DAVID KOCH:
Treasurer, good morning to you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning.
DAVID KOCH:
How will these Moderna doses be used? Will they be for people under 60?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We will make them available across the population. There is about one million of those Moderna doses that is coming in September. This is an mRNA vaccine, Kochie, as you know, and it's been rolled out in the United States with great success, more than 140 million doses have been used in America, with 100 per cent efficacy preventing death and about 98 per cent efficacy preventing serious illness. That will be part of our portfolio approach to vaccines. Of course, we have got the AstraZeneca vaccine rolling out, as well as the Pfizer vaccine, and will make the Moderna vaccine broadly available.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. The Prime Minister says the Commonwealth won't be making vaccinations mandatory. Why?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We have a broad principle with our vaccination program that the vaccines are both free, but they’re also voluntary. There are some exceptions with respect to workers in aged care, as well as in quarantine. Whether an employer can make a reasonable direction to their employees to receive the vaccine will very much depend on the individual circumstances in that case. Safe Work Australia and the Fair Work Ombudsman have both provided information and guidelines, and it will depend, for example, whether the employees in that business are public facing, whether they are dealing with vulnerable cohorts of workers, or people, customers who may come into get the COVID virus, or indeed other relevant factors.
DAVID KOCH:
I’ve got a mate at a nursing home, I can’t visit him unless I have a flu shot. Can I sue the nursing home for being discriminatory against me if I don’t have one? When we went to Rio for the last Olympics, you made me, the Government, have a yellow fever injection and you wouldn’t let me back in unless I had one. Can I sue you? What if I get sick from a colleague here that is unvaccinated, even though I’m vaccinated, can I sue my employer? See what I mean? This is stupid. You've got to give clear guidelines to say that people should be vaccinated. It's a health emergency.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Kochie, as I said, it will depend upon the individual circumstances...
DAVID KOCH:
That's too wishy-washy.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
...of that particular business. If you look at the Safe Work Australia guidelines and if you look at the Fair Work Ombudsman guidelines, which I did last night, and it made it very clear that it does depend on the situation. If you're dealing with vulnerable cohorts of people, or if your employees are public facing, or a range of other factors that are at play, that will go to whether it's reasonable for an employer to make that type of (inaudible).
DAVID KOCH:
I think you're leaving employees out to dry here by not being definitive. Because there are the shark-type lawyers sending around things saying that if your boss makes you get the vaccine, you can sue for breach of contract. I read one that said you could sue for assault. It's unfair for employers that you can't be definitive about this.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Again we are working through the issues, but we have a broad principle, and that broad principle is that the vaccine is voluntary not mandatory. We've made some exceptions in some particular areas, as you’d expect us to do, namely quarantine and aged care. As for other areas, it will go to the reasonableness of that direction by the employer.
DAVID KOCH:
Agree to disagree on that. Economy - New South Wales lockdown extending. Are we going to go into recession as a result of all of this?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Again, the September quarter is likely to be negative where the economy will contract. That’s a function of seeing our big states in lockdown. The median market expectation, Kochie, is for the economy to contract by 1.5 per cent in the September quarter. To put that in context for your viewers this morning, the economy contracted by a full 7 per cent in the June quarter last year, when the virus was at its peak across the country. We've also seen consumer spending, so bank data, showing that it’s 30 per cent higher today than it was in April last year. Consumer confidence is more than 50 per cent higher today than it was in March last year. There are some very big challenges for the economy, but I want the people watching your program this morning to be confident, to be optimistic, and to know there is going to be light at the end of the tunnel.
DAVID KOCH:
Let’s hope so. It all depends on vaccination. Don't be afraid to get tougher. Alright, Treasurer...
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Go and get the jab, please.
DAVID KOCH:
Make us do it. Thank you, Treasurer.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thank you.