that will ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are heard at all levels of government". Within a year the government was confronted with the international COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent recession, Australia's first in 29 years. From 1 February 2020, Australia progressively closed its borders to foreign nationals who had recently visited high-risk countries, culminating, on 20 March, in a general ban on the entry of foreign nationals. On 13 March 2020, a National Cabinet, including Australian government, state government and territory government leaders, was created to address the crisis. The national cabinet announced a series of increasingly tighter restrictions on non-essential business, travel and gatherings of people with the aim of suppressing COVID. These restrictions were progressively eased from early May, although individual states and territories intermittently reimposed restrictions in response to particular outbreaks of COVID-19. The Australian government made provision for $267 billion in economic stimulus measures, and $16.6 billion in health measures in response to COVID-19. As a result of the COVID-19 recession, the unemployment rate rose from about 5 per cent in February 2020 to 7.5 per cent in July 2020. As the economy began to recover from the second half of 2020, the unemployment rate fell to 5.6 per cent in March 2021 and hours worked returned to pre-recession levels. As at 17 April 2021, Australia was ranked 134 out of 177 countries in the number of COVID-19 deaths per capita. In June 2021 Australia and the United Kingdom announced that they had struck a preliminary deal on a free-trade agreement. On 16 September 2021, the government announced that Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States had agreed to the creation of an enhanced trilateral security partnership, dubbed AUKUS. The first initiative under AUKUS would be for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarine technology. As a result of the agreement, Australia cancelled its 2016 contract for the diesel-electric Attack-class submarine with the French company Naval Group. China condemned the AUKUS agreement, stating it "seriously undermines regional peace and stability and intensifies the arms race". France announced it would withdraw its ambassador from Australia in protest against the lack of consultation on the security agreement and the cancellation of the $90 billion dollar contract for French submarines. Labor government (2022– present) On 23 May 2022, Anthony Albanese was sworn in as Australia's new prime minister. His Labor Party defeated Scott Morrison's conservative government in