Treasurer Jim Chalmers has told ABC's Q+A he does not believe Australia is headed for its a recession, despite a worsening global economic outlook.
The Treasurer appeared opposite host Stan Grant as the only guest on Thursday night and was questioned about the lack of help the budget offered to Australians struggling with the soaring cost of living as inflation and interest rates rise.
However, when asked by audience member Anam Khan if Australia was headed back to the dark days of the 1990s, Mr Chalmers played down the risk of a recession.
"It's certainly not the Treasury's expectation in their forecasts that we will go that way," Mr Chalmers said.
"Europe will and the UK will. Other countries are at risk as well. And we won't be completely immune from that.
"When the global economy turns down, substantially, as it did almost 15 years ago, as it did a couple of years ago, we can't completely escape the consequences of that but … I don't expect us to go into recession."
Those comments are in line with what Reserve Bank of Australia officials said in September, however, Mr Chalmers was challenged by Grant that he did not really know if the nation would avoid a recession.
Mr Chalmers repeated his claim that it was unlikely but said that, if Australia did not get inflation under control, then a recession could be more likely, while also warning painful times were still ahead.
"Our economy will slow quite substantially next year as a consequence of the global downturn, the impact of higher interest rates, and some other issues as well," he said.
"Over the next six, 12 or 18 months, we are in for some very tricky terrain from a global point of view. And we will feel the impact here."
Energy regulation by Christmas
Some of that pain was indicated by the RBA on Tuesday as interest rates rose another 0.25 percentage points and a warning came that inflation would hit 8 per cent by the end of the year, before gradually falling back to a little above 3 per cent in 2024.
While interest rates are rising rapidly, so too is the cost of energy, and audience members demanded to know whether the government had formulated a plan to tackle the issue, after the budget failed to do so in a meaningful way.
One audience member said they had just paid a $1,600 energy bill and, when asked if it would get worse, Mr Chalmers said yes before citing Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a reason.
It was put to him by Grant that, that as an answer, was not good enough, which led to Mr Chalmers saying a plan was being formulated and would arrive by Christmas.
"That's my intention," Mr Chalmers said on the Christmas timeline.
"There are three paths: The first is something in the tax area, the second path is around subsidies … whether that be to people or to companies, and thirdly, whether there's some kind of change in regulation that can bring the price down.
"Our preference is to do something with regulation.
"The work that I was doing even up to coming on the show, is to see, with other ministers … and the prime minister, whether there's some kind of intervention that we can make to keep these prices down.
"That's our preference, but we don't want to rule out subsidies or tax."
Mr Chalmers also said that the government was considering price caps in the energy market before being asked if Labor would still honour their election promise of a $275 reduction in power prices.
He again turned to the war in Ukraine as a reason things have become more expensive and said the 2021 modelling that promise was based on was for a short war in Europe.
Republic on the government agenda
While the bulk of the episode focused on financial issues, the treasurer put the issue of Australia becoming a republic back on the agenda, when asked about it.
With Queen Elizabeth II having died and King Charles III the new monarch, he said the republican issue was back on the agenda and that the government would push for it after a Voice to Parliament referendum had been settled.
"The first thing that we need to do is a Voice to Parliament," Mr Chalmers said.
"When we achieve that, together, then we need to move on to a republic.
"I cannot believe that a country like us, in this day and age, couldn't see itself with one of our own as our head of state.
"I think that's so important. It's one of the reasons why I'm here in the first place — but first, the Voice to Parliament."
