As calls grow for a $220b infrastructure spend to tackle the recession, new costings completed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, at the request of the Australian Greens, have revealed that the Government could fund $225 billion in job-rich major infrastructure projects for the same cost to the Budget of bringing forward round 2 of planned personal income tax cuts.

The Australian economy is experiencing the best of times and worst of times, as both company profits and share prices soar, while on the other hand a million Australians are now unemployed and workers’ share of earnings are going backwards.

Today’s announcement of a quarterly drop in GDP of 7.0%, combined with the 0.3% fall from the March quarter, confirms that Australia is in recession for the first time since 1991.

Tasmanian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson today welcomes the announcement from Prime Minister Scott Morrison that paid pandemic leave will be extended to Tasmania but says that it needs broader eligibility criteria. He today calls for all Tasmanian workers to be eligible for the payment.

Senator Whish-Wilson first called for Premier Gutwein to raise with the PM the extension of paid pandemic leave for the 59 000 Tasmanians without leave entitlements on August 6th.

With the Liberals needing Senate support for their plans to slash JobKeeper payments to low-income earners, the Australian Greens have described Labor’s approach to JobKeeper cuts as two-faced, urging Labor to stop playing double games and instead fully abandon the opposition's plans to support the Liberals' cuts.

Greens Treasury spokesperson Senator Peter Whish-Wilson has called for big companies that are paying out dividends from their profits or buying back shares whilst on JobKeeper, to return the money and no longer be made eligible for the payment.

Senator Whish-Wilson has today written to Treasury proposing the change to JobKeeper eligibility.

"The fact that the average citizen right now is worried about job security and making ends meet, whilst large companies are getting Government hand-outs and buying up shares, is simply obscene.

Tasmanian Senator Peter Whish-Wilson has called for Tasmania to be included in the Federal Government's Paid Pandemic Leave scheme, with ABS data showing Tasmania has the highest percentage of employees without leave entitlements in the country.

Senator Whish-Wilson has today written to Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein asking him to request that the PM include Tasmania in the paid pandemic leave scheme, giving it the best chance to fight against COIVD-19.

Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt, has commended peak worker and social services groups for coming out hard against the proposed acceleration of tax cuts for millionaires, saying the money would be far better spent on job creation.

"The Greens oppose the fast-tracking of tax cuts for millionaires, and with the ACTU and ACOSS now also coming out against the idea, Liberal and Labor are increasingly isolated in backing this trickle-down fantasy," Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt, said.

The Australian Greens have released costings from the Parliamentary Budget Office on the cost of bringing forward income tax cuts.

The costings of four scenarios show that the cuts would cost up $28 billion, in addition to baking in an ongoing budget burden of tens of billions every year.

“In the middle of a recession, public money should be spent on job-creating public investment, not on fast-tracking tax cuts for millionaires,” said Greens Leader, Adam Bandt.

The Greens have described today’s Economic and Fiscal Update as a plan based on austerity and fantasy projections that will lead to ongoing high unemployment.

The figures released by the Treasurer today exposed the urgent need for debt-financed public infrastructure and public services such as ongoing free childcare that will help get us into full employment, not more tax cuts for the wealthiest fifteen per cent of income earners.

Today's big announcement by the Treasurer on tightening our foreign investment laws is more politics than policy, says Greens Treasury spokesperson Senator Peter Whish-Wilson. 

"On the surface of it, today's announcement is all about politics. The Treasurer is sending a message to the hard-line conservatives in his own party about cracking down on foreign investment, especially potential Chinese state-owned investment in Australia.

"The idea that somehow this is a significant reform or shift in our foreign investment laws is simply a beat-up of epic proportions.