NEIL MITCHELL:
Treasurer good morning.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, nice to be with you Neil.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Well thank you. Can we get to the Frawley centre in a moment? Couple of quick things first. This report on alleged war crimes, if it leads to convictions, if people are found guilty, do we have to be prepared and ready to pay compensation?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well first thing to say is the CDF will be standing up later this morning Neil, at 11 o’clock and running through the report and the various issues in it. I haven’t read the report so matters such as compensation and others I’ll leave to him. But it’s fair to say the Government is taking these allegations very seriously. They do need to be assessed and investigated. We’re setting up an office of a special investigator. We’re setting up an independent oversight panel with three eminent Australians which will report to the Minister. But I also want to make the point how Australians can continue to be very proud of the remarkable work that our defence force does on our behalf around the world and indeed here in Australia. We’ve seen the response from the ADF through the bushfires and through the COVID pandemic. This doesn’t reflect on the broader culture within the ADF or indeed the wonderful service provided by our veterans.
NEIL MITCHELL:
But if it is as damning as you suggested it’s very important how we react isn’t it? We need to react, and as I said full and fair and frank justice and if necessary, compensation.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Indeed, our veterans and our defence force personnel who put their lives on the line would expect us to do exactly that. We as a nation need to take these issues very seriously and have them assessed and investigated in the proper way and that’s what the Morrison Government will do.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Something else, the lockdown in South Australia. You were very critical of the Victorian lockdown. Do you support the South Australian one?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We have supported it as a timely and rapid response, but the Victorian and South Australian lockdowns are chalk and cheese. I’m not here to relitigate some of the arguments that were made during the Victorian lockdown. But this is a short and sharp period of around six days, compared to as you know four plus months in Victoria. They’ve had a cluster of 20 cases in South Australia, we’ve had more than 20,000 here in Victoria and as you know many of the issues and the challenges that we faced in Victoria were related to our paper based contacting tracing which the Chief Scientist Alan Finkel said was overcome when there was that spike in cases in July and in August. Whereas the South Australian contact tracing system has been praised not just by Alan Finkel but also by the senior former health bureaucrat Jane Halton who did a review. So, I will leave the matters to the South Australian Government over the coming days but it certainly at this stage, looks like a challenge on a very different proportion to the one we faced in Victoria.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Am I right in assuming the Federal Government though still supports keeping the borders open?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well we have always said that closed borders cost jobs, and I note that the Chief Medical Officer himself Neil, said that this is a moot point as people are currently locked down in South Australia and that New South Wales hasn’t closed their border neither has Victoria and the ACT. So, we’ve always maintained a line that closed borders does cost jobs. But those will be matters that the state governments as you know, have authority over.
NEIL MITCHELL:
You’re not health minister, I know, but have you had any advice on the possibility this is a different strain in Adelaide?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I haven’t, better talk to Greg Hunt. It is a reminder though Neil, that the virus is still with us despite the great success we’ve had around the country in suppressing the virus compared to other countries around the world. It can rear its ugly head from time to time and we need to be vigilant about that. It’s very promising to read and hear about the developments with the vaccine but there’s still a long way to go in the COVID-19 crisis.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Well that said, do you regret any of your commentary around Daniel Andrews. I mean today is 20 days in a row zero-zero, which suggests that he got something right.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I don’t regret any of those comments. I made a number of pointed interventions, one specifically about the need to have a timetable to reopen, the second was after reading that open letter from a number of women GPs to the Premier where they talked about the impact the lockdown was having on young kids, and having as GPs to give anti-depressants to kids as young as 12. I said at that time Neil, that there was no timetable for students in years 8, 9 and 10 to get back to school. Then the third major intervention I made was when I talked about the impact on small business and we were told you could go and watch your horse at the Cox Plate, but you couldn’t open your small business. As the Treasurer I was seeing that half a million Victorians were effectively unemployed. So I made those comments, but I note that you had many comments to say as well about Victorians feeling dudded at the time. So…
NEIL MITCHELL:
Yeah, I’m not the Treasurer. Just onto another issue though, China. You’ve urged a rebuilding of the relationship with China. We’ll get to the Frawley thing in a moment. An olive branch, you talked about respectful dialogue. Well that’s been met with a club in the face from China. China says Australia is poisoning bilateral relations, says China is angry. You make China the enemy, they will be the enemy. This is a country with an appalling human rights record, it behaves like an international bully. Particularly as a Jewish man you must well understand the reality of genocide and concentration camps and you must look at the treatment of the Uighurs held in their camps in their thousands with horror. How far are we willing to go to pacify China?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well we’ll always defend our national interests and that will mean our economic security, that will mean our national security and that will also be about speaking up about human rights abuses wherever they occur…
