EDDIE McGUIRE:
All right Josh, let's get down to the Budget last night. Congratulations. It's a massive Budget, it's sort of one that's out of the ideology of the Liberal Party if you like, but you have to kick the economy forward. First of all, is this predicated on a vaccine coming to Australia, and when are you sort of hedging your bets on Victoria being reopened as far as businesses are concerned?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well we have put in an assumption that Victoria will open in line with what the Victorian Government set out on 6 September, so that those preconditions for getting the virus under control and the numbers reduced of daily cases, and that it would gradually open before the end of the year. In terms of a vaccine, there's an assumption that by the end of next year we will see a roll-out nationally of a vaccine, and obviously, we're all very hopeful of that and as a Government, we're throwing everything possible at the researchers, as well as the international supply chains to ensure that we get the vaccine for Australians.
EDDIE McGUIRE:
Okay now Josh, let's go through the finances themselves. For all the tradies who are driving around this morning and small business owners, and you know, our wonderful listeners here on Triple M, there's the tax write-off situation and also the traineeships that you've brought into play. Explain that and how that will kick-start the economy and help people out there with their own businesses.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
So we're backing trainees and apprentices with $4 billion, not just to protect those who are currently in an apprenticeship but to give an incentive to businesses to take on 100,000 new apprentices. We're doing that with a 50 percent wage subsidy. We're also allowing businesses that would have otherwise been profitable pre‑COVID, but now have been loss-making, to take these losses and to carry them back against previous profits and to get a refund from the ATO. Normally you would only be able to use your losses when you make future profits, but these are not normal times, Eddie, so we're allowing them to do that. We're also introducing what is called a JobMaker hiring credit. So if you are a business and you take on someone aged 16 to 35 who has been on JobSeeker in recent months, then you will get an incentive from the Government and that will make it cheaper for you to take somebody on. That will boost and support around 450,000 jobs of young people across the economy. We've done that because in previous recessions it's taken a long time to get people off the unemployment queue and into work. There’s also incentives for business to invest. So if you're a tradie and you want to go and buy some new tools, we're allowing you to write that off in the first year. If you're a farmer and you want to go and buy a new harvester, you'll be able to write that off in one year as opposed to over more than six years. If you're running a manufacturing business and you want to upgrade your production line you can go and write that off in one year. And that will create a whole wave of investment and of course jobs across the economy.
LUKE DARCY:
Josh, how quickly do you think the Australian economy can recover, and the global economy? I was listening to Ray Dalio, the world's most successful hedge fund operator, and he's talking about a global depression. He's comparing what's happening around the world to going back to the 1930 Great Depression. Are you seeing those numbers in all the information you're getting, or you’re expecting us to get out of this a little bit quicker here in Australia?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well context is important, Darce, and the world is seeing it's most significant economic shock since the Great Depression, and we've seen much bigger falls around the rest of the world than even what we've seen here in Australia. But there is a way out and we are seeing unemployment come down, and particularly off the back of this investment that we're making. So there's an expectation that unemployment will fall to 7¼ per cent by mid-next year, and Treasury says without the economic support that we are now putting into the economy that unemployment rate would have been 12 per cent, this year and next year. So our measures are helping to create around one million new jobs over the next few years. And so we're really focused on avoiding the experience of the 1980s and the 1990s here in Australia when we had recessions and it took a long time to get people back to work. So I'm very hopeful, your listeners going off to work should be very hopeful. We're in the best country in the world. We're better placed than any other country in the world and in last night's Budget, we really threw everything at it to get people back into work.
EDDIE McGUIRE:
Josh, we know you've got a meeting with the Prime Minister so last question from us. What have you got for Victoria? We've been the hardest hit. We need to get out of this as quickly as possible. What have you pumped into the Big V?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well there's more than a billion dollars of new investments in infrastructure, so whether that's in a regional rail line, Warrnambool and Shepparton rail lines, whether that's more money for local councils to undertake shovel ready projects, whether it's road safety upgrades, there's a lot more money for Victoria in terms of infrastructure. Obviously, there are many businesses that are being challenged in Victoria now with the lockdown, and as you know we've got the JobKeeper program going for another six months. There'll be more businesses in Victoria who are on JobKeeper than in all the other States combined, but we're providing those other additional incentives for Victorian businesses. There's extra funding, whether it's around affordable housing, first home buyers in Victoria. There's also obviously a big investment in skills which is going to be very important for Victorians. Then we've got a whole range of essential services that are being guaranteed, whether it's new spots for in-home aged care, whether it's new drugs being listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, whether it's extra funding for mental health support, there's more money into the National Disability Insurance Scheme. All those programs are obviously helping Victorians and are helping the nation.
EDDIE McGUIRE:
Well unfortunately, Josh, those black cups you had with the surplus, mate, they're going out on the hard rubbish. They're no good. The world just changed in front of you, didn't it?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, you know, some people are still bringing them up with me, but the reality is no one expected a pandemic like this. You know, we had such a time, Ed and Darce, at the end of last year as a nation, the fires, the floods, the drought. Who would have thought we'd get a global pandemic? I'm just waiting for the next challenge, who knows.
LUKE DARCY:
Remarkable time.
EDDIE McGUIRE:
Unbelievable. Thanks mate.
LUKE DARCY:
Josh, we know we have to let you go, you've got a meeting with the Prime Minister.