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

I thank the member for Curtin and acknowledge her experience as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Notre Dame, a professor of law and someone who has specialised in insolvency and is very pleased with the insolvency reforms that we have introduced into the parliament today. The member for Curtin, like other members on this side of the House, understands that the JobMaker hiring credit, which passed the parliament last night, will help support 450,000 jobs. Four hundred and fifty thousand jobs will be supported by the JobMaker hiring credit. It was a big win for the job prospects of thousands of Australians who are looking to move from unemployment into work.

We as a government will provide up to $200 a week to employers who take on an eligible employee for a minimum of 20 hours a week, where that employee is aged between 16 and 35. Treasury have said that this will support around 450,000 jobs. This legislation got through the parliament despite the games of those opposite, where they were looking for any hill to fight on to distract from the divisions between the member for Hindmarsh and the member for Hunter—aided, of course, by his legal adviser, the member for Isaacs. But the big winner of that division was the member for Chifley, who is now the shadow minister for agriculture and resources despite his electorate not seeing a sheep station since Federation.

The reality is that the JobMaker hiring credit, together with the tax cuts that we have passed through the parliament, the infrastructure spending, the expanded instant asset write-off and the loss carry back, will help create nearly one million new jobs. And we're already seeing the Australian economic recovery underway. Consumer sentiment is up. Business sentiment is up. Consumer confidence has been up for 10 weeks in a row. Our AAA credit rating has been reaffirmed. The Governor of the Reserve Bank has said that our economic response is the right response. And 446,000 jobs have been created in the last four months. On this side of the House we support jobs, jobs and more jobs.

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