PETER STEFANOVIC:
Treasurer, so for Victoria, what are you going to do?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well I had a constructive discussion with my counterpart yesterday Pete, Tim Pallas, and the Prime Minister spoke to the Acting Premier, James Merlino. We’ll have more to say in due course. But we do recognise there is a need in Victoria with the extension of this lockdown to support Victorian families and workers. This is a very difficult time, and the Victorian government has already made an announcement for their support based on the initial first week of the lockdown. We made a decision that with the one week lockdown that support from the Federal Government would not be required, as it wasn’t required in other states like Queensland and Western Australia when they had short lockdowns. But now that the lockdown has been extended we’re considering our options.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Is one of those options a one-off JobKeeper-style payment of $1,500 bucks a fortnight?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we’re not bringing back JobKeeper. We’ve no plans to do so. As you know, that was a 12-month program initially started at…
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Yeah, but what about a one-off payment? Is that an option?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, again, we’re looking at a series of options and we’ll have more to say in due course. But the pandemic’s not over and the support from the Morrison Government’s not over, either. We have been with the Australian people every step of the way during this crisis. We saw the product of that support yesterday in the national account numbers when we saw economic growth of 1.8 per cent, and despite Japan and France and Germany and the United Kingdom all going backwards over the March quarter, the Australian economy expanded. The Australian economy today is bigger than it was going into the pandemic. We are ahead of any major advanced economy in seeing that occur, and that’s a tribute to the hard work of more than 25 million Australians.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
What’s part of the deal that you’re considering at the moment with Victoria, Treasurer? Is it as is being reported this morning that whatever contribution you make then that has to also be matched by the Victorian state government?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we do recognise there is a need for the state government to contribute and to continue to contribute, as they’ve already announced. Our measures are always based on a set of principles and we set out those principles early on in this pandemic namely, that our support would be temporary, it would be targeted, it would be measured, it would be using existing systems. Those principles guided us very well from the start of the pandemic and will continue to guide us for future support packages.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay. But as for the state government chipping in exactly what you chip in as well, is that a requirement? Is that going to be a requirement?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, again, I don’t want to pre-empt, Pete, any announcements or decisions that we may make or take. But what I do want to say is that the Morrison Government has been with the Victorian people, has been with the Australian people, from day one of this crisis, and the pandemic is not over, and neither is our support.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay. There have been failures in the Victorian system, well-noted failures - a lack of QR codes, contact tracing that’s still clearly not up to scratch. People outside Victoria, Treasurer, will ask, “Well, why should we keep bailing them out?” Is that a fair enough question?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, Victorians are asking questions, as you allude to. They’re asking why was a regional city like Mildura with around 50,000 people more than 500 kilometres away from Melbourne that hasn’t had a case in 13 months, why was that subject to the same lockdown restrictions as the suburbs of inner Melbourne? They are asking the questions why in New South Wales have the students been out of a classroom for around 30 days whereas in Victoria some students have been out of the classroom for 21 weeks. I mean, Victorians are asking those very questions – why does it happen to us? Why have we gone through a fourth lockdown which has not been replicated across other states? That is the question that Victorians are asking, and those are answers that have to be provided not by us but by the Victorian government.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Yes, but are you asking that question as well, as the Party’s most senior Victorian?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, you’ve seen my comments over the course of this crisis about some of the failings that have occurred in Victoria. But I also recognise the need to engage in a constructive dialogue, which I do have with the Treasurer in Victoria and the need to provide the support where it’s necessary. But our position for the first week of this crisis was very clear – that a state government, in this case the Victorian government, has the capacity, Pete, to respond as required. They announced a $250 million support package, and we welcomed it.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Well, the state also argues that part of this is on your Government as well. There’s been a poor vaccine rollout coupled with no purpose-built quarantine facilities. So do you have to accept part of the blame here?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, there’s a couple of things there. Firstly, on the vaccine rollout, that is gaining pace. We’ve seen 700,000 jabs in the last seven days. It took 47 days for the first million doses to be rolled out. It’s taken just over, I think it was 13 days for the last million doses to be rolled out. So we have seen a speeding up of the vaccine rollout, and it’s pleasing to see more people being willing to get the jab, as they should. With respect to the quarantine facilities, we do have a proposal from the Victorian government for a dedicated facility, and as the Prime Minister has said, we’re looking favourably at that particular proposal and we’ll have more to say about that shortly. We also put in the budget half a billion dollars to expand the Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory to take 2,000 people, and that work’s been underway.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Just finally, Treasurer, the health adviser, the chief public health officer of South Australia, as a matter of fact, said yesterday advised people not to touch the ball, the football, if it comes into the crowd. Is that the kind of health advice that you’re happy to be circulating?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, I have to say I found that advice passing strange. I did note that the chief health adviser said that she had not been to many games of football. As you know, when the ball comes towards you, it’s often not your choice as to whether you could touch it or not - it comes at a rapid pace.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
That’s right. You’ve got to touch it otherwise it’s going to hit you in the scone.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
That’s exactly right. We want those scones to be kept for jam, not for bumps on the head. But the reality is, Pete, that, you know, in states outside of Victoria people can enjoy the football, and they should. They should obviously be practical when it comes to the health advice, and that means that our health advisers should also be practical in the advice that they give.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, thanks as always for your time. We’ll talk to you soon.