JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning. COVID-19 is an economic shock like no other. Globally the equivalent of 600 million people have lost their job, and here in Australia 10 per cent of our workforce either lost their job or saw their
working hours reduced to zero. The Morrison Government responded with an unprecedented amount of support. JobKeeper. JobSeeker. $750 payments to millions of pensioners, carers and others on income support. And a
$32 billion cash flow boost that is supporting small business through this crisis.
In tonight's Budget, I will lay out our economic recovery plan to rebuild the Australian economy and secure Australia's future. Our plan will create jobs. This is all about jobs. It's all about helping those who are out of a job get into a job. It's all about helping those that are in work, stay in work. Our plan will create opportunity. Our plan will drive investment. Our plan will grow the economy and guarantee the essential services Australians rely on. Our plan will see Australia a stronger nation.
QUESTION:
Mr Frydenberg, you're going to provide wage subsidies for young people. Isn't this going to discriminate against older workers? And young people represented 38 per cent of the job losses, while women represented 52 per cent of the job losses over the pandemic. What are you going to be doing for women?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, women and young people are among those who have been heaviest hit by this crisis. Importantly, more than half of those who have lost their jobs have now got back to work. And we saw 54 per cent of the jobs being lost, being jobs lost by women. 60 per cent of the jobs that have come back are jobs that are going to women. Young people have also seen jobs come back strongly. In tonight's Budget, we'll be releasing our second women's economic security statement, helping to boost female workforce participation, because we want to get it back to that record high, Lanai that it was before this crisis began. In tonight's Budget, we'll also be supporting young people, because the history of previous recessions in Australia, in the 1980s and the 1990s, is that it's taken a long time to get unemployment back to where it was. They say that unemployment goes up the elevator and comes down the stairs. In the 1980s, it took six years to get unemployment back below six per cent from where it started. In the 1990s, it took 10 years. We want to move faster than that, and importantly we want to help women and young people get back to work.
QUESTION:
Treasurer, what happens if you get this wrong?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, this Budget is our plan for Australia's economic recovery. We're already seeing encouraging signs across the economy, as people get back to work, as the virus is suppressed, as restrictions are eased. Right now we have a two-speed national economy. We have Victoria and we have the rest. But, fortunately in Victoria, the number of daily cases has been coming down, and those restrictions have started to ease. And that will see more people in Victoria get back to work just as we've seen more people around the rest of the country get back to work.
QUESTION:
How will that youth wage subsidies work Treasurer?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Again, I’m not here to give details about a Budget that will be made public from 7.30 tonight.
QUESTION:
When you were in opposition, it was widely known that you guys smashed Labor over a large deficit, how can you trust that this is going to be enough to bring the country back to working?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well this is an economic shock like no other. So the OECD is forecasting that the global economy will contract by 4.5 per cent this year. in contrast, in the GFC the global economy contracted just by 0.1 per cent. Our measures, as the Prime Minister set out from the start of this crisis, have stuck to key principles and key values. our measures have been temporary, our measures have been targeted, our measures have used existing systems that are in place. Our measures have been scalable and our measures have been proportionate. We haven't baked in long term spending for the Budget to undermine its structural integrity. What we are focused on, overwhelmingly, first, second and third priority is jobs. Tonight’s Budget is all about jobs. Tonight’s Budget is all about helping those who are out of a job get into a job and helping those who are in work, stay in work. Thank you.