The federal government’s JobKeeper scheme will cost $60 billion less than forecast as the economy reopens faster than anticipated, triggering a fight between the Coalition and Labor over whether the borrowed money should be saved or spent on casual workers.

The record-breaking costing error is mainly due to the fall in COVID-19 case numbers and social distancing rules being relaxed sooner, enabling business activity to resume and bolstering the economy's resilience more than forecast by Treasury when unemployment queues surged in March.