NEIL BREEN:
My special guest is the Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. He joins me on the line. Good morning, Treasurer.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, Neil. Nice to be with you and your listeners.
NEIL BREEN:
Two hundred thousand visa holders being allowed into the country. When’s this going to start?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, the PM will stand up later this morning with some further details, but it is the next sensible step in opening our borders, strengthening our economy and allowing those skilled workers to come back as well as international students. As you know, international students are a big part of our economy, worth about $40 billion a year.
NEIL BREEN:
Huge.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
And with skilled workers, whether it’s in agriculture, whether it’s in manufacturing, whether it’s in mining, construction, professional services including IT, we are seeing some workforce shortages. And these workers being able to come back to Australia will strengthen our economy.
NEIL BREEN:
Also today you’re in The Australian newspaper talking about tax relief for many businesses in Australia. One of the war footings between yourself and the Labor government is going to be on tax, the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, Neil, this has always been a fault line, a battle line, between the Coalition and the Labor Party. The Labor Party will always spend more – and you’ve seen that with their $6 billion they wanted to waste by giving people money who have already had the jab – and, therefore, they always have to tax more. And at the last election they took to the Australian people $387 billion of higher taxes – the retirees tax, the housing tax, the superannuation tax, the income tax increases as well as a family business tax. We rejected that and we also took to the Australian people lower taxes. Now, the Australian people voted for the Coalition and subsequently we’ve legislated that tax relief through the parliament. That’s providing an Australian worker – let’s say a teacher or a nurse – who’s on $60,000 a year $6,480 of tax relief as a result of the measures that we’ve passed through the parliament. But we’ve also cut taxes for small businesses down from 30 cents in the dollar to 25 cents in the dollar. That’s the lowest in 50 years. We’ve also put the biggest business investment incentives that Australia’s ever seen, and this is worth to small businesses $5 billion in tax relief this year and next. And at the same time by putting more money into people’s pockets or businesses’ pockets they’re creating jobs, and small and medium‑size businesses have created 600,000 jobs between April last year and September this year. So that’s what our focus is on – lower taxes. Labor are for higher taxes.
NEIL BREEN:
One of the interesting things in this sitting of parliament is going to be Pauline Hanson. She’s expected to introduce a bill against vaccine mandates in the Senate. And there’s some reports that several members of the Coalition could cross the floor on it. But the policy of your own government is against vaccine mandates. We know we’re going to have one in Queensland post December 17. How will the government handle this issue, since Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton and people like that are on the record saying they don’t like vaccine mandates?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we’ve never supported the mandatory vaccination program. And it’s been important that the voluntary program has worked very effectively, because that’s allowed our economy to open up. And across Australia, Neil, over 85 per cent of people have now received a double‑dose vaccination from that eligible cohort of 16 plus. That’s a really good result.
NEIL BREEN:
Which is astonishing. It’s astonishing when you compare that to what’s happening in Europe. Most of the countries have stagnated in the 60‑somethings.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
You’re right – it’s a very positive and strong sign of our ability to get vaccinated and, therefore, to open up the economy and to live with COVID as safely as we possibly can. It’s state governments that are taking these various decisions about the mandatory nature of vaccines; it’s not been the federal government. And what we want, though, is restrictions to ease and we want the economy to open up. And allowing international students and skilled workers to come back, seeing Australians come back without having to quarantine, that’s all a very positive sign, and it’s all been made possible by the high vaccination rates.
NEIL BREEN:
Yeah, there’s no doubt we need those international workers and the students. I think people don’t understand in Queensland that tourism is equal the number one industry on the Gold Coast with international students. Like, it’s quite an amazing statistic. But I suppose it will be a problem for the government if you do have members crossing the floor. Like, I’m just trying to find out politically how do you handle a bill from Pauline Hanson like that?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, in the Coalition members have crossed the floor – no doubt in future will cross the floor – on issues that are very important to them. Unlike the Labor Party, when you cross the floor, you get booted out of the party. That doesn’t happen in the Coalition, in the LNP. And I think that’s, you know, a source of strength for us. At the same time we want all Coalition members to vote for Coalition policies and legislative items that are before the parliament this week, including important national security legislation – protecting our critical infrastructure from cyber‑attacks, protecting the community from high‑risk terrorist offenders. And I’ve also got some important economic legislation as well. So all of that is important to get through the parliament, and I would hope my colleagues would support it.
NEIL BREEN:
The state Health Minister, Yvette D’ath, has called on the Federal Government to pay for the $140 or $150 PCR tests for people to come in to Queensland. What’s the Federal Government’s response to the Queensland government saying you pay for their policy?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, I think it’s up to the Queensland Government to answer why they want to impose this cost on people. We at the federal level have picked up the vast bulk of the expenses through the pandemic. As you know, we’ve spent billions of dollars procuring the vaccine, we’ve paid for the pathology providers, we’ve supported the GPs, we’ve supported both the public and the private hospitals, we’ve supported that procurement of PPE equipment and also we’ve provided the vast bulk of the economic support payments from JobKeeper and the cash flow boost and the coronavirus supplement to more recently business support payments, including to the Queensland tourism industry. That’s what the federal government has been doing and I think it’s been welcomed by the public. So it would only be sensible that the state government picks up their fair share, which I have to say has been a smaller share than the Federal Government.
NEIL BREEN:
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, thanks for your time on a busy day.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good to be with you, Neil.