The Federal Government has announced a $17.6 billion economic stimulus package in a bid to keep Australians in jobs as the economy takes a hit from the spread of coronavirus.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the package would provide an immediate stimulus to the economy amid fears Australia could slip into a recession.

The package includes tax relief for small businesses, one-off cash payments for welfare recipients and money to help keep apprentices in work. More than 6 million welfare recipients, including pensioners, carers, veterans, families, young people and jobseekers will get a one-off cash payment of $750 from March 31.

“The biggest beneficiaries of that will be pensioners,” Mr Morrison said. “They comprise around half of those who will receive those payments, but they also will be extended to those in family tax benefits, which obviously goes to those in earning households.”

The one-off payments will cost the Government $4.8 billion, and Mr Morrison said he believed recipients would have the “common sense” to spend the money in ways which would benefit the economy.

“It’s not for us to tell those Australians how to spend their money,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg added. “But what we do know from experience is that they will spend that money, and that money will encourage economic activity.

“And the more economic activity that we see through the June quarter, in particular, will be important.”

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