Thankfully the Treasurer doesn’t have coronavirus. After nearly coughing up a lung during yesterday’s economic update, out of an “abundance of caution” Josh Frydenberg - on the advice of the Deputy Chief Medical Officer - got a test. It came back negative, so it’s back to business as usual.
And just as well, because I was on my way to the Treasurer’s office yesterday in Parliament House for an interview that didn’t go ahead (we now know why) and walked past both him and the Prime Minister deep in conversation.
Despite public pleas for people to maintain social distancing, they were shoulder to should as they chatted. It was immediately after Question Time. Perhaps they were discussing the Opposition Leader’s question when he asked if the PM regretted bragging about having delivered a surplus that never eventuated.
After all, yesterday was the very day Frydenberg was supposed to declare the budget “back in black”, delivering his surplus budget, as the mugs Liberal Party HQ prematurely produced are emblazoned with.
Whatever they were discussing, they were doing it in breach of social distancing rules, meaning that had the Treasurer contracted the virus, the PM would also have needed to be tested and self isolate, until the results came in.
That would have been embarrassing, not to mention dangerous, given they hadn’t followed the rules they have demanded others do. Even if they hadn’t breached the social distancing rules the PM probably would have needed to self-isolate anyway, given the Treasurer coughed all over the podium in the chamber, using his hands to cover his mouth half the time, then touching the dispatch box the PM would also hold when answering questions shortly afterwards during Question Time.
But yesterday’s coughing fit was the side-show to the big economic news. Confirmation Treasury expects the unemployment rate to top 10 per cent, an 18 per cent decline in business investment, 16 per cent for households, hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus and job support rushing out the door. A 10 per cent fall in GDP in the latest quarter. No surplus, of course. When the delayed budget is handed down in October it will show the biggest deficit in Australian history.
Quite the turnaround. The PM points out no one could have predicted the virus crisis that has unfolded. That is absolutely true, which is why he shouldn’t have bragged about something he hadn’t yet delivered. Claiming the surplus “absolutely” would be delivered.
He got ahead of himself. I suppose we all do from time to time. It’s about learning from mistakes.
And amid all of the economic bad news, the internal fights within the Coalition are already starting - with a ginger group of backbenchers pushing for JobKeeper to be wound back. So that it costs less, and only supports businesses and workers worst hit by the crisis. At the same time Labor is pointing out all the employers and employees who have missed out.
Anthony Albanese’s point that a university student doing six hours casual work for beer money getting the $1500 fortnightly payment (more than they would normally earn) when a single mother with three children working full time hours casually at the same business for 11 months is ineligible is utterly ridiculous.
It highlights why the scheme needs major attention to fix kinks and make it fit for purpose.
Peter van Onselen is Political Editor at Network 10 and a professor of politics and public policy at the University of Western Australia and Griffith University
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