MATT DORAN:
Treasurer, good morning. A big thank you for your time.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning.
MATT DORAN:
The RBA boss says it’s important that we don’t withdraw the fiscal stimulus too early. I appreciate the ultimate solution here is for businesses to get back to work, we can’t prop them up forever. But, is September too soon to cut off these payments?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The Governor’s appearance yesterday saw him say a number of important things. Firstly, he said it was very good news that the Government doesn’t have to spend $60 billion extra on the JobKeeper program because the economy is in better shape than initially thought. He also said it was very sensible that we are doing a review at the mid-way point of the JobKeeper program. And he also said that because of the uncertainty in the economy, it is too early to say whether that extra support will be required. But what the Government is focused on is that transition, as you say, building that bridge to the recovery to ensure as many Australians get back into work. As you know, the National Cabinet has agreed a 3-step process to lift restrictions and if that is done, 850,000 people will be back in work and $9.4 billion will be added to the Australian economy each month. So that’s the way we need to go, but at the same time, we recognise that maybe additional support will be needed for some sectors that are slower to recover.
MATT DORAN:
He did say all of those positive things, Treasurer, I agree. What he did though as well, was give that stark warning that if it’s withdraw too quickly, we could find ourselves in a new and quite dire situation. What industries, if any, would you consider extending JobKeeper for?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It’s not always about JobKeeper. It’s also about what other support packages and initiatives you can undertake in various sectors. For example, housing, that is a sector where there is going to be a slow-down in demand, reflecting the slow-down across the broader economy. It’s not just the plumber and the sparkie and the carpenter who are employed on a building site, but it’s that full supply chain; the timber mills and other suppliers into a building which are critical. So, we’re looking at initiatives in that space. Tourism is another one. 70 per cent of the tourism dollar is actually a domestic tourism spend, so it’s critically important we lift those border restrictions. I say to the leaders of Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia, lift those borders. There is no medical advice that says that those borders should be closed and Australians will start to get back into their great habits of travelling around the country and that, in accordance with the medical advice, will see more jobs come back into the economy.
MATT DORAN:
Open the borders. Just quickly Treasurer, I know you’ve got to run. An interesting proposal this week; HECS-style loans in effect for businesses, interest free. It’s worked so well in the university sector, would it work here?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We’ve already announced $40 billion worth of support through loans, partnering together with the banks. Those loans don’t have the interest payable on the first six months, they’re for three years, they’re up to $250,000 and we’ve already seen more than $1 billion of loans being committed through that process. So, we have loan facilities available. We also support loans to our exporters, recognising that one in five Australian jobs are in trade. So we continue to look at our options but we already have a number of loans available, including of course, to our farmers which are critical at a time of drought.
MATT DORAN:
A big and delicate job ahead. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, thank you very much for your time this morning.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good to be with you.