Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Treasurer. Nearly one million Australians on JobSeeker over the age of 35 are ineligible for the government's hiring credit announcement. Why has the government blown out Liberal debt to $1 trillion during this Morrison recession whilst still leaving so many Australians behind?

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

I never thought I'd see the day when the Labor Party was attacking a program designed to get young people from JobSeeker into work. I never thought I would see the day when the Labor Party were seeking to play politics by pitting young people against senior Australians. He asked me about the JobMaker hiring credit. It is designed to support 450,000 jobs. We have a number of programs designed to support senior Australians who have been out of work and designed to provide incentives of up to $10,000 to employers to take them on. We have those programs in place.

The reality is that last night we announced a series of measures that are going to help grow the economy and get that unemployment rate down from its peak of around eight per cent at the end of this year. You should not see one program in isolation from the comprehensive range of programs. The Prime Minister talked about the bringing forward of tax cuts. Of course we have got $14 billion of infrastructure spending and the loss carry-back measure that is supporting business, as well as the immediate expensing initiative that will support business investment and the productive capacity of our economy. All these measures work in tandem. The Australian economy is a complex ecosystem and our initiatives are working together to do one thing, and that is to create jobs.

The measures that we as a government have taken to date have helped save 700,000 jobs. If the member for Rankin cared to look in detail at the budget statements, he would have seen one sentence which explains exactly why we did what we did in last night's budget, and that is that, without the economic supports that we announced last night, the unemployment rate would be 12 per cent this year and 12 per cent next year. The reality is that COVID-19 has hit the Australian economy and the global economy like no economic shock we have seen before. We've seen 10 per cent of our workforce lose their job or see their working hours reduced to zero. More than half are now back, and the trend is for more to come back over time. The measures we took last night are responsible, they're targeted, they're temporary and they're designed to do one thing: help Australians back to work.

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

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline to the House how the Morrison government's plan for jobs, including its JobMaker hiring credit initiative, will lead our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic?

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

I thank the member for Curtin for her question and I acknowledge her deep experience in the education sector before coming to this place , as a professor of law and as v ice-chancellor of the University of Notre Dame . She is somebody who understands the importance of job creation not just across the Curtin electorate but across the country.

The reality is that COVID-19 has wreaked havoc across the world. The equivalent of 600 million jobs have been lost globally. Here in Australia, 10 per cent of the workforce have either seen their jobs lost or seen their working hours reduced to zero. The Morrison government responded with unprecedented levels of support, and we were able to do so because we approached this crisis from a position of economic strength. JobSeeker, JobKeeper, the cash flow boost, the $750 payments: t hese have helped save 700,000 jobs.

And last night we went further . Last night we went further because we understand that there is no economic recovery without a jobs recovery a nd there is no budget repair without a jobs recovery. The measures in the budget will help create 950,000 - plus jobs and see that unemployment rate steadily come down. There are initiatives around the tax system , there are initiatives around infrastructure and, then, of course, there is the hiring credit . The hiring credit is designed to help those who are between 16 and 35 years old who have been on JobSeeker, youth allowance or the parenting payment sometime in the last three months get back to work. And, to get them into work, w e're providing an incentive of either $100 or $200 a week to businesses , depending on the age of the person. They have to do a minimum of 20 hours. This program will run for 12 months, and it will support 450,000 jobs— 450,000 jobs. The JobMaker hiring credit is designed to help young people who have been hit hard by this crisis get into work. The budget came at a very difficult time for our country, when a lot of people are continuing to do it tough. Last night's budget was all about jobs, and the JobMaker hiring credit was a key part of that.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. What is the peak , in dollar terms , of the government's mountain of Liberal gross debt?

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

In g ross debt, it's $1.7 trillion, and that is near the end of the medium term , in 2030. But I want to emphasis e to the member for Rankin that, obviously, these are projections across the medium term, and what we're focused on is getting more people into work because that is the way that you can repair the budget. And we were able to spend as was necessary through this crisis because we approached it from a position of economic strength, because we delivered the first balanced budget in 11 years, because we saw welfare dependency at a 30-year low and because, when we came to government, unemployment was at 5.7 per cent, but in February, ahead of the crisis, it was at 5.1 per cent. So the measures that we have taken over the last six and a bit years have strengthened the balance sheet of the country so that we could respond to this crisis, and that has allowed us to help save 700,000 jobs. I repeat, for the member for Rankin, that the budget last night makes it very clear that, but for the measures we have taken and announced, the unemployment rate would've reached 12 per cent and been sustained at that level this year and next year. So last night's budget was all about jobs—helping those who are out of a job get into a job and helping those who are in work today stay in work. This is an economic crisis like Australia has never seen before, and our measures are designed to help those Australians in need.