Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline to the House how the extension of the Morrison government's JobKeeper program is saving businesses, especially in my seat of Reid?

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

I thank the member for Reid for her question and acknowledge her extensive experience as a businesswoman, a psychologist and someone who has a PhD for her research around children with autism. I acknowledge that experience before coming to this place.

JobKeeper has been a remarkable program. They're not my words; they're the words of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia. At $101 billion, this is an investment in protecting people's lives and livelihoods. Today JobKeeper is supporting more than 3½ million Australian workers and around one million Australian businesses. We are seeking to pass through this parliament today legislation which will see the extension and the expansion of this remarkable program, with effectively an extra $30 billion being put to work on behalf of the Australian people. This legislation will also include important regulations around labour market flexibility. Labour market flexibility has been critical to the JobKeeper businesses being able to keep their doors open and keep their staff employed throughout this crisis.

There are remarkable stories in every corner of this country about JobKeeper, such as, in the electorate of Bass, Flinders Island Aviation; in the electorate of Boothby, Central Audio Visual; in the electorate of Curtin, Barchetta cafe; and, in the electorate of Higgins, as we heard recently, Very Special Kids, a children's hospice. We have heard stories from right across the country, including that of F45 gym in the member for Ryan's electorate. Around the country there are remarkable stories.

There's also a remarkable story in the electorate of Reid, and it relates to the Children's Tumour Foundation, a small not-for-profit supporting parents of children suffering from neurofibromatosis. It's based at Five Dock in Sydney, and it has five people on JobKeeper. This is what Ruth said about the remarkable JobKeeper program: 'It's a complete lifeline for us. It's been able to keep us going in these very turbulent times, when we've got more people impacted and needing our services more than ever before.' This is the JobKeeper program, supporting lives and supporting livelihoods. The JobKeeper program is helping to keep people in a job, the JobKeeper program is helping the national economy and the JobKeeper program is helping the wellbeing of millions of Australians.