SHARRI MARKSON:
Treasurer, thank you for your time tonight.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Nice to be with you.
SHARRI MARKSON:
What, in your view, are Peacock’s greatest achievements?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, Andrew Peacock, Sharri, was a great Australian, and of course a great Liberal, whether it was as Leader of the Party, and he led us to two elections in 1984 and 1990, as a minister in the Gorton, the McMahon and the Fraser Governments, or indeed as the member for Kooyong for 28 years, where he carried the baton of his predecessor, Sir Robert Menzies. Andrew left an indelible mark on the Australian political scene. I think it's in the area of foreign affairs, which as you said in your introduction, John Howard referred to, Andrew made his most significant achievements. And that included helping to pave the path to independence for Papua New Guinea. He had a very sincere and genuine friendship with the people of Papua New Guinea and you can't overstate the significance of his role in helping to bring independence to PNG.
SHARRI MARKSON:
As his friend Treasurer, what are your most treasured personal memories of Andrew Peacock?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, like many, I was very fortunate to know him and to know him well. He launched my first campaign back in 2010. So to have the ‘Colt from Kooyong’, himself present was wonderful. And he had a great sense of humour. He was very authentic. And he told the story at the launch of the campaign, how, if I'm successful at the election, that I needed to send a draft copy of my first speech to him for approval, a bit like Sir Robert Menzies had said to him all those years ago. And I said, Andrew, well what happened when you sent your copy of your draft speech to Sir Robert Menzies? He said, not long after, the phone rang, and he said, hello. And he said, Sir, Robert, here. And Andrew said, did you get a copy of my speech? And Robert said, yes, he did. And Andrew said, what did he think of it? And Sir Robert said it was too long. So Andrew said, what should he do? And Sir Robert said to him cut it in half, to which Andrew asked the obvious question, which half? And Sir Robert said, it doesn't matter. So it was a real sense of humour that he had, that both Andrew and of course, Sir Robert Menzies had, and they enjoyed a good relationship. And when you...
SHARRI MARKSON:
So what did you do? Did you end up sending your speech to Andrew Peacock then?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
I certainly spoke to him about that. But you’ve got to remember, Andrew came into politics in his late twenties, he had already held the highest offices within the Victorian Liberal Party, and he was someone on the way up. And Sir Robert Menzies was very good to him. They maintained a very strong relationship, and Andrew went on to lead our party and, and to be a great Liberal in every sense of the word.
SHARRI MARKSON:
Look, I find it quite illuminating. Andrew Peacock tried to wrestle the leadership, or the Prime Ministership, rather from Bob Hawke, twice, but failed. In 2019, when he was celebrating his 80th birthday, he gave an interview where he spoke about his failure to ultimately reach that top job. And he said that he didn't have that desperate hunger. His quote was, “I wasn't sitting there like some do plotting to be Prime Minister, it wasn't in my nature.” How do you think that sets him apart from, you know, most other politicians?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, I mean, that was his own self-reflection, but there's no doubt in my mind, you know, he wanted to rise to the Prime Ministership, by virtue of you know, running as the Leader of the Opposition in those two elections. And he did very well, he came so close. And I think he would have been a great Prime Minister. He was a very progressive Liberal, and in very much in the Menziean tradition. Now, let’s not forget Menzies said that he chose the name Liberal, because he wanted the Party to be a progressive one, not a reactionary one, a party that rejected the socialist panacea, a party that promoted the individual and their freedom and of course, enterprise and small business, and lower taxes. They're all the values that epitomise the life and the career of Andrew Peacock and he very much lived up to the Menziean tradition and of course, the Liberal Party's ideals and philosophy.
