Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Abetz for the question. As the Prime Minister said in his address to the nation today, this is a very tough day for so many Australians, and some very difficult news for all of us. As the Minister for Finance has said, though, COVID-19 is a health and economic shock the likes of which not just Australia but the world has never seen. The government knew that the impact of COVID-19 on the economy would result in job losses. Today's jobs figures saw the number of jobs decrease by 594,300 in the month of April. We went from record employment of 13 million Australians in March to 12.4 million due to the impact of COVID-19. As a result, what we've seen today is the unemployment rate rise to 6.2 per cent. We also saw the participation rate, which was at a near record high again, at 66 cent in March, fall to 63.5 per cent. Again, as the Prime Minister said, those Australians who have lost their jobs are our fellow Australians; they're our family members, our friends and our neighbours. Given that significant parts of the Australian economy are still in lockdown—they are subject to those COVID-19 restrictions—today's figures are not surprising, but they clearly do show the difficult situation being faced by so many Australians. Today's unemployment figures would have been far higher, though, if the government had not introduced its $130 billion JobKeeper program, which the Prime Minister also announced today now covers six million workers.