Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on how the Morrison government's economic support packages have been saving jobs and supporting livelihoods, including in my electorate of Fisher?

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

I thank the member for Fisher for his question and I acknowledge the breadth of legal and building sector experience he has brought to this place. He has been a strong advocate for small business in his community and beyond. Australia has confronted a one-in-100 year event with the global pandemic—namely, the coronavirus. The impact across the world has been devastating. In the United States, we have seen more than 100,000 deaths and 40 million jobless claims. In the United Kingdom, we have seen more than 40,000 deaths and weeks of lockdown. Just yesterday, the World Bank put out its forecast suggesting that economic growth would contract by 5.2 per cent this calendar year. To put that in context, in 2009, at the height of the GFC, the global economy contracted by 0.1 per cent.

In contrast, here in Australia we have flattened the curve, we have started to ease the restrictions and we are getting people back to work. In the March quarter, in the national accounts, as a direct product of the social-distancing requirements and the travel restrictions that were in place, we saw the economy contract by 0.3 per cent. But we compare very favourably with the rest of the world. The United States contracted by 1.3 per cent; the United Kingdom contracted by two per cent; Germany contracted by 2.2 per cent; France contracted by 5.3 per cent; and China contracted by 9.8 per cent. In this country we have performed remarkably well on both the health and the economic front.

The Morrison government continues to support business with an accelerated depreciation allowance and other measures, like the JobKeeper program, which is supporting millions of employers and employees across the country, and the instant asset write-off, which is supporting hundreds of thousands of businesses to invest, to grow and to innovate, like Walker Seafoods in Mooloolaba, who spent $60,000 on a new blast freezer for their longfin tuna. Local contractors were engaged to install the blast freezer. Heidi from Walker Seafoods said, 'Due to the instant asset write-off, the cash flow boost and the JobKeeper program, we have kept all our 50 employees fully employed and our business operational.' That is the message from the Morrison government. We will continue to keep businesses in business and people in jobs. (Time expired)