BERT VAN MANEN:
I’d like the welcome the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, here to the electorate. Welcome again, Josh, great to have you back. This visit is all about what is happening in local business and the success stories we’re seeing as a result of the Government’s actions since the election to lower taxes, also expand the instant asset write off. But more generally, the confidence we are continuing to deliver to our small business community so they continue to grow, prosper and employ locals. We have a great story to tell and this is all about continuing to sell that story to tell people what we’re doing, and as always, Treasurer, it’s a pleasure to have you here in the electorate and I invite you to make some comments and expand on what we’ve been doing today.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thanks very much, Bert. It’s great to be here in the electorate of Forde and congratulations on the continued good work you do on behalf of your local community as well as keeping all of us Members of the Coalition in shape as the Party Whip as well. Earlier today, Bert and I visited a mechanic business where car mechanics were out there helping the local community and they explained to us that they had used the extended instant asset write off which we announced in this year’s Budget for businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million for assets that they buy for their business up to $30,000 and they can write those assets off instantly. They explained to us how they had bought a hoist for their business and they were putting it to good use. We also talked about the lower taxes that the Government had legislated for small business, as well as other support particularly to encourage apprentices and to make it easier to get the best possible people for the job. We have seen the Australian economy face a number of challenges, not only have we been hit with the extended drought, but also the devastating fires, more recently floods, and of course now, the Coronavirus. The Coronavirus’ impact on the economy will be very significant. We’re already seeing it in the tourism sector, we’re seeing it in relation to international student numbers, but also more broadly across the economy as supply chains are interrupted with many Chinese factories currently being closed. The Australian economy is very resilient. We saw job numbers for the December period, unemployment fell to 5.1 per cent, around 30,000 new jobs were created. We saw retail trade volumes up in the December period and we know that we’ve got the first current account surplus in more than forty years, the lowest welfare dependency in thirty years, the first balanced budget in eleven years and the biggest tax cuts in twenty years. Lower taxes is key to a stronger economy. But I see today that Anthony Albanese, the Leader of the Opposition, is talking about the ageing of the population. But his weasel words will not cover up the fact that Labor plan to whack more than one million Australian retirees with a $57 billion tax. That was his policy just months ago. And around 84 per cent of those retirees, who were going to be slugged with higher taxes from the Labor Party, had taxable incomes under $37,000. That’s the Labor Party’s policy; higher taxes, higher taxes on retirees and higher taxes on superannuation. They were going to slash the catch-up contribution benefits that people with super can also get. So the Labor Party might be talking about the ageing of the population, but what we do know is that their plan was for higher taxes for our seniors across the Australian economy. That’s the elephant in the room for Anthony Albanese to address today - why he planned to take to the Australian people higher taxes on Australian retirees.
QUESTION:
What do you make of Labor’s criticism that you denigrated older Australians by describing them as an economic time bomb?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
That wasn’t in my speech and we’ve also seen today a senior member of the press gallery tweet that out as a fact. The reality is it was Wayne Swan as the Treasurer who talked about the ‘demographic time bomb.’ So Anthony Albanese, people in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing stones. I think he should apologise to both Wayne Swan and I because Anthony Albanese has kicked an own goal there.
QUESTION:
Can you guarantee the Government will maintain legislated superannuation increases up to 12 per cent?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We said we haven’t any plans to change those legislated increases.
QUESTION:
Treasurer, will the luxury car tax be scrapped anytime soon now that we don’t have cars being made here anymore?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we are always the Party of lower taxes. We’ve got a proven track record which showed that we took to the Australian people cuts to their income tax and we legislated that. I talked about the Instant Asset Write Off and the cuts for small business tax. At the same time, Labor was promising $387 billion of higher taxes at the last election. We’re always looking for opportunities to cut taxes. When it comes to the luxury car tax, we have no plans to remove that. But I would never say never in relation to that. We’ve always got to maintain a strong budgetary position and we’ve always got to look for opportunities to cut taxes but we have no plans to change that.
QUESTION:
How can you justify not making plans immediately to get rid of that?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we have a series of taxes we’d like to remove, but the reality is, we’re committed to keeping the nation’s balance sheet strong. And we’re also committed to lowering taxes and that obviously, the luxury car tax has been in place long before the decision from Holden earlier this week.
QUESTION:
You mentioned coronavirus before, you know, with the retailers, the economy really suffering, will the Government be injecting money into tourism…
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Sorry it’s a bit bright here…
QUESTION:
How’s the eye? Is it ok? Will the Government be injecting money to tourism to help people that are suffering from the coronavirus outbreak?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well as you know we made a $76 million announcement in relation to a tourism support package. That was in the wake of the fires but that money is going both to domestic campaigns as well as to our international efforts so no doubt that $76 million will help those tourism businesses who have been affected by the reduction in numbers of tourists from China. We continue to maintain a watching brief.
QUESTION:
On the Gold Coast, we’re hearing a lot of State Government, Federal Government putting money into trams, a bit of a bickering there, is the Federal Government likely to put more money to our tram project anytime soon?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well our focus has been about busting congestion in the cities and that enables people to get to work sooner, but also to get home sooner as well, as well to get home safer. So that’s been our focus and we’ve announced billions of dollars of spending in relation to that. That’s not focused particularly on that tram project, what that has been is a whole series of projects throughout the country.
QUESTION:
At this point do you expect to deliver a surplus or not?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well what I’ve said before is our first priority is delivering the support to the communities in need and as Bert and I both know, Australians right around the country, including here in Queensland, my own state of Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia have been devastated by the fires and we announced a $2 billion Bushfire Recovery Fund without increasing taxes, that’s the benefit of having a strong economy. So in relation to the Budget, the numbers are updated twice a year, at the Mid-Year Economic Fiscal Outlook but also at Budget time. You’ll have to turn onto the TV on Budget night to see the outcome of all of that. But what I do know is that our economy is resilient in the face of these challenges and could you imagine trying to respond to the coronavirus, the fires, the floods, the trade tensions between China and the United States, all those economic impacts caused by those challenges if you’re trying to wack $387 billion of higher taxes on the economy, which was Labor’s policy less than a year ago.
QUESTION:
Will the length of the coronavirus travel ban determined whether or not you deliver a surplus?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well obviously travel restrictions are having an impact on the economy. But again our first priority is to ensure that the Australian people are protected from the spread of the virus and as you know we put those travel restrictions in place as a precautionary measure and we’ve done so on the best advice of our medical experts. Thank you very much.