Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia's response to this twin health and economic crisis has been very successful. The UK, for example, contracted by 9.9 per cent; Italy contracted by 8.9 per cent; France contracted by 8.2 per cent; Canada contracted by five per cent; Japan contracted by 4.8 per cent; and the United States of America contracted by 3.3 per cent. Where is Australia, to those opposite? Australia contracted by only 2.5 per cent. There's silence from the other side of the chamber now. We're right at the very top of the ladder. We are in a very good position.

Our country is leading the way and our Treasurer is leading the way. Direct economic support from the federal government halved in the December quarter, yet, at the same time, the economy grew. That means it went up—by 3.1 per cent. It grew. There were 320,000 new jobs added to the economy. There were 2.1 million Australian workers who graduated off JobKeeper. The private sector's going to look after those people. Ninety per cent of jobs—for those opposite, if you're listening—come from the private sector. They come from small business and medium business, or SMEs. And they are graduating off JobKeeper all the time. I hear it from my electorate. I hear about HomeBuilder and how that's keeping the construction industry going. They say on the other side we're not helping industry. What about construction? There's Homebuilder. What about JobKeeper? That goes across all of industry and all of business. What about the tourism recovery package we just announced last week? On the Gold Coast, $1.2 billion— (Time expired)

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