JOSH FRYDENBERG:
…we saw the unemployment rate fall to 6.6 per cent in December. 320,000 jobs created in the last three months. 90 per cent of the 1.3 million Australians who lost their jobs or saw their working hours reduced to zero at the start of the pandemic are now back at work. What we’ve seen today is that in the December quarter, 2.1 million fewer Australians were on JobKeeper in the December quarter compared to the period prior and 520,000 fewer Australian businesses were relying on JobKeeper in the December quarter compared to the period prior. This change across the JobKeeper program was broad based, it was in all states and all sectors. In Western Australia, there was a 70 per cent fall in the number of people who were on JobKeeper in that December quarter compared to the period prior. In South Australia, there was a 67 per cent fall. In Tasmania it was a 65% fall. In Queensland, it was a 64 per cent fall. In New South Wales, it was a 60 per cent fall. Unfortunately, in Victoria, the numbers were a little lower at a 44 per cent fall as a result of that state having the second wave with more than 600,000 Victorians still reliant on JobKeeper. It was also pleasing to see in the retail sector more than 220,000 people come off JobKeeper. In the construction sector, 200,000 people come off JobKeeper. There is still a long way to go. People are doing it tough across the country in many different regions and sectors, but the Australian economy is recovering well. This is another proof point that the economic recovery is underway and another proof point that Australia’s labour market is strengthening.
QUESTION:
For those who are still struggling, when will the Government reveal their plans for the future beyond the end of March? It is only six weeks away.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
The first thing to say is JobKeeper is scheduled to end in March. It has always been a temporary program. When we initially designed the program, it was for six months. We extended it for another six months and it is estimated to cost around $90 billion. We saw in the Treasury review of the JobKeeper program last year, that if it was to remain in place as the economy was strengthening, it would have some adverse incentives, some perverse incentives, in particular preventing and hampering labour market mobility, people moving between jobs. So the JobKeeper program has to end. But we’ve put in place other economic support measures to help with that transition, including the JobMaker hiring credit, including the infrastructure incentives, which will see $29 billion spent on infrastructure this year and next. The business investment incentives that we’ve put in place and of course the tax cuts which are putting more than $1 billion into the pockets of Australian families each and every month over the next nine months. So these programs are going to help create jobs and that is why, you’ve heard from the RBA Governor that he was comfortable with the Government’s decision to end JobKeeper. With respect to other targeted support, that’s an issue that we are working through right now, but the Federal Government, the Morrison Government, has done the bulk of the heavy lifting, we have committed some $251 billion in direct economic support, around 13 per cent of GDP, that’s more than double what the states have committed to.
QUESTION:
Will those additional measures be announced or revealed soon though?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well again, we are working through those particular issues, but the JobKeeper program is scheduled to end in March and we have other programs that are in place to support that economic activity. If you look at the RBA’s forecast for unemployment, even when JobKeeper ends, the unemployment rate comes down. But it’s also what you saw in Treasury’s forecasts in MYEFO which I announced with the Finance Minister at the end of last year.
QUESTION:
Is the Government considering streamlining welfare payments into one single payment as reported this morning?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Look, I’m not going to speculate on speculation. What the Prime Minister and I and Minister Anne Ruston have consistently said is that the Government will make a decision about the rate of JobSeeker prior to the end of March.
QUESTION:
What are you waiting for though? Why not give some certainty to people ahead of time? [Inaudible]…?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well again, with respect to JobKeeper and JobSeeker, they’re different programs. So with JobKeeper, we made it very clear what our intentions were so that businesses could help prepare, they had to structurally adjust. With respect to people on JobSeeker, our focus has always been about getting them into work, off the JobSeeker payment and into work. These numbers are showing strength in the labour market, the fact that 320,000 jobs were created over the last three months, the fact that consumer and business confidence is now back to its pre pandemic levels, we saw 80,000 motor vehicles sold in January, a significant uplift on year on year numbers. And the housing market has proven remarkably resilient as people access lower interest rates but also programs like HomeBuilder, that has seen them have the confidence to buy and to build and that is also helping to support jobs across the sector.
QUESTION:
But if you’re living on $40 a day, the housing market doesn’t mean a whole lot to people [inaudible] like if you’re on $40 a day, what’s that going to mean to you in six weeks’ time?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well again with JobSeeker, what we did is we doubled it during the coronavirus pandemic and at the height of that pandemic, we doubled it with that $550 coronavirus supplement. Now as you know, like JobKeeper, it has tapered down, that taper ends in March and we’ll make a decision about the future rate at that point. Thank you.