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

I stand by all my words, including that the Australian economy is better served by those on this side of the House. The reality is that the Reserve Bank, as recently as last Friday, in its statement on monetary policy said that beyond the next few months the speed and timing of the economic recovery is very uncertain. This uncertainty makes it extremely difficult to formulate reliable economic and fiscal estimates over the next few months.

We are doing everything we can to support the Australian economy by cushioning the blow with an effective doubling of the old Newstart, now the Jobseeker payment, and with the JobKeeper program—at $130 billion, the most significant economic lifeline that this country has ever seen. I ask myself: why does the member for Rankin keep talking down the Australian economy instead of joining the BCA, who said that our announcement was a country-saving moment? ACOSS and VCCI and other chambers praised the government's announcement, as well as Deloitte's' Chris Richardson, who recently said that the JobKeeper payment was a 'game changer'. We on this side of the House are doing everything we can to keep Australians in jobs and businesses in business.

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