Ahead of the next federal budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has used a speech in Canberra to outline the government’s intentions to drive the unemployment rate below five per cent, after previously setting the target at six per cent, a level not seen since the mining boom in the mid-2000s.

Mr Frydenberg said next month’s budget was designed to continue to drive unemployment levels lower, arguing higher workforce participation inevitably increases tax receipts which supports the budget bottom line.

Today on Please Explain, senior economics reporter Shane Wright and host Nathanael Cooper look at this major shift in both rhetoric and budget policy.

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