NEIL BREEN:
Of course, everyone on the weekend was watching the tennis. I reckon my next guest was, too, Josh Frydenberg the Federal Treasurer. Yes, Josh, Ash Barty, she did it for Australia.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
She did, and a very proud Queenslander. Good on Ash. It was a Barty party down in Melbourne. And to see her hold the trophy aloft, Neil, after a drought of more than 40 years, it was really wonderful. And then to follow that up with Rafael Nadal, a real favourite of the Melbourne crowds, was fantastic to see him come back from two sets to love and beat Medvedev. It was a win of heroic proportions.
NEIL BREEN:
It sure was. It sure was. I know that you’re thinking that your victory over the economy through COVID, Omicron, the whole thing, has been of heroic proportions. You’ve got these figures today that have been published out of APRA, $424 billion households and businesses have accumulated on their balance sheets since before the pandemic. $424 billion richer we are. How has that occurred?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, Neil, that’s been a combination of factors. Firstly, people have been receiving Government support. So the various programs that we have rolled out have focused on low and middle‑income earners, and that has boosted household disposable income. Secondly, people have not been able to travel either interstate or overseas as they otherwise would, and that money has been saved, put in an offset account, used to pay down the mortgage or money that businesses and others have accumulated. Thirdly, the tax cuts that we’ve been providing have put more money into people’s pockets and billions of dollars has already flowed, around $30 billion to more than 11 million Australians in just the last few years alone. And then, finally, people have been a little bit more cautious, as you would understand through a pandemic and, therefore, they haven’t spent as they normally would and that money has been saved.
NEIL BREEN:
Is this, you know the $424 billion on the balance sheets, I look at figures like that, I’m not an economist so I do my best to read about them, does that count the growth in property, property wealth? Say my house was worth a million bucks and now it’s worth $1.4?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It’s not looking at the net worth of people…
NEIL BREEN:
Okay.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
What it’s looking at is the amount of money…
NEIL BREEN:
It’s cash.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The amount of money that’s been accumulated. And that is money that wasn’t there at that time. Now, of course, the net worth has also gone up because, as you say…
NEIL BREEN:
Property prices, yep.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Property prices have gone up, and that’s made people feel pretty good if they own their own home. Obviously it’s also challenging with higher property prices for people entering into the market for the first time, and that’s why we’ve put in place programs like HomeBuilder. But it’s, this is a massive war chest that will help underpin the economic recovery. It’s money that will see businesses invest in backing themselves, buying new tools, buying a new truck, upgrading a production line, all of which will obviously boost productivity and create jobs.
NEIL BREEN:
So, Treasurer, it goes at two speeds, though. I think some people have done well, others obviously haven’t done well and have had their careers and livelihoods destroyed. Many businesses, too, you know, a lot of cafes and places like that. I know that homewares companies and Harvey Norman and all of those companies have done really well because people have spent on that. Obviously the Federal Government has got to be worried about the two speeds of the economy, or do you think there’s not so much two speeds?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, there are definitely sectors that have been hit harder than others. So, tourism is one sector that’s obviously been hit hard, and that’s why we were helping out the wildlife sanctuaries, the zoos and the aquariums in Queensland as well as the Movie Worlds and the Sea Worlds and the other, you know, very famous theme parks in Queensland, because we recognised that you couldn’t take the normal number of tourists because the borders were closed. The hospitality industry has been hit hard. Most recently because of absenteeism and people not being able to turn up at work because they had the Omicron variant. But, you know, earlier on in the pandemic it was because they had health restrictions that were put in place. So there have been sectors that have been hit harder, and that’s why our economic supports have been both targeted but also broad‑based.
NEIL BREEN:
Treasurer, while people, you know, obviously many have done okay and we’ve got through economically by and large through the COVID‑19 pandemic, why isn’t the Australian public listening to what the Federal Government’s done? Because the primary vote for the Coalition is down to 34 in Newspoll, Labor is up to 41. Two‑party preferred it’s slaughter – 56 to 44. Better Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, down to 43, Albanese up to 41. You’ll say you don’t listen to polls. But the Coalition listened to them enough to install Turnbull in the first place and then take him out in the second place. This poll has to be worrying.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, certainly there’s a lesson or a message in this poll, and that is that, you know, Australians continue to face significant challenges with COVID. And many saw their summers disrupted by Omicron. And that is frustrating. Nearly two years into the pandemic, it continues to be challenging. When I was in Queensland last week I actually found it quite encouraging when I was talking to people because they remained optimistic about the year ahead and they also recognised that the Government’s pulled out all stops, whether it’s on the economic front or on the health front, so much so that the vaccination rate is now one of the highest in the world, the mortality rate is one of the lowest in the world, and you’ve seen, when we talked about the unemployment rate, is also very, very low – the lowest in more than 13 years. And in Queensland there’s more than 300,000 people that are now in work that weren’t in work when we as a Coalition first came to Government. So I’m still look at the glass half full…
NEIL BREEN:
All those things are true. But people think that you botched the rollout of the vaccines, even though Australia’s got the highest rate anywhere in the world. People think you botched the rollouts of RATs, and those things look like they’re sticking in these poll numbers.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
And I acknowledge that it has been challenging for people. But I point them to where we are right now, and the fundamentals of the economy are strong. We’ve performed better than nearly any other economy around the world. I mean, in the US, Neil, there are over 3 million fewer people who are in work today than at the start of the pandemic. In Australia, there are 250,000 more people who are in work. So this poll reminds us of the mountain that we’ve got to climb between now and election day, but ultimately it will be the Australian people who decide who they want as their Government on election day. And you remember back in 2019 there were many, many political pundits, many in the media, who wrote us off, wrote the obituary, and then that was turned out to be wrong.
NEIL BREEN:
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, thanks for your time today.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Always a pleasure.