Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. On Tuesday the Treasurer said the budget was built on two COVID vaccine doses by the end of the year. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister overruled the Treasurer. Treasurer, that means either the budget's wrong or you're wrong. Which is it?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The budget is right about one thing, and that is that 250,000 jobs will be created under this government, off the back of 500,000 jobs that have been created since last October. The assumption is very, very clear in Budget Paper No. 1, and I repeat:

It is assumed that a population-wide vaccination program is likely to be in place by the end of 2021.

This is an assumption not a policy decision. If you are like the Prime Minister and you've already had one dose, then you have your second dose—because it's a few weeks after. It depends on when you have that vaccine as to when you have the second dose.

But the other point that the Prime Minister made very clearly on 7.30 last night was that the budget does not rest on this assumption entirely. I think his words were: 'It does not rest on this assumption either solely or even completely.' That's what the Prime Minister said. The reason being is that the key factor that will help drive the momentum in our economic recovery is our ability to continue to suppress the virus. Central to that is that Australians continue to follow the medical advice and that state premiers continue to adopt proportionate reactions and proportionate responses to outbreaks when they occur. The gold standard has been the Liberal Premier in New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, because we haven't had a state-wide lockdown even though there have been outbreaks. So the key to the budget is that we continue to be successful and effective in suppressing the virus. That is what is important. That is what will help protect Australian lives and livelihoods.