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

My question is to the Treasurer. How many billions of dollars a week are being lost from the national economy because the Prime Minister failed to do his two jobs—rolling out the vaccine effectively and creating a safe national quarantine system?

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

I can tell the member that, as a result of our policies, we're providing important income and business support to the people across the states of New South Wales and Queensland, which are in lockdown. As I've said publicly before, the costs of the lockdown are immense. In the case of New South Wales it's around $180 million a day. In the case of when Victoria was in lockdown, it was around $100 million a day. In the case of South Australia, when they were locked down, it was more like $30 million a day.

The reality is that lockdowns cost the economy significantly. They have an impact, obviously, on the labour market; they have an impact on economic activity; and they have an impact on people's wellbeing. That is why we are providing an unprecedented amount of economic support to those people in need. Today, I've joined hundreds of businesses in a series of zoom calls to remind them and to provide them with details of the economic support that is flowing.

But people across Australia, particularly those who are in lockdown right now, need to understand that the fundamentals of the Australian economy are strong. They need to understand that the Australian economy is resilient and they need to understand that, as we bounce back from the lockdowns that we have seen, the economy comes back very, very strongly. Our economic performance throughout this pandemic has been ahead of other advanced economies around the world.

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

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

The honourable member knows that, going into these most recent lockdowns that we've seen in New South Wales and elsewhere, the unemployment rate fell to 4.9 per cent, a 10-year low, that 160,000 more people are in work today than before this pandemic began and that our economy is bigger today than before this pandemic began. Programs like JobKeeper have been absolutely essential to the rebound across the Australian economy. So, while those opposite like to talk down the economy, we on this side talk up the economy. We point to its resilience, we point to its strength and, most importantly, we point to the confidence of the Australian people.