As thousands upon thousands of Australians queued up at Centrelink offices around Australia or attempted to access services online the Australian Parliament met in Canberra to pass legislation to allow money to start flowing.
The government had on March 12 announced a $17.6 billion economic stimulus plan but as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rapidly increased the government moved to announce additional measures.
On March 22 the Prime Minister and Treasurer held a press conference at Parliament House to announce a further $66 billion package which the Treasurer called at safety net package.
The most recent package announced the doubling of the job seeker payment formerly known as Newstart and also an increase to $100,000 for small businesses.
This came on top of measures announced by the Reserve Bank where they pumped in $90 billion to support credit within the financial sector in Australia.
All of the details from the announcements made by the government were shared with the opposition ahead of Parliament sitting on March 23 to enable the speedy passing of the required legislation.
The Parliament opened with a limit of 100 people to be in the chambers. That saw a smaller amount of members present in the House of Representatives with the Prime Minister made a statement.
The PM opened by saying, “
Mr Speaker. We gather today at a time of great challenge for our nation and indeed the world. We are a strong nation and a strong people, but in the months ahead this will put us all to the test like, at no time since the Second World War. But together, Australia, we are up to this challenge. The coronavirus that is sweeping the world will continue to change the way we live. But we must not allow it to change who we are as Australians. I know, we all know, that Australians are very concerned at this difficult time.
It is the understandable fear of the unknown. And there is much that not known about the coronavirus. But we must not let that fear overtake us. We must instead focus on what we do know, what we can control. We know who we are as people and the legacy and inspiration that has been given to us from those who have come before us and shown us the way through challenge and tests just like this.
So we summon the spirit of the Anzacs, of our Great Depression generation, of those who built the Snowy. Of those who won the great peace of the Second World War and defended Australia. That is our legacy that we draw on at this time”.
He closed by saying, “This will be a test of all Australians.
It is a test of our nation. Of our spirit.
There are some who believe liberal democracies and free societies cannot cope with these sorts of challenges.
We will prove them wrong here in Australia.
Today, we are saying that we both can do this, and we will do this together. May God bless us all, all Australians, at this very most difficult time.”
The debate started and the opposition was pushing to make an amendment which would prevent Australians from accessing their superannuation if under financial stress.
During the 22 March press conference the Treasurer had said, ” those affected will gain access to their superannuation capped at $10,000 this financial year, and a further $10,000 next financial year.”
At the end of the day the government was able to have their package pass through the House of Representatives and then late Monday night the Senate.
The Treasurer fronted the media in the Blue Room close to midnight as he announced the passage of the legislation as well as that in separate legislation, the government set aside a further $40 billion for urgent and unforeseen spending associated with the pandemic, likely to cause a recession.
The Parliament also amended the sitting days and will not return to Canberra until August 11.
