Gladys Liu (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I find it amazing standing here and listening to the other side. Listening to them, sometimes they support JobKeeper and then they're against it, then they support it and then they're against it. I am confused about what they stand for. As we know, JobKeeper has been the largest economic lifeline in Australia's history. In its first phase, it supported over one million businesses and over 3.8 million jobs. Without JobKeeper and other measures to support our economy, Treasury estimates the unemployment rate would have been five percentage points higher. According to the Reserve Bank, the Morrison government's actions to support the economy have saved 700,000 jobs. And yet Labor is obsessed with attacking JobKeeper—but sometimes they support it! It's really confusing.

Earlier this month, the member for Ballarat even called the program a waste. Only the Labor Party could contend that a program that saved 700,000 Australian jobs was a waste. Meanwhile, the shadow Treasurer has been spreading lies that JobKeeper funds were sent to dead people. This has been continuously refuted, with the ATO saying that—

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