DANICA DE GIORGIO:
Well, joining me now live is Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Treasurer, good morning, thank you for joining me.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning.
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
Firstly, new Treasury figures show that tax cuts and low income concessions have put around $7 billion into the pockets of 8 million Australians. Has that been enough to offset the impact of lockdowns and border closures?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, tax cuts have not been the only measure that the government have taken to help support the economy at this difficult time. But, as you say, $7 billion has made their way into the pockets of Australian families over the last six months, and more than a billion dollars a month will make its way again into the pockets of Australian families over the next nine months. We also put in place in the budget significant investment incentives for businesses to immediately expense new acquisitions to upgrade their business. We also put in place a loss carry-back measure in order to help businesses who have been doing it tough through COVID get the benefit of the tax system. So there’s a whole range of tax measures that we have put in place. As you know, JobKeeper runs through to the end of March. We also put in place the JobMaker hiring credit. We brought forward billions of dollars of infrastructure spending as well as making announcement about new infrastructure spending. And so there are a whole range of measures across the economy – some $250 billion of direct economic support committed by the Morrison government with around $150 billion already out the door. So very substantial support indeed to help Australia get through the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression.
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
Well, let’s talk about JobKeeper, and you mentioned the March cut off. We’ve got a situation now in Greater Brisbane where business is locked down and we are seeing restrictions imposed in parts of the country, for example, in New South Wales, where there have been outbreaks. How viable is it for that subsidy to end in March when we’re still seeing outbreaks and issues across the country?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, JobKeeper has been an enormously successful program and it’s been the largest economic support program any Australian government has ever undertaken with $77 billion already out the door. What we have always intended was that the JobKeeper program would be temporary. It would be targeted, it would be proportionate. It was using the existing system. And, as you know, we all originally put it in place for six months and we extended it for another six months and then we tapered it down. But what we did see in the numbers that came through for JobKeeper in the December quarter were 2 million fewer Australian workers who were relying on that support payment and around 450,000 fewer businesses that were relying on that support payment. That was a sign that the Australian economic recovery was underway and that businesses and their workers were graduating from JobKeeper. So, yes, there will be some tough times ahead, but what we do know is that JobKeeper complements and sits alongside a whole lot of other support measures that the government has put in place where money will continue to flow over the coming months and that will continue to support the Australian community in this time of need.
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
Well, what about for the tourism industry, Treasurer? Operators simply can’t survive with consistent rolling border closures. Would you consider a special package of support for those tourism operators?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, as you know, in the budget on October the 6th I announced around $350 million for regional tourism support. We’ve also announced a travel agents program, more than $100 million to support those in the travel agents industry. Whether it’s zoos, whether it’s airlines, whether it’s travel agents, the government has been there to support people in the tourism industry. Yes, I understand how the border closures have impacted upon the businesses, many small businesses, in the tourism sector. This is a very difficult time. But there is already significant support going into the tourism sector that the government has announced already.
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
And what does it mean for your own economic planning for the country, given we have these rolling border closures? They’re open and shut, they’re open and shut. How can you plan ahead for 2021 with so much uncertainty?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, the uncertainty has been a feature characteristic of the last year of the first global pandemic of this significance in more than a century. And I fear that the uncertainty will be there globally at least for some time to come. Yes, we’re optimistic with the rollout of the vaccine, but the virus is not going away; it’s there with us every day. It’s our ability to deal with the new cases that arise that will very much determine the speed and the trajectory of our economic recovery. We’ve already seen some very positive signs – 85 per cent of the 1.3 million Australians who either lost their jobs or saw their working hours reduced to zero at the start of the pandemic are now back at work. And as you would have seen in the September quarter for the national accounts, we saw a 3.3 per cent increase in GDP growth, the single largest quarterly increase since 1976. And business and consumer confidence has also recovered to its pre-pandemic levels. So there are signs of optimism, there are signs of hope, Australians can be confident going into the future. And our health system is holding up enormously well. I mean, yesterday there were 13 cases across the country. There were three-quarters of a million new cases across the world in one day. In the US you’ve seen around a quarter of a million new cases, in the UK, 50,000 new cases. So our ability as a nation to get on top of the virus on the health front will very much assist the economic recovery, which is well underway.
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
And just before we let you go, Treasurer, just on borders, everyone agreed at national cabinet last week that Greater Brisbane would be declared a hot spot. Is that now under review given that there have been no cases over the weekend?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, as I understand it, the Queensland Premier will have more to say about the situation in Queensland. The Prime Minister has indicated the federal government’s support for what the Palaszczuk government did in terms of that short lockdown in relation to that new strain. But we are dealing with a very challenging situation. There are new cases. There is this new strain. It is more infectious, and our ability to deal with that effectively and in a timely manner will be absolutely critical to our economic recovery.
DANICA DE GIORGIO:
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, thank you for joining me.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
My pleasure.