Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the Labor Party was “wrong” to suggest JobKeeper should have continued indefinitely, declaring the nation’s low unemployment rate vindicated its decision to terminate the support package.
“The Labor Party was wrong, yet again, suggesting that JobKeeper should be continued indefinitely,” he told Sky News Australia.
“As you know, when we ended it after the March quarter, we saw the unemployment rate fall to its lowest in more than a decade at 4.9 per cent.
“JobKeeper was costing more than $2 billion a month – the advice from Treasury was very clear, it was starting to distort the labour market.
“The labour market needed to find its right level, we needed to enable, empower workers to move more freely across the economy.
“So JobKeeper did its job, 3.8 million people received the payment, it cost the taxpayer $90 billion but it’s been part of the strong rebound that we saw in the Australian economy.”
