ALLISON LANGDON:
Treasurer, thank you for your time this morning. When people wake to news of France and Germany and Italy are some of those are pressing pause. You have to ask, why aren't we?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, the World Health Organisation and the European equivalent of the TGA have both confirmed the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine and have said they have no evidence of that causal link between the vaccine and blood clots. Let's not forget, Ally, in the United Kingdom they have successfully rolled out that vaccine, more than 12 million doses. They haven't seen that pattern or those trends in those people who have received it. Just yesterday the Prime Minister, the Health Minister, the Chief Medical Officer, myself and other senior members of the Government talked about the vaccine rollout and the Chief Medical Officer confirmed it will proceed. We have, of course, the data available to us. That data says it's safe and effective to distribute that vaccine which we'll do.
ALLISON LANGDON:
How is it that the data that we're looking at and analysing is so different to these other countries? It's not just one or two countries in Europe, Treasurer, how is their health advice so different to ours?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, as I said the European equivalent of the TGA has said the vaccine is effective. They have said there is no causal link. Those governments will take their own decisions. We'll take ours. What we do know is that Australia has a unique capacity to manufacture the vaccine here under license with CSL. That vaccine will be rolled out across the country in accordance with the timetable that the Prime Minister and Health Minister have already made public.
ALLISON LANGDON:
You're hoping $12 billion in tax cuts will offset the end of JobKeeper this month. Who will get it, how much and when?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
If you are a teacher or a nurse watching the show this morning and you earn $60,000 a year, you pay $2,160 less tax compared to what you did back in 2017-18. This is a result of the tax cuts the Coalition has legislated. They focus on lower and middle income earners. They’re very substantial. We still have phase three of the tax cuts that still are yet to come in. That's where we abolish a whole tax bracket. That's where 95% of Australian taxpayers pay a marginal rate of no more than 30 cents in the dollar. So this is significant structural tax reform which is also fundamental to our values and our principles, namely that Australians should earn more and keep more of what they earn.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Problem is if you don't have a job, you don't pay tax, you don't get a tax cut. What happens to those people?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, firstly, more than 10 million Australians are getting the benefit of these tax cuts. That's good news because they'll also spend that money helping to create jobs across the economy. When it comes to those Australians who are out of work, our focus is to get them into work. The good news is that 94 per cent, Ally, of the 1.3 million Australian whose have either lost their jobs or saw their working hours reduced to zero at the start of crisis are now back at work. At the height of the pandemic, Treasury told me that unemployment rate could reach as high as 15 per cent. That's more than 2 million unemployed. Today, it's at 6.4 per cent. We know that jobs are being created even as we cut-off some of those emergency supports or taper them down. That is a significant sign that the economy is recovering and recovering well.
ALLISON LANGDON:
I think we all agree obviously JobKeeper can't continue forever, but we are hearing from employers that when JobKeeper ends they will have to lay off staff. We know some of the hardest hit by the pandemic are industries that are dominated by women. You've got retail, you've got travel agents, is there any further help for them?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We've already announced significant extra support for travel agents. When it comes to the broader tourism sector, as you know, we announced a very significant $1.2 billion package which is designed to have not just low fares but also low cost loans, as well. When it comes to retail sector we've seen lots of people starting to come back into work. When it comes to women, 53 per cent of the jobs that have been created since the pandemic hit have gone to women. Of course, we want to get that number even higher. We want to get workforce participation for women back to where it was pre-pandemic which was at a record high and where the gender pay gap was at a record low. So there's still a lot of work to do. The road ahead will be bumpy, but JobKeeper was always meant to be a temporary payment. It was always an emergency measure, Ally, initially for six months, it went for 12 months. It was the most expensive program that any Australian Government has ever undertaken. If we leave it in place, it will be counter-productive because it will prevent the efficient allocation of workers to different roles across the economy.
ALLISON LANGDON:
I find it really interesting we're sitting here talking about $12 billion in tax cuts. Once upon a time, that would have sounded like a lot of money. Now, we throw those numbers around all the time, don't we? I want to talk to you about the March for Justice rally yesterday. You didn't make an appearance, neither did the Prime Minister. Do you think that was a missed opportunity? It doesn't help people's belief that your Government has a problem with women?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The Prime Minister and I don't make a habit of going to marches. But the Prime Minister did offer to meet the organisers. It was an offer made in good faith. It would have been a good opportunity for those organisers to sit down with the Prime Minister and take him through their concerns. Our Government is acting. We've committed a billion dollars already to tackling domestic violence. It's a national scourge. It's also a national challenge. We're creating safer places. We're putting in place more counselling. We, of course, have other targeted support. We've recently released a new information campaign which is critical to building awareness across the community. The numbers, Ally, are absolutely horrific. One in four Australian women over the age of 15 are going to face intimate partner violence. Now, that is something which is certainly not good enough. It's something we're acting on.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Does your Party have a problem with women, an issue with women?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Absolutely no. The most high profile woman in politics across the country right now is the premier of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, a proud Liberal and obviously doing a wonderful job as the Premier of New South Wales. Our Party, when it comes to women, has been a party of firsts.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Thank you for your time this morning. We really appreciate it. Thanks.