Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer inform the House how Australia's economic recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic compares to that of other countries, and will the Treasurer outline the pathway for the Australian economy's return to growth?

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

I thank the member for Curtin for her question and acknowledge her extensive experience as a legal academic before coming to this place, including being the vice-chancellor of Notre Dame University.

Today the OECD released an important report. It painted a pretty grim picture of the global economic outlook, suggesting that the global economy will contract by around six per cent this year. To put that in context, at the height of the GFC in 2009 the global economy contracted by 0.1 per cent. And the OECD talked about this being the deepest recession since the global Depression. But the positive news for Australia out of this OECD report was that the economy here will contract by around five per cent this year but will grow by around four per cent next year, and that we have performed very well compared to other nations around the world. Japan is expected to contract by six per cent, the United States by 7.3 per cent, Canada by eight per cent, New Zealand by 8.9 per cent, Italy by 11.3 per cent, France by 11.4 per cent and the United Kingdom by 11.5 per cent.

The OECD pointed out that, in their words, our massive macroeconomic support has made a real difference. It's supported people in jobs and helped protect livelihoods. The cash flow boost, the instant asset write-off and the JobKeeper program have all been very significant, including in the honourable member's electorate. Jane King at Barchetta cafe on Cottesloe Beach said that she used the instant asset write-off to go and purchase a new industrial pizza oven and new sinks and dishwashers. She talked about the JobKeeper program, in her words, being a lifesaver. She talked about her 14 employees. She said that employees are like family, and I'm sure she speaks for employers right around the country. She said the JobKeeper program and the other supports from the government enabled her to keep those 14 employees in a job.

The Prime Minister clearly laid out at the National Press Club a supply-side reform agenda: skills, industrial relations and more flexible labour markets, tax reform, infrastructure—our 10-year $100 billion program—and of course the adaptation of new technology, for example, through the consumer data right. This is what we are doing to drive the Australian economy forward. We know there's going to be a higher debt burden in the future, but the answer is not higher taxes; it's through growing the economy.