JAMES STEVENS:
It’s a great pleasure to welcome Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, today here in Adelaide, in the heart of my electorate of Sturt, at this great family business, La Casa Del Formaggio, Claude Cicchiello, the owner, second generation business. We’ve been here talking with Claude about the Budget last week and the benefits for businesses like his to keep employing Australians, gto row, invest and, of course, even open up more opportunity into the future. One of the major things, of course, is the instant asset write off extension, that puts Claude and his business in a position to make significant investment decisions that he might not otherwise have made thanks to this great initiative. I also would like to thank the Treasurer for some of the other significant contributions in my electorate of Sturt, we’re very close to the Magill Portrush intersection, the $98 million upgrade of that intersection which is part of our record $110 billion investment in infrastructure in this country right across the nation. These projects are going to be great for families and businesses, but of course, they’re great for creating jobs here in South Australia. We’ve had a jobs Budget, we’re here at a great, iconic South Australian business that employs so many South Australians and contributes greatly to our economy. With that, I’d like to welcome Claude Cicchiello and let him just say a few words about what is happening at La Casa Del Formaggio before handing to the Treasurer. Of course, I think my colleagues Senator Andrew McLachlan who is joining us this morning, as well.
CLAUDE CICCHIELLO:
Thanks James and welcome everybody. As James said, this is La Casa Del Formaggio, we’re a family owned and operated business, operating for just over 33 years now. Mum and dad started this business and today we employ just over 160 people. Certainly, the recent Budget, with the instant asset write off, gives our business confidence to continue to invest. We’ve got some solid plans to invest in this business, to open a new facility, make us more globally competitive, and hopefully drive some export sales through our business, and certainly continue to grow for the future. The most recent Budget, the instant asset write off has assisted our business. Thank you, Treasurer, for coming out to our business.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thanks Claude and thanks for the invitation, but also the taste test. I have to tell you, the food is first class. So I really appreciate you having us here. To my colleagues, James and Andrew, thanks for having us. James, you’re doing a great job on behalf of the people of Sturt. Thank you very much. It’s great to be here back in South Australia to see the economy is strengthening under the Marshall Government, to know that employment hit 8.8 per cent last June, is now down to 6.3 per cent and is coming down ever further. There are a number of initiatives in Tuesday’s Budget to support the people of South Australia, including low-and-middle-income tax offsets to support more than 700,000 South Australians with tax a cut. Like the initiatives around immediate expensing that Claude talked about. More than 250,000 businesses here in South Australia are eligible to use that immediate expensing. Like the HomeBuilder program, and recently, when I was last in South Australia, I visited businesses that were benefiting from our HomeBuilder program with more than 12,000 homes being built or substantial upgrades under that program here in South Australia. Of course, the infrastructure pipeline, we have a national, $110 billion ten-year infrastructure pipeline. In the Budget, there was more than $3 billion of extra funding for South Australia, including the North-South Corridor. But we’re here today to talk about the initiatives around immediate expensing, because Claude explained what a great success story this family business is. To think that 33 years ago, it started with just his mum and his dad and him, and now they’re employing more than 160 Australians. Importantly, they’ve got plans for further growth and expansion. That will see more people employed, more machinery and equipment being bought and a bigger premises, and obviously, more of their great products being sold around Australia. Claude was telling us earlier that before COVID, they were thinking ‘should they or shouldn’t they expand their business,’ then COVID hit and they thought they definitely shouldn’t be expanding their business. But now that we are recovering strongly (inaudible) and we have put in place other additional incentives, they’re going to take the next step forward and are going to expand their business and invest in more machinery and equipment, and use that immediate expensing provision that we’ve put in the Budget. The Budget, as James rightly said, was our economic plan to create more jobs across the economy. We have seen around 500,000 jobs being created since last year’s Budget in October alone. The unemployment rate nationally has come down to 5.6 per cent. We want to drive it even lower to where it was pre-pandemic and even lower still. We have a historic opportunity to drive that unemployment rate even below 5 per cent. The investments in his Budget, whether it’s tax relief for hard-working Australian families, whether it’s immediate expensing or the expanded instant asset write off for businesses, whether it’s the record investment in infrastructure or, of course, our skills program supporting apprentices right around the country. As well as the JobTrainer program, it is all designed to create more jobs. When you repair the economy, you get more people into work and you also repair the budget. It was also a pleasure this morning to go and address the Business Council of SA event at the Town Hall to take lots of questions from the businesses there about how the Budget will be benefiting them - we want to see more jobs in South Australia. That’s what is happening and our Budget will help keep that strong economic momentum continuing.
