SHARN COOMBES:
Good morning. It’s great to welcome the Treasurer, the Honourable Josh Frydenberg to Palamara Village Fruits in Mount Eliza, my home turf, and to be here with Steve today who runs this great family business. Thanks for having us and thanks for coming today, Treasurer.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thank you. Steve.
STEVE PALAMARA:
Hi.
SHARN COOMBES:
Would you like to tell us a little bit about the business?
STEVE PALAMARA:
Yes, we’ve been here 29 years. Family business, started from mum and dad and myself to quite a few siblings through and now myself and my kids. A great team of 42. We’ve been – you know, have done our bit through the COVID crisis and we’re surviving.
SHARN COOMBES:
And how did you find the community here and through COVID how did you kind of pivot and operate during the lockdowns?
STEVE PALAMARA:
So, through the lockdowns, we had reduced hours. People were changing their buying habits. We established an online store. We got our kitchen going, doing a lot more home‑cooked meals for people, delivered as much as we could. Our wholesale customers, unfortunately, weren’t trading, so we kept our guys busy through home deliveries and just trying to help the community.
SHARN COOMBES:
You kept the smoothie bar open, which was great. I bribed my kids during home learning. I said, “If you do a good job, we’ll walk down and get a smoothie from Palamara.” So, that was fantastic. So, thank you, Steve.
STEVE PALAMARA:
You’re welcome.
SHARN COOMBES:
Josh, thanks for coming.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thank you. Well, firstly, Steve, thank you very much for having Sharn and I here today. It’s great to be at your business to hear a bit about how JobKeeper kept your workers in work during a very difficult time, and also to hear how the instant asset write‑off was used by your business to go and build a new kitchen in the deli, and is now serving customers. To know that this small business is employing more than 40 Australians is just wonderful. It is a real tribute to not only your entrepreneurship, but your commitment to the local area to see such fine products and to see that the shelves are full with great produce. Thank you very much for having us here. It’s really appreciated.
STEVE PALAMARA:
You’re welcome.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Sharn, it’s lovely to join you here. Sharn Coombes is the Liberal Party’s candidate for the seat of Dunkley. She’s a local—lives just up the road; someone who’s a survivor in more ways than one, having been a runner‑up on a couple of times on that famous TV show, but also being a lawyer of note and a barrister and someone with longstanding connections to her local community and the many charities she supports. Thank you, Sharn, for the invitation and thank you, Steve, for your hospitality. Today we’re talking about jobs – jobs, jobs and more jobs. We’re in a business which is going through some challenging times, indeed like so many other businesses over the course of the last two years. Steve was telling us that a number of his staff have had to take time off as a result of the Omicron variant and he’s had to make accommodations and to respond and adapt as a result, but he is, and the staff are now back at work and the shelves are full. Yesterday, we saw the unemployment rate come down to 4.2 per cent from 4.6 per cent. This is the lowest unemployment rate in more than 13 years, and despite the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression, more jobs are being created. There are more people in work in Australia today than before the pandemic; 1.7 million additional people are now in work in Australia since the Coalition came to Government and, importantly, one million of those workers are women. And we saw in the month of December that 65,000 jobs were created. Two‑thirds of those jobs were full‑time jobs and more than half those 65,000 jobs were young people aged 15 to 24. Youth unemployment has been coming down. Underemployment has been coming down. Unemployment has been coming down. More women are in work since compared to when the Labor Party was last in office. And let’s not forget that the Labor Party and the Shadow Treasurer specifically said the single biggest test for the Morrison Government’s management of this pandemic is what happens to the unemployment rate and today the unemployment rate is 4.2 per cent compared to the 5.7 per cent when Labor last left office. There are challenges for our economy. We are still in the middle of a pandemic. Some businesses and families are doing it tough, but our economic support continues to be rolled out across the country. The vaccination rates continue to rise. The booster shots continue to be administered. Young kids, 5 to 11 are getting the vaccine and together we’ll come through it just as we have done over the last two years. Are there any questions?
