LAURA JAYES:
Treasurer, thank you for your time.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning.
LAURA JAYES:
Will you be talking about fast tracking infrastructure projects, which the RBA has essentially been begging for?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We certainly will be talking about how we can continue this extensive infrastructure pipeline, and where possible, bring projects forward. There are some capacity constraints, particularly in the big markets of Melbourne and Sydney, and that provides challenges as well as increase in costs of existing projects. But Laura, you have to recognise that we have the largest infrastructure pipeline in Australia’s history, with $100 billion being spent by the Federal Government over the next ten years, and that includes ground breaking projects like a second airport for Sydney, like the Melbourne-Brisbane Inland Rail Project which will create 16,000 jobs, on top of what we’ve been doing on the Bruce Highway, Westconnex, and other projects creating thousands of jobs.
LAURA JAYES:
The argument is that greater stimulus is needed now in the economic environment we find ourselves in. You acknowledge, the States acknowledge, that when it comes to productivity, you both can’t do it alone. So, will the Commonwealth be offering more financial incentive to the States to get this done?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, there’s been some talk about a potential asset-recycling plan that’s been mentioned by the States, but the Commonwealth position is that the States don’t need any financial incentives to recycle their assets. They’ve shown both the willingness and an ability to do that in the past and we’ll leave them to do that into the future. What we will continue to do is to partner with State Governments on really important projects. So, in Melbourne, we put down $5 billion for an airport rail link and so has the State Government, we’ve been investing in the Monash, we are putting $2 billion aside for a fast rail between Melbourne and Geelong, and as you know, in New South Wales, Queensland and every state, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, we have very extensive infrastructure pipelines.
LAURA JAYES:
Why did you reject a request for the Deputy RBA Governor to speak to this meeting about climate change?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, there are other forums where obviously those issues are being discussed as a matter of course, namely the Energy Ministers’ Forum and the Environment Ministers’ Forum. What we are focused on here are particular infrastructure priorities, particular productivity priorities…
LAURA JAYES:
Well, that would suggest that you don’t think climate change has anything to do with productivity.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, when the Queensland Minister wrote to me, she wrote about having a new climate agreement, and the Commonwealth is not proposing a new climate agreement. We’ve got our policies. That is all about meeting our Paris commitment of a 26 to 28 per cent reduction by 2030 on 2005 levels. Some of the States have their own renewable energy programmes, and we cooperate where possible. But we will meet and beat our targets as we signed up to.
LAURA JAYES:
Climate change though as a whole, is it hurting productivity? Is it something that comes into your thinking either now or in the future?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, certainly, there’s a cost to the transition to a lower carbon future, and as a member of the ERC and as a member of Cabinet, these are discussions that we have in the context of energy policy and other relevant policies and we continue to talk to the States. But we’re not, as a Federal Government, engaging in a new climate agreement, and if the States are proposing new revenue measures, namely taxes, then the Commonwealth’s not interested.
LAURA JAYES:
Okay. Just finally, the Farm Household Assistance Allowance, it was revealed yesterday that more than two hundred farming families in Queensland have been kicked off that allowance because it has a cap of four years. I assume the number is even higher in New South Wales. Can you afford and are you reviewing that cap?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, as you know Laura, we’ve just had a review and we accepted the review’s recommendations to take it from three years over a lifetime to four years over ten years, and so we’ve accepted that recommendation and the independent panel did not recommend something different…
LAURA JAYES:
What did the independent panel suggest farmers do, when they’re still in drought and their four years is up, and the drought could go on for another couple of years. What are they meant to do financially in that time?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, as you know, there are other welfare payments that come into play. But the focus, Laura, here, is how do we ensure that our farmers get the support that they need? And our policies are not set and forget. We are continually reviewing our policies with respect to the drought and the Prime Minister has made visits to that area and made recent announcements about extra funding. David Littleproud and I were recently in Inverell, Warwick, and Stanthorpe and we’re talking to the States obviously about water infrastructure projects. We passed through the Parliament the Drought Fund which will see $5 billion provided for drought resilience, and not only the Farm Household Assistance package, but there’s also the money that we’re providing to Local Governments. And I heard firsthand from Local Governments how the money that we’re providing is helping to employ local people throughout their community. So there’s a number of things that we’re doing, a number of things that we will continue to do into the future, and we’ll continue to review our policy settings because obviously this drought is just devastating to the extreme, and the people I met have seen nothing like it in their lifetimes.
LAURA JAYES:
Treasurer, thank you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good to be with you.