Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Paterson for his question. The Morrison government has invested billions of dollars in economic support measures to get Australians through the COVID-19 crisis and beyond, including the JobKeeper payment, the expansion of jobseeker, early access to superannuation and direct financial support to families.

As a percentage of GDP, Australia's investment is at the top of the leaderboard globally, showing we are the best prepared compared with any other country. However, there is clearly a long road in front of us and there will no doubt be further challenges on the road to recovery. As we enter the other side of this crisis, young Australians will benefit from our commitment to return the Australian budget and economy back to the strong and stable financial position that it was in prior to the crisis to ensure future generations do not unduly suffer from the economic impacts of this crisis.

Our focus will be on practical solutions that will benefit Australians, including young Australians, to get back into or remain in work, now and into the future, including reskilling and upskilling the workforce, maintaining our $100 billion ten-year infrastructure pipeline, and cutting red tape to reduce the cost burden on businesses, the economy and tax. This is on top of our existing initiatives, such as our Youth Jobs PaTH, which will deliver real results for Australians right across the country, including for the more than 93,000 young people who have participated, with over 58,900 getting a job as at March 2020. Young Australians can have confidence in the coalition government. We have repaired the budget before, and we will do it again—and let's not forget about the 1.5 million jobs that we've created since the 2013 election.