Scott Morrison: Australia is the greatest multicultural nation in the world

 

Immigration has been a key pillar of our economic and social success and will continue to be a big part of our future.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has tested all Australians, I believe the business incentives in the 2020-21 Budget will especially support our hard-working multicultural communities who have always demonstrated such strong entrepreneurialism.

Our multicultural communities and citizens are more likely to start a business.

They’re more likely to own a business.

And they’re more likely to employ other Australians.

This Budget is all about jobs for you and your family because there can be no recovery without a jobs recovery.

Our new JobMaker hiring credit will encourage businesses to hire younger Australians.

It will be payable for up to 12 months and immediately available to employers who hire those on JobSeeker aged 16-35. This compliments the existing Restart Program to help find employment for those aged over 50.

Our plan includes $1.2 billion to create 100,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships through a 50 per cent wage subsidy for the businesses that employ them.

A tax cut – backdated to 1 July this year – will benefit more than 11 million taxpayers, generating billions of dollars of economic activity and 50,000 new jobs.

To unlock investment and boost our nation’s productive capacity, we are allowing more than 99 per cent of businesses to immediately write off the full value of eligible assets they purchase.

Companies that have been doing it tough will also be able to use their losses earlier.

We’re building a new future with a $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy that will help domestic industry to scale up and take on the world.

Our 10-year infrastructure pipeline is already supporting 100,000 jobs on worksites.

A further 40,000 jobs will be supported by $14 billion in new and accelerated projects.

Our plan includes:

  • An additional 10,000 places under the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme to help first home buyers get into the market.
  • Two $250 payments for Aged Pensioners (from December and March), on top of $1500 in earlier payments. An extra $1.6 billion to support 23,000 additional home care packages.
  • Our second Women’s Economic Security Statement, with $240 million in measures and programs to support women’s job creation and safety.

We recently made substantial changes to our Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) as a vital tool to social and economic inclusion.

Any permanent resident or citizen who doesn’t yet have functional English – i.e. the basic language skills to participate in society – will now be able to attend classes free of charge until they do.

And we’re creating another 30,000 family stream places in the migration program this year – prioritising partner visas – to reunite families and give more people the opportunity to become Australians.

The Government’s unprecedented economic response to the pandemic has come at a significant cost.

We’ll need to be disciplined to work off the debt.

However, we’ve done it before and we can do it again.

During this extraordinary time of crisis and recovery, our plan will keep Australians together by continuing to recognise and showcase our multicultural diversity, strength and resilience.

Scott Morrison is the Prime Minister of Australia

 

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