DAVID KOCH:
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg joins me live from Canberra. Morning, Treasurer.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning.
DAVID KOCH:
When you were on Sunrise when you announced this a couple of weeks ago, I did put to you, what is to stop an employer sacking an older worker and replacing them with a younger worker on JobMaker? You said there would be safety nets. Why did you reject the Labor safety net then?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Because we already have in the legislation those particular protections. You can't have a contrived scheme, the Fair Work Act applies and there is a requirement of additionality, namely to both the payroll and to the headcount of a business when they take on a person aged 16 to 35. The passage of the legislation through the Parliament last night, Kochie, was a big win for the job prospects of hundreds of thousands of young Australians. And we recognise that the pandemic has hit younger people really hard and we see right now that the unemployment rate for those who are aged 15 to 34 is 10.2 per cent, whereas the unemployment rate for those aged 35 to 44 is 4.7 per cent. So there is a big gap and what we want to do is to get younger people into work and keep them in work.
DAVID KOCH:
So for an employer to qualify for this, they have actually got to lift their staff numbers, not just turn staff numbers over?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Absolutely right. There is that additionality test and it is a double barrel one, both to their payroll and to their headcount. We looked at previous recessions in Australia, Kochie, particularly the 1990s recession and it took a full decade to get the unemployment rate back below 6 per cent from where it started. But it took an amazing 15 years to get that unemployment rate back for younger people from where it started. And so that's why we’ve got to get younger people into work, we’ve got to get older people into work and that is what we're doing with the range of measures set out in the Budget and this hiring credit is a key part of that.
DAVID KOCH:
Another COVID support payment, JobSeeker, has been extended by 3 months to March, being reduced by $100 in December. Will cutting the supplement compound this economic impact of COVID or are you starting to see, the Reserve Bank is starting to get quite optimistic isn't it, are you starting to see business start to climb back again?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Two points here, Kochie. Firstly, this is $3.2 billion of new money that the Government is spending by extending that JobSeeker coronavirus supplement for that additional 3 months. That was not money that was in the Budget, that is a decision we have taken since the Budget. Secondly, you're right, we are seeing consumer confidence and business confidence increase, and that is as a result of the virus being suppressed and, obviously, we have seen good news in recent days about the prospects of a vaccine. Nobody is complacent. In fact, everyone is working as hard as possible to get Australians back into work and 446,000 jobs have been created across the country in the last 4 months alone.
DAVID KOCH:
We are doing so much better than the rest of the world.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We are.
DAVID KOCH:
Thank goodness, Treasurer. Appreciate your time. Thank you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Great to be with you.