QUESTION:
Treasurer, with assumption in the Budget about borders reopening. Is there any wriggle room to go earlier and (inaudible) some important business groups and some of your own colleagues to open the borders sooner?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, in the Budget there was an assumption that the borders would gradually re-open in the middle of the middle of next year. But I want to point out that that’s not a policy decision, it’s an assumption. What we have said, the Prime Minister and I yesterday, is when it comes to international students, we will look favourably upon state proposals, including from South Australia, where they have the support of their Chief Medical Officer, have their support of their universities, to bring in cohorts of international students over and above their existing cap, we will look favourably on that. What we will do, is continue to take the medical advice. When the Prime Minister closed our international borders last year, to China and then more broadly, there were criticisms from some corners, but it turned out to be the right decision, because it kept Australians safe. Now some people say that Australia got lucky, because we are an island so we didn’t have the virus like other countries. It wasn’t luck that saw Australia successfully suppress the virus. Australians make their own luck. It was an early, and substantial, and important decision to close our borders. The United Kingdom is an island and yet they saw the virus run rampant because they didn’t close their borders like Australia. When it comes to international borders, we will continue to take the medical advice.
QUESTION:
There’s been a number of remarks about the pace of the recovery (inaudible) earlier, that it’s five times the rate of the previous 1990 recession. The NSW Treasurer would like to see a vaccine target to give business confidence. Do you think that’s a reasonable proposition that would accelerate further the recovery?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We will continue to roll out the recovery of the vaccine as quickly as possible to as many people as possible and importantly, the vaccine rollout is gathering pace. More than 3 million vaccine doses have been distributed already. More than 10 per cent of the population, more than 30 per cent of those Australians over the age of 70, and we know we’ve got more than 5000 contact points around the country. Whether it’s GPs, or whether it’s state and territory medical clinics that they’re establishing. So we will continue to roll out the vaccine. What’s really important for our economic recovery is that when there are outbreaks of new cases, that the responses are proportionate and that we successfully contain those outbreaks with testing and with tracing, and that is really really important going forward, that the state premiers respond proportionately to new outbreaks.
QUESTION:
Is part of the reason the Government wants to keep borders closed is because our vaccine rollout is slower than other countries?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The reason why the borders remain closed is because the virus continues to be a major threat. We have seen over 800,000 new cases a day. We’ve seen new variants of the virus. We’ve seen terrible imagery of India. We know that Europe has gone into a double-dip recession, and we know that here in Australia, we’ve seen outbreaks of new cases less than 20 over recent weeks lead to a state-wide lockdown. It’s really important that we continue to take the medical advice. Yes, we will roll out the vaccine as quickly as possible, but when it comes to the international borders, they remain closed as a result of our medical advice and the threat that the virus continues to have.
QUESTION:
(inaudible)
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well he’s absolutely right that Australia should not, has not and will not pursue an eradication strategy. You cannot eliminate the virus. What you can do, is successfully suppress the virus when outbreaks do occur. And the best in class has been New South Wales because they haven’t had a state-wide lockdown, even though they’ve had outbreaks of the cases like the Northern Beaches. So our ability here as a nation in South Australia, as well as in other states, to contain the virus when there are outbreaks is going to be the key. It’s not elimination, it’s suppression.
QUESTION:
Treasurer with the deal on refineries, and keeping them in Australia, I don’t know if you know this but retail fuel in Adelaide is $1.70. Can you foresee any relief at the retail level with this deal?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
This is about fuel security and the Prime Minister will be standing up shortly and speaking about this particular announcement with the production payments, support for infrastructure. But we want Australia to maintain a sovereign capability around fuel refining and that’s what’s behind that particular measure. One thing that we have learnt, and we’ve learnt many things through this crisis, but one thing that has been reinforced through this crisis, is the importance to have a sovereign capability in certain areas. Our fuel security is one of those areas. We’re obviously a country that produces a lot of food for 75 million people for a population of around 25 million people. So we have got food security, we need to maintain our fuel security. We’re obviously heavily investing in the medical space to ensure that we have a domestic capability around some particular programs and some particular products. We’ve seen how well served we’ve been by having a vaccine manufacturer here in Australia. Something other countries do not. Critical minerals is another area where it’s important to maintain some control over the supply chain.
QUESTION:
There’s an ABC report that the day of the Open in Melbourne could be an issue for borders reopening and could see it ship to the Emirates as an event. How does that proposition strike you? It would be a loss wouldn’t it?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well I think somebody is getting ahead of themselves there. What I can tell you is that Australia has been home to one of the four Grand Slams, and Australia will continue to be home to one of the four Grand Slams. It’s a great Australian tradition, the Australian Open. They did very well in very difficult circumstances. My only hope is that an Australian wins our own Grand Slam sometime soon. Go Ash Barty.
QUESTION:
As the vaccine rolls out, is there a case of where Australians, once they’re vaccinated, to have a bit of freedom of movement about when they travel and be able to quarantine at home, given they’re properly vaccinated?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Again that’s going to be based on the medical advice at the time. Our goal is to roll out the vaccine as quickly as possible to as many people as possible. That’s what we’ve been striving to do. The vaccine rollout has been gaining pace and will continue to do over the weeks to come. Thank you.