The federal government has defended its economic management during the pandemic amid falling conditions among businesses from Omicron disruptions.
During question time on Tuesday, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer boasted of higher economic standards comparative to the rest of the world, with Mr Morrison claiming the country has a "once in a life time opportunity" to capitalise on an unemployment figure within the 3 per cent range.
The Commonwealth's outlining of strong economic management coincides with National Australia Bank's latest business survey showing a deterioration in conditions due to supply chain and workforce disruptions over December and January.
NAB's conditions fell five points to an index position of three, however confidence over the month of January returned positive, rising 15 points to an index position of three.
We are on track as a nation ... to have the lowest rate of unemployment in this country in 50 years," Mr Morrison said.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our country."
Labor treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said NAB's most up-to-date survey reflected incompetence within the Morrison government.
"[Tuesday's] hit to both consumer confidence and business conditions is yet another cost and consequence of the Morrison government's complacency and incompetence," Dr Chalmers said.
"Scott Morrison's stuff-ups have made a terrible time worse for workers and small businesses, right when they needed help the most."
NAB executive Michael Saadie said the results showed a tough January, but flagged the overall outlook does remain optimistic.
"It's hard to know what the next few weeks will look like, but our hope is we'll have a natural progression towards living with the virus, where fewer people are isolating, less workplace shortages, and people feeling more confidence to go out and live their normal lives," he said.
"When you compare total merchant spending for the month of January it only ended up down 1 per cent on 2021 which is not bad given how business was fairing in early January."
Mr Frydenberg used question time to attack Labor, claiming the opposition could not be trusted on taxes and was in partnership with the Greens.
"When the Coalition came to government, there were one million fewer women in work, and when the coalition came to government, under Labor, one in eight manufacturing jobs were lost," he said.
"There are a 1.7 million more Australians in work today than when Labor was last in office. Our economic plan is working, investing in skills, lower taxes, infrastructure, digital economy and manufacturing."
NAB's survey showed strong falls in profitability, trading and employment conditions, with the biggest falls experienced in Victoria.
