KARL STEFANOVIC:
Treasurer, good morning to you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Nice to be with you, Karl.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
First up. Almost 250 Australians trapped in quarantine on that cruise ship off Japan for at least two weeks. Boy oh boy, that’s a haul. What help is the Australian Government going to be offering them?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Look, we’re in close contact with them and, obviously, what we will do is ensure that all Australians are getting the support overseas that they need. We’ve put in place travel restrictions, as you know, to protect the Australian public from the evolving Coronavirus, we’ve had fourteen cases here in Australia, more than 20,000 people have been infected globally, more than 400 deaths. So, it’s clearly evolving. But what we are doing is taking the best possible advice, Karl, from our Chief Medical Officer in order to protect the Australian public.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Treasurer, we saw another case confirmed in Queensland overnight and today there are reports you have identified abandoned mine camps as potential quarantine centres for Aussies coming in from virus hotspots. Does that suggest that you are expecting this crisis to worsen?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we actually don’t know how long it will be sustained, how severe it will get. What we have seen with previous epidemics like with the SARS virus back in 2003, that there was a hit to the Australian economy, that there was obviously real challenges when it was evolving, but then subsequently the economy bounced back quite strongly and that we also saw the threat diminish. So, we know that our best medical minds are working on a vaccine, for example the Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, is working with the University of Queensland and the CSIRO on a vaccine and, of course, other key scientists around the world are doing their best too.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
So that’s true, you’ve identified abandoned mine camps for the possibility of taking people there for quarantine purposes?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Karl, what we’re doing is we’re looking for accommodation for those Australians who come back home but have been in China since the travel bans were put in place.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
So, the number of people who have this is doubling, I think, or contracting this, is doubling every six days. Can you give us an idea of the parameters about what you’re planning for here?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Look, I don’t want to go into the specifics of those numbers. But what we do know is, you’re right, the number of people who have been infected has increased, the number fatalities has increased, but at the same time, we’ve put in place these precautionary measures to protect the Australian people based on the best possible medical advice. My job, obviously, as the Treasurer is to ensure that the economic harm to the economy is mitigated and that it doesn’t have the long-term effects.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Let’s look at that economic harm because our seafood industry has been brought to its knees. It’s costing our tourism industry $1 billion a month, many businesses are impacted. What help is the Government offering?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, you’re right that it will have a significant impact on the Australian economy. That’s because China is our number one trading partner, we had more than 200,000 Chinese students here in Australia last year. What we’ve got is more than 1.4 million Chinese tourists to Australia and obviously that has all been of great economic benefit to our country and to support the mutual relationship. We will continue to work with those industries. We’re talking to, for example, the tertiary education sector as to how they can mitigate the impact on their sector by these travel restrictions.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Treasurer, we now face, legitimately, our first quarter of negative growth in nine years, we’re facing it. In the past year alone, as you know we’ve suffered floods, devastating bushfires, we’ve had drought. As Ali points out, tourism is suffering, universities now potentially losing millions. How can you possibly now make surplus?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The Governor of the Reserve Bank, Karl, made his first major speech for the year yesterday at the Press Club and he said that the fundamentals of the Australian economy are very strong and that Australians can be optimistic about their future. We’ve seen in the recent job numbers that unemployment fell to 5.1 per cent, it was 5.7% when we came to Government, more than 1.5 million new jobs have been created and the Budget is back in balance for the first time in eleven years. We’ve got the benefits of the tax cuts flowing through to the economy. So, don’t write off the Australian economy. It’s been enormously resilient. As for what you’re talking about, the March quarter, we won’t know those results to June, so it’s too early to speculate. What we do know is that the fires have had an impact on the economy, the ongoing drought is having an impact on the economy, but because we're being disciplined economic managers, because we brought the Budget back into balance, we've got the flexibility to respond. For example, with the $2 billion National Bushfire Recovery Fund. Now, the Labor Party took to the last election $387 billion of higher taxes. Could you imagine whacking retirees and superannuants and family businesses and income earners with those taxes at the time we're battling fire, flood and now disease.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Interestingly, the RBA Governor yesterday also said that climate change will profoundly impact the economy. You have very loud voices within Coalition ranks, you’ve got Barnaby Joyce, George Christensen, I mean, they want to open more coal-fired power stations. How do you balance what he was saying yesterday with division within your own ranks?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We’ve got a target that we signed up to as part of the Paris Agreement and Australia is actually doing much better in meeting that target than many other countries. That target is a 26 per cent reduction by 2030 on our emissions levels on 2005. We’re doing about 13 per cent since then, whereas Canada is down by only 2 per cent, New Zealand is actually up by 4 per cent, China is up by 67 per cent and India is up by 77 per cent. So, we’re actually getting on with the job of transitioning our energy sector to more renewables. One in five Australian households have solar panels on their roofs…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Going to renewables is not exactly opening up new coal fired power stations, that’s what the National Party wants to do. Anyway, debate for another day. I want to ask you this before you go about help for bushfires and communities impacted by the bushfires. What are you announcing today?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we’re continuing to roll out programs, for example, the small business support that we’re providing grants of up to $75,000 for primary industry businesses that have been affected. We’ve obviously got the Household Assistance. We’ve got $2 billion which is initial and additional on top of the existing allowances that we provide payments through the states to people who have been affected. We’re going to be there for the rebuild and we’ll make sure that we rebuild better into the future.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Well we’ve got floods on the way now. I mean…
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It’s challenging.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It’s challenging to say the least. Josh, thanks for your time today, appreciate it, we’ll talk to you soon.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good to be with you guys.