Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Birmingham. There are nearly one million Australians unemployed, 1.4 million underemployed and 2.8 million relying on government support, and unemployment is on the rise. How many of the 25,000 Australians who recently joined the unemployment queues were forced there because of the Morrison government's withdrawal of support?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our government, through this crisis period of the pandemic, has sought not only to respond to the health crisis and to achieve what are global-leading results in terms of protecting Australians from the health risks of COVID-19 but also to respond in unprecedented ways in terms of support for the Australian economy. Just as the health results are amongst the best in the world in terms of the resilience that Australia has shown, so, too, are our economic results amongst the best in the world. That is not to say that there aren't Australians doing it very tough. There clearly are. Today we note the announcement by Qantas in relation to job losses that will be sustained at Qantas and changes that company is making to try to ensure its resilience into the future.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear the interjections from those opposite, who seem to pretend that, in a world where global aviation has been battered to its core, there is some easy solution in relation to these matters. There's not. You can't live in the fantasy world of those opposite. The reality is that we have put in place, through the JobKeeper mechanism, the single largest intervention in the Australian economy by a government in our peacetime history ever, and in doing so we have helped to sustain and save many thousands of jobs, and we have helped to sustain and save many thousands of businesses. But we said at the outset it was never going to be possible to save every single business or every single job, given the nature of the crisis that we face. But we are continuing to invest, having created JobKeeper and extended JobKeeper, and of course now pursuing, through our budget, a range of policy measures designed to drive jobs growth in the economy, to help with the recovery and to get people back to work as quickly as possible. (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Kitching, a supplementary question?

Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week the deputy governor of the RBA warned the government to, 'be careful of removing the stimulus too early'. What is the economic impact of the Morrison government's decision to withdraw JobSeeker and JobKeeper in March?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We outlined at the beginning of the pandemic, in our economic response, that what we sought to apply were measures that were temporary, targeted and proportionate. They have been the principles that have guided the government's response through this crisis, with some $507 billion in financial support for the Australian economy, representing some 25.6 per cent of GDP. That record level of support has provided a lifeline to so many individuals. But, in terms of the temporary, targeted, proportionate nature, we have also been taking careful steps and decisions in relation to JobKeeper. Those careful steps and decisions have seen JobKeeper go through a number of steps and iterations that do see eligibility—

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Wong on a point of order.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the eight seconds the minister has left I wonder if he could be directly relevant to the question, which was the economic impact of the decision to withdraw JobKeeper and JobSeeker in March. We've had a lot of process, a lot of rhetoric, but there was a question which Australians are deeply interested in.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, I have allowed you to remind the minister of the question which followed a quotation regarding stimulus broadly, from the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank my notes reflect. I am listening carefully to the minister. In my view, if he is talking about that policy—you can debate the answer after question time—he is being directly relevant to the question because of the use of that quotation. Senator Birmingham.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, as we've said at every step of this crisis, we will continue to monitor the impacts at each step of the decision-making and we will make decisions accordingly. That's why we created JobKeeper. It's why we— (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Kitching, a final supplementary question?

Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In addition to the Reserve Bank, the OECD has also warned the Morrison government to avoid withdrawing vital support from the economy too early. How many Australians will lose their jobs as a result of the Morrison government ignoring these warnings?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the last five months we have seen some 650,000 jobs recreated across the Australian economy. This has been a result of the types of measures that our government has put in place to give the economic stability and lifeline that Australia needed. The senator referenced the OECD and their different analysis in her question. Mr President, if you want to look at the global comparisons, you see that economic growth in Australia did indeed in the June quarter contract by seven per cent. However, if you look across comparable nations, we saw that in Germany it contracted by closer to 10 per cent, in Canada by closer to 11½ per cent, in the US by more than nine per cent and in the UK by more than 20 per cent—

Senator Gallagher interjecting—

I hear Senator Gallagher say, 'Well, that's comforting for the Australians who've lost their jobs'. As I said in the primary question, we acknowledge this is difficult for many people, but this is a global pandemic we are responding to and our government is applying unprecedented support to get Australians through it— (Time expired)