• Analysis
Murray Watt backs Jim Chalmers and urges Labor to stop undermining the treasurer
Environment minister Murray Watt has publicly defended treasurer Jim Chalmers, urging Labor colleagues to end internal undermining as the party's primary vote falls in new polls.
Watt: end the undermining
Environment minister Murray Watt has appealed to Labor ministers to stop undermining treasurer Jim Chalmers, as the government struggles to sell its budget and weighs cuts to clean energy subsidies to fight inflation.
Asked whether he would like an end to undermining and leaking against Chalmers, Watt gave a direct answer: "Yes, I would."
"It's pretty obvious that there are all sorts of people making all sorts of comments."
That was Watt's acknowledgement that Chalmers is being undermined from within Labor's own ranks.
'An excellent job in very difficult times'
Watt paired his call for unity with a defence of the treasurer's record. "I think that Jim Chalmers is doing an excellent job as a treasurer in what are very difficult economic times," Watt said, adding that many forces bearing on the economy are well outside any treasurer's control and that he very much supports Chalmers's efforts.
Polls show Labor's vote sliding
The intervention comes with fresh polling showing the government's vote under strain.
- •The Resolve Political Monitor, published in the Age and Sydney Morning Herald, put Labor's primary vote at 28 percentage points, down from 34.6% at last year's election.
- •In the same poll, the Coalition dropped one point to 22%, while One Nation was steady at 25%.
- •A Redbridge poll in the Financial Review had Labor's primary vote slipping two points to 26%, with the Coalition jumping four points to 25% and One Nation down one to 28%.
Savings review looms
Cabinet ministers met on Monday to discuss potential budget savings for the mid-year update due next month, intended to reduce spending and ease pressure on the economy. The expenditure review committee meeting followed last week's Reserve Bank interest rate hike, after which RBA governor Michele Bullock said governments manage budgets independently of the central bank but that public and private spending had caused "excess demand" in the economy.
Watt pointed the finger at the opposition, saying the Coalition is blocking the government from saving $10 billion in measures before parliament, including savings from changes to the private health insurance rebate for over-65s.
Two clean energy spending lines are in the frame for cuts: the $7bn home battery subsidy program and the incentives attached to buying electric vehicles. The battery scheme dates from April 2025 with an original price tag near $2bn, but installations have since passed 600,000 and means testing rules may now be introduced. The electric vehicle subsidies, meanwhile, have cost the budget far more than first expected. Angus Taylor announced an opposition "red tape razor gang" on Monday, designed to reduce the regulatory burden on business.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that public service spending will be scrutinised as the government hunts savings in the budget update, expected in the middle of December.
