With COVID -19 effecting life at a large scale globally, the Australian Federal Government has launched its second stimulus package, having a total economic value of $189 billion. On 12th March 2020, the Federal government had announced an economic stimulus package of $17.6 billion to aid businesses who were affected by the COVID crisis, which is right after that the Australian Federal Government announced their second stimulus package.
This amount has been injected in to the economy, in order to keep all of the Australian both in work and businesses to be functional. This economic aid package comprises of:
- Assistance for households comprising of casuals, sole-traders, retirees and those that are on income support.
- Active aid for businesses to retain people in their jobs
- Regulatory protection and financial funding for businesses to be able to sustain in their respective businesses.
Scott Morrison, the Australian Prime Minister stated that the Government was doing this, in order to lessen the effect of the coronavirus blow to businesses and households. This economic relief will act as a crutch for them to seek adequate help in order to come out of this global pandemic crisis that has already shown its adverse effects on economic sturdiness and capacity.
To this he was quoted as saying “We want to help businesses keep going as best they can and for as long as they can, or to pause instead of winding up their business. We want to ensure that when this crisis has passed Australian businesses can bounce back, our focus is on cushioning the blow and providing hope to every Australian that we will get through this and come out the other side together. We know this will be temporary.
That’s why all our actions are geared towards building a bridge, keeping more people in work, enhancing the safety net for those that aren’t and keeping businesses alive so they can get to the other side and stand up their workforce as quickly as possible. We know Australia’s more than 3 million small and medium businesses are the engine room of our economy.
When they hurt, we all hurt. The next few months are going to be a difficult journey but we all have a role to play to adapt to the changes we’re facing, to cushion the impact of what is happening and to pull together so we can bounce back when we get to the other side.”
This $189 billion economic support package is equal to 9.7 per cent of GDP showcasing the safety net available to the Australian citizens by the Federal Government.
