Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. More than 10,000 workers in my electorate of Parramatta will lose JobKeeper at the end of this month, with more than $5 million a week in support ripped away by this Prime Minister. How many workers in my electorate who are now on JobKeeper will lose their jobs because of the Prime Minister's cuts?

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

The good news for the member for Parramatta is that 19,064 members of her electorate have graduated off JobKeeper. That's a graduation rate of 67 per cent. When it comes to tax cuts, 85,000 members of her electorate are going to get tax cuts. The reality is that the JobKeeper program was always a temporary, targeted measure. It was emergency support, but it's coming to an end. I point out to the member for Parramatta that, since September, 2.7 million Australians have graduated off JobKeeper. In that quarter, we reduced by half the direct financial support from the Morrison government, between September and December, yet 350,000 jobs were created in that time. We understand it's going to be a bumpy time from here to when JobKeeper ends, but the key focus for the government is helping to keep people in work and helping those who are out of work to get back into work. We have a number of policies designed to do exactly that.