see you soon.

Michael Sukkar: Good on you, Laura.