E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
TODAY SHOW
TUESDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2020

SUBJECTS: 2020 Budget; roll back of Melbourne’s COVID restrictions; W.A petition to secede.

ALLISON LANGDON, HOST: Thanks for joining us this morning, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has the weight of the nation on his shoulders today as he prepares to hand down the most important budget in more than 60 years, complete with tax cuts for low to middle income earners, wage subsidies and bonuses for pensioners, Budget 2020 has the tough job of turbo charging a pandemic struck economy. To discuss, I'm joined by Shadow Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten who’s in lockdown, he’s in quarantine in Canberra., and Chris Smith from 2GB and 4BC. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us this morning. Bill, will you stand in the way of tax cuts?

BILL SHORTEN, MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG: Actually, Labor's been arguing for bringing forward the Stage Two tax cuts. So wouldn't surprise me if Labor, when we see the budget, supports them. We're seeing a lot of people losing their – JobKeeper’s being reduced by three hundred dollars. These are the very people who would benefit. So if there’s these Stage Two cuts, that would be good. I don't know if the Government's going to propose tax cuts for the very high end people, that's a separate issue, I suppose. But we'd like to see people get a refund so they can spend it.

LANGDON: You wouldn't be on board with tax cuts for high income earners? I don't think at this stage, certainly not what's being indicated, that that's on the cards anyway.

SHORTEN: No, apparently that's not on the cards at this stage, so it’ll be good to see the budget, but no doubt Anthony and Jim Chalmers and the team will take a position, and we argued in favour of Stage Two tax cuts being brought forward. So happy days if that's the case.

LANGDON: Okay, Chris. Massive infrastructure spending., youth, jobs, but so far, nothing targeting women, one of the hardest hit groups in this pandemic. Surely there's got to be something for them today.

CHRIS SMITH, 2GB: Yeah, I have a feeling, though, that these tax cuts, which probably affects the majority of taxpayers at the moment, I think many of those decisions to spend are sometimes in the hands of women. Let me generalise profusely, but, you know, at our place, if it's a car, if it's a piece of furniture, you know, my wife will decide at the end of the day what's necessary for the family. And I think in a lot of ways they will get access through these tax cuts to a little bit of disposable cash. Now, the big risk for Josh Frydenberg is, yeah, he had JobKeeper, which was massive and incredibly expensive. Well, this is all of that. But the risk is the last two times that we've introduced tax cuts, there've been a fizzer. They have not stimulated the economy. So he'll have his fingers crossed under the table. You can bet on that.

LANGDON: All right. Well, when I'm talking about women there, I'm talking about the fact of trying to get them back into the workforce - if there's going to be something in regards to childcare fees, what was going to happen there? But I guess all will be revealed today. I want to turn now to the plan to further roll back restrictions in Melbourne. It's in doubt with the state's Chief Health Officer warning the city is at risk of failing to meet daily corona virus targets. People are fed up with these restrictions, Bill. They broke the rules over the weekend. How much longer can you hold on for?

SHORTEN: Well, I was under ninety six days of restrictions on travelling 5K, you do it because you hope it's working. I have to say that I think slowing down the movement of people around the city has slowed down the rate of transmission. So I'm sure everyone wants to make the targets so we can go beyond five kilometres, but no one wants a third wave. Of course, I'm now in Canberra in lockdown, so I can't travel, for the next 14 days I can't travel past my front fence, but I did bring a little friend with me to help me. Can you see him? That’s my bulldog

LANGDON: Is this little Walter here?

SHORTEN: That's Walter. He’s 30 kilos, so I don’t know if you’d call him little.

LANGDON: So I tell you what, in a locked room, I hope, you know, it's not a flatulence issue at some point.

SHORTEN: I've got a little bit of a back yard

LANGDON: Your colleague Richard Marles , he also had a friend in lock down, but he just drew a face on his golf club. It got him through, though. Chris, just going back to Melbourne, though. Great to see kids back in the classroom, everyone back by the end of the month in Victoria.

SMITH: Yeah, and we've got to start comparing the number of cases and the data coming through from Victoria with what New South Wales had when we had our second spike at Liverpool from the Crossroads Hotel. That was about two months ago. They're getting the same sort of numbers daily as occurred in New South Wales. New South Wales did not shut the joint down. They made sure that aged care was protected. They made sure that social distancing was policed. But we didn't have to lock the joint down. And I get the feeling when you start telling the public oh, it's almost - the data say five, or hang on a minute, maybe seven we’ll let you out, it could be another week more or could be another fortnight. It must drive Victorians absolutely crazy right now.

LANGDON: Well, you know, what has distressed me this morning is what's happening in W.A. It's been seven months since they slammed their border shut to the rest of us. And we're now hearing it could be permanent, with a new poll showing 28 per cent of our Western neighbours want to split from Australia for ever. Three and a half thousand of them don't love us anymore. I mean, Bill, should we just let them go?

SHORTEN: No. I mean, secession’s always been a view in the West. I'm a student of history. Did you know that in 1928,29 they voted to leave and it was only the parliament at Westminster who said no to them. So listen, I think the trick is to make sure that no part of Australia - Queensland, Victoria, W.A, ever feels so neglected by the nation's government that they feel that doing something else would be an option.

LANGDON: Chris, your thoughts?

SMITH: Oh, look, the way Mark McGowan has carried on throughout this pandemic, putting the big cross up against every other state and territory, no matter how many community transmissions they had. No wonder the public think that way. They've almost informally seceded during the pandemic. If you want to secede, go for your life. But you won't have any electricity on the power grid. You won't get access to GST dollars. And you can't call yourself anything to do with Australia. And let's see how quick you crumble after that, W.A. people.

SHORTEN: I don't reckon that helps Alison. Just, if you want them to go keep insulting them. I don't want them to go.

LANGDON: No, I don't want them to go either! (sings) “We’re all in this together”.

SMITH: They've done nothing to be part of Australia, got nothing to be part of Australia that I care about.

LANGDON: They have very good wine in W.A., beautiful beaches and good people.

SHORTEN: I love your authenticity, Chris. But if you were a shock jock in W.A., what would you say then?

SMITH: No, I say grab your passport if you want to go down to Margaret River. We could go across the country. I’m happy for that to happen. Mark McGowan should open his borders back up today.

LANGDON: All right, gentlemen, we got to leave it there. It's a big day down in Canberra. Enjoy quarantine, Bill. You’ve only another 13 days to go.

SHORTEN: Oh, good.

LANGDON: And Karl is just questioning my country maths when I said 28% of WA is 3,500 people.

KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: That is why she is not the Treasurer!

LANGDON: I'd do a great job today.

SHORTEN: Giving the money out.

LANGDON: The money tree. These ones (mimes leafing through dollar bills). I think that is what he will be doing. Thank you gentlemen, we will speak to you soon.