House debates

Thursday, 11 June 2020

Questions without Notice

JobKeeper Payment

2:00 pm

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

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Why is the Prime Minister committed to the hard snapback of JobKeeper in September, despite warnings from the OECD about withdrawal of support?

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

The government has a review of the JobKeeper program which is currently underway. As we said, it's being conducted and will be concluded in the month of June. The government will then consider the recommendations of that report. These things are not done in haste, as I outlined yesterday to the member for Rankin when he put this matter, and I made references, that he may not be familiar with those processes of government, but you do things in a very considered and careful way when you do these things. So that's what we're doing.

As I stressed to the Leader of the Opposition yesterday, JobKeeper is not the only measure of support. I note that the OECD has acknowledged Australia, today, and the extensive measures that Australia has put in place—comprehensive, right across the board, and recognised, at an international level, for being of sufficient scale to ensure that Australians have been getting the economic lifeline they need during this crisis.

So the government will continue to plan for the many months ahead and, indeed, the many years ahead. The government's plans go forward to ensure that we can rebuild the economy and that we can get Australians back into jobs. We'll be using the full suite of measures that have been available to us from very early on in the crisis. Indeed, on that very first day, when the last meeting of COAG was held, the governor of the Reserve Bank presented to the premiers and me as well as the secretary of Treasury, and both of those experts in this area encouraged the government and all the states and territories to ensure that the government did the fiscal heavy lifting as we went through this crisis. And that's exactly what we have done. We have responded to the crisis in historic levels, unprecedented in this country, which has been giving Australians the confidence that has been building day after day, week after week, under the strong economic policies and response of this government.