Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the private sector, not government, will lead the charge as Australia recovers from the economic shock of the coronavirus.
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More than $30 billion in aid is expected to flow next month, Mr Frydenberg told Parliament on Tuesday, the "largest and fastest injection of economic support Australia has ever seen".
It's part of a $320 billion package - equivalent to 16.4 per cent of gross domestic product - to stave off the worst effects of the downturn.
However the "unprecedented scale and speed" of the government's economic response had driven a rapid increase in borrowing, Mr Frydenberg said.
The full extent of the increase would be detailed in an updated economic and fiscal outlook next month, but as of May 8, the value of government bonds on issue had increased from $560 billion to $618 billion.
Facing calls to extend free childcare and the Jobseeker supplement beyond the crisis, Mr Frydenberg said the new spending measures were "not designed to go forever, but to build a bridge to the recovery phase".
"Australians know there is no money tree. What we borrow today we must repay in the future," Mr Frydenberg said.
Mr Frydenberg said the "proven path" for paying back debt was not higher taxes, but rather "growing the economy through productivity-enhancing reforms". The "values and the principles that have guided Coalition reforms in the past must guide us again in the future", Mr Frydenberg said.
Unleashing the power of dynamic, innovative and open markets must be central to the recovery with the private sector leading job creation, not government.
- Treasurer Josh Frydenberg
"Our focus will be on practical solutions to the most significant challenges which will be front and centre in the post-crisis world," Mr Frydenberg said.
"Reskilling and upskilling the workforce, maintaining our $100 billion 10-year infrastructure pipeline, cutting red tape to reduce the cost burden on businesses, and the economy, and tax and industrial relations reform as a means of increasing our competitiveness.
"Unleashing the power of dynamic, innovative and open markets must be central to the recovery with the private sector leading job creation, not government."
However the challenge ahead is unprecedented.
Gross domestic product is forecast to fall by over 10 per cent in the June quarter, the biggest fall on record.
"At $50 billion, this is a loss equivalent to the total combined quarterly production of South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT," Mr Frydenberg said.
The employment rate is tipped to hit approximately 10 per cent, or 1.4 million people, in the June qaurter.
"This five percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate is expected to occur over three months compared to the three years it took the unemployment rate to rise by the same amount in that devastating period of the early 1990s," Mr Frydenberg said.
Household consumption is expected to fall by 16 per cent in the June quarter, while business investment is predicted to drop by 18 per cent. Housing investment is also forecast to decline by 18 per cent.
Mr Frydenberg had been due to hand down the 2020 budget, where the Morrison government was supposed to unveil its much-vaunted return to surplus.
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Labor's Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said the government seemed to have no plan to reboot the economy.
"If only the Treasurer had been able to cough up some detail," Mr Chalmers said, referring to a lengthy coughing fit Mr Frydenberg had during his speech.
In March, business and consumer confidence saw the largest declines on record. The ASX200 lost more than a third of its value in just over four weeks, job ads halved, new car sales dived by 48 per cent, house sales fell by 40 per cent, and activity in the construction, manufacturing and the services sector had their largest ever monthly falls.
Domestic and international air travel has crashed by more than 97 per cent, with the number of travellers passing through Brisbane Airport falling to just 31 on Easter Sunday compared to 40,000 the same time last year.
More than 835,000 businesses employing more than 5.5 million workers are enrolled in the Jobkeeper wage subsidy program, while 1.4 million Australians have received the Jobseeker unemployment payment.
The Australian Taxation Office has also responded to 1.3 million applications for the early release of super, equating to $10.6 billion.
However the Greens are pushing for universities to be included in the Jobkeeper scheme through a motion of disallowance in the Senate.
The motion would disallow rules that government funding be included in the turnover test for universities.
The Greens' education spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi said 30,000 university jobs were on the line.
"The failure to support universities through this crisis jeopardises not just our recovery but also our long-term future," Senator Faruqi said.
