Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. With over $311 billion in direct economic and health support already committed and a rapid vaccination rollout underway, will the Treasurer remind the House how the Morrison government is ensuring our economy remains resilient and ready to bounce back when living with COVID becomes a reality? And is the Treasurer aware of any alternative policies?

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

I thank the honourable member for Fisher for his question, and I acknowledge his experience as a builder and as a barrister before coming to this place, and as a strong advocate for small businesses across the electorate of Fisher, and, indeed, for the $600 million support package for Queensland businesses that we have provided in partnership with the Queensland government.

Everyone in this House is aware of the real challenges the Australian economy and indeed the Australian community are facing right now. Businesses are closed, kids are not at school and families are apart. Recognising those challenges, the Morrison government is providing an unprecedented amount of health and economic support, including income support, for those who have lost hours of work, of up to $750 a week, and business support across every state and territory—fifty-fifty partnerships, with those state and territory governments in partnership with the federal government, to ensure that small- and medium-sized businesses get the assistance that they need.

This is helping to build the resilience of the Australian economy—an economy that has seen one million jobs created since May last year and an economy that has seen the unemployment rate fall to 4.6 per cent, a 12-year low. I can inform the House that today business investment numbers came out for the June quarter, and they showed that business investment was up by 4.4 per cent. Importantly, non-mining investment was up by six per cent and is now up 15 per cent for the year—the strongest growth in non-mining investment in more than 13 years, as programs like our immediate expensing initiatives are helping to incentivise businesses, even during these challenging times, to invest. Farmers are buying new harvesters. There are new forklifts for new factories, like the Kenworth truck business that I visited in Bayswater, in the member for Deakin's electorate, strongly supported by the member for Wright, where they had 1,300 staff producing Australian-made Kenworth trucks. They've taken on nearly 300 new staff in just the last 12 months alone, and they have 160 separate suppliers employing another 10,000 people. The immediate expensing provisions, our business investment incentives, are producing real results for our economy. But we must stick to the plan. The plan agreed by national cabinet, at 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccination rates, will see our economy open up and more jobs be created.