Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Morrison government has always maintained that JobKeeper is a temporary program designed to taper off as economic confidence and momentum builds. Based on what we know, expectations that JobKeeper will extend beyond 30 March are not on. However, we also know the way COVID-19 can extend another wave. We'll have to be flexible, and the Treasury is aware of that fact.

But it always has been a temporary program. We're seeing through the 750,000 jobs created so far in the past seven months that fewer businesses and their employees need JobKeeper and other temporary support measures. The government's economic plan also includes a range of stimulus measures apart from JobKeeper and JobSeeker, to keep Australians in jobs and in business, including personal income tax, HomeBuilder and the apprenticeship wage subsidy scheme, instant cash write-off and business investment incentives, and JobMaker hiring credits.

With the economic recovery well under way, Australians have a cause for optimism and hope as we emerge out of this COVID-19 recession. Let's keep the fingers crossed there. JobKeeper remains available to those businesses and organisations experiencing a decline in revenue until the end of March. We'll see what happens after that. All these calls have been received about job shortages. There are lots of industries in my electorate that are saying they cannot get workers to their businesses. I can quote Emerald Tavern. It's short of ten staff: bottle shop, bar staff, kitchen staff and a chef. The Biloela piggery has vacancies for six workers, but cannot get one. SwarmFarm, a robotic farm near Emerald, at Gindie, wants 10 extra workers—mechanical engineers, agronomist and market developers and leaders to market their products. Many restaurants in and around Gladstone and Biloela are short of workers. That's the problem Australia's got. I say, let's get Australia working again.

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