Jim Chalmers sidestepping his failures, says Peter Dutton

Peter Dutton says Jim Chalmers wants to talk about ‘everything but his failure in the economy’, after the Treasurer labelled the Opposition Leader destructive, divisive and dangerous.

Jim Chalmers in Melbourne on Monday. Picture: Nadir Kinani

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Peter Dutton says Jim Chalmers wants to talk about “everything but his failure in the economy”, after the Treasurer labelled the Opposition Leader destructive, divisive and dangerous.

After Dr Chalmers delivered a scathing character assessment of the Liberal leader in a speech on Monday night, Mr Dutton said Labor was not focused on the cost-of-living issues facing Australians.

Mr Dutton claimed the highly political speech was a sign Dr Chalmers was aiming to replace Anthony Albanese as prime minister. “If Australians were doing it so well, and if the economy was running as great as Jim Chalmers claims it is, why’s he dedicating his speech to me?” Mr Dutton said.

“It seems – when you have a look at the Labor Party at the moment – you’ve got Tony Burke saying look at me, you’ve got Bill Shorten saying look at me, you’ve now got Jim Chalmers saying look at me, which is exactly what we saw in the Rudd-Gillard years.”

On Tuesday Mr Albanese fell short of backing Dr Chalmers’ claim that Mr Dutton was the “most divisive ­leader of a major party in Australia’s modern history”. But the Prime Minister accused Mr Dutton of promoting “division his entire political career”. “He always looks for what will divide Australians rather than what will bring Australians together,” Mr Albanese said.

“Peter Dutton just constantly is looking for the negative. And you can’t run an economy, you can’t actually take Australia forward by just being someone who’s opposed to everything and is constantly negative and relying upon fear campaigns.”

The personal gibes come after a torrid fortnight in parliament, where Mr Dutton hammered Labor over its national security credentials and demanded a blanket ban on arrivals from Gaza.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor said Dr Chalmers should be focused on fighting inflation rather than the Liberal leader.

“Of course, when someone starts playing the man and not the ball, it tells you that they’ve got it wrong, and that’s all they’ve got left to focus on,” Mr Taylor said.

In unscripted comments on Monday evening, Dr Chalmers revealed that Treasury was undertaking modelling to determine how the Australian economy would be affected should Donald Trump win the US presidency again in November.

“There are economic considerations and, like every country, we have done a heap of scenario planning, and we are doing a heap of scenario planning,” Dr Chalmers said, according to audio obtained by The Australian.

With economists warning Australia stands to be one of the biggest losers if Mr Trump reignites a trade war with China, Dr Chalmers said Treasury had investigated the former president’s plans to radically overhaul US trade policy.

“Trump has a policy for tariffs across the board, big tariffs across the board, and we’ve obviously had a good look at that from a Treasury point of view, what the costs and consequences would be for Australia if that policy was implemented,” Dr Chalmers said.

Mr Trump’s presidential platform includes a commitment to introduce a “universal baseline tariff” of 10 per cent on all “foreign-made goods”, a move designed to punish foreign markets and protect US industry.

Threatening to inflame tensions with Beijing, Mr Trump also has vowed to go further against China by slapping all imports with a minimum 60 per cent tariff while pledging to block imports of Chinese electric vehicles.

Plans advanced by Mr Trump to yank the US out of the Paris climate accord for a second time also had been scrutinised for its impact on Australia’s emission reduction efforts, Dr Chalmers said.

Even so, he said Australia-US bilateral ties would stand irrespective of who won the race to the White House. “The relationship between us and the US is obviously bigger than the two people that happen to be leading the two countries at any point,” he said.