LEON BYNER:
Josh Frydenberg, good morning, and thanks for your time. How are we going with the amount we're spending to look after the states?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we're certainly contributing a great deal of money, both in terms of the COVID disaster payments to families and households as well as the business support payments. With the South Australian Government we entered into a 50/50 arrangements to provide grants to small and medium-sized businesses and that's money that's going out the door and being very helpful in cushioning the blow. But also the payments of up to $750 a week for people who have lost hours of work is very significant as well. I've also been talking to the banks and they are providing relief to their customers from mortgage repayments as well as the Australian Tax Office who are providing relief on various obligations to those taxpayers who are in hardship. So there's a lot of work that's been done at a lot of different levels to provide support but the states and the territories should be having no expectations that the significant Commonwealth emergency economic support that we're providing right now will continue indefinitely or at the scale that we're providing right now when we get to 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccinations because that, Leon, are the numbers that the Doherty Institute have indicated should be our targets because at those numbers, we start to see lockdowns, stringent lockdowns, become unlikely, the transmissibility of the virus reduces and the number of people who get serious illness also substantially reduces.
LEON BYNER:
So what's the timeline here? Is there a likely date when we're going to get to that point, do we know?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We do know that the momentum behind the vaccination program is really gaining pace and yesterday we saw 309,000 vaccinations being delivered. That's three MCGs full and, you know, that's a large number of people and a record number of people. What's been impressive about the recent uptake in the vaccination rates is that the hesitancy we saw earlier on, particularly around AstraZeneca, has started to reduce. Over 40 per cent of that 309,000 jabs were AstraZeneca and nearly half of those were for people under the age of 60, so that's encouraging. But in terms of the date, we certainly want to do it by year's end and if we can do it sooner than that, that would be a very good outcome.
LEON BYNER:
What's your reflection on the unemployment rate?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, the unemployment rate has come down to 4.6 per cent, a 12-year low. Normally, Leon, that would be something to celebrate but not right now as millions of Australians are in lockdown and the economy has been hit hard. I point out that in South Australia, the unemployment rate came down to 4.7 per cent and we saw more than 10,000 new jobs created and in six out of the eight territories and states, we actually saw an increase in employment. So that was welcomed. But we saw also in New South Wales the number of hours worked fell by 7 per cent in the month of July, reflecting the fact that many people were stood down on zero hours. So while they may still have been connected to their employer, because of the health restrictions for work, it had zero hours of work and so that is the reality that we find ourselves in, not something to celebrate but it does underline the strength and the resilience in the Australian economy.
LEON BYNER:
What's your prognosis as we head up to Christmas where people particularly need every hour of job work they can get?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I'm confident and I'm hopeful that our economy will bounce back. We saw that before and I think we'll see that again. Another aspect of the ABS jobs data yesterday, Leon, was the fact that in Victoria, which was emerging out of lockdown in that month of July, we saw nearly a 10 per cent increase in hours worked and that shows you how quickly the economy can bounce back. We know also that some $290 billion - that's a lot of money - has been accumulated on household and business balance sheets compared to the start of the pandemic and that's money that people will spend. We've seen a big lift in machinery and equipment investment. We know that HomeBuilder has created a pipeline of construction projects. We know that job ads are up by more than 30 per cent compared to last year and we also know from the banks that the level of distress among their customers is significantly less than what they saw during the height of the pandemic last year. So I'm confident that we will rebound as an economy, nationally, but, of course, getting on top of the virus is going to be critical to that.
LEON BYNER:
So what's the big challenge for South Australia, Josh, in your mind?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
A big challenge for South Australia is twofold. One, to suppress the virus. So if there are any outbreaks to get on top of them with contact testing and tracing and I think the Marshall Government has been very effective in doing so. The second is to boost the vaccination rates. South Australia is doing well but every state needs to do more to reach those targets. And a lot of supply is coming on, as you know, we've not just got Pfizer vaccines coming in and AstraZeneca vaccines being made here but we've also got Moderna supply coming onboard, too. And so there's going to be sufficient vaccines for everyone to get the jab and anyone listening to this program at home, who hasn't been vaccinated, please do so. Roll up your sleeve, get the jab because it not only protects you but it also protects your family, it protects your job and it's going to ensure that, as a country, we can open up quicker and we can get back to a COVID-safe normal life.
LEON BYNER:
So if more people get the jab it is likely that things will get back to normal much more quickly. Is that the message here?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Absolutely. It's unequivocal. I mean, if you look in the UK, they have a vaccination rate of more than 75 per cent. They haven't been able to eliminate the virus and nobody should think that we can here. They're still getting 30,000 cases a day and in many days more than 100 deaths a day. So you can't eliminate the virus. But what you can do is vaccinate as many people as possible so you reduce the chance of serious illness and that's why people need to get this protection.
LEON BYNER:
Tourism industry and hospitality have gone through an absolute whack. Is there any notion that we're going to do more to help them or has there been enough in the view of Treasury?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We're talking to the South Australian Government about continuing to help businesses across your State. We've already done that with the $40 million package that we entered into with the Marshall Government and we also had those COVID disaster payments that were available for the short, sharp lockdown that you had. We will stand by South Australians every step of the way, as we've done so from the start of this crisis.
LEON BYNER:
So your message is onward and upward, prorsum et sursum in Latin.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
My message is carpe diem if, you want to get Latin. Mine only comes from the Dead Poets Society, Leon, but, you know, seize the day, that's what people need to do. They need to seize the day because this is our opportunity. Australia has done remarkably well to avoid the large number of deaths that we've seen in other countries around the world. I'll give you an interesting statistic. In the UK, if they had the death rate that we in Australia have had, then they would have had only 2,500 deaths not 130,000 deaths. In the United States, if they had the death rate from COVID that we have had, they would have had just over 12,000 deaths, not 620,000 deaths that they've had. So we have done remarkably well to put ourselves in a position where our population has been safe. Equally so on the economic front, we saw our economy be bigger than it was going into the pandemic and we saw more people employed than going into the pandemic and that was done ahead of any other advanced economy. But there is, of course, no room for complacency. Delta has changed the game. We are going to see the economy contract in the September quarter and we have real challenges ahead but I, for one, can see a light at the end of the tunnel.
LEON BYNER:
That's Josh Frydenberg, the Federal Treasurer.