Scott Morrison says Australians choosing unemployment

Linda Burney on 5AA Adelaide Afternoons with Tony Pilkington - Tuesday, 30 June 2020

TONY PILKINGTON, HOST: G'day Linda, welcome to afternoons here in Adelaide.
 
LINDA BURNEY: I'm well, how are you Tony.
 
PILKINGTON: I'm alright thank you. We've never spoken before, nice to talk to you.
 
BURNEY: You too.
 
PILKINGTON: Tell us - what about the reports this morning, you've no doubt read them of course, all over the place. That some people, some employees (sic) are actually finding it difficult to get staff because some people are saying; 'hey, love the fifteen hundred dollars a week, don't need to work'.
 
BURNEY: I don't believe it.
 
PILKINGTON: You don't, right.
 
BURNEY: I don't think the Prime Minister has any hard evidence to back it up wither. People who are unemployed don't wish to be unemployed. And the point that I'm making today on behalf of the Labor party is that the Coronavirus Supplement, which is the additional money that people get on top of what was the old JobKeeper - sorry the old Newstart payment, now called JobSeeker. That there are something like, in South Australia for example, in the month of May you had 6,800 job vacancies any 126,000 on JobSeeker. So there just isn't enough jobs for the amount of people that are unemployed. 
 
PIKLINGTON: The new National Skills Commission data will be released, probably early this afternoon some time, and it suggests that one in two employers are struggling to recruit workers. They say that their top challenge, as they look to re-hire, following the economic shock of the COVID-thing, is a lack of applicants. But you're rejecting that. You're saying there's not enough evidence to back that up?
 
BURNEY: Well that, that report that you're referring to does back up exactly what I'm saying. It is not, the handbrake is not because of JobSeeker. And the point that it is really important to make is that both JobSeeker and JobKeeper, the Government is saying that they'll both cease at the end of September. And this is going to create a fiscal cliff where that money will be taken out of the economy, and therefore the economy is going to have an enormous shock. What Labor is arguing is that the Government needs to consider - and they have, they have the report in their hand now, they don't want to release it before the Eden-Monaro by-election, about what the future of JobKeeper and JobSeeker is, so that thousands, tens of thousands, of Australians know what thier future is.
 
PILKINGTON: What's your gut feel. What's the work that you're getting? Let's face it, Canberra's a bit of a bubble. What's the work you are getting - you're saying that after the Eden-Monaro by-election on the weekend, what do you think the Government will do? Will they reject the $75 a week increase, saying that it costing about $1.7 billion a fortnight for the $1,500 handout at this stage of the game? Some, of course, inside the Government are thinking - perhaps the $75 should be added to it. Others are saying; 'no, we can;t afford it'. What's the gut feel, what's the word that you're getting.
 
BURNEY: Well, you're asking the wring person. And I understand why you are asking that question. I can tell you what I think is appropriate. But I have absolutely no idea what the Government is going to do because there have been - as you've just displayed Tony - so many mixed messages from the Government on the future of these payments. Clearly Labor has been saying for a very long time that the original rate of Newstart, which was, you know, something like $560 a fortnight, was inadequate and terribly, terribly low. And we have been arguing that there needs to be an increase and hopefully the Government has listened to that. I think that they privately know that that's also appropriate. In terms of JobKeeper, what we do know is that they miscalculated that dreadfully. Where something like three million people who could have got JobKeeper, and therefore stayed connected to their employer, actually missed out because of the miscalculation. So it really is incumbent, in my view Tony, on the Government, to come clean with people on both payments. To say; 'this is where out thinking is at'. So people know what to plan for.
 
PILKINGTON: I should say that we’ve invited the Minister Anne Ruston to come on to the program and reply, but unfortunately, not available at this stage. Linda Burney, the Shadow Minister for Families and Social Security – Services – is our guest right now. Linda, do you think the program should be extended beyond 24 September?
 
BURNEY: I think what’s really important is as I said that people have some certainty which doesn’t exist at the moment about what their futures are. And Labor believes that the JobSeeker payment needs to be more than the original $40 a day. We haven’t put a figure on it at the moment. We will obviously closer to the election, but that’s something like two years away. And we really do need to know in a responsible way what the fiscal situation of the country is at. And obviously with the JobKeeper payment as Tony Burke and others have been arguing that that should be available to groups that have been deemed ineligible, for example people in the arts sector.
 
PILKINGTON: I know that it’s not the sort of thing that you’d be across, are you getting a word that there is a division within the Government – some people are saying no, can’t afford it; others are saying no, it’s got to be extended.
 
BURNEY: Well, there is clearly different points of view. I saw Barnaby Joyce’s comments yesterday on Sunday morning, some people in the Government were briefing out there would be an increase of $75 a week, and then within the space of an hour or two that was hosed down by Minister Ruston. And then we’ve got the Prime Minister coming out yesterday saying that people who are on JobSeeker have been lulled into a sense where they don’t have to seek employment without any evidence whatsoever to back in his facts on that. So there is obviously different points of view but far be it for me to suggest what the Government should be doing. What I am saying is that they need to give some certainty to people who are on both these payments and that would be the decent thing to do.
 
PILKINGTON: So in a nutshell, you’re saying that we need to increase this by $75 per week.
 
BURNEY: I’m not saying a particular amount. I’m saying clearly though that the position of the Labor Party in terms of JobSeeker it needs to be a rate where people can live with dignity; where people can put food on the table; and don’t have to make a decision between food and medication.
 
PILKINGTON: Linda, thanks for the time this afternoon.

ENDS

LINDA BURNEY

TRANSCRIPT - TUESDAY, 30 JUNE 2020