Introduction

• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Author: Jeff Borland
• Date: 01 March 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12508

The Australian Economic Review, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 61–69 DOI: 10.1111/1467-8462.12508

Policy Forum: Fiscal Policy for COVID‐19: An Assessment

Introduction

Jeff Borland*

Abstract

This article introduces the Policy Forum. It

contains: (i) a brief overview of the fiscal

policies introduced to deal with COVID‐19

and their impact on Australia's economic

performance; (ii) summaries of the articles in

the Forum; and (iii) suggested learnings for

policymaking in future crises.

1. COVID‐19, Policy Responses and the

Outcomes

The onset of COVID‐19 brought the most

intense and expensive period of fiscal policy

in Australia's history. Across just three weeks

in March 2020 policies costing $176 billion

were introduced by the Commonwealth

Government. Total fiscal support to address

COVID‐19 ultimately amounted to $314

billion.

i

This Policy Forum presents perspec-

tives on the fiscal policies and their impact on

Australia's economic performance, primarily

over the first 12 months of the pandemic.

Australia's first COVID‐19 case was recorded

on10January2020.On10March,44days

later, the benchmark of 100 cumulative cases

was reached. Thereafter, for a time, the caseload

expanded rapidly, reaching a one‐daypeakof

468 cases on 28 March (https://www.health.gov.

au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-

ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-

situation-and-case-numbers#daily-reported-case

s-in-australia). There was great uncertainty

during this time about the potential health and

economic impacts of COVID‐19. However, it

was clear that the worst‐case scenario was dire.

At a press conference on 16 March, Australia's

Deputy Chief Health Officer, Paul Kelly, stated

that modelling of the effects of COVID‐19 was

basedonanassumptionthatbetween20and60

per cent of the Australian population would

contract COVID‐19 in the next 6 weeks, with

one per cent of those expected to die due to the

disease (Kelly 2020). The forecast effect on the

economy of such a severe health impact,

combined with the restrictions that governments

would need to impose to reduce the spread of

* Jeff Borland: Department of Economics, University of

Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; email: <jib@unimelb.

edu.au>. The author is grateful for assistance with data

and suggestions from Ben Westmore. Opinions expressed

are those of the author alone.

© 2023 The Authors. The Australian Economic Review publishedby John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of The University of

Melbourne, MelbourneInstitute: Applied Economic & Social Research, Faculty of Businessand Economics.

This is an open accessarticle under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivsLicense, which permits

use and distribution in any medium, provided the original workis properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or

adaptations are made.