Chalmers issues stirring defence of new budget strategy in 'churn and change' economy
The federal Treasurer is set to deliver a full-throated defence of the government's controversial industry policy and hit back at 'nostalgist' critics of the approach.
The changing global economy has left the Albanese government with no reasonable alternative but to introduce the Future Made in Australia Act. That’s the message Treasurer Jim Chalmers is set to deliver on Wednesday as he outlines the necessity of a new approach to industry policy that includes backing of high-tech high-growth sectors to take advantage of “churn and change” across the world.
“Australia can be a primary beneficiary of a changing and churning global economy just like we were primary beneficiaries of the calm that preceded it,” Chalmers will say in an address at the Lowy Institute.
“But only if we make ourselves indispensable to the net zero transformation, only if we align our economic and security interests more tightly, and only if we invest and engage, not just protect or retreat.”
The speech is his most detailed and full-throated defence yet of the government's new industry policy, tying it firmly to both national and economic security ambitions. His view is that the international economy since the global economic crisis has entered a “new phase” where long-term issues are more discernible.
