E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
THURSDAY, 14 MAY 2020
SUBJECTS: building an inclusive economy after COVID-19; the Treasurer’s own numbers show the economy will not snap back; holes in the Government’s package are leaving too many people behind.
ALICIA PAYNE, MEMBER FOR CANBERRA: Now this week we’ve seen a Government devoid of a plan to rebuild after this coronavirus crisis.
We should be taking this as an opportunity to rethink and review about how we are going to build an inclusive economy after we come out of this crisis. Importantly, we need to keep an adequate unemployment benefit.
Now the Government have already committed to snapping back that rate to its inadequate level on the 24th of September. We cannot allow this to happen. Unemployment can happen to anyone and this crisis has demonstrated that very clearly. We’ve got over 600,000 people, extra people, receiving JobSeeker allowance, formerly Newstart. And we have over 5 million people receiving JobKeeper, the wage subsidy.
The economy is not going to snap back and the Treasurer’s own numbers this week confirm that. So, we need to ensure that we don’t go back to that inadequate payment. The Government has time now and must come up with a credible plan to keep that rate at a liveable level for people. We’ve known for too long that people cannot live on $40 a day. And this crisis has shown again how important it is to have a strong social security system to support all of us when we are out of work.
There are also holes in the Government’s package. The JobKeeper wage subsidy is a great idea that Labor was calling for along with the union movement from day one. But people are missing out. Our temporary visa holders, including in my electorate. For example, a man that wrote to me, he has been working for eight years, as has his wife, here in Canberra. They pay their taxes, and when their annual leave runs out they will have nothing to rely on because they can’t access JobKeeper and they can’t access JobSeeker either.
Our universities have been left out. Why are these jobs not important to the Government? Why are we not extending JobKeeper to them? One million casuals, young people, young people missing out on both Youth Allowance and the JobKeeper payment because they are casually employed. And I’m really proud that this week Labor has called for the Parental Income Test to be temporarily lifted on Youth Allowance on a case-by-case basis.
As Anthony Albanese outlined this week, we have a real opportunity here. We actually have a chance to rebuild our economy. And I think the way that this crisis has brought Australians together, it shows we are a country that cares about one another. We want to see fairness. We don’t want to see people left on the street when they become unemployed. And we have an opportunity right now to come up with a credible plan to come out of this, not to snap back, because that is not going to happen. We can’t just snap back to way things were on the 24th of September. People trying to live on $40 a day. The Government needs a plan.
ENDS
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