Page 2246 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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and Investment) (2.47): The economic and fiscal update and jobs and economic recovery package that I announce today are structured with two goals in mind: to protect and create local jobs and ensure Canberra recovers from this once-in-a-century economic downturn.
I thank Canberrans for their strength and community spirit through these exceptionally difficult times. We have truly been stronger together. By working together, we have reduced the risk of the coronavirus spreading in our community, avoiding the terrible repercussions we have seen around the world and in states and territories closer to home.
We have changed the way that we work and live. Our public health response has, and always will, take precedence in how the ACT government continues to support the community. It is our effective health response to the pandemic that gives every employer and employee confidence in our steps toward economic recovery. Now we need to display resilience and agility in how we rebuild our economy to restore growth and to protect jobs.
The government’s initial economic survival measures have helped the territory manage the first stages of the pandemic and have kept many in work. We have bolstered our health system and stepped in to provide hundreds of millions of dollars of direct financial support to households and local businesses. However, the next stage of economic recovery has to go further, it has to be bigger. We have determined to align our fiscal policy—that is, the territory budget—with the monetary policy settings of the Reserve Bank of Australia—that is, record low interest rates.
These two policy settings combined will boost aggregate demand in our economy and create jobs. Our plan demonstrates how the government will drive a strong economic recovery over the next five years and sets an ambitious target for the territory of having over 250,000 people in work by 2025. We do so because we understand that stable, secure employment means more than affording the groceries and being able to pay the rent or mortgage. It provides meaning, structure, connection and opportunity in people’s lives. So our job, as a Labor government, is to protect local jobs.
Last week the Reserve Bank Governor called on all states and territories to collectively invest another $40 billion over the next two years in the infrastructure and jobs essential for our national recovery. For the ACT, that would amount to around $800 million of additional infrastructure and business investment. Today, through this update and the plan that I have released, the government is announcing that we will exceed this expectation and maintain that level of funding into the middle of the decade through a $4.9 billion jobs and economic recovery package. This pandemic is not over and we understand that. In these uncertain times, the government is delivering the right plan to support our economic recovery and protect local jobs.
Through record low interest rates, monetary policy has played an important role at the national level to support the economy. The Reserve Bank Governor, Philip Lowe, has been clear that this approach will continue for many years into the future. Governor Lowe has indicated very clearly that the Reserve Bank will do what it takes with its policy instruments to support the journey back to full employment.
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