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

My question is to the Treasurer. In what year will unemployment return to pre-coronavirus levels?

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

We, on this side of the House, are doing everything we can to keep unemployment as low as possible. And, as the Leader of the Opposition is aware, and I've made public in my statement today, the forecast from Treasury is that unemployment will reach around 10 per cent. That's a doubling of unemployment in the June quarter. Now, when we came to government, unemployment was 5.7 per cent, but in February it fell to 5.1 per cent. Then the economy was struck by the economic impact of the coronavirus. So we are doing everything we can to maintain that formal connection between employers and employees, the JobKeeper package at $130 billion with 5½ million employers currently covered—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just say that the Treasurer is entitled to a preamble, but the question was very specific so I'll just draw him back to the question.

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

It will take some time before unemployment comes back to the pre-coronavirus levels. But what I do know is that we are doing everything we can to keep people in a job and businesses in business.