22 March 2020

Interview with Sharri Markson, Sky News

Note

Subjects: Coronavirus support package; Economic impact of coronavirus

SHARRI MARKSON:

Tomorrow the NSW Premier has announced that all non-essential businesses will close. How will these businesses survive this crisis?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Well obviously these issues will be discussed at the National Cabinet later tonight and there’ll also be a meeting of the medical experts of which the States are represented. Obviously today’s second package is designed to support small businesses and medium sized businesses and their employees in an unprecedented way. It’s a $66 billion package that will support pensioners, retirees, casual workers, sole traders and millions of Australians and obviously our focus is on helping people get to the other side.

SHARRI MARKSON:

If you’re one of the tens of thousands of businesses who are a non-essential service, and this is what the Premier said, that an essential service is a supermarket, a petrol station, a pharmacy, a convenience store, freight or logistics and home delivery. So if you don’t fall into that category, what is the unprecedented, this massive package that you’ve announced today, what will it give these small businesses?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Well what we have said is that small businesses will receive up to $100,000 based on the size of their wages bill as a way of encouraging small businesses to keep on their staff. We’re also strengthening and enhancing the welfare safety net by providing a new coronavirus supplement of $550 a fortnight. That’s on top of other payments. So that’s going to be a very substantial way to help cushion the blow for those people who very unfortunately lose their job or get stood down. 

SHARRI MARKSON:

In terms of the payments for Newstart, do you have projections on how many people will start receiving Newstart for the first time as a result of the job losses that are expected?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Well Treasury have looked at these issues and have costed around up to a million people getting this new payment from September.

SHARRI MARKSON:

And are these a million new people or in total a million people?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Well potentially it could be, obviously we, you don’t know what the true economic impact will be on the economy. But what we have seen is a dramatic impact already and it will obviously continue to be ever present for months on end.

SHARRI MARKSON:

So just to clarify that, we could have a million new people receiving Newstart because they’ve lost their jobs?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

We could have up to a million people getting this new Jobseeker coronavirus supplement and that’s what we have looked at in the context of what is happening across the economy. But again, these are very uncertain times and the important point to mention here is that some of those people who get the Jobseeker supplement Sharri, may not be unemployed, they may be people who have had reduced hours as casuals or reduced income as sole traders or people who have been stood down from their particular business but remain still attached to that employer. So there’s a range of situations where people can access this new coronavirus supplement but continue to work in some form.

SHARRI MARKSON:

Well let’s go to the unemployment rate then and I understand, you know, no one knows how this is going to unfold with any certainty, of course not. But what does some of your projections show about how high the unemployment rate could get this year? I mean are we speaking double digits or could it even be as high as during the Great Depression?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Well look these are very uncertain times, Sharri, and I don’t think it adds to the body of the discussion by speculating. What I do know is that people will lose their jobs, businesses will close but the Government is doing everything to support those people who may lose their job as well as supporting businesses to keep people in a job. Today’s package of measures, $66 billion, on top of the first package, on top of the $105 billion that we injected into the economy with the RBA, is a total of $189 billion that has been announced in just the last 10 days. That’s nearly 10 per cent of GDP and that reflects the gravity of the situation.

SHARRI MARKSON:

It’s extraordinary and you have moved quickly with this Treasurer. Look, you have announced that both banks and the Government will work together to give people mortgage holidays, to give landlords mortgage holidays, but one of the biggest concerns about small business is their ability to meet their rent, and I know you’ve already asked landlords to be sympathetic to this. But is there a measure, is there something you can do to actually protect small businesses who can’t pay their rent during this time when they are forced to close because they are a non-essential service.

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Well there’s a couple of points there. Firstly, we have worked very closely with the banks on a package of measures that they announced on Friday, which will see their small business customers not have any payments for 6 months. That’s very very significant. That could be a payment on a loan that they took out to fit out their office, that could be on a vehicle, that could be indeed on their mortgage that they drew down on to support their small business. So that will provide significant relief for small businesses at this time, and that is now available to small businesses…

SHARRI MARKSON:

But do you think the Government…

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

At the same time the States are, sorry, the States are working on what options they have through land tax and other means to reduce the rental obligations on businesses that are obviously going to do it very tough at this time.

