Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister guarantee that Australia's three-decade run of unbroken economic growth that began with the former Labor government will survive his prime ministership?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. As he knows, the global coronavirus is a very dramatic situation that has been emerging now for these past several weeks. It is a situation which the government has moved quickly on to protect the health of Australians. Equally, we have been moving to fully understand the economic impacts of this very significant event. This health crisis is different from others that we've seen before, whether it be SARS or MERS, and that has been confirmed to us in the advice we've received.

The economic impacts of this virus are significant. We have seen a global financial crisis before, some 12 or 13 years ago, but the economic impact of this crisis is very different to what we saw in the global financial crisis. There is not a failing of the Australian financial system or indeed the global financial system. There is not the same sorts of issues that went to credit flows in the economy at that time. Importantly, the previous global financial crisis had a very muted affect on the Chinese economy, and the Chinese economy during the GFC proved to be extremely important to the Australian economy at that time. So there are very real differences between the circumstances we face today and previous circumstances.

These are all very significant and serious issues, and that is the way the government is approaching it in fashioning the responses we will be providing. We will continue to ensure that we do everything in the government's power to not just address the very serious health affects and the risks to the Australian population, as we have been doing, but also address the very real and very significant economic impacts.

What this health crisis is doing is disrupting supply chains. It is disconnecting travellers from where they would have otherwise gone. It is disconnecting exporters from their markets. It is disconnecting and disrupting the global economy. We will engage with that and we will be doing it from a position of strength, as the Treasurer just outlined. We will be pursuing policies that are responsible, that are targeted and that will get the best possible outcome for the Australian people.