Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. One million Australians are unemployed and 160,000 more are expected to join them by Christmas. There are seven jobseekers for every job available and Australia is in the worst recession for nearly a century. Isn't this the worst possible time for the Prime Minister to cut the coronavirus supplement?

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

I thank the member for her question. It is indeed true that during the course of this COVID-19 recession many Australians have found themselves in a situation they would never have imagined. They would never have imagined themselves having to be in touch with Services Australia to avail themselves of JobKeeper support. That is why the government acted quickly to double the level of support during the worst part of this crisis, when their uncertainty levels would been at the most extreme. We did not have any real indication of the severity of this, of how difficult this would be, but we had to prepare for the worst of storms—and, indeed, we did. We provided that support first. We said the safety net must be strengthened first, and that's exactly what we did. And we followed it up with measures like JobKeeper and radically increasing the capacity—drawing public servants from not just this place but many other places—to ensure we could process the unprecedented level of claims. The work of Services Australia to ensure that support was provided to those Australians was absolutely outstanding and I commend them again for their service, here in this place today—and I'm sure all members would agree with me.

As we come out of the COVID-19 recession, what's important, under our recovery plan, is to go through the gears up again. In the same way we provided temporary and targeted support for those who needed it most, at the same time as the economy improves, it's important that our safety net arrangements do not negatively impact on how the labour market performs in this country and potentially provide an impediment, as we hear from so many employers around the country who are seeking people to go into jobs. Those job advertisements have doubled since May. There will be more jobs coming as we open up, and it's important that's the case.

It was essential to provide these emergency measures, but for Australia to move forward again, we can't remain trapped by those emergency measures. We need to ensure that those emergency measures move with the recovery that is underway. We are extending the JobSeeker payment at a cost of $3.2 billion to taxpayers around this country. The level of support provided by this government through the course of this pandemic is unprecedented and, at a global comparison, is one of the most significant of anywhere in the world. I know that Australians have greatly appreciated that. They have greatly appreciated the context of it, the fact that it cannot be there, at those levels, forever and that we need to graduate from those levels of support in order for our economy to recover again and get back to the strength that all Australians want it to be at. These are sentiments that were also expressed by the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Treasurer at the time that these measures were put in place. (Time expired)