KARL STEFANOVIC:
We are talking now to the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, from Canberra. Good morning.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, Karl.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Melbourne is a mess, isn't it?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It is a very challenging situation for Victoria families and Victorian businesses. We all hope, Karl, that the medical experts and Victorian Government can get on top of the latest outbreak and people can get back to life as normal in a COVID-safe way. But it is devastating news, as you say. Small businesses like restaurants were expecting a bumper weekend with Valentine's Day, with Chinese New Year and with people going to the tennis. I was speaking to one restauranteur who told me that it has cost him $50,000 in food, food that he couldn’t donate because it was so late, he had to throw it out and tens of thousands of dollars in wages because he had chefs that were working through the week preparing that weekend’s food and, of course, it is going to dent confidence as well. It is not a good situation for those businesses.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It is exhausting. Gladys seems to be able to handle and isolate clusters without closing the whole state down. What's the difference between her quarantining and contact tracing and Victoria's?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Again, it comes down to contact testing, contact tracing, having a very good system in place and no doubt Victoria has made improvements after that devastating second wave, but New South Wales is the gold standard because they haven't had a state-wide lockdown, even though they have had clusters of cases, for example, in the northern beaches. So, every state should learn from New South Wales. I think that's a very clear message from what we have seen to date. But there has been improvements in Victoria. We are offering help from the Federal Government and we stand with Victorians in this pretty difficult time.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
But clearly you are not being heard. You are saying that you would step into hotel quarantine in a more meaningful way but they are not accepting that help. Why not?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Again, those are questions you will have to put to Victorian Ministers. What we do know is that the AHPPC, which is the meeting of chief medical officers from around the country, have declared the Victorian situation a national hot spot and that our Chief Medical Officer is in daily contact with his counterpart in Victoria, and we stand ready to help wherever we can and we want Victoria to come out of this lockdown as soon as possible because I can only tell you from my own experience, my kids are not at school, my wife is working from home, and that is an experience that every Victorian family is going through right now.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Tough, tough. Australia's first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive this week, we think. Some are saying maybe even Tuesday or Thursday. When is the first jab in the arm going to happen, because it seems to me we have been talking about this for decades?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Certainly not decades, Karl, but I'm sure you have rolled up your arm and pumped your biceps and you are ready to go in front of the cameras, but Greg Hunt has said that those jabs are expected this month, that the vaccine is on its way. We didn't rush the TGA approval process, because we didn't have the same experience of the UK and US where they had tens of thousands of new cases. We have the virus under control but we do want to roll out the vaccine in a safe and considered way and that's what we are doing now that the approvals have been put in place. We have that other advantage other countries don't have which is we have a domestic manufacturer in CSL who will make 50 million of the AstraZeneca vaccines.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
I heard Monday, is that right?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Again, I'm sure you have got your ear to the ground.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
There is talk all welfare payments too this morning could be streamlined into a single payment for unemployed Australians. Is that happening?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I'm not going to speculate on the speculation.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Come on, Josh.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I know you want me to break news here on The Today Show, but we have our internal processes. I don't comment on those.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It is a good idea, though.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
With respect to JobSeeker, we have said that we will make an announcement about the future rate of that payment before the end of March, because at the end of March, that elevated rate we put in place through the pandemic comes to an end.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
We understand you have also been in talks with Facebook and Google over media laws. Have you got an update for us on that?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I did speak over the weekend to Mark Zuckerberg and also to Sundar, who is the head of Google. They were very constructive discussions and Paul Fletcher, the Prime Minister and I have also been also deeply engaged with the Australian media companies as well. We have made real progress, I think in the last 48 to 72 hours, and I think we are going to see some significant commercial deals, which could be of real benefit to the domestic media landscape and see journalists rewarded financially for generating original content, as it should be, and this is a world-leading reform. No other country has stepped in like we have. It has been a difficult process. It is still ongoing, so let's not get ahead of ourselves. But the discussions to date have been very promising indeed.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
See, it is not that hard to break news on The Today Show. Well done, Treasurer. Thank you for your time today.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good to be with you.