Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday, in relation to the job his office arranged for Mr Crone, the Prime Minister said, 'If you're good at your job, you'll get a job.' Are the millions of Australians unemployed during the Morrison recession out of a job because they're not good enough, or is it closer to the mark to say, 'If you're in the know, you get a go'?

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

The flippancy of the opposition when it comes to the COVID-19 recession honestly reflects very poorly on them. They come into this place with glib, cheap insults to those in this country who are doing it the hardest they have in generations.

I am asked about this matter of what has occurred with those who have lost their jobs in this country. A million people in a matter of weeks fell out of employment or had their jobs reduced to zero hours, and since that time more than 760,000 people have found those jobs again, or their hours have been restored. That has been our response to the COVID-19 recession. Those opposite don't even seem to understand that the COVID-19 recession was caused by COVID-19. Those opposite don't know how we got into the recession, and so they have no answers when it comes to how to find the way out of it. This is a Labor party—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Gorton is warned.

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

that has no plan for the Australian economy, no plan whatsoever. They don't even know what the impact of COVID-19 has been on people's jobs, on their livelihoods and on their businesses. What we have done is to restore our economy from these shocking losses—getting people back into work, getting businesses reopened, restoring the health of Australians. Australians know that. The sort of cheap rhetoric we have from the opposition, coming here flippantly with political barbs, seeking to take advantage of unemployed people in this country, does them no credit. The Australian people know that they cannot trust the Labor Party, they cannot trust this Leader of the Opposition, because they know that when it comes to the matters that really go to their security—their economic security, their national security—this Leader of the Opposition just isn't up to it.