Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer inform the House of how the Morrison government's unprecedented economic support, including the JobSeeker supplement and the JobMaker hiring credit, is meeting the challenge of the COVID-19 recession and providing real assistance to Australian families and helping businesses to create jobs?

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

I thank the member for Bowman for his question and acknowledge his contribution to the medical profession before he came to this place and his deep commitment to improving Indigenous health and mental health. The member for Bowman and others on this side of the House acknowledge the fact that there's been a once-in-a-century economic shock that saw 1.3 million of our fellow Australians either lose their jobs or have their working hours reduced to zero at the start of the pandemic. In the June quarter we saw GDP down by seven per cent—a record fall. But, importantly, the economic recovery is now underway. A total of 446,000 jobs have been created in the past four months. Consumer sentiment had its biggest increase in a budget month since the series first began back in 1974. Australia's AAA credit rating has been reaffirmed. Last week the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia said that our fiscal strategy is the right fiscal strategy and that we are on the right track.

I can confirm to the House that today consumer confidence is up for the 10th straight week, at an eight-month high, and business confidence is up by nine points—up for trade, up for transport, up for construction and up for mining. The measures that we introduced have helped support that recovery. They are measures that contribute the equivalent of 26 per cent of GDP. JobKeeper: we have got $70 billion out the door. The cashflow boost: $32 billion out the door. The coronavirus supplement: $15.6 billion out the door. Two $750 payments to pensioners and carers: more than $9 billion out the door. And the one that those on the other side of the House don't like to acknowledge, which is that we on this side have allowed Australians to access their own super: more than $36 billion out the door, helping to support the economic recovery, giving Australians access to their own money.

Today we took another step forward by extending the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement, at $150, out to the end of March, at a cost of $3.2 billion—another measure that will help provide support to those who need it. That is economic support to help get Australians back into jobs, economic support to help our economic recovery, economic support to help Australians right across the country to get through the biggest crisis of the last century. (Time expired)

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Technology and the Future of Work) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister said today that we cannot allow the lifeline that has been extended to now hold Australians back. Can the Prime Minister explain how supporting unemployed Australians during the worst recession in almost a century is 'holding the country back'?

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

I will simply quote the member's own senior members in relation to these issues. They have said that the government needs to take into account all sorts of considerations about the state of the budget and the state of the economy and that they expect that a new JobSeeker rate will be lower than it is right now. That's what they've said. They've consistently said that the level of the JobSeeker COVID supplement would be at its elevated levels and then it would be reduced. That is what the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer have said consistently, and that is what the government is doing.

The member opposite would be aware that, when you set these allowances, these rates, these welfare payments, if you set them at rates which can potentially impede the labour market from people moving into work as the economy strengthens, then that can prevent the economy being able to get people into work. Our job is to get people into jobs, not have them stay on welfare. Our plan is about getting businesses open; our plan is about getting Australians into jobs and off welfare. That's why the JobMaker hiring credit has been put in place in the budget. It specifically goes to Australians who have been on JobSeeker and go into a job—a job that will support their incomes, not just with the support of the government but the support of a viable business that is part of the great Australian comeback and recovery that is underway not only as a result of the tremendous resilience of Australians but also as a result of the strong policy settings and economic supports that were put in place by this government.

Those who need support will continue to receive it, and we have extended the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement out till the end of March, at a cost of $3.2 billion. But Australians always knew, as we went into these most difficult times, that the elevated support that was necessary during these times of crisis was not sustainable on an ongoing basis, and they understand that we need to regear the economy as we move through to the recovery and we return our economy to the strength that it was before. You don't achieve that by weighing it down. You do it by freeing it up. And our policies are about freeing up businesses to employ more Australians.

It may come as a surprise to the member opposite, but, all across regional Australia at the moment, there are farmers and orchardists and others who are crying out for people to come and work on their fields and to realise that harvest. And it was our government that put in place a $6,000 relocation allowance that could say to Australians who are in need of that work— (Time expired)