House debates

Thursday, 14 May 2020

Questions without Notice

JobKeeper Payment

2:08 pm

Photo of Anthony AlbaneseAnthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is again to the Prime Minister: How many of the 600,000 fewer Australians who were employed in April were excluded from the JobKeeper wage subsidy?

2:09 pm

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

I can tell you that the JobKeeper program has 860,600 employers which are supporting six million employees. All of these measures go together in supporting employees. Some 503,900 businesses are supported by the cash flow boost program, the payments of which go to those business employers to support people to stay in jobs. It's some $9.1 billion on top of the JobKeeper payments that are paid to those businesses to keep those Australians in work. These programs are designed to keep people in jobs, and where those programs are not able to be made available to all those throughout the economy, in addition to the six million who are already supported, then the jobseeker program is there to support them. These two programs work together to provide the economic lifeline Australians need.