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Speaker 1: Jonesy and Amanda in the morning, Satham, Well.

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Speaker 2: What extraordinary times we live in. Yesterday the Treasurer addressed

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Speaker 2: the country and announced Australia's in its biggest budget deficit

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Speaker 2: since World War Two. To explain what all of that

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Speaker 2: means in language that we all understand, it's the Treasurer himself,

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Speaker 2: Josh Friedenberg, good morning.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, and man a good morning Jonesy. Bit of

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Speaker 3: Billy Joel to start the morning.

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Speaker 1: You like Billy Joel? What's your favorite Billy Joel song

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Speaker 1: in the whole wide world? And not one of the

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Speaker 1: big hits?

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Speaker 3: Oh, Piano Man, NaPTAN Girl. The list goes on.

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Speaker 1: The guy is a genius, is still goes strong. What

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Speaker 1: about you? Is this something as a Treasurer? Do you

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Speaker 1: dream of this? Because I would imagine this is something

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Speaker 1: that would do your head in the hole.

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Speaker 3: Look, it's been a difficult time for the whole nation,

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Speaker 3: and my thoughts really are with those medical professionals who

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Speaker 3: are on the front line, or those Australians who have

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Speaker 3: lost their jobs and are doing it very tough right now,

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Speaker 3: because this has been a massive economic shock, not just

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Speaker 3: to Australia but to the world. I mean we haven't

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Speaker 3: seen anything like this since the Great Depression, so it's

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Speaker 3: really required a massive economic response, and that's why our

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Speaker 3: spending measures, but also revenue declines as people spend less

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Speaker 3: out there and businesses make lower profits. Has meant that

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Speaker 3: the budget has been hit pretty badly, and that was

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Speaker 3: reflected in the numbers we released yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Can I ask you this. I know we talk about

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Speaker 2: surplus and deficit. Does it to the normal person do

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Speaker 2: those words mean anything?

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Speaker 1: Does it matter?

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Speaker 2: I know it means a lot to the country if

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Speaker 2: we go to be borrowing money internationally, etc. But in

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Speaker 2: these circumstances, I think we're just grateful that money's been

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Speaker 2: thrown at the problem.

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Speaker 3: Well, certainly for us this has been our priority is

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Speaker 3: to get money out the door quickly, to cushion the

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Speaker 3: blow for those people who are doing it tough, and

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Speaker 3: to maintain that formal connection between employers and employees so

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Speaker 3: people can be maintained in a job, even if in

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Speaker 3: some cases businesses have had to close their doors temporarily.

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Speaker 3: But the reason why managing the budget is so important

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Speaker 3: is because the money you borrow you have to pay

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Speaker 3: interest on, just like when you take a mortgage out

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Speaker 3: on your home and when you're paying interest, it's money

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Speaker 3: that is foregone that could otherwise be spent in other areas.

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Speaker 3: And so that's why we're going to be very careful

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Speaker 3: with the taxpayers money. And that's what our track record

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Speaker 3: has been.

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Speaker 2: And so what does that mean if we have to

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Speaker 2: throw money at this problem now? Is it the next

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Speaker 2: generation that will feel the impact of that. What's the

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Speaker 2: knock on effect?

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Speaker 3: Well, certainly it will take years to pay back the debt,

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Speaker 3: but the key to paying back that debt is to

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Speaker 3: grow the economy. And the Australian economy was sixteen percent

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Speaker 3: larger pre COVID than it was when we came to

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Speaker 3: government just over six years before. And at the same time,

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Speaker 3: we were spending record amounts on hospitals and on schools,

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Speaker 3: and we'd also provided tax cuts. We've got a track

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Speaker 3: record of actually creating jobs and strengthen the economy. And

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Speaker 3: we can see that mountain now that we need to climb,

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Speaker 3: and that's what we're going to do as a nation.

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Speaker 1: But the problem with the mountain is you just don't

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Speaker 1: know how big it's going to get.

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Speaker 3: Do you really, Well, this is a really important point,

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Speaker 3: is there's real uncertainty out there, and it's because it's

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Speaker 3: a health crisis that has had a very severe economic impact.

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Speaker 3: And how effectively we as a nation deal with the

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Speaker 3: new cases of coronavirus will very much depent determine the

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Speaker 3: speed and the trajectory of our economic recovery. And that's

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Speaker 3: why what we've seen in Victoria has been so concerning.

