SENATOR KATY GALLAGHER
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
CHAIR OF THE SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON COVID-19
SENATOR FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

Josh Frydenberg has refused to appear before the Senate’s COVID-19 committee and explain exactly how he got the centrepiece of the Government’s economic response to COVID-19, the JobKeeper program, so wrong.

Last Friday the Government admitted to Australia’s biggest ever budget blunder by announcing that it had overestimated the cost of JobKeeper by $60 billion and that three million fewer workers would be helped by the program.

Josh Frydenberg is the architect of the Government’s JobKeeper program. 

He is the Minister that signed off on the details of the scheme. 

He decided which workers were to be excluded from the program and has been spruiking the incorrect uptake of JobKeeper for the past eight weeks.

He is the one who should front up and explain how this $60 billion blunder happened.

Whilst uncommon for Members of the House of Representatives to appear before Senate committees it is not without precedent. Scott Morrison did exactly that in 2014 as Immigration Minister. 

What is also uncommon, and in fact has never happened, is a Treasurer making a $60 billion mistake involving some three million workers.

This refusal by the Treasurer is yet another example of the Morrison Government’s aversion to scrutiny and accountability.

The JobKeeper program is a good idea that is being poorly communicated, poorly targeted and poorly implemented. 

The economic recovery from COVID-19 is going to be long and difficult for millions of Australians. That’s why it is so important that the Government ensures the economic response is as good as it can be because millions of Australians’ livelihoods are depending on it.

The $60 billion JobKeeper blunder has seriously undermined this Government’s economic competence and credibility.

TUESDAY, 26 MAY 2020