BEN FORDHAM:
Now, if you’ve ever been angry with someone and felt like giving them a piece of your mind well, that’s what China’s done to us in the last 24 hours. The Chinese Communist Party has published a document and it goes through, one by one, all the things they don’t like about us. There are 14 complaints. Now, recently the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg has been playing good cop with China, he’s been talking up the relationship and saying we can get things back on track; we can work with our friends in China, even though they’re not taking our calls. The Treasurer says, ‘despite our differences, we are committed to maintaining a strong and productive relationship.’ But that was before they handed us this list. Josh Frydenberg, the Federal Treasurer, is live on the line this morning. Treasurer good morning to you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, Ben, nice to be with you and your listeners.
BEN FORDHAM:
I think we might just go through the list and get some reaction from you. First of all, they say they’re unhappy because we have been calling for an international independent inquiry into the origins of coronavirus.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Oh look Ben, obviously we did work with international partners and in working through the international bodies to look at the origin of this crisis because obviously it’s been a global pandemic that has wreaked enormous damage across the world. Rather than going through each of those individual matters I want to re-emphasise that Australia’s national interests are non-negotiable, whether they’re economic security interests or whether they’re national security interests. We speak out in terms of human rights and other issues that are important to Australia but at the same time China is an incredibly important economic partner for Australia. They represented about one third of our two-way trade at more than $250 billion. it doesn’t matter whether it’s our farmers or our resource companies, or increasingly our services industries like tourism and education, they are an important partner for Australia. So we want that relationship to continue but at the same time, we’re being clear and consistent about advocating and standing by Australia’s national interest.
BEN FORDHAM:
On this list, they say that they’re angry about our decision to ban Huawei from our 5G Network, and blocking Chinese acquisition of Australian companies on security grounds. But I mean, they do the same thing, right? They put their own nation first.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, again, it just comes to what is in our national interest and we obviously work through sensitive matters with the relevant agencies. There are many investments from China that get approved each and every year and as the Treasurer, I have the final say on foreign investment and it certainly has been in Australia’s interest. So too has China’s rise, Ben. I mean, hundreds of millions of people have come out of poverty as a result of the Chinese economy becoming bigger. You may remember the Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping who said, ‘to get rich is glorious’, and, indeed, China did. They got rich and that has meant that they have had more economic power, more people have come out of poverty, but at the same time we look to our international partners to adhere to the rule of law, to international norms and international institutions.
BEN FORDHAM:
We speak up on issues involving human rights, but China says they’re concerned about our interference on China’s treatment of minority groups and outrageous condemnation of China by Australian MPs. So, is this going to lead to Australian MPs zipping their mouths from now on?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Australian MPs don’t need to zip their mouths. They obviously have constituencies that they advocate on behalf of. But again, when you’re in the Australian Parliament, when you’re in the Australian press, you don’t have your voice muzzled. We’re a democracy and we value that and our ability to speak our mind on issues that are important to us, and one would hope that our international partners and friends would always understand that.
BEN FORDHAM:
We’re speaking to the Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. They say they are worried about thinly veiled allegations against China have cyber-attacks. Now I don’t think we’ve directly pointed the finger at China when it comes to cyber-attacks but have we sent a bit of a message that we think that they are responsible for some?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well again as you say, we don’t single out particular countries, but the Prime Minister has been very upfront about the importance of protecting Australia’s cyber security. We have invested heavily in this area in terms of resources. We are working with state governments and with industry to help them strengthen their own systems. This needs to be a national effort because with upgrades and technologies the cyber threat is very real, and the damage can be very extensive.
BEN FORDHAM:
Let’s face it they’re concerned about the strength of our relationship with the United States of America, so do we find ourselves as the meat in the sandwich here? We have got a traditional ally in the US, but we’ve also got this massive trading partner here with China.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well I did make the point in yesterday’s speech Ben that in the United States they’ve gone from seeing China as a strategic partner to seeing China more as a strategic adversary or competitor and you would have to say that is a view that is held by both sides of the political aisle in the United States. But our relationship with the US is our most important in terms of our strategic partnership, as you know they are an ally of us through ANZUS; one of the great achievements of the Menzies Government and it’s based on shared values and a shared history and we have never resiled from that. We have a lot of other important relationships also of a strategic nature within the region, look at the Prime Minister’s successful visit to Japan. The first foreign leader to visit the new Japanese Prime Minister, Prime Minister Suga and obviously the closer defence cooperation with Japan is important to regional stability as well. When it comes to India, we have doubled our two way trade with them between 2014-19. Just last week I inked a deal with my Indonesian counterpart Sri Mulyani on a $1.5 billion loan to Indonesia to help them through the COVID crisis. So our partnerships are far and wide. They’re both on the strategic side but they’re also on the economic side. Again, we signed up with 14 other nations to the Comprehensive Economic Partnership too which is helping to promote free trade in our region. That’s all good news to jobs and it’s also good news for Australian security.
BEN FORDHAM:
Just a quick one before we say goodbye you still haven’t decided whether to delay an increase to the compulsory super rate. We’re told today that we probably won’t find out until the Budget in May. Can you guarantee we will get a final answer by May?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We will make a decision about that superannuation increase which is legislated to go up from mid next year. We don’t need to make that decision ahead of that time. The Prime Minister and I have both been very clear that we need to continue to evaluate the economy at that particular point in time. A number of key players like the Grattan Institute, indeed the Governor of the Reserve Bank and others have pointed out the trade-off between wages and the compulsory superannuation guarantee. So we will continue to look at that closely and I will be putting out a major report tomorrow which looks at the retirement system more broadly.
BEN FORDHAM:
Always appreciate your time Treasurer thank you so much.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thanks Ben.