PAUL MURRAY:
Now we know that we have more people who have a job in Australia today than were there before the pandemic, more than 13 million, but we also know that JobKeeper has ended. And it depends on from where one gets their source. But there were thousands of people who may well have transitioned off that and gone straight over to the dole, do you have any data yet about whether there has been a change in the unemployment queue since the end of JobKeeper?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
That data is yet to come through, but obviously JobKeeper has come to an end. At its close there was early a million people who were on it. But it was always a temporary payment, it was always one that had an end date.
PAUL MURRAY:
Often we hear in Parliament about the comparison with, what did they say, alternative policy measures. We know that at the last election it was things to do with people’s self-funded retirees, we knew there was the one about the investment of $400 billion of extra taxes that were coming. But supposedly each day Albo is out of there all day saying ‘we’re not going to do this, we’re not going to do that.’ So from an economic perspective, what’s the worst idea that the other guys have?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Higher taxes, and as you say, $387 billion dollars of higher taxes on everything. I mean, it was higher tax on your superannuation, a higher tax on your income, a higher tax on your housing, a higher tax on your franking credits if you’re a retiree. There was a heap of higher taxes that were put in place by the Labor Party to support their higher spending. We’re a lot more disciplined than they are when it comes to economic management. The Australian people made a very clear choice at the last election and we went on to legislate our tax cuts which have already started to roll out. Se we will continue to provide that strong economic management that Australia needs. And the fact that we have outperformed the rest of the world is evidence our economic plan is working.
PAUL MURRAY:
So when we talk about the economy growing, in practical terms, what will people see in their own communities and in their own lives when the Australian economy continues to get bigger?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Obviously it’s jobs. That’s what it all comes down to, getting those people who were out of work into work. People who were receiving that income support, being able to stand on their own two feet without that income support. So what we did see, during the height of the pandemic, more than 3.6 million Australians relying on the JobKeeper payment. Many of those, the vast majority of those, had graduated by the time the JobKeeper payment had come to an end. We’ve seen more than 700,000 jobs that were saved by that program and we’ll continue to see more jobs created by our other programs. But what we want for the Australian economy is for the private sector to lead the recovery.
PAUL MURRAY:
We know that the financial circumstances are different than they were 12 months ago, the pressures are different than what they were 12 months ago…
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Yes.
PAUL MURRAY:
But there is always an expectation, and I don’t know how this went from a national economic document to a ‘what’s in it for me?’ document, but give us an idea of some of the settings that you are putting into this Budget to expect? Are we to expect this payment for this people, are we going to start to see a level of restraint compared to all of the shots fired last year that worked and got us to a place were we’re growing bigger than the rest of the world?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well to put your viewers at ease, with respect to spending, it’s really important that they understand, you know, more than 90 per cent of our spending was front loaded in the first couple of years. We didn’t bake into the Budget long term structural spending. So what we have done, is targeted that spending in a temporary way. That being said, we’ve also legislated tax cuts. That’s money that will continue to flow through and that’s consistent with our values and our principles. If you earn more, we want you to earn more and we also want you to keep more of what you earn so you can spend that through the economy. But in this Budget, our focus will be on maintaining that momentum with jobs, but also providing the essential services that Australians need.