Anika Wells MP: My question is to the Prime Minister. More than 5,500 workers in my electorate of Lilley are going to lose JobKeeper at the end of the month. That's nearly 90 billion, it's supported 3.6 million Australian workers and nearly a million Australian businesses. But it was always a temporary, targeted program. It was emergency support. Initially, it was for six months, and we extended it for another six months. But the advice from Treasury is that as the economy strengthens if you leave JobKeeper in place it has a number of characteristics that are counterproductive to the economy. It prevents an official allocation of workers to other roles, and it can prop up some unsustainable businesses. So the reality is, as JobKeeper comes to the end, other economic supports are in place, put there by the Morrison government-the tax cuts, the JobMaker Hiring Credit, the infrastructure projects that were brought forward, the training places, the 340,000 skilled places. These are other economic support programs that are designed to create jobs across the economy. The other key point is that there is $240 billion on household and business balance sheets that was not there this time last year. That is money that will be spent across the economy, helping to create jobs. So JobKeeper will come to an end, but there are other measures being put in place to help create jobs and to see Australians get back to work.
