DAVID KOCH:
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg joins us now.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, Kochie
DAVID KOCH:
Treasurer are you concerned with this drop in confidence in the Government’s ability to manage the pandemic?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, it’s obviously been a very challenging time for Australian families over the Christmas period with the spread of Omicron, with holidays disrupted, and, of course, there are also challenges in the economy, particularly cost of living pressures that Australians are encountering with higher than expected inflation numbers. But Australians also know that the Coalition does deliver a stronger economy. That’s our record. They’re our policies today and going into the future. We’ve seen the unemployment rate, even despite everything that’s been thrown at the economy during the pandemic, Kochie, go down to a 13‑year low at 4.2 per cent, and we’ve seen the youth unemployment rate go to the lowest level in more than a decade. So too with taxes, we’ve been cutting them at every turn, whether it’s for small businesses where taxes are at the lowest level in 50 years, or also for households. And we’ve got some new data out today showing particularly young people and particularly young women are the beneficiaries of our tax cuts on average of more than $2,000 for someone 25 and under. So that is good news for young people. That is good news for the Australian economy at large.
DAVID KOCH:
Yeah, that is great economic news, I agree with you. But it doesn’t seem to be cutting through. People are still annoyed their lives are being so disrupted by this pandemic. How hard it was to get RAT tests, the vaccine rollout, seems to be overshadowing that good economic news, and it’s showing in the Newspoll figures, which show at this stage you’re going to get smashed.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, as you know, there is one poll that counts and that’s election day, and there’s some way to go before then. And you do know also, Kochie, there were many in the media, many political pundits, who wrote us off ahead of the last election, and obviously the result was somewhat different. But I understand the frustrations because we are now two years into a pandemic that many hoped would be shorter than that. But the good news is when it comes to those vaccination rates, we have one of the highest levels in the world, 94 per cent double‑dosed, and the booster rollout has gone to more than 10 million people. Our fatality rates are a fraction of what they have been in the United States or the United Kingdom or Canada or elsewhere and then when it comes to the economic recovery, like I said, we’ve been able to secure people’s jobs. I mean, programs like JobKeeper saved the economy, more than 700,000 jobs were saved alone, so let’s focus on getting the big things right.
DAVID KOCH:
Do you think that’s why Scott Morrison is still the favoured leader despite the party being way behind?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, again I think there’s a lot of noise out there and, you know, they are the distractions that often take up the day‑to‑day commentary. What I’m focused on as Treasurer is ensuring that the economy remains strong, but particularly helping to get people into a job. I don’t need to remind you, Kochie, you follow these things very, very closely, but Australia’s experience during the 1980s and the 1990s recessions were very, very different. Unemployment stayed very high for nearly a decade. We’ve avoided that this time around and we’ve had a stronger economic recovery here in Australia than any other advanced economy around the world. That’s something that all Australians have contributed to, all Australians can be proud of and, hopefully, that’s something all Australians will be reminded of going into the ballot box.
DAVID KOCH:
There are calls this morning for the Prime Minister to be charged with murder over what he did to Dragon’s “April Sun in Cuba” last night. Do you have a signature song…
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I was wondering where you were going there.
DAVID KOCH:
Do you have a signature song that you break into regularly?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
No, I wouldn’t be, because I know what the next question is going to be Kochie; try a few verses in front of your audience. And I think I will be murdered after that, so I’m not setting myself up for that gotcha. But I can’t play the ukulele. I’m good at chopsticks on the piano and that’s about where it stops. But more than that would be a bridge too far.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. All right. You’re certainly no choir boy. Josh Frydenberg, thanks for joining us.