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

While the impacts of COVID-19 have been absolutely devastating on the Australian economy, it must be remembered that Australia entered this crisis from a position of economic strength. That is why last night we were able to hand down the budget and make that further level of investment that we did.

When we entered COVID-19 the economy was growing and, in fact, we had record employment participation, labour force participation, in Australia. The unemployment rate had fallen to 5.2 per cent and the budget was back in balance for the first time in 11 years.

As the Prime Minister has said to Australians: 'We have done this before—we've got your back. We will put in place the right policies to ensure that we can emerge stronger on the other side of COVID-19.' That is why, as we emerge from the health crisis, the JobMaker plan that we have outlined to the Australian people will get Australians back into work.