NEIL BREEN:
Good morning, Treasurer.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Nice to be with you, Neil, and your listeners.
NEIL BREEN:
Those figures, they're yesterday's figures. We've got to think about tomorrow and next month's figures and the month after that. Are you worried?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well the numbers do show that there's underlying strength in our labour market. As you know the unemployment rate reached nationally 7.4 per cent last year and to see it down to 4.6 per cent, as you say the lowest in 12 years, has been an incredible recovery.
NEIL BREEN:
Astonishing. It is actually astonishing that it is at that level.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
But it really was a tale of two states yesterday because in New South Wales we saw the hours worked fall by 7 per cent because the numbers took into account the second and the third week of their lockdown, whereas in Victoria they were emerging out of lockdown and the hours worked increased by nearly 10 per cent which indicates that the economy can bounce back very strongly once restrictions are eased. Queensland, as you say, did have the highest unemployment rate in the country and it did see 6,600 jobs being lost. So that's not good news for Queensland but hopefully with the economic support that we're providing in partnership with the State Government, and indeed the fact that you haven't had lockdowns like Victoria and New South Wales, can indicate that your economy continues to strengthen.
NEIL BREEN:
Right across Australia all the budgets were done, State budgets, Federal budgets, they weren't predicated on there being lockdowns, particularly not like the one we're in in New South Wales, the one that's emerged in Victoria, significant lockdowns. The bottom line in Australia must be getting seriously damaged, Treasurer?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, you know, you're not wrong about that, Neil. The fact that our biggest states have been locked down and people can't go to work in their normal way does impact the economy and what I've been told by Treasury is that the economy is likely to contract by at least 2 per cent in the September quarter. But people do need to have hope and they can have confidence in the future because we've seen the vaccination rate dramatically increase, 309,000 in just one day and more than 40 per cent of those vaccinations were of AstraZeneca, with nearly half of those being people under the age of 60. So that hesitancy that we saw just weeks, indeed in the last few months with respect to the vaccine, is ebbing away and more and more people are lining up to get the jab. And once we get to that 70 and 80 per cent number then we can start to ease restrictions across the country and I think that will be good news for the economy, and of course that will be good news for people's well‑being as well.
NEIL BREEN:
Josh Frydenberg, I'm worried about the splintering of our nation and the fact that the different premiers have different objectives and different goals and they're using different languages. You talk about 70 to 80 per cent, the Prime Minister talks about it, the premiers sometimes talk about it. I'm worried that even when we get to that measure, we have such conservative Chief Health Officers who only want to do one thing and that's keep us safe from COVID‑19, I'm worried they won't open up.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, I've made it very clear that states should not have the expectation that the Commonwealth's economic assistance, which has been going out in the billions of dollars each and every week, would continue at the scale that it has been and that is when we get to those 70 and 80 vaccination rates. The premiers and the chief ministers agreed with the Prime Minister on a pathway out of this crisis. The people listening to your program this morning understand that their premier and their Prime Minister are shooting for that 70 per cent vaccination rate. Once we get there, we're told by the Doherty Institute that lockdowns, stringent lockdowns are unlikely, that the transmissibility of the virus reduces and that the number of people subject to serious illness also substantially reduces. It's a fallacy to think that we can actually eliminate this virus, Neil. We're going to continue to have cases. We're going to continue to have deaths. People are going to have to live with this virus. If you look at the United Kingdom, they've got a 75 per cent vaccination rate, double dose, yet they have seen 30,000 cases a day, and on some days more than 100 deaths. The reality is that Delta is going to be with us for some time to come, but the pathway out of the crisis is for people to get vaccinated and people in Queensland need to run out and get the jab because that is the way to not just protect themselves and their family but also to secure their job and to ensure that our economy opens up.
NEIL BREEN:
Yes, because we can't live like this forever. Treasurer, we heard that a flight carrying some of the people we've rescued from Afghanistan was due back overnight or may have already landed in Perth. Do you know anything on that topic?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, Neil, I am a member of the National Security Committee of Cabinet so I'll be joining the Prime Minister and other members of our Defence Force and Cabinet for a briefing shortly so we'll get more information as to the latest developments. But as you know and as the Prime Minister said yesterday, we've been bringing Australians home, bringing locally engaged staff home and out of what is a very difficult and dangerous situation in Afghanistan. I think your listeners understand why we left Afghanistan, as the Americans did, but they're also saddened by what has been left behind because, you know, the Taliban can undo a lot of the good work that's been done, particularly for young girls and female education and the freedoms that they got to enjoy. It's a very, very difficult situation and right now our incredible men and women in the Australian Defence Force and in Foreign Affairs are working very hard to get people out.
NEIL BREEN:
Treasurer, it's easy to say what you want when you're the former Prime Minister, it's harder when you're the current Prime Minister and the current Treasurer but John Howard's been outspoken about his disappointment with the way the US withdrawal has gone. The Federal Government, what do they think about John Howard's comments?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we always respect John Howard. In fact I've spoken to him, so has the Prime Minister in recent days. He's a source of great wisdom and insight and advice. Our view is that when the Americans left we needed to also leave. We closed our Embassy and we've started to bring people home. We were there for 20 years and our mission there was to make Australia a safer place after 9/11. We fought terrorism in Afghanistan, so we didn't have to fight it here at home. And the contributions of our, again, Defence Force men and women were designed to do exactly that, and they were very effective in doing that. But we couldn't be there forever and that is why we have left, and the Americans have left, the British and other partners.
NEIL BREEN:
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, thanks for your time this morning.