Labor’s Jim Chalmers backs Jacinda Ardern’s ‘wellbeing budget’ plan

Jim Chalmers has declared Australia should consider adopting a version of Jacinda Ardern’s ‘wellbeing budget’.

Opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers. Picture: AAP

Jim Chalmers has declared Australia should consider adopting a version of Jacinda Ardern’s “wellbeing budget” and flagged a rethink of how economic output is calculated, advocating a more creative approach considering social and environmental factors.

In a speech on Wednesday night, the opposition Treasury spokesman championed Ms Ardern’s budget process, which he said “redefines what success means in terms of economic outcomes”.

Dr Chalmers, who worked under former treasurer Wayne Swan, also highlighted the “shortcomings” of GDP measures, which he said were amplified during the bushfire crisis.

Speaking at an event held by The Australia Institute, Dr Chalmers said the Ardern government was reporting against specific measures under four headings — “financial and physical capital, human capital, natural capital and social capital”.

The right-wing powerbroker will speak at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event in Townsville on Thursday as part of Labor’s pitch to win back voters lost at last year’s election. “(It is) all geared towards meeting goals like improving mental health, reducing child poverty, addressing the inequalities faced by indigenous people, thriving in a digital age, and transitioning to a low-emission economy,” Dr Chalmers said.

“This has quite significantly reshaped the conversation in New Zealand about the budget and the economy.”

Signalling economic reforms Labor would pursue ahead of Anthony Albanese finalising policies before the next election, Dr Chalmers praised his predecessor, Chris Bowen, for taking a “terrific policy” to last year’s election. He said the policy advocated for an evaluator-general to help “revitalise the Tax Expenditures Statement” and better understand the “cost of tax loopholes to the budget over time”. “We also need to better evaluate which policies work over time and which don’t,” he said.

Dr Chalmers called for a shift away from a plan put forward by Bill Shorten ahead of the last election, which would have stripped responsibilities from Treasury and handed them to the Parliamentary Budget Office. “I think there might be a better opportunity instead, to actually bolster the role of Treasury by bringing together the ideas I’ve just floated and giving them a permanent home there.”

On GDP, Dr Chalmers said it was difficult to properly quantify. “GDP doesn’t measure the destruction of wealth and wellbeing from disasters, only the loss of ­income, production or spending … and the positive impact of the ­rebuild,” he said.

He said GDP wasn’t “useless” but he wanted to investigate how to “supplement it … It does still provide a powerful insight into the current state of the economy, and is useful for historical comparisons. It helps measure the gap between the current government’s rhetoric and the reality of their economic mismanagement. But growth has slowed since the last budget, since the last election, and it’s almost halved since (Scott) Morrison and (Josh) Frydenberg took over. GDP matters, and not for a moment do I think we should ditch it … traditional measures have a place, but don’t paint the whole picture.”

The Treasurer responded by saying Dr Chalmers’ speech was a “thought bubble”. His “idea of ‘wellbeing’ was to co-design $387bn of higher taxes for retirees, small business owners and people who want to save and invest”, he said.

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said Labor had “given up on pursuing policies that grow the economy and create jobs”.

In his Townsville speech, Dr Chalmers will say Labor managed to win only six out of 30 seats in Queensland.

“In the last 50 years, federal Labor has never formed majority government without holding at least one-third of the seats in Queensland. By this measure, we need to win at least another four seats in Queensland at the 2022 election,” he will say.

“Labor has only once managed to win government from opposition with less than 44 per cent of seats in Queensland, and that was 91 years ago.”

Treasurer ridicules Labor plan

Josh Frydenberg on Thursday labelled Labor’s ideas “laughable”.

“Labor hasn’t delivered a surplus since 1989 so it should surprise no one that they’re going to look around for some other way to measure economic output,” he told Sky News..

“They’ll be looking for any alternative than proper accounting, that has seen the Australian government, the Coalition government, deliver the first balanced budget in 11 years.

“This is another thought bubble from Labor, this is Labor doublespeak for higher taxes and more debt.”