PETER STEFANOVIC:
Joining me life now is the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Treasurer, good to see you. Thanks for your time, as always.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good to see you, Pete.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
So has New South Wales received preferential treatment?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Absolutely not. The situation in New South Wales is very challenging with the spread of the Delta variant, and the lockdown is going into the fourth week. And it is only appropriate that the Federal Government steps in to support Australia’s largest state and the biggest state economy across the country. The payments will take two forms: firstly, there is income support for households where we’ve elevated the weekly payment from $500 to $600 a week, as well as a lower payment from $325 to $375 a week based on the number of hours that have been lost due to the lockdown. The second payment is for businesses. It’s a form of cash flow boost, Pete, and it will vary between $1,500 a week to $10,000 a week based on the size of that business’s payroll.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
There is more money, though, for New South Wales. And, of course, you had the liquid asset tests that were scrapped. It does seem like New South Wales got better deal. Why didn’t you do that for Victorian businesses, as well?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
This is a longer lockdown in New South Wales. The important points to register: first is that New South Wales got exactly what Victoria got for the first two weeks of the lockdown. The second point is we offered Victoria a 50-50 split and they rejected it. They decided that they would pay for business support; we would pay for income support. Thirdly, we provided Victoria more on a per capita basis under JobKeeper than for any other state. As you know, they were in lockdown for a lengthy part of last year. And then, fourthly, what we have agreed with New South Wales is now a template that can be applied in other states, be it in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, any other state that goes into an extensive lockdown in the period ahead. So, people are sick and tired of the whingeing and the whining from the Victorian Labor government.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Well, that came pretty strongly last night. You had a strong statement from the Victorians, and it said that Victorians are sick and tired of having to beg for support from your Government. Called your actions at the time a disgrace. Accused you of double standards. I mean, this is your own state, Treasurer. How do you respond to those sorts of words?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, the Victorian government is just politicising the crisis. Their whingeing and the whining is continuing. And what that fails to recognize is the facts that I’ve laid out – that Victoria got more support on a per capita basis through JobKeeper than any other state. They were offered a 50-50 split, and that New South Wales has got no more money than Victoria did for the length of the Victorian lockdown, that two-week period. And now we have a template to roll out across the country. Any time that somebody challenges the Victorian Labor government or Daniel Andrews, the bots and the trots from Trades Hall get sent out into the sewer of social media to undermine, you know, the accountability that sometimes gets brought to bear on the Victorian government.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Was it a mistake, though, not to have a practical financial framework ready to go once JobKeeper ended rather than playing catch-up now, which would have meant businesses got more support earlier?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, because we’ve put in place a structure that depends on the length of the lockdown. So we set a very important principle…
PETER STEFANOVIC:
But should you have done this earlier?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we set a very important principle, that in the first week of a lockdown that there would be no specific Federal support and that that support that would go to either households or businesses would come from the state government. In the event that there’s a second week of a lockdown, then we put in place this income support through the disaster COVID payment system, and that’s appropriate. Then it goes into the third week, we take out the liquid assets test, and now we’re going into a fourth week and we’re providing broader business support. So it’s a graduated approach, and I think it’s appropriate. The framework will work well. And let’s not forget, Pete, that we have put to bear more than $300 billion in direct economic and health support. Programs like JobKeeper, the cash flow boost, the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement, the $750 payments to veterans, pensioners and carers have all played a critical role in stabilising our economy, so much so that we are ahead of any other advanced economy in the world to see more people in work today than before the pandemic began and our economy bigger today than before the pandemic began. So our economic response and our health response has been far better than nearly any other country around the world.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
But you always said that you expected that there were going to be further outbreaks. Why did it take this new outbreak from Sydney to trigger this extra round of funding?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, this is a lengthy lockdown. And it’s now going into its fourth week; it could go longer. I’ll leave those decisions and those announcements to the Premier of New South Wales. We’re also dealing with a more contagious and a dangerous variant in the Delta variant. So we’re dealing with this crisis, as you know, in real time. This is a once-in-a-century pandemic. This is the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression. But Australia has performed very, very strongly. The fact is we have avoided the loss of life that you’ve seen across other countries. In the UK, more than 120,000 people have tragically lost their lives. Here in Australia it’s less than 1,000. Unfortunately here in my state, in my state of Victoria, more than 90 per cent of the lives have been lost. I mean, this is a very, very difficult time and we are putting together the programs and the policies that are required to get Australians to the other side.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, as always, appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us. We’ll talk to you soon.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
My pleasure.