PETER STEFANOVIC:
Let’s head over to Canberra now, and joining us live is the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg. Treasurer, good to see you. Thanks for your time, as always.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Nice seeing you.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
You are taking the fight up to the states, which you have done now for the best part of a week. But you would have seen those comments from Mark McGowan yesterday – he’s hit back saying that if anyone says the national plan is to allow hundreds of people to die and wreck your economy, I think they are wrong. That’s certainly the language of someone who doesn’t want to play ball with you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, our point is that all state Premiers and Chief Ministers have agreed to a national plan. It’s a plan that gives Australian families and Australian businesses hope. It’s a plan that recognises that we need to learn to live with COVID – we can’t eliminate it – and that we need to move with the rest of the world and adjust our public health orders in accordance with that. We do know from the Doherty Institute, a world-leading medical research institute, that at 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rates we will see the transmissibility of the virus reduce, we’ll see the number of people with serious illness reduce and that, of course, we’ll still see cases and in some cases tragic deaths, but we can safely – and that’s the emphasis there, safely – live with the virus. And there’s a real economic and health imperative for our country to move ahead with the plan as agreed at national cabinet. We’ve got national accounts out this week, Pete, and it will show the impact the lockdowns are having on the economy. And we know from the figures released about mental health emergencies in both Victoria and New South Wales, our two lockdown states, that they’ve skyrocketed, particularly among teenagers, particularly among young girls. And the numbers are really quite devastating, and it wake-up call for our nation that we must be aware of what Patrick McGorry, a former Australian of the Year, has said about the shadow pandemic that’s occurring in our midst.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Just a couple of points there: what are you expecting this week when those figures come out?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, the market median expectation is around 0.5 per cent growth. But it could be a lot closer than that. But it doesn’t change the fact that whatever the number is, our economy faces some challenging days ahead. We are seeing the economy lose around $2 billion a week of economic activity as a result of the lockdowns in Victoria and New South Wales, and the federal government alone is putting more than a billion dollars of fiscal support into the economy, both for businesses as well as households. This is an unsustainable amount of economic support for our economy to see indefinitely. We just can’t keep doing it. And that’s why we have to bring those stringent lockdowns to an end, bring those border closures to an end and open in a COVID‑safe way.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Otherwise a double-dip recession will be in play?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, again, it’s going to be line ball in the June quarter. What I do know almost certainly is that the September quarter will be negative, but I’m also hopeful that in the December quarter we can bounce back once restrictions start to ease.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Hey, just to take a, you know, different argument. The west, as you know, is living COVID free. So in Mark McGowan’s defence why not take his approach and simply cut his state off from the rest of us?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, a few points in response: firstly, you’re seeing across Western Australia labour force shortages, and that’s holding their economy back. Secondly, we know that there are many businesses in Western Australia, particularly in the tourism sector, who are doing it tougher right now because of those border closures. Indeed, we reached an agreement with the McGowan government to provide business support, thousands of dollars in one-off grants, to tourism businesses in Western Australia because they had been hurt by their border closures and the lockdowns in the other states. And, thirdly, we need to be realistic: Western Australia can’t deny the reality that all states, all territories, all countries have to learn to live with COVID. And you’ve seen very proud Western Australians and influential ones, may I add, like Kerry Stokes or Rob Scott, who runs Wesfarmers, come out very publicly and say enough is enough, stick to the plan and open up accordingly.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
What happens, Treasurer, let’s say New South Wales and Victoria, those vaccination rates accelerate to 80 per cent and they get away from the other states. Should they - do you think that they should just be able to open up and go it alone, get things going, get international travel going on as well without the other states with them?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
You’re pointing out, I think, a very valid insight there which is that in Western Australia and Queensland their first dose vaccination rate is some 16 percentage points behind New South Wales. New South Wales yesterday was at 66 per cent and above. They were just under 50 in Queensland and in Western Australia. Now hopefully that dial can move in Western Australia and Queensland, but if you’re sitting there in New South Wales and you have endured this long lockdown and as a result you’ve gone out and got the jab and you’ve seen vaccination rates increase in record numbers, you’re going to want something in return – namely, you want your life back in a COVID‑safe way. So I can understand why Gladys Berejiklian is going to seek to make some minor adjustments around those restrictions because I can understand why it’s so important to get the kids back into school and that we learn to live with COVID. But we’ve got an agreed plan. Let’s stick to that agreed plan. But I can understand where Gladys Berejiklian is coming from.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Otherwise your states will be held hostage to the recalcitrants, right?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, that’s why we need to open up as one country, and that’s why we can’t have that ridiculous situation where an Australian can travel to Canada but they can’t travel within their own country to Cairns or an Australian can travel to Bali or Singapore but they can’t travel within their own country to Perth. I mean, that would be ludicrous. And, again, it underlines the fact why it’s so important that we open up as a single country and we open up in accordance with that agreed national plan.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, appreciate your time, as always.