Government ‘trying to avoid’ Covid-style mandates, Chalmers says
Working from home “makes a lot of sense” right now, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says, but he says the government won’t be enforcing Covid-style mandates on households.
Ahead of the national cabinet meeting today, Chalmers tells ABC News Breakfast the states and territories and commonwealth will need to work together to avoid “harsher” measures as the crisis deepens.
He says that Australians shouldn’t cancel their Easter weekend road trips but should use fuel responsibly.
The best way to get through this is to get through it together, to work through these issues, in a coordinated and ideally consistent way around the country. And the best way to avoid the kind of harsher Covid style measures is to do that work. And the better we do at the front end of this challenge that we have in our economy, the more likely we are to avoid some of those kind of harsher measures and restrictions down the track.
We’re trying to avoid those kind of a heavier-handed Covid [style] interventions. But work from home in a number of instances makes a lot of sense. The prime minister has indicated more of a willingness to go down the voluntary path than the compulsory path.
Key events
NSW treasurer calls for national framework with ‘triggers’
The New South Wales treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, says he wants to see a national framework put in place with planned interventions and triggers for those interventions.
Ahead of the national cabinet meeting today, Mookhey spoke with ABC RN Breakfast, and said while everyone has been talking about all the states and commonwealth working together that needs to be translated “from a principle into practice”, with the development of a framework.
Those interventions should be staged, they should be escalating, and they should be consumer to the challenges that we’re facing in the market. I think that’s pretty common sense. People would expect us to have pretty clear, or at least as clear as we can, triggers for actions.
People would expect us to have pretty clear, or at least as clear as we can, triggers for actions. And then people are entitled to know what exactly, the actions are.
A couple of states including Victoria and Tasmania have pledge free public transport to combat the rising fuel cost for consumers.
Mookhey says that’s a decision for individual states, and doesn’t have to be a nationally coordinated approach.
Tom McIlroy
Trade minister to speak at National Press Club after signing of EU free trade deal
Don Farrell, the trade and tourism minister, will speak to journalists at the National Press Club in Canberra today, talking up the government’s new free trade agreement with the European Union.
Anthony Albanese and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, signed the deal in Canberra last week, marking the culmination of more than eight years of negotiations.
Farrell is expected to reveal how deal was finally secured and how the government is navigating the shifting nature of global trade.
The free trade agreement will see nearly 98% of Australia’s goods enter the EU duty-free. Producers will gain increased access to about 450 million consumers.
A carve-out on geographic indicator rules will allow Australian wine and cheese makers to continue to use European product names, such as prosecco and feta.
Farmers will get preferential access for beef and lamb, with tariffs eliminated on dairy, horticulture and manufactured goods.
European champagne, wine, spirits, biscuits, pasta and chocolates are expected to be less expensive in Australia, as well as auto parts, machinery and equipment.
Ruston welcomes ‘open’ conversations on tax after Hastie considers gas export levy
Andrew Hastie has opened up a can of worms for Angus Taylor and the Liberal party after saying he was open to a new 25% tax on soaring gas profits as part of a Scandinavian-style sovereign wealth fund.
After speaking to Guardian Australia last week, he doubled down on Sunday on Insiders, saying: “One of the things we’ve got going for us is our abundance of gas – is introducing a new tax right at this time, going to help our situation? Before 28 February this conversation looked very different. We’re in a different period now.”
Anne Ruston is also open for business, and while not directly endorsing Hastie’s position, told RN Breakfast she supports the Liberal party “having a conversation about anything that is going to improve the lot of Australians”.
We haven’t had an honest conversation in this country about issues around taxation for a very long time, because the conversation always gets shut down. So I absolutely support us having honest conversations as Australians about what we should be doing into the future that’s in the best interest of our nation.
‘Everything should be on the table’ at national cabinet, Ruston says
Put everything on the table at national cabinet today, says shadow health and aged care minister, Anne Ruston.
Speaking to ABC RN Breakfast this morning, Ruston says the government hasn’t provided enough confidence to the public, or come up with a concrete plan.
I think the thing that I would be most critical of the government to date has been that they really haven’t been upfront with Australians about what’s going on and they haven’t provided Australians with the certainty that they have a plan going into the future. So I think everything should be on the table.
Ruston says she’s particularly concerned about the impact the fuel crisis is having on older people.
She says organisations like Meals on Wheels are really struggling to serve regional and rural communities “because of the impact not just of the cost of fuel, but in some instances, their ability for their people to be able to get access to fuel”.
We’re very, very worried that older Australians may well be going without the services they need.
Older people ‘being charged $200 to shower’ under current aged care settings, Pocock claims
David Pocock, the Coalition, Greens and crossbench will push the government today for urgent reforms to the aged care home support program, which the group says is leaving older Australians worse off.
Two-thirds of the Senate signed a letter to Labor to for reforms, including restoring human oversight to aged care assessments, and recategorising showering, dressing and continence as clinical care to stop older Australians paying “excessive costs for basic hygiene”.
Speaking to Sky News, Pocock says that since the government implemented a “no worse off” principle when passing aged care reforms in 2024, older Australians are being price gouged and some are going without essential supports.
