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

My question is to the Treasurer. How many of the 1.3 million Australians still on JobKeeper will lose their jobs when the payment is cut?

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

What I can inform the honourable member of is that, based on the numbers that Treasury put out in MYEFO, when JobKeeper ends the unemployment rate will continue to come down. So we will see job creation in this country even after the end of JobKeeper. If the honourable member had managed to read the Reserve Bank governor's speech—

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

The Treasurer will resume his seat. The member for Rankin on a point of order?

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

My point of order is on relevance. It was a very specific question: how many of the 1.3 million will lose their job when he cuts JobKeeper?

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

I'll say to the Treasurer that it was a very specific question and he needs to confine himself to the question. I'll also say that the reason I hadn't intervened is that the Treasurer had been on his feet for 28 seconds.

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

In the December quarter, there were just over 1.5 million on JobKeeper. It's an assertion by the member for Rankin that there will be 1.3 million people on JobKeeper in the March quarter. We don't yet have that data. So the member for Rankin can't assert that number. What I can tell the member for Rankin is that it is Treasury's expectation and the RBA's expectation that the unemployment rate—

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left, it's impossible to hear the Treasurer when you're interjecting. It seems an irony that I get points of order on relevance and then I'm prevented from hearing the answer.