BEN FORDHAM:
Treasurer, good morning to you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, to you and your listeners, Ben.
BEN FORDHAM:
How old are you, Treasurer?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, I’m 50 in a few months’ time.
BEN FORDHAM:
Is that right? See, this is what you’re going to be facing at some time, maybe not in your position, but for people in their 50s, they’re now being treated the way people were once treated in their 70s or in their 60s, ‘we don’t want you working for us.’ What can you do for these people?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, the first thing to say is that 53 is not too old and indeed 53 is probably, you know, the new 33. You’ve got a lot of life left in you in the workforce at 53. We have a program called Restart, which is an incentive to employers of $10,000 who take on someone over the age of 50 and that person has to have been unemployed in the lead-up. And that program has seen thousands of people find employment as a result.
BEN FORDHAM:
Okay, because you did have a program that came out during the worst of the pandemic, JobMaker, it was exclusively for younger people and we did say at the time, look this should be everyone, but you said it’s for under 35s and I think you would acknowledge it was a failure because you were hoping to create 450,000 jobs. It only created 1,000 jobs. So, is there a hiring credit like this for older workers or is it all about Restart that you just mentioned?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well that Restart program exists and has been taken up and the point about JobMaker hiring credit was that during this crisis we saw younger people being heavily affected because the sectors that they were working in, tourism, hospitality, and retail had been particularly hit hard by the health restrictions. But the good news is that for the over 35s who lost their jobs during the crisis, those jobs have come back and more, but with respect to your listener, there is a program called Restart which provides an incentive to an employer to take them on.
BEN FORDHAM:
And has Restart got all the incentives of JobMaker or am I going to be contacted by people saying, “No, it’s too hard to apply for Restart or it’s not as generous as JobMaker”, because JobMaker was very generous for under 35s?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well they’re different programs. JobMaker depending on your age, could be $100 or $200 every fortnight. This is more about providing up to $10,000 to an employer to take you on.
BEN FORDHAM:
Can you see that this is going to be a crucial thing going forward, that with an ageing population and with this discrimination that clearly happens in the workplace, because there was a survey that came out in the last week showing that one in five bosses classify on older worker as anyone over 50. As a bloke who’s about to turn 50, that should be scaring the living daylights out of you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I do recognise there are people out there who are still searching for work who need that extra assistance. Can I also point out to your listeners that we put in place additional funding for what is called the JobTrainer program in the Budget, which is 450,000 training places across a range of sectors that is designed to help people into work and there are not age limits on the number of those roles.
BEN FORDHAM:
Okay, as a 44 year old I can tell you it’s starting to worry me. Because I’ve been hosting on this radio station for 10 years and I can remember when the calls shifted from people in their 60s saying “I’m not getting a look in”, to people in their 50s saying, “I’m not getting a look in”, and now it’s someone in their mid-40s, I’m thinking, “Well, all right am I going to be next?” Let me talk to you right now about vaccines. There are some appalling numbers out about vaccination in disability care. Under 1,000 people with a disability have been vaccinated, in just 10 days more than 1,600 Olympic athletes and staff had their shots. The Prime Minister says we’ve got to step up the performance there. So I think that’s an understatement, isn’t it, when you think about the requirements for those people in disability care? Why aren’t they getting the jabs?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, they are a vulnerable cohort in disability as well as in aged care. The good news is that about 85 per cent of those aged-care facilities have already received their first doses and we are seeking to roll it out across the disability sector as well. But there are now 5,000 contact points, whether they’re GPs or whether they’re state and territory clinics, across the country that are rolling out the vaccine. We saw more than 400,000 doses the other week. That’s an increase on the week prior, more than 10 per cent of the population, Ben, have received their dose and more than 30 per cent of those aged over 70.
BEN FORDHAM:
You’re out and about at the moment selling the Budget. I’m gathering it’s not too hard to sell when you were so generous with so many sectors of society. There are some suggesting that this is an election budget. So, is that the game plan? Go to the polls by the end of the year?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
This is a Budget to get people through the pandemic. This is a Budget to create more jobs. This is a Budget to support people in aged care, in the disability sector, mental health, women’s safety, a whole lot of important initiatives. You have to understand that Europe has just gone into a double-dip recession. There are more than 800,000 new COVID cases each and every day. The state of Western Australia recently went into lockdown. The virus is still with us, Ben. It’s deadly, it’s stubborn and it’s around. What we need to do is to lock in the gains that Australia has made. You referred earlier to our labour market performance. We have outperformed the other major advanced economies around the world with more people in work today than before the virus began and Australia is continuing to see a stronger economy, but we can’t take that for granted. We must lock it in.
BEN FORDHAM:
You are on a bit of a fitness mission at the moment, it’s been reported in the press and you’re looking particularly svelte at the moment, but I just want to test you on something because you were at a business summit at Doltone House and my mate, Paul Signorelli, gave you a large Toblerone block. So, you’re away from your family at the moment. You’re staying in a hotel in Sydney. Now be honest with us, Treasurer, how many little squares of that Toblerone did you consume last night?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Just two, but they’re not little. I can tell you it was a gigantic block, I think they were…
BEN FORDHAM:
You stopped at two?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I think I need to go on your ninja show to work it off because they were supersized Toblerones, but they tasted bloody good and I have to confess I had a beer yesterday and a few small donuts with my mate Dave Sharma. So, I’m not walking the talk at the moment.
BEN FORDHAM:
So, beer, donuts and Toblerone…
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
That’s just one day on the road.
BEN FORDHAM:
The diet brought to you by Josh Frydenberg. Well, the Prime Minister is on a mission as well and so we will be monitoring both of your efforts. Thank you so much for dropping in.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Always a pleasure.