COVID-19 FIGHTBACK $610m economic lifeline
MORE than 50,000 Queenslanders will be put back to work after restrictions ease this weekend and a staggering $610 million will be pumped into the economy within a month.
By the time the state reaches the third stage of more relaxed restrictions, 175,000 Queenslanders will be back at work and the monthly economic benefit will swell to $1.9 billion.
But the Queensland economy will suffer an $800 million hit each week if social distancing measures are ignored and officials are forced to wind back restrictions.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will today release detailed data showing how the road map out of the coronavirus shutdown announced last Friday will wake the hibernating economy and deliver hope for hundreds of thousands of workers around the country.
In Queensland, moving to stage one on the road map from next weekend is predicted to boost employment by 51,452 jobs and pump an extra $610 million a month into the sagging economy.
Moving to stage two, scheduled for June 12, should add another 55,994 jobs while the jump to stage three on July 12 will add 66,613 jobs, according to the estimates.
It’s also estimated that fully reopening schools, which has only partly happened in Queensland, would boost the national economy by $2.18 billion.
Mr Frydenberg was originally scheduled to deliver the 2020-21 Budget and a hopedfor surplus today but those plans were blown out of the water by the pandemic.
Instead he will run down a list of unwanted economic records smashed in the past few months as sectors such as construction, manufacturing, services, real estate and new car sales collapsed.
According to prepared notes, Mr Frydenberg will tell parliament the economic data has been “sobering”, leaving a massive increase in government debt that will take many years to repay. “Our measures have been designed in a way that protect the structural integrity of the budget,” he will say.
“Temporary and targeted, the new spending measures were not designed to go forever but to build a bridge to the other side.”
Labor treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers is expected to argue that the Government does not have a plan for jobs after the targeted economic support is withdrawn later this year.