NATALIE BARR:
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg joins me, still on the beach in Lorne, good morning to you. Are you confident that households and businesses will actually go out and now spend enough to help the country recover?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well that money is available to be spent and history will show that as a confidence comes back, into the economy after the economic shock that we have received from COVID-19, people will spend that money and as you say, some $200 billion dollars is now on people's household balance sheets, but also business balance sheets, money that was not there in January of last year. Now that money is a result of extra government support, it’s also a function of increased savings as people become more cautious during a crisis. But also the health restrictions that have been put in place, particularly last year, meant that people couldn’t go and spend their money in the normal way, at cafes or restaurants or on local holidays and the like. But that money is now being spent. We have seen a big jump in household consumption, we saw strong retail numbers for the end of last year and we know the economic recovery is well underway, with 85 per cent of the 1.3 million Australians who either lost their jobs or saw that working hours reduced to zero at the start of the pandemic now back at work.
NATALIE BARR:
So Josh, it feels like we’ve got two stories here. All those great figures you are quoting, we’ve got businesses, who, everyone’s got a story of business that can’t get workers because they are happy on JobKeeper and yet, we’ve got Margy Osmond from tourism saying the tourism sector is hit so hard, they are losing millions a week. We’ve got the Northern Beaches of Sydney, businesses that may go to the wall. We got pockets of this economy that are struggling badly, so does help from the government need to be more targeted here?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We have got a combination of both economy-wide support, so the tax cuts, infrastructure spending, the JobMaker hiring credit, the JobKeeper program, the JobSeeker Coronavirus supplement but also targeted support at particular sectors because as you say, there are sectors of the economy that continue to do it tough. There are families doing it tough right now. So in the budget, we put $350 million to boost regional tourism. We have announced a program to support travel agents who’ve obviously been hit by the international border closures, that was an extra 100 million dollars. The Homebuilder program was designed to support jobs in the construction industry. So we have adopted both a targeted support packages towards particular sectors but also economy-wide support and it's that combination of that approach that will help people get to work.
NATALIE BARR:
Moving on, health chiefs have defended the AstraZeneca vaccine after its efficacy rate was questioned. Reports this morning that talks are underway to produce this Novavax vaccine at CSL's manufacturing plant in Melbourne. Is this an indication our vaccine strategy is now going to pivot towards this jab?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well you heard yesterday from the Chief Medical Officer Professor Kelly being quite upbeat about that Novavax vaccine going through its clinical trials. But what we do know is that the government has accepted the best medical advice available to us, which has meant a portfolio approach. As you know, the Pfizer vaccine, which requires transportation, and refrigeration at minus 70 degrees Celsius. We also have the AstraZeneca vaccine which can be manufactured and will be manufactured here in Australia to be rolled out. We got a portfolio approach, which has been the medical advice to the government. We are now seeing those approvals go through those normal processes with the Therapeutic Goods Administration, that has to ensure that all the data for the vaccines, as we have heard from Professor Kelly, are safe and they’re available and then we’ll proceed to provide those jabs across the country and the idea is to get hopefully around 4 million by the end of March.
NATALIE BARR:
Are you worried about getting to that? Because you’ve got lots of Australians, lots of people I'm talking to and I'm sure you, saying this is rushed, I’m worried about this. You’ve got now this 62 per cent figure that has been bandied around and people are even more worried about that, and you’ve got a whole bunch of stories on Facebook where people are sharing, saying there are bad reactions in England. How will your government going to sell this vaccine to Australians?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We need to listen to the medical experts, not a politician or a TV presenter. The person who must listen to is a Chief Medical Officer. They are the authority, they are the source of the medical advice to the government and their advice is at the vaccines that Australia will roll out across the country are safe. They are available and that they can be administered effectively and save lives. I think that was the key point from the Chief Medical Officer yesterday. Rolling out the AstraZeneca vaccine will help save lives and we have heard from epidemiologists, we’ve heard from microbiologists, we’ve heard from other health officials that it is important to roll out that vaccine and get it to as many Australians as quickly possible.
NATALIE BARR:
The US House of Representatives is currently debating the resolution to impeach Donald Trump for the second time. This is a live look at the house floor where that vote is expected in the coming hour. Is your government concerned this could spark more violence?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The United States will proceed with their processes, their political processes, and we will, of course, be watching that very closely, but the attack on the Capitol in Washington DC was despicable, it was disgusting and by attacking democratic institutions, they were attacking democracy itself and as you know, the Australia-US relationship is very strong and it doesn’t matter who’s in the White House or who’s in the lodge, the relationship is very strong. It ensures and it is in Australia's national interest.
NATALIE BARR:
OK, Josh Frydenberg we thank you for your time this morning.