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

I thank the member for Bonner for his question and acknowledge his background in small business. As he reminds me, he has been voted by his colleagues as the nicest guy in Parliament House—with apologies to the Speaker!

The JobKeeper program has been a remarkable program. When Australia was staring into the abyss in the early stages of this pandemic and Treasury were warning that the unemployment rate could reach as high as 15 per cent and there could be a double-digit fall in economic growth, the JobKeeper program came to the rescue. The JobKeeper program, at its peak, was supporting 3.6 million Australian workers and around one million Australian businesses. That's nearly one-third of all Australian workers and nearly one-half of all Australian businesses.

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

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