Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Birmingham: The RBA Governor, Dr Lowe, told the National Press Club, 'When the JobKeeper program finishes at the end of March, we expect some additional job losses.' The Secretary of the Treasury also conceded last week that there will be job losses when JobKeeper is axed. How many Australians will lose their jobs when the government axes JobKeeper in 38 days?

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

The government has always been honest that, in dealing with a global pandemic, with a crisis of unprecedented proportions in terms of its economic impact right around the world, tragically not every job or every business would be able to be saved from the disruption that has occurred. The actions, however, that we've taken have delivered a remarkable outcome for Australia by saving jobs, saving businesses and, indeed, ensuring our economy is firmly back on track and progressing in a direction that we want to see for its recovery. Today we welcome the release of labour force figures that show yet again a decline in the unemployment rate in Australia. The figures show that in January the unemployment rate fell—

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

Order, Senator Birmingham. Senator Gallagher, on a point of order?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My point of order is relevance. I'm sure that today the government will have the opportunity, through dorothies, to go through the job starters, unless they surprise me. But my question was specifically about job losses, and the minister hasn't come to that. How many will be lost when JobKeeper ends?

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

Senator Gallagher, I have allowed you to restate the final part of the question. The question and the quotations did refer to jobs and the labour market. With respect, I think the minister is being directly relevant by talking about jobs. I can't instruct him how to answer a question.

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

I hate to break it to the shadow minister for finance, but the measure of unemployment by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is a measure of people without jobs in the Australian economy. What we saw in January was that the unemployment rate fell from 6.6 per cent to 6.4 per cent. More importantly, employment increased by 29,100 jobs in January 2021, the fourth monthly increase in a row. This is a government that has not only quite consistently supported people through the pandemic but also acted in a way consistent with principles. We said that measures we put in place would have to be temporary, targeted and proportionate to the circumstances that are there. That's what we've done with JobKeeper. We absolutely delivered an economy wide solution at the point of the pandemic's depths. We have tapered it off and we are now, thanks to the recovery that's in place, able to move to more targeted approaches.

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

Order, Senator Birmingham. Senator Gallagher, a supplementary question?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note the minister avoids answering the question. My supplementary question is: Save Victorian Events, a group advocating for Victoria's $10 billion a year events industry, performed a survey earlier this month that found that if JobKeeper were to end in March, 43 per cent of companies surveyed would need to let staff go and an additional 40 per cent would potentially need to close their businesses. How many of the 493,000 businesses accessing JobKeeper will fold due to this government withdrawing support prematurely?

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

I reject the idea of any concept of premature withdrawal. What this government has done is put in place an intervention in the Australian economy and in private businesses, unprecedented in its scale. The investment that we have put into the Australian economy has been unprecedented in its scale, in the dollars involved and in the nature of the intervention.

And, of course, as we tightened the eligibility for JobKeeper, as the rates around JobKeeper declined, those opposite came in here each time and predicted doom and gloom. They told us at the end of September that we would see catastrophe at the end of December yet what we have seen is the Australian economy has continued to grow the number of jobs. The unemployment rate has continued to go down. Now, there will be difficult times ahead, no doubt about it, but— (Time expired)

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

Senator Gallagher, a final supplementary question?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Australia Bank has joined the chorus of economists and experts warning against prematurely abandoning support, saying: 'It is critical that, while support will be loosened in better performing parts of the economy, the overall stimulus package is not withdrawn too quickly.' Why is the Prime Minister withdrawing support without any plan for businesses to stay open and for workers to keep their jobs?

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

Well, Senator Gallagher clearly wasn't listening when the last budget was handed down, because there is an enormous amount of support, stimulus and activity still going into the Australian economy even past the end of March. All of the measures put in place to stimulate investment across the Australian economy—the HomeBuilder program that is providing a huge wave of activity in the construction sector, the tax cuts that we have legislated that are providing for an additional $1 billion-plus going into the pockets of Australian households each and every month going forward, and the fact that we have in place the loss carry back provisions for Australian businesses to be able to sustain themselves—are ongoing. All of these measures are ongoing past the end of March.

We on this side do not shy away from the fact there are difficult times for certain businesses. We are working through consultation with them. We will look at targeted approaches. (Time expired)