Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Cormann. Last Friday Mr Morrison was asked if he could guarantee that JobKeeper would remain until the end of September. He replied, 'Yes.' Only three days later the government announced that childcare workers would soon no longer be eligible for JobKeeper. Did Mr Morrison know this when he gave his guarantee on Friday or did he decide to break his promise after this?

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

It won't surprise Senator Gallagher to hear me say I reject the premise of the question. The Prime Minister's statement was and remains 100 per cent accurate. Our announcement of a better, fairer, more equitable transition for the childcare sector is not inconsistent with the Prime Minister's statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Gallagher, a supplementary question?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Now that we are in a recession, can you guarantee that workers in other sectors will not have their access to JobKeeper removed?

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

As the Prime Minister clearly indicated, the JobKeeper program is in place until the end of September. It's a six-month program which has been legislated for six months.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

In relation to the childcare sector, which is clearly causing these levels of disorderly interjections, we have come up with a better, fairer, more equitable way of providing transitional support in the context of a massive return of children into child care, in the context of the business model of childcare services, in the context of our capacity to provide childcare subsidies, in the context of higher attendance rates and in the context of higher-income parents being able to make contributions to the cost of caring for children and, indeed, a transitional payment of $708 million across the sector, which comes with an employment guarantee across the childcare services. When it comes to its economic circumstances, Australia is in a challenging situation, but it is so much better than just about anywhere else in the world.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Gallagher, a final supplementary question?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given it took Mr Morrison only three days to break his promise, why should other Australians trust that they won't also lose access to JobKeeper before September?

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

The senator would have been well advised to adjust her final supplementary question in the context of the primary answer. I completely reject that premise. The Prime Minister's statement was and remains accurate. The JobKeeper program will remain in place, as the Prime Minister has stated, until the end of September. Beyond that, as I've already made very clear, we don't have any other proposals in front of us, but there is a review underway, which has been well publicised, by Treasury. As we have indicated on many occasions now, we will be considering the findings of that review after it's been received from Treasury.