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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-28 Daily Xml
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Economic Stimulus Package

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (15:04): My question is to the Treasurer regarding public finances. I have two questions:

1. How much of the government's announced stimulus spending is new money and not reallocated funding that was already budgeted over the forward estimates?

2. How much of the government's announced stimulus funding has actually been spent in the community so far?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:05): The overwhelming majority of the funding that has been announced has had to be new funding, to use the phrase or word that the honourable member has indicated. At this stage, given that it has only been 3½ to 4 weeks since the announcement, the majority of that funding would not have yet been spent.

A simple example is the land tax relief package that has just been announced for $50 million will rely on landlords and tenants coming to some sort of an arrangement, going through a process and then ultimately applying. They have to actually apply for the process. For the budgeted $190 million to go to the small businesses that are significantly impacted by COVID-19, for example, the first of those grants won't start flowing in any significant way until next week. They have to register first, they have to be assessed to be eligible, and they have to demonstrate that under the commonwealth JobKeeper arrangements they are JobKeeper eligible, so they actually have to wait for that tick from the commonwealth government departments in relation to it.

Whilst the majority of the funds in relation to the second package particularly have been approved, they have to go through processes in terms of expenditure. Even with the example my colleague mentioned earlier, where funding has already flowed through to job seekers in relation to $500, as more and more people become eligible for JobSeeker, they will become eligible for the payment, so it will depend on the further eligibility for that particular payment as we go through the COVID-19 pandemic.

I don't have a number and I am not in a position at this stage to produce a number, but I am happy to indicate, if it assists the member, that the majority of the funding at this stage hasn't arrived with people—in terms of the last package, anyway—because there are various processes that have to be adopted by companies that are applying for the funding.

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