NEIL BREEN:
Good morning to you, Treasurer.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, Neil. Nice to be with you and your Queensland listeners.
NEIL BREEN:
Can you even admit that you’re shocked by how well this has done, unemployment wise?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The labour market has surprised on the upside. Let’s not forget that last year, Neil, Treasury feared that the unemployment rate could reach as high as 15 per cent. That would be more than two million of our fellow Australians out of work. Today, the unemployment rate is 5.5 per cent and as you say, Treasury is expecting that next year, the unemployment rate falls below 5 per cent. Now, the last time you’ve seen a sustained period of below 5 per cent, you referenced the 1970s, it was briefly between 2006 and 2008. It would be a very significant development for Australia to have more people in work; more people in work is not only a good social outcome because it gives people more confidence and more hope and self-esteem, but it’s also good for the economy because it means more tax receipts, less welfare payments and people are out there strengthening our economy.
NEIL BREEN:
Obviously, the fiscal policy set down by the Government, and spending, has helped a lot. In Queensland though, we’re a bit stodgy. We’re about 6 per cent unemployment. Are you worried about Queensland, the rate here, and why we’re behind?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Yeah, it has been higher in the recent months. It was 6.1 cent in April, that’s down from 8.7 per cent in July last year. It has been trending, overall, in the right direction. There were about 250,000 jobs in Queensland that were created since the height of the pandemic. Now, clearly, it has been the Morrison Government – the Federal Government – that has done the bulk of the heavy lifting with the economic support. Our economic support has been more than double what all the states and territories have committed to combined. Our economic support includes infrastructure programs, skills programs and the tax relief that we were talking about this morning by giving 99 per cent of Australian businesses access to a supercharged instant asset write off, which has seen more than 100,000 motor vehicles being sold in the last month. The HomeBuilder program has seen a very strong housing market and new constructions, particularly for new and first home buyers. Then, of course, what we’re doing with personal income tax, with more than ten million Australians, particularly low and middle income earners, getting tax relief as a result of our policies.
NEIL BREEN:
Today, the state government in Queensland will hand down its Budget, we’re expecting a deficit of over $8 billion. That was in last year’s December Budget, which was delayed. Also $130 billion debt by 2023-24. Those figures aren’t going to be that high. The Queensland Government is going to claim credit for it over and above the Federal Government, though.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I will allow them to have their minute of sunshine to go and talk about their own Budget. For us, as the Queensland people know and the Australian people know, it’s been the Federal Government that has put in place the broader economic settings for the economy that has helped to see this very strong recovery. A recovery, as we have said, that has seen a labour much stronger than expected. But it’s all also economic growth in the last three quarters, Neil, be the strongest in Australia in more than fifty years. For Australia to not only to have its AAA credit rating reaffirmed in this environment, but to actually be upgraded is a positive development as well, and to see machinery and equipment, housing construction, motor vehicle sales, all of those things are really positive signs of increased economic activity.
NEIL BREEN:
You’ve already confirmed this morning that the Biloela Tamil family – it’s an important issue here in Queensland – will be reunited on Australian soil. What does that mean? Does that mean they’ll be able to live in Australia on going or does that mean they can hug each other in Perth for an hour today?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It will be more than that. The actual statement by the Minister, Alex Hawke, later this morning. So I will leave him to release that detail. But what I can say is that the family will be reunited in Australia very shortly and that announcement will be made this morning. Also factor in though that we’ve maintained a strong border protection policy, because tragically between 2008-2013, we saw more than 1,200 lives lost at sea. We’ve seen more than 50,000 unauthorised boat arrivals. We saw tens of thousands of people in detention. We saw billions of dollars of cost blowouts in our migration settings. So we took a tough policy. As you know, it was very difficult to implement. Many people smuggling operations tried to challenge that, but the net result was our policies have worked. We’ve been able to keep the boats at bay, we’ve been able to disrupt the people smuggling operations that pray on vulnerable people, and as a result, we’ve got more order to our international border policy and I think the public’s confidence in Australia’s border sovereignty has been reaffirmed and maintained and that’s a good thing.
NEIL BREEN:
This one is split down left and right lines. Right wing voters will say it’s the wrong thing, left wing voters will say it’s the right thing, but they won’t vote for you anyway. Four Corners last night, the links they tried to make between the Prime Minister and QAnon, what’s the Federal Government’s feeling this morning after that report? I’ve made mine clear this morning. It was rubbish. What are your feelings?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It might not surprise you, Neil, that I had better things to do than to watch that. Trying to draw long bows to then poke at the Prime Minister, or to shoot arrows at the Prime Minister. He put out a statement very clearly rebutting it, very clearly making his feelings known about the program. I didn’t watch it, so I’m not going to give you any insights about the particular nature of that program. I suppose a lot of other Australians have better things to do last night than watch it too.
NEIL BREEN:
Save yourself fifty minutes and don’t bother. Federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, thanks for joining me this morning.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
All the best to you.