MICHAEL ROWLAND:
The Treasurer Josh Frydenberg joins us now from Melbourne. Treasurer, good morning to you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning. Nice to be with you, Michael.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
This news overnight from both the UK and European regulators giving the big tick to the AstraZeneca vaccine must come as a huge relief to the Australian Government?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It's good news that the AstraZeneca vaccine has been given the green light by the European regulators. As you know the vaccine has been rolled out very effectively in other countries, particularly in the United Kingdom where more than 12 million doses have been administered. Here in Australia we are relying on the AstraZeneca vaccine, also the Pfizer vaccine but the fact that we'll be making the AstraZeneca vaccine under licence by CSL here in Australia gives us a big edge because it’s a domestic sovereign manufacturing capability that many other countries don't have.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
When does the locally-produced AstraZeneca vaccine start being distributed, is it as early as next week?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Again, I'll leave those announcements to the Health Minister but we do know we’ll be getting one million doses by the end of this month, per week, from CSL manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine. We have already distributed some of those AstraZeneca vaccines we have got from overseas, as well as the Pfizer vaccine but having that domestic capacity, Michael, will be very important in getting the vaccine out to all Australians who want it.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Let's go to the jobless figures yesterday, the unemployment rate down to 5.8 per cent - undoubtedly great news - but attention now turns to what’s going to happen in nine days' time when JobKeeper ends. You keep talking about this bumpy road ahead for the Australian economy in the months after JobKeeper comes out. That's just another way of saying, Josh Frydenberg, isn't it, that there'll be lots and lots of job losses come the end of March?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Earlier this week, the Reserve Bank board put out its minutes for its March meeting and it said with the end of JobKeeper, the expectation is not to see a sustained increase in the unemployment rate. In fact, both the Reserve Bank of Australia and Treasury have been forecasting for the unemployment rate to come down over the course of this year after JobKeeper has ended. Now, I’ve said it will be bumpy because you have got around one million Australians who will remain on JobKeeper in the March quarter. But this has always been a temporary program. This was always an emergency payment. At $90 billion, it's the single-largest economic support program that any Australian government has ever undertaken. So we’re going to move to the next phase of support, which is direct, targeted support, such as the aviation and tourism package we announced the other day. So the jobs are coming back but the job is not done.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
OK, they'll come back eventually. As you pointed out the Reserve Bank is saying. So a million people on JobKeeper. How many of those will be out of a job come the start of April?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, again, the best forecasts that we've had from both the RBA and Treasury have said even when JobKeeper ends, the unemployment rate will continue to trend downwards...
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
That towards the end of the year but I'm asking, the program has to end, and I hear you, and there'll be consequences from that. I want to talk about the consequences. At the start of April, how many Australians on JobKeeper now, will be out of work?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we'll have to wait and see what the April job numbers are in but I wouldn't skate over the February numbers that have just come out just yesterday. What they did show is that employment levels are above where they were at the pre-pandemic level. We saw 88,700 new jobs being created. All those jobs were full-time jobs. More than 80 per cent of those jobs went to women, more than 40 per cent of those jobs went to young people. 88,700 new jobs was nearly three times what the market was expecting. The labour market here in Australia has been remarkably resilient and that is a cause for celebration but it is not the end of the matter because we still have a lot of people doing it tough right around the country, a lot of sectors and regions doing it tough. That's why our support, even when JobKeeper ends, will continue.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
The treatment of women has once again dominated Parliament this week. You were sitting right behind the Prime Minister, Treasurer, when on Monday he told the tens of thousands of women marching around Australia to be grateful they were marching in Australia, we're a free democracy, and if they were marching in other countries in our region, they'd be shot. What was going through your mind when you heard the Prime Minister say that?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, he was championing Australia's democracy, and that is a cause for celebration and…
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
It is, but why didn't he just stop there? Why bring in bullets and violence?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
With the greatest respect, Michael, I think you're over-interpreting his statement. What he was saying was that in Australia we have a right to protest. We have a right to demonstrate. And around the rest of the world, they don't necessarily share, in many places, including those close to home in our region, they don't share the same democratic rights and values, and principles that are the foundation for our country.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Yes, but is it a sentence you'd use...
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Yes, people were demonstrating...
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Is it a sentence you'd use?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, every day of the week I would say we are fortunate in Australia to have the democratic right to demonstrate and to protest. But the key point the Prime Minister was also making, in that very statement, was that he understood the frustration of the people who were demonstrating, he welcomed their call for greater action and he's committed to that. He's committed to delivering an improved culture in Parliament House. We have a series of significant reviews underway, including one which reaches across the political aisle and is led by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins. We take these issues very, very seriously. That is why we're acting, not just with these reviews and processes, but also with our increased investments in preventing violence against women by creating safe places, increased counselling programs, including a new information campaign that was launched just last week.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Treasurer, thanks for your time this morning.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
My pleasure.