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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday in this House the Prime Minister admitted more Australians would lose their jobs because he's planning to withdraw their JobKeeper wage subsidy in September. How many jobs is he planning to sacrifice to his snapback?

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

The Leader of the Opposition misrepresents—in fact, he is completely wrong about what I said yesterday. I said we're in a recession and in a recession people lose work. It's an awful tragedy for those Australians, and that's why the government has put in place record supports through JobKeeper, jobseeker, the cash flow allowance and the support that has been put in for business lending—over $200 billion worth of support. That's what the government has been doing in our record response. As a result of the interventions that our government has made, Australia is weathering this economic storm better than almost every other developed country in the world today. We are providing the support that Australians need and we will continue to provide the support that they need.

The most important thing that this country needs for those jobs is for our economy to grow again, for businesses to move forward again, for our economy to reopen and for those Australians to find themselves back in those jobs. That's what our JobMaker plan is about. Our JobMaker plan is not just about the support that is occurring right here and right now with the assistance Australians need but also about the important changes that we need to make in so many areas so we grow the economy next year, the year after and over the next five years to take back what has been lost as a result of this COVID-19 crisis.

If the Leader of the Opposition wants to tell to Australian people that in recession there is no hardship then he is a fool.