Highlights
- Job Keeper program will not be expanded
- Scheme does not include up to a million casual workers and some university and migrant workers
- Tourism sector as a potential recipient for further assistance
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has defended his department's sixty billion dollar error that overestimated the cost of the JobKeeper program by almost double.
Mr. Frydenberg says it is good news for Australian taxpayers.
"This was done at the height of the global pandemic here in Australia. We saw the number of cases increasing by more than 20 per cent a day in the lead-up to the JobKeeper announcement. As you know, we've had great success in flattening the curve, reducing the number of cases here, and starting to ease restrictions. That health miracle has had a real economic benefit with fewer people being on the JobKeeper payment than initially thought."
The wage subsidy program has been revealed to cost 70 billion dollars instead of 130 billion and covers 3.5 million workers rather than six million.
He is flagging the tourism sector as a potential recipient for further assistance when the program is reviewed in June.
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