I’m hearing stories of people being charged $200 to have a shower, and so older Australians simply aren’t showering, or they’re not getting the help that they need. They were promised that they would be no worse off. That clearly isn’t the case.
We need far more transparency around pricing to try and avoid some of the price gouging that we’re hearing about. A pack of smoothies that you can buy online for $20, older Australians are being charged $120 for. We cannot go down the path of some of the things that we’re seeing in the NDIS. The government needs to get on to this now.
Economy to take a ‘sizeable hit’ but recession not expected, Chalmers says
Staying on his interview with Sky, Jim Chalmers says that the expectation is the economy will avoid a recession.
But the economic picture is looking grim, to say the least, with inflation expected to grow.
Just a fortnight ago the government forecast that inflation could hit 5%, but the treasurer says even those estimates are now looking “conservative”.
That’s our expectation that the economy will continue to grow, but it will take quite a sizeable hit from what’s happening in the Middle East.
It depends how long this war drags out for and then how long it takes to get the show back on the road and the global economy after that … we released some modelling which said that instead of inflation peaking in the high threes, it might be more like the high fours or the low fives. That does look conservative now.
Chalmers softens language on fuel excise cut
The government has very slightly softened its language around a fuel excise cut, as the Coalition and independents all push for more relief at the bowser. The Coalition called for the excise to be cut in half (to 26 cents a litre) last week.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is continuing his traverse through the press gallery, speaking to Sky News, where he’s asked about whether the government is open to the change.
Chalmers says the government is focused on supply, getting fuel to the regions and cost of living relief.
We have a range of contingencies and fall backs that we keep under more or less constant review. And as you know, Pete, our government is always looking for ways, responsible ways to help people with the cost of living, to try and alleviate some of this pressure, which is coming at people in the most recent iteration from a war in the Middle East.
While he didn’t say the government was considering the change, he didn’t flat out reject the suggestion.
It’s a little different to his words justlast week, where he said this on 25 March when asked whether the government would cut the fuel excise:
I think as I said as recently as yesterday, that change is not something that we have been considering.
Fuel rationing not inevitable, says Bowen
Bowen says the government has learned lessons from the Covid pandemic, and won’t be doing 9am press conferences every day “saying what you can and can’t do tomorrow”.
On today’s national cabinet meeting, he says it’s all about coordination, as opposed to the pandemic where he said governments were all “scrambling”.
Melissa Clarke asks Bowen if fuel rationing is “inevitable”, but he says:
No, I don’t think so, Mel – but of course, governments are meeting, including today, on prudent planning.
How will the government’s legislation to underwrite fuel shipments work?
The energy and climate change minister, Chris Bowen, says the government’s legislation will help fuel importing firms “hedge their risk” to continue importing the product into Australia.
Speaking with the ABC’s AM program this morning, Bowen says importers have told him that as the market gets increasingly expensive and more volatile, it’s riskier and more difficult to buy cargo.
Host Melissa Clark asks whether the issue is more that importers can’t borrow enough to make the purchase, and are worried they might not be able to sell it for enough to make up for the cost.
Bowen says it’s a bit of both:
The market’s getting a lot more expensive and a lot more volatile and a lot riskier. And for them, it’s very difficult to buy cargoes, which are maybe $25m or more, more expensive than they were a few weeks ago in such a volatile environment with the price of oil moving around.
Smaller players, independent distributors who do import, they obviously don’t have the same cashflow and balance strength that some of the really big players have. So they just find it impossible in this market to, with confidence, buy very expensive tankers … then you’ve got larger players who say they’re doing it at the moment, but there’ll come a point if the price keeps going up or it gets more volatile where they simply won’t be able to do it.
Bowen says it’s a step “ahead of the curve”, that hasn’t been required yet but says it will be “vital” to have.
Government ‘trying to avoid’ Covid-style mandates, Chalmers says
Working from home “makes a lot of sense” right now, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says, but he says the government won’t be enforcing Covid-style mandates on households.
Ahead of the national cabinet meeting today, Chalmers tells ABC News Breakfast the states and territories and commonwealth will need to work together to avoid “harsher” measures as the crisis deepens.
He says that Australians shouldn’t cancel their Easter weekend road trips but should use fuel responsibly.
The best way to get through this is to get through it together, to work through these issues, in a coordinated and ideally consistent way around the country. And the best way to avoid the kind of harsher Covid style measures is to do that work. And the better we do at the front end of this challenge that we have in our economy, the more likely we are to avoid some of those kind of harsher measures and restrictions down the track.
We’re trying to avoid those kind of a heavier-handed Covid [style] interventions. But work from home in a number of instances makes a lot of sense. The prime minister has indicated more of a willingness to go down the voluntary path than the compulsory path.
Good morning
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji with you here for the final sitting week of the month, and the final sitting week before the budget.
The prime minister will convene the national cabinet again today, the second since the US and Israeli strikes on Iran. And this morning the government will introduce legislation to underwrite fuel supplies into Australia.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has been chosen for the hot seat today – he will be up and about doing the media rounds.
Meanwhile Anthony Albanese faces pressure not only in parliament but from the public, with two polls released this morning showing the prime minister’s faced a minor hit to his popularity, while One Nation’s primary vote is once again beating the Coalition.
I’ve got my coffee, I hope you’ve got yours – let’s get into it!
