PM & Treasurer Media Conference

The PM has just made the following comments:

• 5,000 additional staff have been added to Services Australia with another 3,000 redeployed within Services Australia and public sector to assist the effort
• So far 587,686 JobSeeker and related applications have been processed
• Treasurer has been meeting regularly with the banks – they understand there are frustrations with accessing bridging finance from banks etc and the Gov’t is working through it with them to ensure availability
• Business feedback to the Gov’t is important to keep banks on the mark
• The Gov’t is looking at the recovery phase with fresh eyes with any previously proposed reforms over the last decade to see how they can help:
  • Important reform documents being reviewed (ie from Productivity Commission, the Shifting the Dial Report etc)
  • Looking at all important policy options to have an effective and sustainable impact on the recovery
  • Engaging with the many partners (National Cabinet, ACTU, all good relationships forged and continuing to do this)
  • Not a matter of dusting off old reports and putting them in place, looking at them for today to see how they can best help Australians get back on their feet

The Treasurer’s comments:

• Firmly in the implementation phase following parliament’s sign off of new reforms and support packages
• ATO has approved 456,000 applications totalling $3.8 billion for early access to superannuation (avg. withdrawal is around $8,000)
• ATO has also paid out $3 billion to 177,000 businesses employing 2.1 million Australians as part of the cash flow boost measure (min $20K and up to $100K)
• ATO has brought in extra resources to process extra claims demand ahead of the original start date (28 April)
• $750 cash payment has gone to 6.8 million people totalling $5.1 billion
• 900,000 businesses have registered interest for JobKeeper payments (275,000 have already filled in the application in 2 days)
• Very conscious of the important role banks are playing in bridging payments to help them pay staff – today there was a telephone hookup with 4 bank CEOs and Tax Commissioner to emphasise the need for banks to provide support and have agreed to establish a dedicated hotline for customers to call to receive bridging finance ahead of money from JobKeeper available – they have also agreed to expedite all those applications to the front of the queue for processing

Relevant questions from the media:

• Construction companies are laying people off in certain areas of their businesses / groups and aren’t eligible for JobKeeper
  • o        The Gov’t acknowledges issues where some projects might be finishing in areas of group businesses, if this is the case businesses should speak to the ATO to see what can be done
  • o        Current Fed, State / Territory gov’t construction jobs are being maintained and still underway
  • o        Looking to put the pedal down to keep gov’t funded construction work coming out