Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I can only imagine how disheartening it must be to be in opposition, to never be able to see the positive in anything. We're talking about the plan that the government has had for Australia. When we've talked about almost anything today, I've wanted to take us back to last February-March, because that's when the world changed. The world literally changed last February-March. The world was hit by a global pandemic. So, what have we done as a government since then in terms of a plan for Australia? We had a plan that covered two very distinct issues. We had a plan to keep Australians safe. You would think, if you listened to the opposition, that we are in dire straits with the pandemic as far as the health and safety of Australians are concerned. Well, that isn't the case. You would also believe, if you listened solely to the opposition, that we have great economic problems combined with the pandemic. That again is not the case.

I want to take you back to last February-March when the global pandemic was declared. I want to take you back to when we, as a government, formed a national cabinet with the state premiers and the territory leaders about how we were going to combat this and what we needed to do, as both state and federal governments, to keep Australians safe and to keep their job security as solid as we could. What happened? The Treasury back then, way back at the start of this, said that their projections were for a 15 per cent unemployment rate, for two million extra Australians to be unemployed and for our economy to contract by 20 per cent. They were the Treasury's projections if we, as a government and state governments together, didn't do anything. So, we had a plan. We implemented a plan. We also—

Ms Murphy interjecting—

I'll take the interjection. It was a very cunning plan and it's worked! It was a great plan!

Ms Murphy interjecting—

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