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

Well, Mr Speaker, it is a good opportunity to talk about the importance and the success of the JobKeeper program, a program that was described as 'remarkable' by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia; a program that was described as 'well targeted' by the federal Treasury in a review they did in mid last year; a program that the Australian tax office delivered, in which it was, in the words of the Australian National Audit Office, 'effective in managing risks'.

Now, the Prime Minister earlier alluded to the economic abyss that Australia faced last year when we introduced the JobKeeper program. I want to point out to those opposite that business confidence fell by 62 points in March of last year, the largest single monthly decline and the lowest level since the survey began. But, in the months following, business confidence increased by 17 points and then a further 26 points to May of last year. Over March 2020, consumer confidence fell by 38 per cent, a record low for the index. The week following the announcement of JobKeeper, consumer confidence increased by 10 percentage points, and consumer confidence has continued to improve.

JobKeeper is perhaps the most remarkably successful economic support program this country has ever seen. And it's contributed to the strong rebound in the economy that we saw at the end of last year and the start of this year.

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