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

I will hand over to the Treasurer in just a moment. As the Treasury secretary has already stated, the impacts that are being felt in our economy do not lead to the conclusion of Treasury that that would lead to a rise in unemployment. But we will deal with the issues as they continue to present. What we know is that the number of people employed in this country is greater today—in fact, back in February—than it was when the recession and the pandemic hit this country. We've still got a long way to go, there's no doubt about that. But now that we have returned to a position better than when the pandemic started, in terms of the number of people employed in this country—we said that emergency assistance would be temporary and that it would be targeted.

It is one thing, when it comes to a government such as ours, to know when we need to act and to stand in the gap for Australians and provide that emergency assistance. That is an important thing that governments must have in responding to a crisis. But our government also understands that you cannot run the Australian economy on taxpayers' money forever. You also need the fiscal discipline of a government that the taxpayers can trust to know when you need to provide that support and as your economy grows—

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