A new report from Deloitte Access Economics has warned that Scott Morrison’s cuts to vital economic support risk jobs and the recovery, with Deloitte expecting higher unemployment compared to the Government’s Budget.

It beggars belief that the Morrison Government has cut JobKeeper in the middle of a deep and damaging recession, at a time when unemployment is rising and the Government expects another 160,000 Australians to be unemployed by Christmas. 
 
Deloitte expects the unemployment rate to get as high as 8.6 per cent in the June quarter of 2021, above the 8 per cent peak in the Budget, before reaching 6.8 per cent in 2023-24. 
 
According to Deloitte’s latest Business Outlook:

• “the fading emergency supports for the economy means that 2021 will look more like a ‘usual’ recession”
• “families and businesses… face a big cash crunch between now and end-March 2021 as JobKeeper and JobSeeker are dialled back”
• “although this recession arrived fast, it will leave slowly”
• “continuing government support – going hard and going smart – is what Australia needs right now”

Deloitte joins the Commonwealth Treasury, the Reserve Bank, the IMF, the OECD and Labor in urging the Morrison Government to put in place policies that create jobs now, build a better future and don’t leave people behind.

Scott Morrison doesn’t have a goal to get close enough to full employment, let alone a plan to realise it, with the unemployment rate not expected to return to its pre-crisis level within four years.
 
The Prime Minister has been slow to act during this crisis, and his Government’s deliberate decisions to exclude Australians from support and cut JobKeeper could mean the only lasting legacies of this crisis are higher unemployment for longer and a trillion dollars of debt. 
 
Decisions taken by the Liberals in their Budget mean that the Morrison Recession will be deeper and longer than necessary.