Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer please explain to the House how the Morrison government's decisive economic leadership over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic will assist in a strong economic rebound and a brighter future for Australian families and businesses around the country?

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

I thank the member for Boothby for her question and acknowledge her experience as a journalist and being the first female representative for Boothby since 1903. She has been a strong advocate for lower taxes, and more than 5,000 businesses across her electorate are able to access the expanded instant asset write-off, like Paul Gesti, a local constituent whose plumbing business Gesti Brothers bought a new bobcat with that expanded instant asset write-off.

As we approach Christmas, it's only appropriate that we reflect on how far the country has come since March of last year, when business and consumer confidence had their biggest falls on record and Treasury feared that unemployment could reach as high as 15 per cent. We introduced programs like JobKeeper, which the Reserve Bank Governor said was a remarkable program that supported some 700,000 jobs. And I acknowledge the member for Fenner's comments, who said without JobKeeper we would have been looking at unemployment rates at Great Depression levels.

Thankfully, JobKeeper made a real difference, and now Australia's economic recovery is stronger than all but two major advanced economies. It's stronger than Germany, stronger than Italy, stronger than Canada, stronger than the United Kingdom and stronger than Japan. And the unemployment rate today is lower than when we came to government. Since September, we've seen 350,000 jobs come back and job ads are now 30 per cent higher than going into the pandemic. We've seen a boost in retail consumption—more than $5 billion, according to the retailers, being spent in the black Friday sales. And we saw business investment up by more than nine per cent through the year. We've been able to retain our AAA credit rating from the three leading credit rating agencies, one of only nine countries in the world to do so. And, overnight, the OECD upgraded their economic growth forecast for Australia from 3.3 per cent to 4.1 per cent—higher than the OECD average—saying that the Australian economy was recovering rapidly. That's the strength of the Australian economy.

Today is an opportunity to thank all Australians for the sacrifices and efforts they have made to see this strong rebound in our economy. With one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, one of the lowest mortality rates in the world and, now, one of the strongest economic recovery recoveries in the world, we say thank you to all Australians.