Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bragg for that very important question. Of all OECD economies, Australia is expected to have the third-lowest fall in GDP in 2020. Nevertheless we do have a very significant challenge in front of us as a nation. We will still have a very significant mountain to climb. Compared to our MYEFO forecasts, it is expected that over $100 billion of economic activity has been lost this year as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect that it will take us two years to get back to the level of economic activity we were at pre-COVID-19, but our government has a plan to lift growth not just in the next few months but over the next five years. Our focus will be on jobs, jobs and jobs, providing the confidence and incentive for businesses to invest and to hire. We have done it before and we will do it again. More than 1.5 million jobs were created across Australia under our government before COVID-19 hit.

Increased investment in infrastructure will continue to be a central part of our plan, and today the Prime Minister announced our commitment to invest a further $1.5 billion to start work on smaller priority projects identified by the states and territories. $1 billion will be allocated to priority projects which are now shovel-ready, with $500 million reserved specifically to target road safety works. That further $1.5 billion builds on around $7.8 billion worth of projects we've brought forward since November last year. In total, our government has committed $180 billion in economic infrastructure over the next decade, with more than half allocated across the forward estimates. We have also announced a priority list of 15 major projects, worth more than $72 billion, in public and private investment.