BEN FORDHAM:
The Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, is live on the line from Parliament House. Treasurer, happy Friday morning to you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Happy Friday, Ben, and I hope your listeners are well.
BEN FORDHAM:
Aren’t you lucky to get to talk to us this morning and Mark Zuckerberg. How are those conversations going to go?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, I think this one will be slightly more genial than that one. Obviously very disappointed in Facebook’s actions yesterday. They were heavy-handed, they were unnecessary. I mean, the code hasn’t even come into law. And for the life of me I can’t understand why they go and block, you know, NSW Fire & Rescue or the Royal Children’s Hospital or access to 1800RESPECT which provides, you know, services and support to people in need. I mean, the Australian public saw the actions yesterday from Facebook and they were pretty outraged, and legitimately so.
BEN FORDHAM:
Will you be expressing that to Mark Zuckerberg this morning?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, I did tell him yesterday I was disappointed not just in what they did but the way they did it, because we weren’t given any advance notice. And up to that point I’d had some constructive discussions with Mark about the code. Clearly, they have issues with the code. Both Google and Facebook it’s fair to say wouldn’t want the code in any form. But it’s coming in. The Government’s committed to it. It’s been work that we’ve had underway for three-plus years through the good work and analysis of the ACCC. It’s world-leading; the rest of the world is watching us. And our resolve is hardened. I mean, we are absolutely committed to implementing the code. And we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact, Ben, that earlier this week Google had successful negotiations with Channel Nine, with Channel Seven and with News Limited, which will see millions of dollars flow to protecting public interest journalism in this country, money that wouldn’t have flowed but for our code being put in place.
BEN FORDHAM:
When it comes to these charities and community groups, they have been held hostage while Facebook tries to collect its ransom.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, it’s ridiculous. I mean, I like how one journalist put it this morning in The Australian, they said, you know, you can have your mad Aunt Ethel write a 3,000-word diatribe about why the vaccine is part of a global conspiracy, but Facebook won’t let you go and see where you can get the vaccine from New South Wales Health. I mean, it’s just ridiculous.
BEN FORDHAM:
You have you singled out my Aunt Ethel?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, you know, Uncle Ted as well, if you want to put him in there. I don’t know how good he is on the computer these days.
BEN FORDHAM:
Well, that’s the thing. You’ve got terror material up there; you’ve got all these nutty conspiracy theories and they take their time in pulling that stuff down and then they rip down these community pages and charity groups. Now great news, you are raising the rate of JobSeeker. So by how much?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, I know you’d love breaking news here on 2GB, but, Ben, sorry to disappoint you, I don’t go into deliberations of our Expenditure Review Committee. We have said, though, that we will make an announcement about the future rate of JobSeeker before the expiry of the current elevated rate at the end of March.
BEN FORDHAM:
It can’t stay where it is, which is double the original rate. But it can’t go back to the original, you’d concede that?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, it has tapered down, but our focus is getting people off JobSeeker and actually into work. And the other good news yesterday was that we saw the unemployment rate fall from 6.6 per cent down to 6.4 per cent with 29,000 full-time jobs being created in the month of January. So we’ve consistently seen the resilience in our housing market. You know, 94 per cent - 94 per cent - of the 1.3 million Australians who lost their jobs or saw their working hours reduced to zero at the start of this crisis are now back at work. We’ve seen housing market strengthen, we’ve seen prices go up, we’ve seen people start building, we’ve seen the tradies back on the tools, we’ve seen really strong motor vehicle sales - 80,000 plus in January, 10 per cent year up year on year. These numbers show that even after the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression, the Australian economy is strengthening.
BEN FORDHAM:
I don’t want to dampen your enthusiasm, we do need to stress there are still 1.5 million people on JobKeeper.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, there are a lot of people doing it tough. And that number will progressively come down hopefully over the March quarter. But JobKeeper has to end, Ben. I mean, JobKeeper was originally scheduled for six months. We extended it for another six months. It’s going to cost $90 billion. Now your children, right, don’t want us to be spending that much money today because they’ve have to pay it back tomorrow, because every dollar we’re spending is a borrowed dollar, and we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact. So JobKeeper’s been remarkable. It’s kept that formal connection between the employers and employees. And over 2 million of our fellow Australians came off that JobKeeper payment in that December quarter compared to the period prior, and that’s what we expect with the economy strengthening.
BEN FORDHAM:
We know you love your tennis. I read in Alice Workman’s column today in The Australian you had to ditch a social game yesterday because Mark Zuckerberg was on the line. So did you get to start it? Did you have to hit the pause button? How does that work?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
No, it didn’t get there. I did have the whites on, you know. The racquet was ready, you know, I borrowed it from a staff member. I was looking forward to hitting some balls, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get there because duty called. But I do miss my tennis, and I’m looking forward to watching the final, not in person, but on TV.
BEN FORDHAM:
What time’s the Zuckerberg phone call today?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It’s later this morning. So, you know, no doubt people will ask me how that goes. But I just want your listeners to know there’s something more at stake here than just a couple of commercial deals for our journalists and our media businesses. This is about Australia’s sovereignty. You know, this is about Australia leading the world with an important microeconomic reform. This is very much about how we work in this new digital world, a world that is changing so much in our lives. And I think the PM put it really well yesterday too, Ben, when he said that, you know, these digital companies may be changing the world, but they don’t run it. Governments are elected…
BEN FORDHAM:
You will need to negotiate, because obviously they went with the shock and awe technique yesterday. You are willing to negotiate, right?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, with Google, they raised…
BEN FORDHAM:
With Facebook.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
But I just want to give you the context. With Google over the course of last weekend I had numerous calls with their head of that business, Sundar. And they were constructive calls where he raised issues which needed clarification where …
BEN FORDHAM:
So, you will negotiate with Facebook?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Their interpretation was different to us, so we discussed it with them. If Mark raises with me legitimate issues that I think can be clarified, then I’ll put that forward to my colleagues. But what we won’t do is back down on legislating this important code.
BEN FORDHAM:
Well done. Thanks for your time, we’ll talk soon.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Always good to be with you, mate.