ALLISON LANGDON:
We’re joined now by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who joins us in Victoria. A very good morning to you, Treasurer.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, Ally. I thought you were going to call me Johnny Depp there for a minute, but, you know.
ALLISON LANGDON:
I should have. Drats! I missed that opportunity, didn’t I? Hey, Novak is on a plane right now. I don’t think there are too many people who are sad to see him go. But do you have any sympathy for him?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I greatly respect his tennis abilities but strongly disagree with his stance on vaccinations. And, you know, we have a very clear rule for people who are unvaccinated coming to this country – they go through two weeks of quarantine or they meet very specific and narrow set of exemptions. He didn’t meet those exemptions or conditions, and hence the Minister for Immigration made his decision, which was upheld by the Full Court of the Federal Court. But it doesn’t matter if you’re the No 1 tennis player in the world or you’re Betty from Utah – the same rules apply.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
I agree with that. However, the whole thing could have been handled better, right?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It’s gone on for a while, but it’s been fought in the courts. And ultimately the courts made their decision very clear last night. So the Australian Open, Karl, is a great event. It’s one of the four grand slams. It’s got a long history an tradition. It’s much more than one tennis player, and it’s – you know, for me at least I’m looking forward to seeing two weeks of great tennis, and hopefully an Australian, maybe Ash Barty, holding the trophy aloft in the final week.
ALLISON LANGDON:
And Alex de Minaur in the mens. I mean, you know, we dream big, don’t we?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Sure.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Hey, look, we’ve got another big story, of course, we’re following this morning, and that’s what’s happening in Tonga. What kind of assistance is Australia offering at this stage?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We’ve pre‑positioned our humanitarian support. Obviously DFAT and Defence have activated their systems and processes. We’ve got a surveillance flight going over the country helping to identify where the damage has been to roads, to ports, to power lines. And, you know, Tonga is a close friend and partner of Australia. It’s part of that Pacific family. We’re coordinating, of course, with New Zealand as well. And we’ll provide every support possible to Tonga through this pretty difficult time.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Yeah, it’s a terrible time for Tonga. Look, we’ve got our own issues back here at home, which I no way are comparable, but we have some issues. You’re at the Coles distribution centre there in Melbourne. Where are we at with solving the country’s food supply crisis? We went to the shops yesterday and there’s clearly some big gaping holes in the marketplace?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
There’s no doubt there’s real pressure on supply chains. And it’s not just distribution centres, where I’m at today with Coles, but it’s whether it’s in the trucking industry, it’s in the abattoirs themselves, it’s right across that supply chain. And that’s because Omicron is seeing a massive increase in the number of cases and people having to isolate at home. But it’s not as severe as Delta, fortunately. It doesn’t require statewide or even localised lockdowns at this point in time. What we’re doing is we’ve changed the isolation requirements around close contacts, and what Coles have told me today is that’s making a positive difference on the ground in the distribution centres. And we’re expanding that beyond just the food supply chain to water, to energy, to telecommunications. We’ve got to keep our schools and childcare centres open when they start with term 1, because if we don’t there’ll be many parents who’ll have to stay at home looking after their kids, and that will mean higher levels of absenteeism as well. We’ve got a full‑court press, whether it’s with respect to specific measures around isolation, whether it’s with respect to allowing international students to work more hours so we can get more people into the workforce or whether it’s the various health measures that we’re also undertaking.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Look, it’s pretty bleak out there as you’d know. I’ve driven from the Sunshine Coast all the way out into regional New South Wales over the last couple of weeks – or before I got COVID. And let me tell you, businesses are really struggling.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
They are.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
There’s a survey done this morning, it says that 40 per cent say they don’t have enough cash flow for the next three months. There are significant staff shortages all over the place. Some businesses just can’t open with those shortages. I mean, this is, is it not, a small business crisis right now, Josh?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It’s really challenging, and no‑one should understate the challenges that businesses are facing because they are workforce related. And also people’s behaviour has changed – not as many people are going out to restaurants, the airlines are seeing large numbers of cancellations, and that’s affecting businesses as well. We’ve got the loss carry back measure in place, Karl. If you’re a small business that makes a loss, you can go and receive a cash refun from the ATO against taxes that you’ve previously paid. We’ve also got a small and medium‑size business Loan Guarantee Scheme. New South Wales and Victoria have announced changes around rental arrangements so that there can be some relief for commercial tenants during this difficult time. But we’ll get through it. And the problems that Australia is facing right now are not unique to us – they’re seeing mass absenteeism in the United Kingdom as well and other similar countries across Europe where there’s high numbers of Omicron. But we are also, according to the medical experts, getting close to a point where the number of cases may peak and then start to plateau and hopefully come down, and that will provide some relief as well.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Look, I mean, critical to keeping businesses open, to keeping child care an schools open will be access to rapid antigen tests. When will we have enough of those?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We’ve got 200 million on order. We’ve already provided 5 million across the aged‑care sector. We’ve provided 10 million to the states, which is going into those state clinics. And, of course, the states have got their own orders coming through – just 3 million arrived in recent days in Victoria. I think that more supply will certainly come on. But if somebody is sick, showing the symptoms, they need to go to a state clinic where they can go and get either a rapi antigen test or a PCR test and get that clear result and then take the necessary steps to isolate. We also have the pandemic leave payment, Ally. If somebody is forced to isolate or a close contact and forced to isolate, then we provide up to $750 for the week. And that’s from the Morrison government. There’s actually an emergency support payment in place to help workers get through this period right now.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Well, look, good to see that you’ve recovered from COVID, like my colleague Karl here and back up on your feet.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thank you.
ALLISON LANGDON:
I hope you and your wife didn’t do it too poorly.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I think hundreds of thousands of Australians are going through what we did. I don’t know about Karl’s symptoms, but, you know, you got the headaches and you got the cold sweats, but after a few days that passes. It still lingers a little bit with the fatigue, but fortunately it’s not as severe as Delta, an with respect to hospitalisations and ICU, my heart goes out to all those people who are struggling right now, and particularly also to those wonderful an selfless health workers who do a great job on our behalf.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Well said, Treasurer.