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Speaker 3: More than five million people in lockdown, and we just

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Speaker 3: don't want to see those cases spread to other states

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Speaker 3: and territories who are starting to open up because.

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Speaker 4: What's worked to us with Victoria being shut down. How

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Speaker 4: much does that costing the economy.

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Speaker 3: We're saying it's going to cost more than three billion dollars,

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Speaker 3: But of course is uncertainty even with those four car

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Speaker 3: just because of the environment that we're in. But that's

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Speaker 3: based on a six week lockdown and then gradually the

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Speaker 3: restrictions being east.

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Speaker 2: Can we be optimistic? Are there things to be optimistic about?

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Speaker 3: Your listeners should absolutely have hope and have confidence about

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Speaker 3: our future. The first thing I'd say is we are

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Speaker 3: much better placed here in Australia than nearly any other

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Speaker 3: nation in the world, both on the health front but

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Speaker 3: also on the economic front. The number of cases here

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Speaker 3: compared to the United States or the United Kingdom or

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Speaker 3: Sweden is much smaller. Secondly, on the economic front, the

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Speaker 3: falls that other countries have seen in their GDP in

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Speaker 3: terms of their economy contracting has been much greater than

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Speaker 3: we've seen here in Australia. We also went into this crisis, Amanda,

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Speaker 3: from a position of strength. We had achieved the first

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Speaker 3: balanced budget in eleven years, more people were finding jobs

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Speaker 3: and welfare dependency was at a thirty year low, So

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Speaker 3: that gave us the financial flexibility to respond in the

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Speaker 3: middle of the crisis, which was what we're doing right now.

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Speaker 1: So now a good time to say, buy a new

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Speaker 1: house or buy a big new flat screen TV if

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Speaker 1: you can afford it.

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Speaker 3: Well, people need to make those decisions. I'm not going

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Speaker 3: to provide them with financial advice for the obvious reasons.

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Speaker 3: But what people can be confident about is astray as

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Speaker 3: economic future despite the real challenges that we face right now,

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Speaker 3: and they know that their government has their backs.

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Speaker 2: Second, separate to that, we've just been discussing in our

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Speaker 2: pub test here, phones on the table.

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Speaker 1: Do you allow a.

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Speaker 2: Phone on the table?

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Speaker 3: Am I allowed a phone on?

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Speaker 2: Do you allow it in your household question.

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Speaker 3: The answer is yes. But my daughter, who's only five,

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Speaker 3: is probably more proficient on other technologies than even But

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Speaker 3: you know, they have a lot of screen time, and

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Speaker 3: that's a concern to every pairent, including me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but Josh is a busy man, Amanda.

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Speaker 4: It's not like he's looking at Henry Cavill building a

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Speaker 4: super computer. So you're in a meeting, You're in a

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Speaker 4: meeting with Scomo, and you've got your phone on the

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Speaker 4: table because you're dealing with real stuff.

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Speaker 3: I got to tell you a funny story last. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: last I think it was Sunday night. I was sitting

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Speaker 3: in the kitchen on the kitchen table, going through my

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Speaker 3: work for the for the next day, and and my daughter,

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Speaker 3: who's five, came running in saying, Dad, Dad, turn on

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Speaker 3: the voice. And I said, look, I've just actually got

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Speaker 3: Scomo here on the phone, and so I put him

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Speaker 3: on speaker and there was Scomo talking to my daughter

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Speaker 3: Jemma about who they were going to vote for on

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Speaker 3: the voice. And so that was quite a funny story.

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Speaker 1: But Schoma happy with the outcome.

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Speaker 3: Well, he was watching it and they knew he was

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Speaker 3: going to vote for and he was doing it with

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Speaker 3: his wonderful, beautiful family, and my wife and my daughter

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Speaker 3: were lying in bed watching theirs while I was trying

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Speaker 3: to get across our loan scheme that's being extended.

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Speaker 1: Someone has to do the work.

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Speaker 4: Anyone doing work around here, it's just me. Well, Josh,

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Speaker 4: it's great to talk to. You're doing a great job.

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Speaker 4: Keep doing what you're doing.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for your time this morning.

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Speaker 3: All the best of you. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Treasurer Josh Bridenberg there joined.

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Speaker 3: The and Amanda in the morning at one point seven.

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Speaker 3: Tell you