MONIQUE WRIGHT:
Morning to you, Treasurer.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, Monique.
MONIQUE WRIGHT:
Firstly, I just want to ask about those rising COVID case numbers, those predictions of 25,000 per day by January. That's a really frightening number. Are you concerned by that?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, Omicron is a reminder that we're still in the pandemic and people can't be complacent. But at the same time, you've got medical experts like Australia's chief medical officer saying that while the variant of Omicron is highly transmissible, it's actually milder than what we've seen with previous variants and that the vaccines that have been rolled out across the country at record levels is actually providing a very effective defence against serious illness, so too are the various treatments that we are rolling out across the country. So, I think Australians can be confident and optimistic about the Christmas period and indeed into next year, because particularly the high vaccination rates, higher than nearly any other country in the world, have a proven defence against the virus. And at the same time, our economy is rebounding more strongly than nearly any other country around the world.
MONIQUE WRIGHT:
But nothing affects an economy like a lockdown. Lots of people are fearing that we are going to go into lockdown again, even though governments are saying that that's not going to happen.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, my message to the premiers is not to panic, don't overreact, show compassion, show common sense and understand that we need to live with the virus. Nobody wants to go back to lockdowns. That had a devastating effect on the economy, but also the shadow pandemic that Patrick McGorry spoke about where it affected people's mental health and wellbeing. We want that to be behind us and what we want in front of us is to safely live with COVID to get the vaccines and the booster jabs to those who are eligible and to keep our borders open. That's what's really important to reunite families at Christmas and to ensure that our economy continues to grow and particularly that we continue to create new jobs. And I've got some good news on that today with the mid-year update.
MONIQUE WRIGHT:
Yes, you do. Apparently, you're forecasting 150,000 more jobs than in the May budget. Why the increase? What kinds of jobs are they likely to be?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we're seeing jobs created right across the economy. A million jobs now in manufacturing, whereas under Labor, we saw one in eight manufacturing jobs being lost. We've seen jobs come back in the hospitality sector. In fact, there are workforce shortages right now, and we're creating new industries in defence, in space and critical minerals, which are also creating jobs. So, the good news is that the expectation is one million new jobs will be created over the next four years, stronger than what we were forecasting at budget. And it does just reflect the momentum we have in our economic recovery. Business and consumer confidence is up, job ads are now the highest level in 13 years, Australia has maintained its AAA credit rating, and there is very strong investment coming from businesses big and small. A sign that people have confidence in our economic recovery.
MONIQUE WRIGHT:
Alright. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg thank you. Good luck today.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thank you.