DAVE HUGHES:
So we’ve got the federal Treasurer, our friend, Josh Frydenberg, back on. Josh, welcome back to the show.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, Hughsey, and love listening to a bit of California Girl. I love Katy Perry more than Taylor Swift does, I can tell you.
ERIN MOLAN:
Look at you all up with pop culture. That’s wonderful.
ED KAVALEE:
Well, it’s more current than Hughsey - he name-checked On Golden Pond 10 minutes ago for a film no-one’s heard of.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
He’s a Simon and Garfunkel fan like I am.
DAVE HUGHES:
So I am.
ED KAVALEE:
Right, let’s get to the matter at hand, Treasurer - money available. How do we get it? How much?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
So, people need to go on to the Services Australia website or myGov and find out more details. But if somebody has lost between 8 and 19 hours of work they are eligible next week for a payment of $450 for the week. If they’ve lost 20 hours or more of work they’ll be eligible for a $750 payment. If they’re currently receiving welfare and income support and they had been working at least 8 hours of work, then they will be entitled to get a $200 payment. So this is seeking to cushion the blow for a lot of your listeners who are doing it very tough now not being able to do the part-time work or, indeed, the full-time work that they normally would do when the state wasn’t in lockdown.
DAVE HUGHES:
Now, mate, will the money come in? I did speak to a driver recently who said that he logged on and as a sole trader he was able to get $1,500 a week. And he said the money came in straight away. So if they log on, they don’t have to wait for weeks, will they? It will come in quick?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
So there are two different types of payments. There’s the payments to households which is going to be at the $750 and $450 rate. And those payments are being made as quickly as 40 minutes after the application.
DAVE HUGHES:
Wow.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
And people are able to do it online, and more than 90 per cent of done it online, and around a million applications have already been processed. So that system is working very effectively. With respect to the business payments, they’re being done through Services NSW delivered by the state government. And those payments vary between $1,500 and now $100,000 a week for businesses that have a turnover of up to $250 million a week. That’s designed to support those businesses and their workers. Because, as you know, Hughsey, even though the customers may not be coming through the door, you’ve still got rent, you’ve still got the interest bill on your loans, you’ve still got electricity, water and other utilities expenses.
ED KAVALEE:
Absolutely.
ERIN MOLAN:
Treasurer, a report from CommBank came out over the past 24 hours saying that 300,000 jobs are expected to be lost I think over the next couple of months in New South Wales alone. Are you confident that that will pick up once these lockdowns have ended, that people will go back into work?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, that is what the economy has done to date, because, as you know, we’ve seen long lockdowns in Victoria and we’ve also seen in other parts of the country, and after the virus was suppressed the economy quickly opened up. People got back to work and, in fact, our economic recovery was ahead of the rest of the world. And the one message I was hearing back from businesses before this lengthy New South Wales lockdown is they were struggling to get staff. And that was also compounded by the fact that our international borders have closed and there hadn’t been a lot of international workers coming. So I’m confident that we can bounce back, but we need to get on top of the virus, and that’s why all your listeners need to follow the medical advice.
DAVE HUGHES:
And Erin Molan, you’ll be proud to know, has received AstraZeneca at the age of 37. She’s booked herself in and got that job done. Now you’re encouraging everyone, I imagine, along with ScoMo to get whatever vaccine is available?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Absolutely, Hughsey. And there’s been a change in that medical advice. What they have said is that people should strongly consider going and getting the AstraZeneca vaccine if they’re in the Greater Sydney area rather than waiting for alternatives. We know that more than a million AstraZeneca are available, but we also know that more people are getting vaccinated by the day, so the good news is that around 35 per cent of the population have received the jab already. And in the more vulnerable cohorts like the people who are over the age of 70, more than 75 per cent have received the jab. So around a million jabs are going out a week, and that number will only increase.
DAVE HUGHES:
What would you say to the people who have stopped following Erin on Instagram because she got the jab? What would you say to those people?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Bugger them. Bugger them.
DAVE HUGHES:
Yes.
ERIN MOLAN:
Thanks, Treasurer. Do you follow me, by the way, Treasurer? Because that actually could be quite awkward if you don’t?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I follow you twice.
DAVE HUGHES:
There you go. A secret account and everything.
ED KAVALEE:
Josh Frydenberg. Thank you very much, indeed, for your time, Josh.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good to see you guys.