KARL STEFANOVIC:
Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, a small round of applause…
ALLISON LANGDON:
I think a round of applause this morning. Nice to see you this morning.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well thank you.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Have you had any sleep, by the way?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I had a few hours but obviously it was a busy night last night. The round of interviews, but also speaking with colleagues and key stakeholders across the country, explaining and unpacking the measures in the
Budget and then starting again this morning.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Very heavy burden. I mean, it’s such a debt. And there are so many assumptions in relation to a vaccine. Never before, or has it ever before been the case where so much is reliant upon medicine?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well the more debt and the more deficit is a function of the price of saving lives and livelihoods and the challenges that we are facing right now. And there is a great deal of uncertainty. You can’t overlook the fact that this is primarily a health crisis, Karl, that’s had a very severe economic impact, and only by suppressing the virus can we actually have success in reopening our economy and getting people back to work. But as for the assumptions around the vaccine, with a vaccine or without a vaccine, we are still bringing in a JobMaker hiring credit. With a vaccine or without a vaccine we are still bringing in these business investment incentives. Our path is set to create more jobs with the measures in this Budget.
ALLISON LANGDON:
How does it sit with you spending the amount of money that was announced last night and knowing what is going to happen to our debt?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, again, it is all about saving lives and livelihoods, and our measures to date have saved around 700,000 jobs. And the experience of previous recessions is that if you get on that unemployment queue, it’s very hard to get off it. And we want to avoid that experience that Australia had in the 1980s and 1990s and
that’s why we’ve thrown everything this year at getting people back to work.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
I mean, when you think about what you were supposed to be at, the level you were supposed to be at, you were supposed to be in the black, announcing that last night, does it, do you carry that? Is it a
Heavy weight to carry, putting this country into such a huge amount of debt?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Again, many Australians are doing it tough through no fault of their own. I thought it was hard
enough managing an economy with the drought, with the fires, with the floods, all of which devastated local communities. But then a global pandemic. And this is a once in a century shock and, Karl, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that around 600 million people globally have lost their jobs, and Australia has fared so much better than other countries. So your viewers sitting at home around the kitchen table about to start the school day, about to start the workday, they should be optimistic, they should have hope, and they should know that we are in the best country at a time when we are better placed than any other nation.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
If you are sitting around your kitchen table in Victoria though, and then there are assumptions in the Budget that Victoria coming out of this lockdown...
ALLISON LANGDON:
October 19.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
...Yeah that’s, what a couple of weeks away.
ALLISON LANGDON:
12 days.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well again, we have based that assumption on what the Victorian Government has set out as their roadmap to ease those restrictions. It’s not until the end of the year that things will really start to open up
across the other states with the border closures coming off and obviously Victorians being able to get back to work.
CHRIS ULLMAN:
What do you say to the children of Australia, Karl and Ali’s children, about the fact the intergenerational inequity of this, you have basically told children of Australia you are going to be locked down, you are going to lose your education, you are going to have to fight for jobs. This disease is mostly not going to affect you, and then you have to pay the debt in the long run.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Chris, my message to them is that it would be much worse for the economy if we didn’t right now, do everything possible to get people back into work. And as you know in the Budget, it says that but for the measures that we have introduced last night, the unemployment rate would be 12 per cent this year and next. That’s the counterfactual. That’s the circumstance that we were dealing with. So by getting people back into work, we can get a stronger economy and that’s how we can improve the Budget position, for my children and for all children watching.
ALLISON LANGDON:
You talk about getting people back into the workforce, but I think a lot of people were hoping there would be some sort of childcare announcement last night. Childcare is not affordable in this country and you’re not going to get women back to work, so you’ve spent $2 billion on dams, you’ve got $2 billion on new roads, $0.2 billion for women in the workforce and nothing for childcare.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
There are many billions of dollars in this Budget for childcare. In fact, childcare funding is at a record high. What we saw before this crisis, Ali, was that female workforce participation got to a record high off the back of our childcare reforms...
ALISON LANGDON:
Are you saying that childcare will be cheaper because of the announcement you made yesterday, in this Budget?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
What I have said is that the measures that we have taken in successive Budgets has made childcare affordable. Now I understand the challenges that there are in childcare, and I have been through those issues myself, but what we have designed through this Budget is a whole series of complementing measures to get not just women back to work but people right across the economy back to work.
ALLISON LANGDON:
But more broadly it does feel like women are the losers in this Budget, not just you know young families, and when we say women we’re also talking families here too, young men, but also middle and older Australian women.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
In terms of the senior Australians, we have specific measures to get them back into work. But the measures that we have introduced across this Budget include infrastructure spending, they include a whole range of measures designed to support the economy and obviously to create jobs.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Sorry Josh, we’ve got… a protester... (inaudible)
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
This place is never lacking action, I can tell you that.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
But every Budget has got its (inaudible) hasn’t it, and there is probably one there as well. But you have…
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
There are 11.5 million Australians who are watching your show and others. [Inaudible]. Well I have seen you say that but as you know Chris, we did legislate these tax cuts after the last election. The economy needs this boost. This measure alone will create 50,000 jobs and put more money into people’s pockets.
CHRIS ULLMAN:
Are you concerned at all that when you’re trying to get people to employ, that you are employing younger people, that businesses might opt to employ a young person and sack an old person?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We’ve got other measures to support seniors into work. We’ve obviously got big spending on infrastructure, we’ve got big spending in other areas of the economy. So this should not be seen as one measure in isolation from the others.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
You’re buying confidence, or trying to buy confidence, will it work?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Confidence is key. Hope is key. Optimism is key. This budget provides that support for families and that support to small businesses. And small businesses are the backbone of our economy and by providing these investment incentives they will buy, they will sell, they will deliver, they will maintain those assets. That will be good news for jobs.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Treasurer, good to talk to you. We’ll let you go get some sleep.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Not yet.
ALLISON LANGDON:
You’re looking very fresh this morning I must say, for a very late night and a long couple of days and weeks.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well there is an exercise bike in my office and I got onto that very early in the morning and somehow the sleep fell off my eyes.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Wow.
CHRIS ULLMAN:
How many k’s?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It’s a bike that goes nowhere. It’s a stationary one.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
The Budget will be better. Good on you Treasurer, thanks for your time, really appreciate it.