JobKeeper Payment

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:03): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier request that the commonwealth ensure that JobKeeper payments continue until after all social distancing restrictions have been lifted?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:03): That will be something that the national cabinet might consider, but the JobKeeper payments are something which are not determined by the national cabinet: they are determined by the federal cabinet. In a way, as I was saying earlier, there is a sort of divvying up of responsibilities, and the responsibility in terms of the JobSeeker payments and the JobKeeper wage subsidies are more in the federal area, and we are dealing with the issues that we talked about earlier: stimulus, some support for businesses to get them across this bridge and, of course, some of the areas where there is considerable market failure They are the things that we are doing at the state level.

The federal government has, I think, now announced at least three major packages since the coronavirus was known to us. It is looking at different ways of assisting the Australian economy on a very regular basis. One of the things that is, if you like, a hallmark of the national cabinet is that we are receiving briefings from not only Professor Brendan Murphy, the Chief Medical Officer of Australia, but also Dr Philip Lowe, who is the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, and Dr Steven Kennedy, who is the Treasury secretary, because we have this dual crisis in Australia, if you like. We have the health crisis and I think, quite frankly, Australia is doing extraordinarily well. I know that we have had to postpone the Beijing Olympics but, quite frankly, if this was—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Which one?

Mr Pederick: Tokyo.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They didn't? Alright, that's good. That one went ahead; I don't think Australia did particularly well at that one. They have had to delay the Tokyo Olympics, but I think, quite frankly, we have already won our gold medal. Australia has done extraordinarily well, although it is sometimes a bit macabre to wake up in the morning and one of the first things you do is try to look at how we are going on that tally. It is extraordinary. Today, we have only had 12 new cases in the country, which is extraordinarily low. Many states are posting zero new cases, including some of the larger states, such as Queensland. Today, I think they have already reported no new cases. So we have done very well on the health side in Australia. We can't be complacent, but we have done well to date.

On the other side, we should feel very fortunate that we live in a country that has had strong fiscal discipline over many decades that has put us in a position to be able to respond to the economic crisis—not once the pandemic is ended but along the way—so we have been able to put this support under the economy. It's not going to save every single business and every single job, we appreciate that, but I think what we are in a position to do is to provide as much support as possible to the economy to get us over this period of time.

The member asks about the period of time and the period of support. The Prime Minister originally talked about September and putting that wage subsidy scheme in place through to the end of September, and he has made some public statements that he wouldn't see that wage subsidy scheme going beyond that period of time. I think most people are now feeling more hopeful that the health crisis will be over before the end of September, but we've still got a long way to go.

One thing is for sure: the hard work Australia has done over a long period of time gives our country a lot more options to support business, while many other countries around the world are on the back foot just simply trying to fund the health emergency.