Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

As the Leader of the Opposition well knows, the government will make further decisions regarding ongoing fiscal supports in late July after considering the economic circumstances of the time and after having received the advice from Treasury.

But the Leader of the Opposition plays a dangerous game when seeking to raise expectations about Australians in this economy. It is true that JobKeeper has provided—together with jobseeker, the cashflow assistance and support and the many other assistances that the government has provided at unprecedented and record levels—the economic lifeline that Australians have needed. But we cannot say to Australians that governments or anyone else, ultimately, will be in a position to ensure that every job can be saved and that every business can be saved. That is unrealistic, and if the Leader of the Opposition wants to play politics with that then he would be negligent in his responsibilities and callous in his words to the Australian people.

We know we're in the middle of one of the worst recessions we've seen—certainly, the worst one we've seen since the Great Depression. And we know that in recessions there are terrible impacts had on livelihoods, on businesses and on people's jobs. We will seek to do all we can, as we have with the unprecedented support. But I'm not going to make false promises to the Australian people. We have cushioned the blow but we can't prevent the blow, and we will be doing everything we can to ensure that those who do lose employment gain employment again through the JobMaker program and the many reforms and changes we'll be introducing to see our economy grow again, see the businesses open again and see the jobs come back again—because that's where the jobs will come from.

This Leader of the Opposition thinks he can go around and guarantee everybody's job with someone else's money. You can't do that. He thinks government should be at the centre of the economy—

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