NEIL MITCHELL:
So, are we able to stand up and say well the treatment of the Uighurs who are effectively in concentration camps is outrageous, is wrong?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We have made our views known about human rights both publicly and privately…
NEIL MITCHELL:
So, what is our view on the Uighurs in the concentration camps?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well we obviously have great concerns about the treatment that has taken place there and there has been some pretty terrible images that have become public about the treatment of the Uighurs. We’ve also had comments to say about developments in Hong Kong and as you know we’ve also made some very clear decisions about our national security, our cyber security, our foreign investment framework…
NEIL MITCHELL:
Australians being held without charge.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We have made comments and made very clear our views there. The key point…
NEIL MITCHELL:
But do we stand by these things because here we have a list from China saying hang on this is why you are a pain and you’ve got to back away from this, do we stand by them?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well I noticed in this list Neil there is a reference to our free press and the views that are espoused there. I know there’s comments about ASPI which is a security policy institute that which the Government has funded. I noticed that they made comments about Australian Parliamentarians and their views. We have a democracy, we cherish those views to be expressed as widely and as free as possible, and our interest are non-negotiable. Now that is distinct from the economic partnership that we want…
NEIL MITCHELL:
But does that mean we don’t back away from anything on that list they provided? We stand by all the things they’ve objected to?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well everything I’ve seen on that list, all matters that have been mentioned, we stand by them and we continue to defend our national interests.
NEIL MITCHELL:
So even the Belt & Road comes up. Is Victoria still wrong to be involved in the Belt & Road deal?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well we have never supported the Belt & Road and that has been our position. It doesn’t matter whether it’s our free press, or whether it’s the views of our Parliamentarians, or security institutes, or foreign investment or Belt & Road, our positions are well known and we are sticking to them…
NEIL MITCHELL:
But if that’s non-negotiable as it seems, it is non-negotiable correct?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Our national interests are non-negotiable, absolutely.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Ok so if our position on all of these things is non-negotiable, if we stand by our principles, do we have to accept that we’re going to lose trade? Because they are saying toe the line, or else.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well Neil it is a challenging time in terms of the relationship with China and I pointed this out in the speech I made yesterday where the views in the United States have changed from seeing China as a strategic partner to seeing a strategic competitor and this has impacted upon them…
NEIL MITCHELL:
But do we stand on our principles? Do we stand on principles here even if it alienates China?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We absolutely stand on our principles and they are, as I said, non-negotiable. They continue. But we also view the economic partnership with China as being an important one. It is not just important in terms of our resource sector and our agriculture sector, but in terms of international education, in terms of tourism. These are vital relationships and partnerships that we’ve had with China. Now we want to see them continue and that’s why I said yesterday that we were very happy to sit down and have a mutually beneficial and respectful dialogue. That being said, our national interests are clear and consistent and we stand by them.
NEIL MITCHELL:
They’re not even answering phone calls. Anyway look can we move on to the Danny Frawley centre, that is better news. Where did it come from? What’s the involvement? What will it be?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well it’s a $8.5 million commitment by the Morrison Government. It will be developing a wellbeing hub, a community hub down at Moorabbin. It will be a multi-purpose space for school and community groups. There will be education facilities, there will be consulting suites, you’ll be able to host events in it. Its focus will be on mental health and encouraging people to become more aware of some of those challenges, and where appropriate, to seek medical advice. We need to decrease the stigma that is involved for some people in seeking medical advice and as you know it’s a major problem across the community. Tragically, 65,000 Australians try to take their lives every year and eight families lose a loved one in Australia every day to suicide, and it’s particularly prevalent among young people, so it is very important that we invest in this area. Danny was very passionate, as you know about mental health and this program and this new building will very much be true to his name and will be part of his legacy and will honour his memory.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Have you ever got personal advice, had personal experience with this sort of thing and this mental health crisis?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well probably like most of your listeners I know people very close to me who have tragically battled their demons, and in one case a friend of mine took his own life. That was completely unexpected and that’s why it’s so important I think that we talk about these issues. Not just about the cure and the treatment but also about prevention and getting in first. Given St Kilda Football Club’s profile, I think this is a great opportunity to send a much broader message to hundreds of thousands of Victorians, and particularly to honour Danny’s name and his legacy.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Thank you very much for your time I appreciate, and I agree entirely. Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.