SHARRI MARKSON:

Okay. Look you have announced an unprecedented stimulus package in our nation’s history already, as you just said. Do you think we can expect to see even more money poured in over the coming months?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Well this is not a set and forget announcement today. This builds on our first announcement and our other initiatives. We’ll do what it takes to support Australian jobs and Australian businesses. We continue, obviously, to work very closely with our State counterparts, with Industry, this is a Team Australia moment, and we need to build that bridge to the recovery. And we know it may take 6 months or more, but there will be the other side to the coronavirus and we want the Australian economy and the Australian people to bounce back stronger than ever.

SHARRI MARKSON:

Well looking at the other side of this crisis, are you expecting the rebound to be something that happens fairly quickly, or will it be protracted?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Again, we’re in the realm of the unknown here. Only the scientists and the medical researchers and the doctors will solve for the coronavirus, because they are the ones who will come up with a vaccine. The bankers, the politicians and the public servants, we can help mitigate some of the pain, we can help introduce some of these economic measures of support. But at the end of the day, this is a health crisis which will have a health solution, and that’s what we know will determine the timing and the rate and speed of the recovery.  

SHARRI MARKSON:

Treasurer, you’re the second most senior person in the Liberal Party, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party. Right now, the Government faces accusations, particularly from the medical quarter, of being underprepared, of taking too long to implement the travel ban that only came into effect midnight on Friday, of taking too long to put everything into shutdown. Why hasn’t the Morrison Government been over prepared and over cautious in its approach to this unprecedented crisis?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

We’ve continued to take the medical advice every step of the way and we make no apologies for the early restrictions we put on travel to Australia. We also, obviously, put in place the social distancing laws and today, the Prime Minister foreshadowed that there would be further discussions at the National Cabinet tonight about more measures to protect the health and the safety of Australians.

SHARRI MARKSON:

But in terms of the social distancing, you know people didn’t understand what that meant and its only, I mean we’re Sunday, it was just nine days ago on Friday that the Prime Minister said he would be attending a football match that weekend, which obviously he didn’t end up going to. But it was just nine days ago he said life continues as usual and he would be attending a football match. So you can understand why there are mixed messages to the public. Shouldn’t the Morrison Government have taken an overly cautious position in implementing earlier travel bans and earlier lockdowns to contain the spread of this virus so that the economic impact, ultimately, wouldn’t last as long and the virus would be contained? 

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Our focus has always been on the health of Australians; first, second and third. That is what is determining and driving the decision making. The economics are coming a very distant fourth to all of that. The focus is on getting people the health support, and we’ve made a number of announcements on that, that they need, but also the measures that we’ve put in place - whether it’s around our borders or whether its domestically - have been based on the best available medical advice.

SHARRI MARKSON:

Australians have been quite disgusted that a cruise ship with infected coronavirus passengers was allowed to dock in Sydney and 2,700 passengers spread across the country and now health authorities are engaged in quite a desperate effort to try and track them. This is pure incompetence. Why was this allowed to happen?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Again, border force, the State medical authorities, are working together on a range of these related matters and, of course, our focus is on getting people the support that they need and we do need the Federal and the State governments to continue to work together as we have done today.

SHARRI MARKSON:

Can you understand why people would be disappointed in this and think that the Government is incompetent when infected passengers were just allowed off a cruise ship rather than quarantined on the ship or everyone, you know, had their temperature checked before getting off?

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Look, these are unprecedented times and we are working across State boundaries and I actually do think that the National Cabinet has worked well. But, of course, the virus continues to evolve. It’s economic impact continues to worsen and we, as a Government, are taking the necessary steps to support the medical authorities at this time of need.

SHARRI MARKSON:

Treasurer, I am really grateful for your time and for you joining me tonight. Thank you.

JOSH FRYDENBERG:

Thank you.