ALLISON LANGDON:
To discuss we’re joined by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in Canberra. Treasurer, thanks for your time this morning.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning.
ALLISON LANGDON:
What’s going to happen to the family?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well the Minister will be making a detailed statement, but I can confirm that the reports that the family will be reunited on Australian shores is correct. That will happen very soon and the Minister will make a statement today. This has been a very difficult case, it’s been protracted through the courts, but you also have to understand that Australia put in place a border protection policy because tragically more than 1,200 lives were lost at sea between 2008 and 2013 and obviously the policies we put in place were designed to save lives and to bring some order to our borders.
ALLISON LANGDON:
I mean, the issue you’ve got now, your Coalition colleagues are divided on this, many are saying show compassion, others don’t want to set a dangerous precedent, but at the heart of it you’ve got two little girls who were born on this country, it’s cost close to $7 million to keep them locked up, why has it taken so long to show compassion?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well as you know, these cases are being protracted through the courts many times and again, I’ll leave the details to the statement from the Minister, Alex Hawke. But this has been one of the many difficult cases we see in this area, but our policy has had the effect of being able to stop the unauthorised arrivals coming to our shores, to prevent losses of live at sea, to prevent tens of thousands of people going through the detention centres and of course, massive cost blow outs. So it’s been a tough policy, it’s been a hard policy to implement. But it has, at least, been effective in what it was designed to do which was to bring some order to the border and the sovereignty issues that Australia is confronting.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Okay so this family is about to be reunited, does that also mean that they can stay in Australia permanently?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well again, the details will be released by the Minister. I'll leave that statement to him. He has been working through it. I’ve obviously spoken to him, he's spoken to the Prime Minister as well as obviously a number of our colleagues as well.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Do you honestly think allowing this family to stay in Australia will open the floodgates and we'll see boats trying to make it here?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
No, I believe that our policy has worked and will continue to work and clearly Australians expect that the Federal Government puts in place policies that protect the integrity of our borders. What we saw tragically in the past was when those policies were weakened many, many people came to Australia and they came by boat, lives were lost at sea. Tens of thousands of people went through detention centres. There were massive cost blow outs…
ALLISON LANGDON:
Yes.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
And that undermined the integrity of our borders.
ALLISON LANGDON:
What about for you personally, we have heard lot of Coalition MPs express personal opinions. Would you personally like to see this family return to Biloela, the community where they've spent the past few years?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well I obviously want to see them return to Australia and be reunited because they were pretty confronting images as you say of the young family. And of course what we are seeking to do here with this announcement from the Minister is to bring the family together. It has gone on for a long period of time. There have been many factors at play, including the protracted legal issues and disputes, but the key point here is that the family is going to be reunited and that's a very positive development.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Okay. And that decision, we will hear today, is that correct?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Correct.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Okay, now look, we just saw Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson leave a very nice dinner together at Downing Street. Will our Prime Minister come home with a free trade deal?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well look, we’re hopeful that those discussions have moved in the right direction. I spoke to the Prime Minister last night. I haven't spoken to him this morning. He is obviously busy in his meetings but he's pretty determined to advance Australia's interests with a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom. Dan Tehan's been doing some great work behind the scenes as the Trade Minister and before him Simon Birmingham. These are important issues for Australia because one in five Australian jobs relates to trade. We have been very successful in building our relationships with Japan, with Korea, multilateral agreements like the trans-Pacific partnership. We are a trading nation and whether it is our agricultural or financial services or indeed, many other products like our resources industry that we sell to the world is first class, so it is in Australia's interests to sign these agreements and particularly one with Britain given our long history, given our shared values and given the fact this will be their most significant agreement post-Brexit.
ALLISON LANGDON:
We are hearing this morning UK wants to scrap the need for backpackers to do ag work in Australia. That would be a disaster for our farmers wouldn't it. We already have a shortage, we're going to have to find them from somewhere else?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well our backpackers I think love working on the farms and I think, it’s good, it works both to the farmers' interests because they get some keen young people who are prepared to bend the back so to speak as well as young people coming to Australia and get to see Australian life, get to earn some money and then travel more broadly around our great country so...
ALLISON LANGDON:
Would that be a deal breaker for you?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well obviously we want to see a continuation of backpackers from Britain or from indeed the rest of the world come to Australia and have the opportunity to work. I won't go into the specifics of those negotiations but they're some of the issues that are being worked through.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Alright, it will cause a problem for you if that then gets scrapped. Plenty of people from other places who would be happy to come here and do that work I'd imagine. What's happening with Victoria's vaccine supply? They don't have enough.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well again, we’ve provided around 1.1 million doses of the vaccine, they've already delivered around 800,000 so there is some in store and if you are under the age of 50 you are now entitled to the Pfizer vaccine. I think one of the positive things we have seen in a very bad and difficult situation in Victoria has been more people have shown a willingness to get the jab and that's a good thing. The more people who get vaccinated the less vaccine hesitancy out there the better. So we've heard from the Health Minister that he continues to talk to his Victorian counterpart and again….
ALLISON LANGDON:
Victoria says they don't have enough, Treasurer.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well as more supply comes on, we'll provide that, but we've already provided 1.1 million doses, 800,000 have been delivered so you do the maths been delivered so you do the maths.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Well you’ve got a problem though with only six million people have had part of their dose in Australia, it is moving at a snail’s pace.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well actually if you look at the most vulnerable cohorts like the over 70s, Ally, we've seen more than 60 per cent of those people get the jab. When it comes to the over 50s, more than 40 per cent have received the jab. So we are focused on the more vulnerable cohorts but again the vaccination rollout is gaining pace. We have seen the last 10 days more than a million jabs being distributed, that's also a positive development and more people who get the jab the better. But the good news for Australia is that not only in Victoria we've started to see restrictions ease but our economy is going very strongly. Just last week, Ally, we saw Australia's AAA credit rating reaffirmed. We have seen very positive data in terms of our labour market with the unemployment rate fall to 5.5 per cent and today we've seen Treasury estimate that the tax relief we provided in the last two Budgets create 120,000 jobs and bring unemployment down by nearly a full percentage point, that's what we're focussing on. More jobs, tax relief for families and encouraging more investment by businesses.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Alright, how do you think Michael McCormack is going to go as Acting Prime Minister over the next two weeks…
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well.
ALLISON LANGDON:
…in Question Time? Well.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, I spoke to him last night and he's ready to take any ball that's bowled at him. A Yorker or a full toss and see it head towards the boundary.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Watch out for those balls. Thank you, Treasurer. Appreciate your time. Thanks.