House debates

Tuesday, 12 May 2020

Questions without Notice

Employment

2:23 pm

Photo of Josh FrydenbergJosh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

We, on this side of the House, are doing everything we can to keep unemployment as low as possible. And, as the Leader of the Opposition is aware, and I've made public in my statement today, the forecast from Treasury is that unemployment will reach around 10 per cent. That's a doubling of unemployment in the June quarter. Now, when we came to government, unemployment was 5.7 per cent, but in February it fell to 5.1 per cent. Then the economy was struck by the economic impact of the coronavirus. So we are doing everything we can to maintain that formal connection between employers and employees, the JobKeeper package at $130 billion with 5½ million employers currently covered—

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