Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer please inform the House how the Australian economy is going compared to other economies that have been similarly impacted by the pandemic?

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

I thank the member for Mackellar for his question and acknowledge his experience in small business, in both the health and the financial services space, before coming to this place. He's no fan of modern monetary theory, but he is a great supporter of his constituents and of good policy in this place.

COVID-19 has wreaked enormous havoc across the global economy. The World Bank has forecast that more economies will contract this year than at any time since 1870. The OECD have said that they expect the global economy to contract by six per cent this calendar year. In comparison, during the GFC at its height, in 2009, the global economy only contracted by 0.1 per cent. The International Labour Organization has said that, as a result of COVID-19, effectively 500 million full-time jobs have been lost. The impact on GDP in the June quarter, across the world, has been staggering. In the United Kingdom, it's been around 20 per cent. In France, it's been around 14 per cent. We recently saw the numbers from Canada, which were 11½ per cent. In Germany, it was 10.1 per cent; and, in the United States, it was 9.1 per cent.

Tomorrow we will get the national account numbers for the June quarter, and the expectation is that the fall here will not be as large as we've seen in other countries around the world, indicating the remarkable resilience of the Australian economy—indicated by the fact that, of the 1.3 million Australians who either have lost their job or saw their hours reduced to zero since the start of this crisis—

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

around 700,000 have got back to work. More than half have got back to work. There are 340,000 jobs that have been created in the last two months. Of those jobs—

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

58 per cent have gone to women and 44 per cent have gone to young people.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Rankin—

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

The fact of the matter is—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just pause, Treasurer. To the member for Rankin, who interjects a lot: if you're interjecting on your own repeatedly, it's probably a bad sign, okay?

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

The only numbers the member for Rankin is interested in are the ones he's tallying against the Leader of the Opposition!

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, the Treasurer will be relevant to the question.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The only ones he's tallying are against you!

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Rankin!

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

The only ones he's tallying are against you! The fact of the matter is that the Australian economy has been remarkably resilient, and our JobMaker plan is helping to get more people back to work. While those opposite will continue to talk down the Australian economy, we will continue to implement our JobMaker plan, helping to create a stronger economic recovery and to help more Australians get back to work.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We'll get back in sync. I'll call the leader of the Greens.