I’m very pleased to open the debate tonight on behalf of the Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business. It has been a very tough year for Australian businesses and for workers. Through no fault of their own, people have lost jobs, and many businesses have suffered loss of revenue from the COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns. From the outset, our JobMaker Plan put skills and training front and centre, and the 2020-21 budget includes extra measures to help Australians find work and help small businesses recover from the challenges presented by COVID-19. Some key measures include the $4 billion JobMaker hiring credit, which will be payable for up to 12 months for each new job employers create to hire eligible jobseekers aged 16 to 35. This is about creating new jobs and keeping our young people engaged in the workforce. We don’t want to see a generation of lost workers due to COVID. We are also extending support for new apprenticeships, with the $1.2 billion Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements wage subsidy. This will fund an extra 100,000 new apprenticeships.
It would take much more time than I have today to outline the many ways we are supporting small businesses with this budget—not just the big-ticket items like the wage and apprenticeship subsidies I’ve mentioned or the instant asset write-off but a range of other support measures. For example, we’re investing over $19 million to encourage and support small businesses to digitise, we’re investing $7 million to help provide business and mental health support for small-business owners who are under increased financial and emotional pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic and of course we’re also funding a range of measures to help jobseekers as they search for employment. And we’re making it easier for jobseekers to manage their job search requirements online. Our government has a track record of job creation and support for skills training and small business, and I look forward to outlining this further.