PAUL MURRAY:
Josh Frydenberg is the Treasurer of Australia. I had a chance to talk to him about these numbers and a few other things that matter.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We saw contractions in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, whereas all the other five jurisdiction, states and territories continue to grow. And that is a good sign for the economy going forward. Now that those lockdowns for Delta have ended, we've actually seen 350,000 jobs come back since the start of September. We've seen retail trade pick up significantly as restrictions have eased. And indeed in the Black Friday sales just last week, the retailers are saying they saw a 50 per cent increase in spending, more than $5 billion in retail trade sales, which is really positive. And then business investment has really picked up, it’s up more than 9 per cent through the year. And we saw a recent capital expenditure survey that showed non mining business investment intentions, the strongest on record, with an expected $100 billion plus being spent on investment this year. There are some really positive signs. We just have to stay out of lockdown, keep getting the vaccinations rolled out. And I think we can continue to grow as an economy and more people can get into work.
PAUL MURRAY:
Now, the Labor Party, by the way, they attacked you in Question Time today, they know that this is the central pillar of the reason to vote blue over red on top of all of the other issues, China, 2030 climate targets, all the rest of it, right? They came at you in a stupid fashion. But I want to ask you this. We know what they suggested last time, but what is the idea that they are suggesting for this time, that means they will not do the same economic job that yourself and the Prime Minister have been able to do in the past three years?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, as you know, Paul, they're trying to play a small target. But we know that a leopard doesn't change their spots. And the Labor Party are addicted to higher spending and higher taxes. And we saw that at the last election, $387 billion of higher taxes, on your superannuation, on your income, on retirees, on housing and on family and small businesses. That was what they took to the last election. It's not like their beliefs have changed in the last three years. They haven't. They're just trying to strategise a bit differently. And we also know that Jim Chalmers has been proposing to their Shadow Expenditure Review Committee a $27 billion hit on family businesses. Given half a chance on the Treasury benches, they will whack Australian families and businesses with higher taxes. No two ways about it. But they have come up with three policies. They've come up with a national driver's licence, that's Albanese's big idea. You'll be able to drive from Melbourne to Sydney on the one licence. And maybe in the second phase of the programme up to Brisbane. They've come up with a second plan, which as you know, is to waste $6 billion of your money on paying people to get the jab who already had the jab. It just doesn't make sense. And so that was a big cash flash, which Senator Katy Gallagher has already walked away from and embarrassed her leader and the Shadow Treasurer on that. And then there's this third policy. I don't know if you caught up with this, Paul. But Anthony Albanese is talking about taking off the fuel excise from electric vehicles. There's only one problem with that. There's no fuel excise on electric vehicles. He wants to abolish a tax that doesn't even exist. This guy's never had a financial or treasury portfolio. He's never sat in an ERC and delivered a budget. And of course, he's addicted, as the left of the Labor Party are to high taxes and more spending. And what's more, he's a weak leader. And given the opportunity in government, it will be a partnership between red Labour and the green Greens. And Adam Bandt is already talking about his colleagues as being shadow Ministers. And we know what the Greens would do if they got their hands on the Treasury benches. Imagine Adam Bandt as Treasurer in an Anthony Albanese government. God help us.
PAUL MURRAY:
Well, let alone what they said yesterday that they would push the Labor government to a 75 per cent emissions reduction scheme by 2030. Now you remember your days in the Environment portfolio…
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I try to forget those.
PAUL MURRAY:
…You know the emissions world here. No doubt, but we know that the Australian people endorsed the government's position on 2030 a couple of years ago. They rejected 45 per cent. The idea that Labor has a track record of saying no carbon tax under the government I lead until I want to lead a government and then sure you can have a carbon tax. Now they may not go to 75, but they're saying that they should match the United States, that's 50 per cent. They're saying that up front. But they are so certain of victory, they believe that it is 2019, but with the right outcome, that they are telling us upfront what their plan is here.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, there's a lot of hubris on the other side. I mean, my counterpart, the Shadow Treasurer, Jim Charmers did an interview in The Australian the other day where he was talking about who his Treasury Secretary would be in government. I mean, he's already measuring up the curtains. It's quite unbelievable. Do you remember that image before the 2019 election of Bill Shorten?
PAUL MURRAY:
We showed it earlier in the show, they were ready, ready to go.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Jim Chalmers, they were ready to govern. Well, it's 2019 all over again for these people, they're getting well ahead of themselves. The Australian people will decide who their government is at the next election and I suspect it will be a close contest. But we do have a very strong economic record to show for even after this biggest economic shock, Paul, since the Great Depression, the first pandemic in 100 years. Unemployment today is lower than when we came to government, lower than it was under Labor. We're getting on with the job of creating jobs, of lowering taxes, of boosting investment, of staying Australia through this pandemic. The Labor Party if given half a chance, will wreck the joint.
PAUL MURRAY:
Bloody oath.