Ben Fordham fires up over Chalmers’ $275 power bills stumble

2GB Ben Fordham has savaged the Treasurer for bungling a question about Labor’s power bill promise.

Ben Fordham has savaged Jim Chalmers after he mistakenly claimed a promised $275 drop in electricity bills had been included in the government’s first federal budget.

The 2GB radio host said the Treasurer was “taking political spin to new heights” after the gaffe.

“Jim Chalmers must think we’re either gullible or just plain stupid. I’m not sure which one it is,” Fordham said on Thursday.

Fordham replayed a recording from the National Press Club on Wednesday of Mr Chalmers being asked if he stood by the pledge to slash bills by $275 a year by 2025, despite the budget’s alarming energy forecasts.

Asked to give a one-word answer to whether Australians could still expect the saving on pre-election electricity prices, Mr Chalmers said: “Yep, it’s in the budget.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers corrected his mistake in parliament. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr Chalmers corrected himself about an hour later, telling the House of Representatives he had “misheard” and thought he was answering a “different” question.

But Fordham wasn’t convinced.

“What question do you think that you were answering, Jim?” he said.

“He wasn’t standing on the side of a motorway or under the flight path at Sydney airport or at a Led Zeppelin concert – the room was silent at the National Press Club.

“Jim Chalmers is a pretty smart bloke. But if he thinks we’re going to fall for that excuse, well, he is suffering from a severe dose of stupidity.

Ben Fordham criticised Mr Chalmers for saying he misheard the question. Picture: John Feder / The Australian

Mr Chalmers told parliament on Wednesday he rang the journalist who had asked him the question – the Nine Network’s new political editor, Charles Croucher – right after the press club event to “fess up” to the mistake.

“I was temporarily blinded by the vast influence of Charles Croucher, who has inherited this remarkable position of power from Laurie Oakes and Chris Uhlmann,” he joked, referring to Croucher’s predecessors in the Nine role.

The budget papers say energy prices will rise sharply, with power bills set to jump 20 per cent by the end of the year and by a further 30 per cent in 2023-24.

Gas prices are also forecast to increase by 44 per cent in the next 18 months.