PAUL MURRAY:
Josh Frydenberg is the Treasurer of the country, the main money man. Now there are great numbers to celebrate at the moment. More people have a job now than pre‑pandemic, retail sales have gone way up in the past couple of months and things are starting to get much better when it comes to the economy. We all know if it's about the economy Government wins. But there are alternatives as they say in politics, and we talk about Albo‑nomics.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The best way to increase wages is to create more jobs and a tighter labour market where employers are actually competing for workers, and that's what's happening right now, Paul. Labor talks a very big game in opposition but if you actually look at their record in government it tells a very different story. They talk about jobs. Unemployment was 5.7 per cent and rising under Labor. It's 4.2 per cent today at a 13-year low and we've got an opportunity now to see an unemployment rate with a 3 in front of it for the first time since 1974. They talk about wages as you just did, whereas real wages were falling when Labor left office. They talk about the cost of living, but electricity prices doubled under Labor. They've come down 10 per cent under us since December 2018. They talk about the debt levels, but they want to keep spending like on JobKeeper or the COVID disaster payment or paying $6 billion to Australians who have already had the jab. I mean you've got to call out the Labor Party for their lies, as you say for their each‑way bets, but you've also got to hold them to account when they say, you know, the test of the Morrison Government will be what happens to jobs. Right now more jobs are being created, the unemployment rate's coming down. A very different story to what happened when Labor was last in office.
PAUL MURRAY:
Well, and I talked about it on the show last week, sort of Albo‑nomics, right. When asked by Neil Mitchell, "If you're not going to cut spending and you're not going to increase taxes what are you going to do? Um, um, um, um, oh yeah, $16 billion in decisions taken yet not yet announced". Presumably every announcement you make between now and the election based on that $16 billion Labor's against ‑ so let's say they've saved 16 billion. He then went on to list a whole collection of policies that added up to $33 billion in spending. Albo‑nomics, save 16 but spend 33?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well that number's even higher than $33 billion and you just have to rack up all their spending promises. They think there's this money tree and they can just pull off, you know, money from that tree and spend it willy‑nilly. The truth of the matter is we've got to draw a line in the sand, and we have. We've brought JobKeeper to an end. But you'll remember, Paul, at that time when we did Anthony Albanese said the economic roof would come crashing down. Since that time more jobs have been created. We've brought the COVID disaster payments to an end and since that time we saw the economy strongly rebound. Recently the States asked us to spend more, and we declined that offer, yet the Labor Party criticised us for doing so. And when it comes to taxes, we've actually cut taxes for households and small businesses, whereas Labor at the last election were promising $387 billion of higher taxes. You're right, they take a bet each‑way and they stand for higher spending and higher taxes.
PAUL MURRAY:
I think the story there that you've put forward and the facts and the lived experience of people watching us right now is obvious. If it's about the economy, then the result of the election is very obvious. But it seems that the mixture of the press and the left of politics want to of course do everything but talk about the economy so put simply: you know where the headline number is right now, you know where the economy is right now, and they don't seem to match up. How do you win this next election if the wall of noise won't let people hear the reality of the good story that is the Australian economy?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We talk about the issues that are most important to Australians: economic security and national security. When it comes to economic security it's about lower taxes and creating more jobs and that's what our record shows and our economic plan that we're rolling out continues to create those jobs. When it comes to national security, as you know, Paul, we're living in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical, geostrategic environment. We're investing more money in Defence. Labor didn't commission one Naval vessel to build when they were last in office and Defence spending went to its lowest level since 1938. In contrast, we've been investing record amounts in Defence, investing in our intelligence and our law enforcement agencies, and of course helping out our neighbours when they need it as well. There is a very clear contrast between each‑way Albo on the economy and national security and what Scott Morrison continues to do for the Australian people and his Government.
PAUL MURRAY:
Last one here. My phone exploded today when the news broke that the Federal Government's giving more money to the ABC and SBS. Now, unlike any other media company they have a guaranteed revenue stream of $1 billion. By their own admission they mis‑paid staff by $30 million, they spend tens of millions of dollars on advertising on Google and Facebook despite the fact that they have an eco‑system of the Internet, radio and television to market themselves. Why have you approved more money for the ABC and SBS?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The spending for ABC and SBS has been in previous Budgets as well and I see a role for the national broadcaster, but I also want to ensure that the broadcaster is balanced. I think when it comes to covering, you know, natural disasters and other important events they do a very good job. And when it comes to Google and Facebook, we negotiated a deal which saw money go to commercial networks but also more money going to the ABC. That money's being invested in regional journalists. We'll continue to support the ABC but that's not ‑ doesn't mean we won't hold them to account when we perceive them not to be balanced in their reporting.
PAUL MURRAY:
But, again, one of the reasons people blow up and some people might be blowing up right now, and I understand the choice that's there at the election, but people are frustrated because, well, what lesson can be learnt if they end up with more money than they had before? Don't they just say, "Oh great, we just push the Government as far as we can. We talk up the fact independents and they'll send money our way"?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It's not - it doesn't work like that, Paul. Their funding is like it has been consistent in previous budgets and we also, you know, continue to hold them to account and you hold them to account for their reporting. It's really important that, you know, the ABC continues to play a role in our community but that doesn't mean they're absolved from scrutiny, transparency and accountability.