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

As the Prime Minister and the Treasurer say, there is a long road ahead, but the economic outlook is optimistic. When you look at the performance of Australia, we have outperformed all major advanced nations, with more Australians in work today than before the crisis. As I said, we now have in excess of 13 million Australians in work, and the level of employment today is actually higher than it was at the height of the crisis. We continue to see, though, consumer confidence, business confidence and job ads grow to higher levels than before the pandemic. Despite the impacts of COVID-19, the latest ABS data also shows that an additional 46,000 businesses were trading over the year to June 2020. Again, the government is all about putting in place that right economic framework to ensure that, across Australia, businesses can prosper, grow and create more jobs for Australians.