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

I thank the member for Ryan for his question and I commend his work in this place on behalf of his constituents and indeed all Australians. Today we received devastating economic news. GDP fell in the June quarter by seven per cent. To put that in perspective, it was the single largest fall on record since the series began in 1959. Prior to today, the single largest fall was a two per cent fall in 1974. Our record run as a nation of 28 consecutive years of economic growth has officially come to an end. While we are talking about these numbers in this place, Australians are living these numbers. Some 1.3 million Australians lost their jobs or saw their hours reduced to zero since the start of this crisis.

The numbers we saw today here in Australia were very severe and very hard to take. But we also know that COVID-19 has wreaked havoc around the rest of the world, and that the falls that we have seen in other economies have been more severe than what we saw today. In the United Kingdom—

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