Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Green for her question. Quite clearly, the figures that we received today indicate the devastating impact that the COVID pandemic has had not only on Australia and on our economy but, most particularly, on the lives and livelihoods of many Australians, and that is why this government has put in place an unprecedented package of supports for Australians. So far, $314 billion has been put into the economy to make sure that Australians have a cushion to support them through this unprecedented pandemic that has hit the entire world but has also impacted Australia.

But what we did say at the time this pandemic first hit, back in March—everybody here was in the chamber at the time—was that we needed to put in supports to assist Australians from one side of this pandemic to the other. Clearly, we are not through that pandemic yet. But we all agreed at the time that we would put in place supports and, in my area of social services, those supports related to the coronavirus supplement. We made a decision in July and we announced to people in July that we were going to extend that support past the end of September, because we recognise that Australians are still doing it tough. But across much of the economy, we are starting to see the green shoots of our economy opening up. We are starting to see jobs occur.

It is the responsibility of a responsible government to make sure that we manage the balance between providing increased levels of support to support people in a shallow job market while at the same time recognising we have to put the incentives back in place so people start engaging with the job market, so that they can start getting themselves back into the job market. In addition to that, we also provided assistance through the income-free— (Time expired)