Saving lives. Saving livelihoods.

An incredibly important day in Australia's fight against the coronavirus.

The legislation to enact our $130 billion JobKeeper wage subsidy package has just passed through Parliament.

This wage subsidy of $1500 a fortnight will support around 6 million Australians, paid through their employer. As at 4pm today, nearly 750,000 Australian businesses have registered their interest.

It will help keep Australians in jobs and businesses in business so once this virus has passed, those businesses are ready to go and we can kickstart our economy again.

Our Government has moved decisively to address the twin health and economic storms that confront us as a result of the coronavirus.

Preparing our health system for the challenges to come.

Putting in place the economic lifeline and buffers for Australians in what is likely to be their toughest ever year in 2020.

This is the greatest economic crisis to afflict the world in many generations. Our Government has responded with the biggest economic lifeline in Australia’s history with our JobKeeper package.

It’s a level of support this country has never, ever seen before.

We still have a long way to go in this fight against the coronavirus. But through the actions we have taken to date, we have bought valuable time, to chart a way out over the next six months.

I want to thank the overwhelming majority of Australians for doing the right thing by following the guidelines that have been put in place for our protection. You are saving lives, you are saving livelihoods.

But we have to keep up our efforts. Progress can be easily undone as we have seen in other places around the world.

That means this Easter, you need to stay home. Don’t travel. Don’t go away. We can’t let up now.

Australia is a strong country. We are a strong people and we will continue to be strong.

We will get through this together, Australia.