While speaking at the ABC Breakfast News, Australian Treasurer Frydenberg announced that $13 billion of $15.6 billion will be availed to Victoria.
Key quotes
The reality is, as Treasury have forecast, it will hit the economy by between $10-12 billion in the September quarter and we’ll see between 250,000 and 400,000 Victorian employees either stood down or – stood down to zero hours or who lose their job as a result of these stage 4 restrictions.
The Morrison government is committing an additional $15.6 billion to expand the JobKeeper program. Around $13 billion of that will go into Victoria.
We’re making two major changes. One is to the business turnover test. The other is to the eligibility employee test.
When it comes to the business turnover test, previously, in order to be eligible as a business for the December quarter, you needed to be down in both the June and the September quarters. We’re now saying that you need to be just down in the September quarter.
The second change is around the employee eligibility. In order to be eligible for the JobKeeper program, the employee needs to be on the business’s books as of July 1. Previously, it was March 1.
FX implications
AUD/USD seems to pay a little heed to the news while seesawing near the 1.5-year high around 0.7230/35.
Read: AUD/USD sits near 1.5 year top above 0.7200 ahead of a busy day
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