Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

I think that in the circumstances it is not surprising that the workforce participation rate has deceased. It was at a record high, or close to a record high, at 66 per cent, in March. It has reduced to 63.5 per cent, which is still rather high in the circumstances.

As Treasury has indicated, the expectation is for unemployment to continue to rise through to the June quarter to about 10 per cent. If we had not provided the supports that we have provided through the JobKeeper package in particular and other measures, unemployment was expected to rise to 15 per cent, which is where it is at in many other jurisdictions. In many other jurisdictions it is 15 per cent and higher, up to more than 20 per cent in some cases. Nobody will be surprised that this is a difficult period. We all know that. We're dealing with a major global health pandemic, and we're doing the best we can to help the Australian community through it.