Jim Chalmers

China's Premier Li Keqiang has reportedly said Beijing is willing to push forward bilateral ties with Canberra after China cut off diplomatic and trade ...

"We want all of our economies to benefit from that and we will engage with countries in the region on that basis." Labor appears set to govern with a majority in parliament, but Mr Albanese has already secured the confidence of five crossbenchers. When asked on ABC radio whether China was now out of the "deep freeze", Mr Chalmers said, "We want to work with countries in our region to make sure it is stable and prosperous". "The sound and stable development of the Sino-Australian relationship conforms to the fundamental interests and common aspirations of the two peoples and is also conducive to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region," the Chinese Communist Party-run China Daily newspaper reported Mr Li as saying. The new Albanese government says it wants to work with all countries in the region after Beijing signalled a possible thawing in the frosty relationship between China and Australia. "Most of the survey was conducted before the federal election results were known, so the reaction to the election will be captured in next week's index," Mr Plank said.

Dr Chalmers spent his second official day as federal Treasurer speaking to former Labor treasurers Paul Keating and Wayne Swan, state treasurers, and Treasury ...

He joined the Financial Review in 2008 from Treasury. Connect with John on John Kehoeis Economics editor at Parliament House, Canberra. He writes on economics, politics and business. He confirmed that Labor would request a minimum wage increase from the Fair Work Commission “that keeps up with the cost of living”. The new government would not be “flicking a switch” to immediately deal with the cost of living pressures, Dr Chalmers said. The Treasury and Finance Departments will conduct a “line by line” audit of the budget before Labor’s first budget in October. He said on Tuesday the savings identified pre-election were a “very good start when it comes to trying to improve the quality of the budget” and “we hope to be able to improve the budget further”.

Jim Chalmers joined Virginia Trioli on Mornings in one of his first broadcast interviews since being sworn in as Treasurer.

- 15mins 27secs Jim Chalmers on his priorities and challenges as Treasurer Jim Chalmers on his priorities and challenges as Treasurer In one of his first broadcast interviews since being sworn in as Treasurer, Jim Chalmers spoke to Virginia Trioli about the priorities and challenges of his new job.

Dr Chalmers was sworn in on Monday after Labor secured at least a minority government at Saturday's federal election, and has been receiving briefings from ...

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In 2007, the biggest issue facing then-treasurer Wayne Swan was inflation. Jim Chalmers, working for Swan at the time, now faces the same issue.

He will rely heavily on Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, with the pair committed to a “line-by-line” appraisal of spending. A deficit forecast to be $80 billion this financial year after $220 billion of deficits in the two years before that. What Chalmers does not share with either Keating or Costello is the political certainty those two enjoyed. Fifteen years on, Chalmers is going back to the treasurer’s office as the boss. “I think the international outlook will obviously be a major issue.” His predecessor’s final mid-year budget update had revealed an extra $59 billion in revenue courtesy of the pre-GFC mining boom and a strong economy.

New Treasurer Jim Chalmers intends to deliver an economic update as soon as federal parliament resumes, prior to handing down his first budget in October.

"There is absolutely nothing about our plans which should, or in my view will, change the way the rating agencies look at our budget and economy," he said. "If there are more opportunities that come from our audit of rorts and waste in the budget, obviously we will pursue those as well," he said. "We do have a trillion dollars of debt in the budget, there is substantial weakness across the board in the budget because there has been a lot of wasteful spending over the last decade or so," he said.