JOURNALIST:
Those latest employment statistics reflect up until December. How much is that just a temporary high until the new stats reflect the current supply crisis?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, there’s definitely pressure on our supply chains and definitely the Omicron variant has impacted on consumer confidence and also spending, but we are actually seeing from the banks real‑time data, and the Commonwealth Bank has said they’ve seen consumer spending come down by just three per cent in the early weeks of the year. Westpac has said that consumer sentiment remains in positive territory, and the National Australia Bank has said that the impact on the economy has not been as great as either was feared or has been reported, with spending above the pre‑pandemic levels. It’s definitely a challenging time. No‑one – no‑one – is saying that it’s not. But our economy is remarkably resilient and of those key economic indicators, unemployment, business investment, housing investment, a AAA credit rating, Australia has a very strong story to tell.
JOURNALIST:
Do you disagree that they’re a temporary high until the current situation is reflected in the stats?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
As you know, we did a midyear economic update in December last year. The Reserve Bank continue to put out their forecasts as well as independent economists, including Deloitte’s only recently. What they’ve all said even since the start of the Omicron variant is that they’re expecting the unemployment rate to track down to a lower level during the course of the year. This 4.2 per cent is better than what the market was expecting. The market was expecting something around 4 ½ per cent. And it really does go to the resilience of our economy and the ability to save jobs through programs like JobKeeper which help Steve and his employers like it did right across the country, but also the cashflow boost which was supporting small businesses, the COVID disaster payments and indeed the pandemic leave disaster payments, which we’re still providing to employees and workers who have been struck down by the Omicron variant.
JOURNALIST:
And on the supply crisis, was that anticipated or was it always going to happen?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
There have been supply chain issues right throughout this pandemic. Indeed, when we had lockdowns, I remember being contacted by the heads of supermarkets Coles and Woolworths and some of the other independent players about the challenges they were seeing. I talked with the CEO of Wesfarmers about their national supply chains, talked to Dulux about their supply chains. These issues have been real since the start of the pandemic, as you would understand, because of the health restrictions that have been put in place. With Omicron, what we’ve seen is a much higher number of cases and, therefore, people who have been absent from work. It’s a new variant of the virus, but it’s also a new variant of the challenge that we’ve faced. But the Prime Minister has outlined a plan to get more people back into work and to help mitigate the supply chain pressures. That includes changing the isolation requirements, which are already making a difference. And I heard that firsthand from the Coles hierarchy down at their distribution centre in Victoria. I heard that from the trucking industry when I visited Cameron Group. We’re also making changes around the work requirements for international students and backpackers who come here, which is going to help provide more people into the workforce. The school opening plan is very important that states are going to be implementing across their own jurisdictions because if we see schools close or childcare centres close, we could potentially see a further five per cent of the workforce that are absent, and we don’t want that occur. And, of course, the vaccines and the boosters are also playing another important role.
JOURNALIST:
Just on WA now, should WA open their border before the election campaign?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The first thing to say is that the announcement last night was from the Western Australian Government. This is not an issue between the Federal Government and the Western Australian Government. This is a decision of the Western Australian government for the Western Australian Government themselves to explain. But I can understand why so many Western Australians would tonight and today be disappointed. They had been making their own plans for the reopening of the borders, and many Western Australians are asking the question: If they don’t open the borders now, when will they open the borders? Many Western Australians will be disappointed. Many Western Australians will be asking the question: if the borders aren’t opening now, when will they open?
JOURNALIST:
What sort of damage is this going to do to the national economy and to the WA economy?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Firstly, we want to see all borders open, and that’s good for the economy if they do. And we’ve seen other states make changes around their own borders as a result of the different circumstances they’re seeing on the ground. Just weeks ago, in Queensland the borders were closed. Then they said you needed a PCR test to come into Queensland. Then they changed that to say a rapid antigen test. Now they’ve removed that rapid antigen test requirement altogether. States, including the Labor State of Queensland, have made changes appropriate to the circumstances that we find ourselves in. The good news in Western Australia is that Western Australians are rolling up their sleeves and getting the jab and close to 90 per cent of Western Australians over the age of 12 have been vaccinated; over 90 per cent when it comes to over 16 years of age. And in terms of booster shots, more than 60 per cent of Western Australians who are eligible for the booster shot have been getting it. And we know that booster shot is an important defence against the Omicron variant. Western Australians have done the right thing. They’re rolling up their sleeves. The Commonwealth Government has done the right thing. We’ve provided more than $14 billion of economic support into Western Australia and one hopes that the borders between Western Australia and the rest of the country will open sooner than later.
JOURNALIST:
Thank you.