Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is cutting the coronavirus supplement for about 7,000 Australians on JobSeeker in my electorate of Corangamite. Why did the Prime Minister say: 'We cannot allow the lifeline that has been extended to now hold Australia back'? Doesn't he realise that people want to work, but there simply aren't enough jobs in the middle of the worst recession in almost a century?

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

I thank the honourable member for her question, but I can inform her that what we have done today is to extend the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement at a cost of $3.2 billion. And I'd say to the honourable member: if you look in the budget papers, announced on 6 October, there wasn't an extension of the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement from January to March.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

It wasn't. But today we have announced an extension, at $3.2 billion, at $150, and the reason we are tapering down these payments of JobKeeper and JobSeeker is that the Australian economy is recovering. The honourable member may be interested to know that, at the peak of this pandemic, the effective unemployment across this country was 15 per cent. Right now, today, it's 9.4 per cent. But if you took out Victoria, where we've seen the terrible impacts of the second wave, the effective unemployment rate in Australia would be about 7.8 per cent. So what we have done is to provide an extension of an extra six months for JobKeeper and an extension now for JobSeeker.

But I would just say to the honourable member that if she'd listened to the Leader of the Opposition when he was asked, directly, the question, by Karl Stefanovic on the Today show, 'So how do you start to balance the books if you want to extend JobKeeper and extend those increases to JobSeeker?' the Leader of the Opposition replied, 'Well, we haven't said to extend it. What we have said, though, is it would need a tapering off.' The Leader of the Opposition has said it's needed a tapering. We have undertaken a tapering, and it's in the best interests of Australian jobs.