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

It wasn't. But today we have announced an extension, at $3.2 billion, at $150, and the reason we are tapering down these payments of JobKeeper and JobSeeker is that the Australian economy is recovering. The honourable member may be interested to know that, at the peak of this pandemic, the effective unemployment across this country was 15 per cent. Right now, today, it's 9.4 per cent. But if you took out Victoria, where we've seen the terrible impacts of the second wave, the effective unemployment rate in Australia would be about 7.8 per cent. So what we have done is to provide an extension of an extra six months for JobKeeper and an extension now for JobSeeker.

But I would just say to the honourable member that if she'd listened to the Leader of the Opposition when he was asked, directly, the question, by Karl Stefanovic on the Today show, 'So how do you start to balance the books if you want to extend JobKeeper and extend those increases to JobSeeker?' the Leader of the Opposition replied, 'Well, we haven't said to extend it. What we have said, though, is it would need a tapering off.' The Leader of the Opposition has said it's needed a tapering. We have undertaken a tapering, and it's in the best interests of Australian jobs.

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