Economy will be focus of Labor strategy

Jim Chalmers has moved to end Bill Shorten’s class-war economic pitch, calling for a new strategy to drive growth and jobs.

Jim Chalmers wants to pitch Labor as the ‘party of growth’. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Jim Chalmers has moved to end Bill Shorten’s class-war economic pitch, calling for a new strategy to drive growth and jobs in regional and suburban areas and working with big business to boost the economy.

The opposition Treasury spokesman will position Labor as the true party of economic growth and promote a strategy “that brings everyone along and leaves nobody behind”.

With senior Labor MPs conceding its traditional base abandoned the party at the May 18 election over anxieties towards Mr Shorten’s big-taxing, big-spending agenda, Dr Chalmers will deliver a speech in Melbourne on Monday night trying to spark a new ALP economic narrative.

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The reset speech comes after Anthony Albanese on Sunday confirmed he had “raised concerns” about a disconnect ­between ALP election headquarters and feedback from candidates, confirming he wasn’t aware that Labor failed to set up a campaign committee.

Mr Albanese also outlined his vision for an economy that “works for people, not the other way around”.

Following his leader’s pledge last week to reclaim Labor’s base through fewer and more targeted policies ahead of the 2022 election, Dr Chalmers will say Labor is the “party of growth”. “Because so much of what Labor seeks to achieve for Australia, from creating good jobs in the regions to extending new opportunities to our suburbs, comes back to that,” Dr Chalmers will say.

“I reject and rebut the false choice between growth that is strong and growth that is fair … we champion growth and redistribution, not growth or redistribution.”

The ALP election review, headed by Craig Emerson and Jay Weatherill and released last week, found that “Labor did not craft and convey a persuasive jobs and economic growth story that augmented its mission to reduce inequality”.

Bill Shorten.

One of the key review recommendations was for Labor to “position itself as a party of economic growth and reform, job creation and rising living standards, drawing upon and expanding on its past economic reforms”.

It said Labor needed to adopt the “language of inclusion, recognising the contribution of small and large businesses to economic prosperity and abandon derogatory references to the big end of town”.

Ahead of Mr Albanese delivering a “vision statement” on the economy in Brisbane on November 22, Dr Chalmers said he had spoken with more than 100 businesses and industry associations individually and in roundtables to “discuss our ideas, and get their views”.

He will say talks with business leaders had informed his view that “any meaningful growth strategy” must include taking immediate action to boost demand, responding to drags on productivity, ­anticipating forces pressuring the economy and “approaching the task of reform with a mindset of genuine partnership and co-operation”.

The leading Queensland Right faction powerbroker will outline “sensible, no-regrets proposals that would boost demand now without jeopardising the surplus”. These include “bringing forward infrastructure investment, particularly small-scale, labour-intensive upgrades, where wages are more likely to be spent locally”.

“Bringing forward parts of the tax cuts for middle-income earners, and responsibly reviewing and increasing Newstart. A comprehensive plan to boost wages, starting with restoring penalty rates for workers most likely to spend that money,’’ he says.

“And a new investment allowance, like Labor’s previous proposal, to boost business invest­ment in Australia. We think some combination of these can be done while getting the budget back to surplus.”

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese speaks at the National Press Club in Canberra on Friday.

Dr Chalmers will say a new long-term inclusive growth strategy should support the creation of “good well-paid jobs”, providing a pathway to “full employment and lifting living standards”.

“Doing nothing means eroding the health of our economy, degrading our living standards.

Doing nothing makes us weaker, more vulnerable to a crisis.”

Dr Chalmers, who worked for former treasurer Wayne Swan during the global financial crisis, will declare 28 years of consecutive growth a “great national achievement but we need to focus on the next 28”.

He will describe the national economy as “running on fumes”, citing economic data telling the “same distressing story”.

“Growth is too weak, too uncertain, and too narrow. It’s neither trickling down to the people nor out to the suburbs.”