Beyond a 'Cold War tussle': Jim Chalmers on Australia's economic future
In an extensive interview with Capital Brief, the Treasurer lays out his vision for an economy that will be markedly different to the past.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has an economic story he’s desperate to tell. But it’s a story that spans decades rather than monthly interest rate movements or even annual budget cycles. And it's a story in which the record budget surplus he's set to deliver is almost an afterthought.
"I've got a certain amount of time ... as Treasurer, and I want to spend as much as I can looking forward and as little as I can looking back," the 45-year old Queenslander says.
Just hours before his interview with Capital Brief in the Sydney parliamentary offices, Chalmers announced a projection for a record $19 billion surplus in 2022-23. But in an illustration of how the politics of economic policy in Australia have evolved since the Howard era and its aftermath, he is far more interested in discussing the energy transition, social wellbeing and institutional renewal than the budget bottom line.
Chalmers envisions a future for Australia where technological innovation, renewable energy and care services for sick, young and elderly people, power economic growth.
