DAVID KOCH:
Treasurer, thanks for joining us.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good to be with you.
DAVID KOCH:
Julie Bishop does have a point on this. Do you think the Liberal Party or Parliament should introduce workplace behaviour policies like we all have to do in the rest of the world?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I think Julie Bishop is absolutely right to say bullying is unacceptable in any workplace, let alone in the nation's capital in Parliament.
And she did make a broader point about the adversarial nature of politics and the fact it is very confrontational and the fact we need to get more women into Parliament. And I share all those views. Bullying is unacceptable.
DAVID KOCH:
So what are you going to do about it? Should you introduce a policy for workplace behaviour within your party and do all the modules, like the rest of us have to do in our places of employment?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, our party, like the Labor Party, have processes in place to deal with any allegations like the ones you refer to.
DAVID KOCH:
So you have a policy? You already have a policy?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We actually have a process. We have a process, you work through the whips – Nola Marino is our Chief Whip and colleagues can see her about any related issues.
DAVID KOCH:
So do you do modules, behaviour modules, sort of for training?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I haven't done a behaviour module, Kochie, but the fact is we do need to see more female representation in Parliament, and in my first speech to the Party Room after being elected as Deputy Leader, I said exactly that. I said we needed to get more women not just into marginal seats, but into safe seats.
And Scott Morrison, in his first Cabinet, had six females, an additional woman in Cabinet - all there on merit. But certainly a far cry from when Julie Bishop was the only woman in Cabinet back in 2013.
DAVID KOCH:
Can you push for a workplace behaviour policy? I reckon you are dodging that a bit, that's what you need.
Fairfax is reporting another leak, the Turnbull Cabinet rejected a $1.6 billion plan to help pensioners pay struggling power bills. Why did Cabinet knock it back?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I'm not going to go into the details of those reports, Kochie, other than to say we are absolutely focused on lowering people's power bills. You can't expect me to comment on every media report such as that.
DAVID KOCH:
So that's untrue? So, it's untrue?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
What I will comment on is the need to drive power prices down.
DAVID KOCH:
So it is not true? Just say it's not true.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I'm not going to give you a running commentary on those individual reports.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. Alright, a beautiful set of numbers for the June quarter with economic figures, 3.4 per cent for the year. That has to be good to get the budget back in the black quickly?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
These are certainly very positive numbers. What we have seen is GDP growth at 3.4 per cent which is a faster rate of growth than any G7 country, faster than the OECD average and beating market expectations.
What is underpinning this growth is a broad based set of numbers in housing investment, in business investment, in exports, and also the high employment numbers. We have got record jobs growth with women, more seniors and more young people coming into the workforce.
DAVID KOCH:
Treasurer, thank you for joining us. Catch up soon.