SHARRI MARKSON:
Look, turning to the economy now Treasurer, the news agenda over the past couple of months has, you know, focused on a perceived, or some would say, confected issue with the treatment of women. It overlooks the absolutely extraordinary success story that we've had here in Australia post pandemic, I think often in the media, we are guilty of just glossing over positive news. And this is just a phenomenal result. I mean, the unemployment figures this week 5.6 per cent. You know, Treasurer, when we spoke last year you were predicting, you know, unemployment levels of 15 per cent, millions out of work. How did you react when you heard this amazing result?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, certainly the labour market and the Australian economy has surprised on the upside. As you say, last year, we were standing on the edge of the economic abyss. Treasury did fear that the unemployment rate could reach as high as 15 per cent, that GDP could fall by more than 20 per cent. They were, you know, a very scary set of potential numbers. And we did everything we could to stem the tide of those job losses and of course JobKeeper, the cashflow boost, the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement, $750 payments to millions of pensioners, carers and others, were part of the Morrison Government's economic plan. And that plan has now worked. There's still a long way to go. There are still obviously sectors and regions of the economy Sharri, that continue to do it tough. But certainly Australia has outperformed other major advanced economies. There is a long way to go. But we can be very confident and hopeful about our future because where we are right now is better place than nearly any other country in the world, on both the health and the economic front.
SHARRI MARKSON:
Do you think the slow vaccine rollout could threaten our economic recovery?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, there are certainly risks out there with new variants of the virus. And we don't know what we don't know. And you never know what is around the corner. But where we are today, has seen Australia successfully suppress the virus, we haven't seen the pandemic create the loss of life that it has in the United Kingdom, or the United States or other countries across Europe. And so Australia is in a much better position on the health front. And that has allowed the economic recovery to gain pace. Because first and foremost, this has been a health crisis, with very severe economic consequences. So as the restrictions are eased, the jobs are coming back, and indeed the employment levels across the economy are now back to where they were pre-pandemic. It's really been a remarkable comeback by the Australian economy. It shows its incredible resilience and as you pointed to 70,700 new jobs created last month, nearly 80 per cent of those jobs went to women and about half those jobs went to young people. And this again, is a great platform going into the Budget in just a few weeks’ time where we want to obviously continue that economic momentum.
SHARRI MARKSON:
Well, Treasurer, you did say that the effort of economic repair would begin when unemployment was under six, it is now well under six. Although of course that may shift as the JobKeeper wage subsidy, the effects flow on from that. But when are you going to start working back towards reining in the debt and deficit or have you given up on this seeing as it's no longer a pressing political issue?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, a couple things to say. Firstly, we said that the fiscal strategy would move to the next stage when we were comfortably below six per cent. We use the word comfortably and we're not there just yet. 5.6 per cent still has some way to go. The other point here, is the best way to repair the Budget is to repair the economy. As you remember, we balanced the Budget for the first time in 11 years going into this crisis. We got welfare dependency down to a 30 year low. We had unemployment at 5.1 per cent last February. That meant that we actually were in a strong position going into this crisis. So we need to ensure that those jobs keep coming back, we've prevented the worst scarring of the labour market that was feared. But there is still a lot of uncertainty out there. We're still in the middle of this pandemic. The global economy hasn't fully recovered. The Australian economy hasn't fully recovered. So we have to be cautiously optimistic. That's our focus, cautiously optimistic. But very much with an eye to the future.
SHARRI MARKSON:
Look, finally Treasurer, it's been reported that you will lift the super guarantee, the superannuation guarantee pause, allowing it to rise to 10 per cent in July and then grow to about 12 per cent or 12.5 per cent by 2025. The problem is wage growth was sluggish even before the pandemic and businesses can't afford to give pay rises now and workers can't afford to take a pay cut. So is it the right time to be lifting this pause?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, it's actually legislated to, as you say, to continue to rise and to 10 per cent from mid this year. There are a lot of differing views out there about the adequacy of retirement incomes and of that superannuation guarantee. You've heard from the Reserve Bank of Australia, you’ve have heard from the Grattan Institute and others about how this SG guarantee, this superannuation guarantee effectively comes out of people's pockets and their disposable income and their wages. So we're obviously looking at this issue very closely, but it is legislated to rise from the first of July this year.
SHARRI MARKSON:
Yes, well, I think businesses might find it very tough, and they’ll be under pressure to lift wages because otherwise it will amount to a lowering in people's pockets of the amount of money they're getting each week?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, again, you’ve got to get the balance right. We did have a retirement incomes review. And that had some very interesting evidence-based reflections on the adequacy of retirement, and the Government continues to work through these issues.
SHARRI MARKSON:
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, thank you very much for your time tonight and really enjoyed listening to your memories of Andrew Peacock. Thank you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thanks, Sharri.