Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer inform the House how the Morrison government has been supporting all states and territories to drive Australia's economic recovery through our unprecedented response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

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

I thank the member for Forde for his question and acknowledge his time in small business and the financial services sector before coming into this place, taking on a former Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, and winning.

The member for Forde understands, as we do on this side of the House, that the Australian economy, the global economy, has faced a once-in-a-century economic shock. In fact, the IMF is suggesting that the global economy will contract this year by 4.4 per cent. That compares to a contraction of just 0.1 per cent during the height of the GFC. The equivalent of around 600 million people have lost their jobs globally over the course of this year. And, here in Australia, at the height of this pandemic, 1.3 million Australians either lost their jobs or saw their working hours reduced to zero.

The Morrison government has responded with an unprecedented amount of economic support: JobKeeper, JobSeeker, the cash flow boost, $750 payments to millions of Australian pensioners, helping to save 700,000 jobs. Our Commonwealth response has totalled $507 billion, or the equivalent of 26 per cent of GDP, when you include fiscal and balance sheet support. There has been $257 billion in direct economic support. That's the equivalent to 13 per cent of GDP. In comparison, the states have announced—have announced—$40 billion of direct economic support, just two per cent of GDP. Out the door already is $124.4 billion: $41.6 billion to New South Wales; $34.6 billion to Victoria: $24.1 billion to Queensland, and, in comparison, the Queensland government has announced just $7 billion of direct economic support; 11.6 billion to WA; $7.6 billion to South Australia; $2.3 billion to Tasmania; $1.7 billion to the ACT; and $0.9 billion to the Northern Territory. That is what the Morrison government has already delivered—$124.4 billion to Australian families and businesses.

The JobKeeper package alone has already seen nearly $70 billion out the door, supporting around 3½ million Australian workers. The cash flow boost—over $30 billion or around 800,000 Australian businesses are benefitting. This is helping the economic recovery, a recovery which has already seen 446,000 jobs being created over the last four months alone. We're getting on with the job, and our job is creating jobs for all Australians.